Chasing Her [Wattys2016] ON HOLD

7~ A Fake Smile On Her Fake Face

ankle tattoo^^>>>

Dedicated to starryskies31 for being being totally psyched about this book. Only she understands what I just did.

I look at Xavier. "Really?" I ask with raised eyebrows. "What does it look like?"

He doesn't answer for a few minutes, instead focusing on the road like it was algebra. "Well..." he finally says. "We are really close. Friends, I mean. Yeah. And uh... well we don't argue and scream a each other a lot. We're more friendly and caring for each other. Actually, we are like sister and brother." He lets out a small smile.

"We can try that," I say and lean back, placing my feet on the dashboard.

"Really? You can be civ- what's that?" He cuts himself off and stares at my ankle.

"What's what?" I look to see if there's a bug or something on my leg but see nothing.

"That," he tugs my jean leg up and points to my ankle.

"Oh. It's a tattoo. Duh. You should know what a tattoo is, you probably have some." I give him a blank look.

"You have a tattoo?" He looks at it in awe, his finger hovering over my skin.

"Four, actually." I correct him. "That's probably less than you have, though." I say wistfully.

"Four? You want more?" He gives me a deadpan stare.

"Yeah. They're meaningful. One behind my ear, on my hip, collar bone, and ankle, obviously. That's a music one because Jenessa and I loved music." I let slip out.

Thankfully, he doesn't press the issue. "Can I see the other tattoos? How many do you want?"

"Uh not in the car. And I want to get another one here. Do you know any good tattoo artists here?" I ask him and slide my pant leg down.

"Seriously?" He gives me an increlous look. "I have a multitude of tattoos all over my body and you want to know if I know a good artist? I know many." He turns back to the road and turns down a street. "When do you want to get it?"

I think about it for a minute. "I don't know. Maybe today but it's almost four o'clock. We should probably go home." I reason to myself. "But then again..."

"We can do it now," Xavier offers.

I decide to go with common sense. "Nah. Besides, I want to talk to my mom about it first. She has to pass the idea through first before I can get it. Plus, I don't have that much money on me right now."

"Well, tell me when you want to get one. I've been meaning to get one and we could go." He has a light pink tinge on his cheeks and I stare at the peculiar sight before me.

"Sure," Was Xavier, bad boy Xavier, blushing?

We don't talk for the rest of ride. We bask in comfortable silence, not arguing or screaming at each other. A definite first.

We pull into the garage when I remember something. "What about your car?" Xavier closes the garage door with the remote in the car.

He nods his head to the far side of the garage. I look and see the Mustang parked at a diagonal. "Cara brought it back." He steps out of the car and I follow suit.

"So what time's the party? Where's it at?" I tuck my hands in my jean pockets and walk next to him, heading for the door.

"It's at ten, but usually everyone is there by nine. It's at Jason's house. He's a jock on the football team."