FRAYED (Book 2)

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Nash

My hand kept seizing up around the tattoo gun, it was practically making my arm go numb with the vibrations. All I could think about was that Aurora was going to kill me when I got home, I just hoped she was alright, and she wouldn't be mad at me.

"Are you okay dude?" Chase snaps me out of my daze, my eyes rooted to the skin beneath my fingers and working the design like I have done it a hundred times.

I pull back, taking my foot off the pedal and shaking my head up at him. "I don't know. Rora's gonna be pissed, and I feel like I should have gone after her, is that wrong?" I sigh.

"Vi said she'd talk to her, she wouldn't have let us leave if she wasn't okay, don't blame yourself. And for what it's worth that dipshit sure had what's coming to him, I would have done the same." Chase's soft words make me stiffen, it could have been her, it could have been anyone- she wasn't safe working there, but it was her choice.

"Do you think this is going to make up for last night?" I ask trying to distract him, he had decided to get a vine of violets on his upper arm, in order to make up for the fact he had been working late for the past couple of weeks and he had been pushed to the couch over an argument the following night. This was his attempt to make up for it.

"I hope so, I just hope she can forgive me, and I know I will never forgive myself for what I said." He looks down in regret, I look I often saw in his face, for a married couple they argued a lot but always made up in the end. It was how they worked. It was how they saw it since they were kids, taking toys off of each other, breaking friends and making friends, and then turning into a couple.

"Things can be hard, we fight and we forgive, we live and we learn. I hope when I get hitched we won't be the same, I don't think my heart could take it." I get back to work, soothing the skin, picking up the ink with the needle and starting the motor again.

"Where did badass Nash go? Since when did you talk all hearts and flowers and love?" Chase chuckles and I roll my eyes.

"I was never a badass, I just got through life the hard way, and it's different now. I have a girl and a kid to look out for, they are practically my world, but I wouldn't hesitate to hurt anyone who dared to hurt them." It was that simple, I was here trying to find my way out all along, and I was glad that I had changed.

"Violet's pregnant." A small silence is broken by his words, they come out with a sound of relief, pain and panic.

I stop my work, staring up at him to gage his face, it's expressionless but in his eyes I see a glistening of hope and happiness.

He seems to think for a moment before blinking, snapping out of his trance and jolting his head my way with wide eyes. "I have never wanted anything more in my whole life. Do you know how terrifying that is? I don't know what to do."

"Talk to her. It's a baby we're talking about here. Your own family, flesh and blood, I thought that was what you wanted." I put the machine down from my hands, this was serious, and this was definitely a time where he didn't need second guessing.

"It is. I just never thought I'd have it. A family of my own, a family to love and cherish, I never even thought that she would look twice at me in high school. I was such as jackass." And then he's back, the pride comes back onto his face and a small chuckle rattles his chest.

"You were a jackass. Congrats dad." I nod and wink before changing gloves, proper practice and all. I wince as I see my hands, the knuckles busted and sore, reminding me of the message I had sent to the guy who touched my girl. And I'm ready for the shitty fallback.

At the end of the day, we're all in charge of what we bring to our lives. And it's important to find a way to fuel a flame when no one else remembers to, because the world needs the light that you give off. Because with that flame I have my passions and my pride, my hopes and insecurities but more important I fuel it with the people I love and protect. I would do anything for them. For my family.