Life is sweeter with some CaKe.

Chapter 1

"Go!"

Grunt.

"Go!"

More grunting.

"If you don't do this now you'll regret it for the rest of your life, you know," Kendall promised as she tried to shove her best friend out of her sleek, white BMW.

Cara rolled her eyes, refusing to detach her behind from the passenger seat. She realized the irony; what she was about to do most people would regret it for the rest of their lives.

"Do I have to do this?" she whined.

Kendall glared at her with angry, brown eyes.

"Ok, ok, sheesh. If looks could kill," she mumbled as she unbuckled her seat belt.

"Don't forget to leave a tip!" Kendall yelled as Cara got out of the car.

She watched in annoyance as the BMW sped down the street until it was out of sight. God, sometimes she hated her best friend. But then again, which best friend wouldn't sneak her out in the middle of class so she could get a tattoo on her 18th birthday?

Yeah, she loved that lunatic.

She turned around and took in the sight in front of her. A black one-story building with double doors and no windows awaited her. "Barney's Tattoo Parlor" was scrawled on a board at the top. A neon sign that wrote "open" flickered on one of the doors.

Cara stifled a laugh. Barney's? she thought. Kendall sure had a way of picking ironic-sounding tattoo places.

She sighed and tried to muster up some courage to walk to the front door, trying to get rid of the image of the big, purple dinosaur.

Ding, a bell chimed as she walked in.

Cara squinted in the dim lighting.

Jesus, it's like frickin' Hollister in here.

Bass from rap music pumped out of the walls as if they were made of speakers themselves. The walls were painted some sort of dark color, not that you could see it much since they were covered with hundreds of tattoo sketches on paper. The ink seemed to come alive reflecting the black light overhead.

"Can I help you?"

Cara turned toward the voice and had to blink a couple of times before she noticed the huge guy in front of her. Heck, he was as big as The Mountain from Game of Thrones. His head was shaved and every visible inch of his dark skin was covered with ink.

"Can I help you?" the guy repeated, more firmly this time.

Cara hadn't realized she was gawking at his tattoo sleeves. She cleared her throat and looked up.

"I-I came to get a tattoo," she stammered.

Mountain-guy looked suspiciously at her.

Oh no, I'm gonna get caught.

"I.D.?" he stretched out his huge, tattooed hand.

"Umm, I have it right here." Cara dug in her pocket and pulled out the plastic fake I.D Kendall had made for her. It must've cost quite the money and look authentic since Mountain-guy looked it over once and gave her back.

"Follow me," he growled.

Cara hesitated and then followed him behind some dark curtains at the back of the parlor.

She tried not to act like a noob the way Kendall told her not to but it was so hard considering it was the first time she'd ever been in a place like this. Her eyes roamed across the well-lit room (unlike the entrance) and fixed upon one leather chair in the middle. It reminded her of the visits to the doctor when she was a kid.