You made me ink | Alessia Russo

The one with the rain

"Mate, honestly, I'm massive." Ella spoke out as she jokingly flexed her biceps in the mirror that covered half of the gyms walls.

Alessia scoffed as she walked past the girl and situated herself on one of the workout bikes. "Where?"

Ella rolled her eyes and joined her friend on the bike next to the one the blonde was currently situated on. "Who's put a bee in your bonnet?"

"Nobody." Alessia mumbled and began peddling.

"Well somebody has, you've been a grouch all day. It's boring now, what's going on?"

Alessia pursed her lips for a second. "Nobody. Nobody has put a bee in my bonnet and that's the problem. Cairo isn't replying to me."

Ella frowned at her friend. "Right, have I missed a step? I thought we knew that?"

Alessia stayed silent for a minute as she peddled on the bike before letting out a deep sigh. "I told my family that I like girls too, when they were down on the weekend."

Ella stopped peddling and put a hand on Alessia's arm. "Less that's huge. Well done! How did it go?"

"To be honest...great. They said they have a whole other gender to deal with ogling me now, apparently." Alessia said with a small smile.

"Less, that's so good. So it's like official then?"

Alessia nodded as she took a few stead breaths. "Yeah. The week after Cairo left Manchester, I spent like, every night thinking. And I decided that yeah, maybe the attraction I felt to girls wasn't just being a girls girl, and that's okay. Life is too short to be scared, you know?"

Ella smiled and squeezed Alessia's hand. "I think that's amazing. I'm proud of you. I knew your parents wouldn't be arsed."

The girls worked out in silence for a few minutes, both pushing themselves on the bike before they eventually slowed down, catching their breath. "So what," Ella eventually broke the silence, using the back of her hand to wipe the sweat from her top lip. "You spoke to them and messaged Cairo?"

"Four times."

"Four?!" Ella exclaimed, eyes widening. "Mate, you didn't just double text, you quadrupled it. Does liking girls stop you from playing it cool?"

Alessia blushed and bowed her head. "I just...I just wanted her to know. I wanted to show her that I was serious, that I'm ready now."

"Are you? Ready?"

Alessia paused for a moment. "I think so."

Ella bit her lip in thought, unsure if her best friend needs to hear the truth, or blind encouragement. "Less, you thinking you're ready...it might not be good enough. She's hurt, you know? She put her heart on the line, she'd be the one having to adapt around you and be patient with you...and if you decide you thought wrong, then she's just going to get hurt again-"

"For her, I know."

"Mmm?" Ella asked, not fully understanding.

"I don't know if I'm ready to face it completely, or if I'm ready to be with a girl. But for her, I'm ready. I'll do whatever I need to. I really like her, Tooney."

"Then you have to win her back."

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For the next few weeks, Alessia did everything she could think of to try and get Cairo's attention. She posted Instagram photo's everyday, each with varying captions suggesting she was ready to be herself, ready to pursue something, ready to be happy. But they all went unnoticed. She tried posting stories, religiously checking the views to see if either of Cairo's accounts had viewed them. Every game they'd played, she'd been doing a celebration when she scores, making a C with her hand towards the camera before making a heart with her fingers.

But she'd heard nothing.

All she needed was one little bit of encouragement. One like, one view, one message. Just something to let her know Cairo was watching her, that she was interested.

But as the weeks went o and the time grew, so did the pit in the bottom of her stomach. Growing more concerned each day that maybe Cairo was moving on. That she had lost interest.

And after everything, she couldn't allow that to happen.

Which is why she currently stood outside a familiar tattoo shop in the pouring rain, her hair soaked and plastered to her head and her clothes soaked through and sticking to her skin. She had to try. Just once more.

But now she was actually here, she couldn't find the strength to move her feet and enter the shop.

"Sweetheart, you've been standing there for like ten minutes, are you okay? Are you lost?" Alessia looked at the man that had stuck his head out the shop, his large frame filling the doorway. Alessia knew him, he was in plenty of Cairo's picture's on her Instagram.

"Erm...is Cairo in?"

The man frowned. "Cai? Yeah she's here. Want me to send her out to you, love? She's just getting her stuff together before leaving."

Alessia tried to swallow the lump that was in her throat as she felt the goosebumps over take her body from shivering. "Yes please, if you don't mind."

The man eyed Alessia once more before nodding and disappearing inside, leaving Alessia standing there once again.

Minutes past, though Alessia would swear it was hours as she now leant on a lamp post outside the shop, she'd hands shoved deep inside her pockets as she tried to get some warmth flowing through her body.

"Alessia?" A familiar voice snapped her out of her trance. "Fuck, you're soaked."

Alessia moved her head and locked eyes with the eyes that haven't left her mind for the past few weeks. "I needed to talk to you."

Cairo frowned as she stepped closer to Alessia, stepping close to her and reaching forward to unzip the girls jacket, and pushing it off her shoulders. "Take this off."

Alessia frowned but after spending so much time standing in the cold, didn't have the energy to argue.

Cairo nodded when Alessia began shrugging off the soaking coat before copying her movements and unzipping her own coat and taking it off, immediately wrapping it around Alessia and rubbing her hands up and down the girls upper arms. "Come on. I don't live far. Let's get you dry, little mad head."