-2012- (11 years old)
"Give me a cool one," Liam exclaims. "Like that screams I'm cool!"
"Alright," Kay giggles and whipped out her box of markers and skimmed her finger across each one until selecting one. She bit her tongue. He showed his right arm to her, and lay on her bed.
She started her creation and sometimes he'd stare at her ceiling finding imperfections, and pretended her tattooing hurt, every time she'd laugh, just to pass the time.
"Done." She caps the blue marker she used. He looks at his arm in amazement. He saw a motorcycle clearly, and written under it, it spelt "COOL!!!".
"It's awesome!" He exclaims. He gets up then sits on her bed.
"We're the best!" She says. They high five each other and take a second look at their "legendary" tattoos.
An attempted flower cascaded from out Kay's sleeve, around the elbow, and on her palm. Various mistakes were made, but her eyes grew curious when she saw it before.
"Honey," Her mother mother opened the door, with a laundry basket on her hip. She looked at them and her eyes grew, she gasped. She lightly dropped the basket to the floor and got on eye level with Kay and Liam. "What happened!" She grabbed ahold of Kay's arm and looked precisely at the "tattoo" and looked at Liam's.
"Aren't they cool!" Kay exclaims. "Jay had some on, he said Lauren drew it on him."
"Who's Jay?" She asks.
"Our friend, he's really cool." Kay turned to look at Liam, he shrugged.
The mom grins. "Let's get you guys cleaned up, I don't think your dad would appreciate this, Liam."
"He doesn't care, anymore." He mumbles, but no one heard him.
The mom scrubs up their arms up. "Ouch mom that hurts!" Kay wails.
"You're the one who did it in the first place, missy." Kay made a displeasing face, the mom bopped her nose. "Is this Sharpie?"
***
He walked up to the grave, minding his own business. He slumped and rested his back against the polished stone.
He sighed. "Dad's being stupid again," he said. "I know I'm not supposed to use the 's' word, but he's really acting like it.
"He hasn't been any better since he got cut, and been living on food labels from the government. He won't let me in the basement either, and I keep all my cars down there. Waste...
"He kicks me out of the house... a lot. I usually go to Kay's, remember last time I talked to you? Kay's an awesome drawer, see," He pulled up his sleeve. "It's kind of faded, but it's pretty cool, trust me. She's really nice too."
He swept some of the dirt that laid upon the stone.
"I'm glad they take good care of you mom, down here and up here." He said. "Love you too, Mom" He set the rose he was carrying down with the bunch flowers he brought last time and walked off.
***
"Get off the damn Tv," his father stated as he walked across the living room.
"Why?" Liam straightened up in his chair.
"You ask too many stupid questions," He shoved him off the couch roughly to the floor. "My show's on" he stated. He sat where Liam was once sitting.
"What show?" He asked as he got to his knees.
The father gritted his teeth as he flipped through channels. "Get outside,"
"But I don't wan-"
"I said go fucking outside!" His father got up from his chair and raised his hand, aiming at his son.
Liam crawled backwards to his screen backdoor. His father chased him, armed raised still. Liam opened the door and fell down the steps with a tumble. He caught a glimpse of his father slamming the door. The door slamming left a ringing in his ears as his head met the concrete.
He held his side of his head and looked through the door from a distance. His father pulled out a cigarette box from his pocket and lighted one. He leaned on the counter in their kitchen and stuck it in his mouth.
Whatever he was watching on the television , was nothing Liam has seen before.
