The Mentor

Chapter 15

I let Kyle into the room and he sat down on the couch.

"You promised you'd call once you were back to settle in for the night..." He whispered.

"I know, I'm sorry. I got distracted. I was out on the bench outside the lobby talking to Tatu Baby and got really tired afterwards."

"Are you ready for tomorrow? Another flash challenge?" He asked.

"I'm as ready as I can be, I suppose. What about you?"

"I guess so, yeah. This is my third season here, so..."

I sat next to him and pulled out my drawing stuff. We went over some more drawing techniques, specifically lettering. I had some trouble with that because my handwriting looks like chicken scratch and I couldn't even pretend to replicate nice writing on human skin.

"So what did you and Baby talk about?" Kyle asked.

"Oh-nothing important. We just discussed the difficulty of the competition and what happened yesterday." I lied.

"Look, uh...I'm sorry about earlier this evening. I don't want to make things awkward or weird between us. I want to work with you and I don't want to make you want to go home because of my unpredictable behavior."

"You're not going to make me want to go home. I just don't know what to think right now, that's all."

"I have to think about how I feel and how that's going to impact my performance in this competition. I have nothing against you, Jamie. Like I said I want to...have something with you, I just have to think about how that might impact both of us."

"I know...it's getting late. I should get some rest and so should you." I said, standing up.

Kyle got the message and took his bag heading for the door. When he got to the door of my hotel room, he hugged me goodbye and wished me luck on my lettering practice.

"You have a good night, okay? See you tomorrow, rest up." I said softly.

He turned back to face me before opening the door and leaned down to kiss me softly.

"What was that for?" I chuckled.

"Goodnight kiss for good luck? See you tomorrow." He smirked.

He went back to his own room and I went to sleep right after he left.

The next morning I got up early enough to eat the hotel breakfast. I made my own sausage biscuit sandwich and some coffee and packed up all my stuff before heading to the bus. Kyle was already in our designated spot and was asking me about how the lettering practice was going. I had a hard time sleeping so I didn't have much to say.

"Look, I didn't sleep too well so I just need to rest for a moment, okay?" I stammered.

He nodded and inched closer to me. I rested my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes before the bus swung into the shop's parking lot. Everyone filed out and into the shop. There were multiple tables set up all over the open area.

"What the hell are we doing?" Jime shouted, chuckling.

We got situated in our little formation and the judges filed in.

"Welcome, artists. Today, you'll be facing yet another flash challenge. However only one of your groups will be competing for 200,000$, a feature in inked magazine, and the title of Ink Master. Today, we're testing consistency." Dave announced

Everyone groaned.

"You may be wondering why there are so many tables. They are both for master and apprentice. Each master and apprentice will tattoo separately. Today, you must tattoo convention style."