Running In Circles || Nicholas Ruffilo

sixteen

Nicholas 

I waltz into the shop, seeing that Cassidy has the coffee carrier at her station today. I throw on the beanie in my hand and adjust it before picking up my coffee, throwing her the quickest wink before going to my station. 

She doesn't even emote back at me.

That's my girl.

Davis and Vincent must have gone to the bar last night because they both look hungover as shit. They probably wouldn't even care if we were making out in the open, they're both so out of it. Davis is basically asleep at his desk and Vincent's eyes are barely open as he finishes up a sketch.  I made a mental note to order something carb-y for lunch for them. 

Electricity enters my space and I know it's Cassidy; she makes me feel like my insides are now all beautiful string lights and she is the power source. Like it's Christmas all the time. Why would I possibly need anything else when I have her? 

"Hey, do you have any clients today?" she asks levelly. It's an effort to not emote as I turn to her, but I succeed. 

I show her the skull with flowers coming out of the eye sockets and around it that someone is putting on their leg today. "Yeah, they will be here in 30 minutes if you want to watch," I offer. 

"Cool," she says quickly before going back to her station. The whirring of her cheap gun begins and I guess she's practicing on fake skin.

"Sorry man, I'm not much to shadow today," Vincent says to me.

"It's okay. How hard did y'all go last night?" I finally pick. 

Davis picks up his head, his face the tiniest twinge of green still. "Do not even begin to talk about it," he warns Vincent, holding up a finger in warning. I just chuckle at him, knowing how that is. 

"Dude, we'll be okay if you go home," I reassure Davis. 

"Is it that bad?" he asks dejectedly. 

I catch Cass's eye and she grimaces at me. "Yeah, a little bit," I finally admit. "Go get some more sleep." 

Davis just grabs his keys and waves us off before leaving. "I would probably do the same if I didn't have a client today," Vincent says honestly. 

"How big is the piece?" 

"It'll probably be done in two hours."

"Then go home after that," I encourage. He just nods and gets back to fixing his sketch, giving me a second to catch Cass's eye, hers gleaming with the same conspiring look as mine.

-

"Go get some sleep," I call out to Vincent as he leaves out the back door, to which he just kindly waves goodbye to us. I was still working on the skull piece, it taking up almost the client's entire thigh. Cass is observing still from a respectable distance, either to keep up the professionalism or out of paranoia. I had about 30 minutes left of shading, and if I'm being honest, this client is not sitting great. I pull the gun away as she flinches again. "Rachel, if we're going to finish this, you have to relax," I finally say, putting my gun on the table.

"I'm sorry, it's like it's involuntary," she says for the hundredth time today. 

"If we keep doing this with you flinching like this, it's not going to look right. Do you want to try again another day? I won't charge anything extra," I offer. 

"Yeah, that's fine," she agrees, tapping out finally. I clean the area and wrap it in Saniderm, having her pay at the front and scheduling her to come back in a few weeks when the main piece is more healed. Once she walks out of the shop and I watch her pull off, I twirl around to Cass.