The Mentor

Chapter 39

**Two days later**

Scott went into the rehab program, just like he said he would. He disappeared without a word after I left his apartment and I had not heard from him, but I wasn't worried. Inpatient rehab programs didn't allow people to have their cell phones typically, and maybe he didn't write down my number to use the landline phone. I missed him, though. I wanted to keep talking to him and elaborate about what he'd said a few days ago, but I just had to put all that behind me, forget about it, and do my job while he was away. 

The shop was bustling and full of life that weekend. A few artists from other locations came by and visited, allowing me to make some new connections. I always had trouble with friends when I was a child, so having a real group of friends as an adult was new and exciting to me. It was nice to be able to hold a conversation with someone without being looked at funny because I made a dirty joke or mentioned a weird hyper fixation of mine. 

Kyle, on the other hand, didn't seem to be doing so well. He was clearly torn about what had happened between us in my car, and what was going on at home with his wife. He stayed in his room for the most part and rarely came out, and whenever we talked on the phone, he was pissed. All the weird theories he had about everyone being out to get him came back, just like they did when we did the competition in New York. All I knew was that it stemmed from an argument that happened between him and this dude, Jason, who worked at another location. I don't really know what the argument was about but I knew he was holding a grudge since no one jumped in to back either of them up when it happened. He was convinced everyone was out to get him and resorted to hiding away in his tattoo room most days. I tried talking to him like a normal person and talking to his clients, but he often told me to keep my voice down because "everyone is listening". 

To be blunt, he sounded really fucking stupid.

I never paid much attention to it during the competition when he started behaving like that because I was busy oogling at him. Now that we were home and back in our natural elements, I got a little annoyed with his behavior. I told him flat out that he sounded immature and that he should just let the bullshit argument go, but he didn't care. 

However, when he wasn't freaking out and constantly looking over his shoulder, he was pleasant to be around. There was definitely the occasional flirtation here and there. He would touch my knee when talking to me, touch my waist to get by me, and sometimes take a sniff of my hair if he ever hugged me. He didn't mention his home life anymore and I noticed that the screen saver on his phone had been changed to a photo of the NYC skyline, and that he didn't spend as much time on it. It made me wonder if he actually had left his wife after what happened between us, but I didn't bother asking. I would find out eventually. 

That day, I walked into work and Julien was sitting at the front desk. I could hear the familiar melody of rock music coming from his iPad. 

"What're you looking at?" I asked. 

He smiled and looked up at me, waving me over, though I already knew the answer. 

"Check it out, there you are!" He exclaimed. 

He turned the iPad towards me and just as I suspected, he was watching the new season of Ink Masters that had been uploaded to Spike.com. 

"Oh, man...the zombie bite tattoo, I remember that assignment. I hated that fucking thing." I chuckled. 

"Well, you win some, you lose some, I guess." 

It got to the part of the episode where I punched Joshua in the face, and I tried to look away. Of course, it was edited for TV to look a lot worse than it was. I knew Julien was smart enough to know that. The scene cut to Kyle throwing me over his shoulder and carrying me out of the room, and I'd had enough.