Labyrinth

Chapter 8

(To Be So Lonely By Harry Styles)

Hayden's Pov

A week had gone by, and we planned a time for him to pick me up. He didn't want me driving. It was now June 10th, and he was coming to get me from work when I was done. My dad was here, so I had to find someway for him to stay inside so he didn't kill him on my first date.

"Your three o'clock is here, Hayden!" My last appointment of the day.

I stood up quickly, looking over at Brady to see how much progress he made. I nodded my head, walking to the front of the stop. The man stood there, staring around the building with his hands stuffed in his back pocket.

He was staring at pictures on the wall of me with some of the famous people I tattooed. I looked at him with a confused expression, but I brushed it off.

"Nicholas?" I spoke before his head perked up. He looked over at me, and smiled widely.

"Hey!" He chirped excitedly, fully facing me and away from the pictures.

"You can follow me!" I waved my hand, starting to walk down the hallway towards the back room.

"I got all of your ideas that you had, and I made some sketches if you wanna check them out. This should take around 2ish hours, because you want so many in one day, but I don't blame you. It's hard to stop yourself." I joked, walking into the back room.

He stood in the room, looking around at it in awe before sitting down. I always did that when I saw this room too. It was my favorite place. The fireworks on the walls made me happy. I loved fireworks.

"You can just call me Nick, by the way." He said with a smile on his face, sitting down on the chair in the middle of the room.

"Nick! Got it." I sat down in the chair, showing him all of the sketches I made.

"I thought you did this stuff on the computer?" He looked at me, his mouth hung open.

"Well, some people do. I find it better to actually draw it out, you know? I feel like it has more of a purpose, and I like to draw." I smiled sheepishly, as he smiled.

"These are perfect. I can't wait to have them tattooed." He said, before I put on gloves.

"Since they are small but there is a lot, I was thinking of free handing it-"

"That's perfectly fine." He cut me off, a wide smile on his face.

I nodded, assembling the tattoo gun. I took the alcohol wipes, wiping his skin where the first tattoo would go on his ring finger.

"I assume this is for a wife?" I asked, as I started tattooing his finger.

"The love of my life. She's not my wife, but she will always be the love of my life no matter what is happening."

I felt my heart clench at his words. There was so much pain in his voice, he sounded like he wanted to be set free. He sounded like he was drowning.

"May I ask what happened?" I looked up at him as I stopped tattooing him for a second.

"She was taken away from me. People didn't want us to be together, so they made sure that we weren't able to be together. I've been away from her for five years, and all I want to do is know if she is okay." He closed his eyes, letting out a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, Nick. You seem like an amazing person. I'm sorry that all of this is happening to you." I finished the tattoo on his ring finger, looking at the cursive forever.

One word holds so many stories for people.

"I've seen a lot of people with the same pain as you, and I don't wish it on anybody."

There was a silence as I prepped the skin on his neck.

"I saw that you met Harley Willows." He said, causing me to freeze.

Nobody knows her name.

"I don't know who that is, I'm sorry." I lied, feeling my leg start to bounce up and down as my anxiety rocketed.

"Ace. My bad." He tilted his head to the side, wincing as I started to tattoo his neck.

"She's my forever."

I quickly stepped off of the pedal before I made a mistake. He looked at me with a questioning gaze.

"Your Nick? Like- Nick-"

"Yeah yeah, I'm that Nick." He chuckled, tilting his head again for me to continue.

"As you can see, being in love with a rockstar is not all it's cracked up to be." He rambled, looking at the wall where her signatured lay next to the other boys.

"Well being a rockstar isn't all it's cracked up to be." I responded, causing him to tense up.

I finished the H on his neck, looking at it and knowing the meaning behind the two now.
We are gonna have a lot to catch up on, Harley.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked, sitting up.

"Do you seriously think that you are the only person in love? You've seen her on my wall so you must have seen the tattoo's I've done for her. Every tattoo has a story."

"That's what she used to say about her dad's tattoo's." He mumbled with a smile on her face.

"Harley loves you. Some things just come easier than others." I frowned before he took off his shirt.

"Last one?" He said, and I nodded.

I never thought I'd see the day where I'm writing one of my friends' names across a man's heart. Not just any man, the man that she was separated from. It made me think, how many other connections are there in this world.

"Dylan was nice enough to share his tattoo with our friend group, so a bunch of us signed up to get them. I just thought it was another tattoo artist, but nope! It's always connected to her somehow."

"Wait. Dylan?" I narrowed my eyes, not staring away from the tattoo I was forming, but I wanted to.

"Yeah. I love his rose tat, buy the way. It looks sick."

Looks like this date tonight is going to be filled with questions.

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