New Love

Chapter 14

Jessica's Point of View

"Do you wanna get tattoos?" Ben asked, as we sat outside a coffee shop. "Not matching ones." I said, frowning at him. He shook his head, "Of course not." I started kicking a pebble on the ground. "Yeah, well it wouldn't be the first stupid mistake we've made." I whispered to myself.

"Hey!" Ben said, raising his voice, "we were both drunk! And you were the one that started it! I only ever asked to kiss!" I grunted, "Whatever. I'm going to go get a tattoo." I stood up and started walking away, and he quickly caught up to me. "Now?" He asked, slightly out of breath, because I may or may not have speed walked. I nodded firmly, "Yes now. You can come or don't. I really don't care."

We walked into a tattoo parlour, one I had looked at before. It was a tad bit sketchy, considering they didn't ask you for a guardian's signature. "Hey," I said to the first artist I saw. "Hi, I'm Flynn, what can I help you with?" He asked, he was a tall, well built guy, maybe in his early 20's. "I'd like to get a small tattoo please, my first one."

He smiled and led me over to a sketching table, Ben following closely behind. "So what kind of design were you thinking of?" I twirled my hair as I thought, "I want one on the outer part of my wrist, that says 'Hope' in fancy writing." He nodded, and started sketching the word. Once he showed me the sketch, I knew I wanted it.

"Awesome." I told him, so he brought me to the chair and I sat down. "It'll take a minute or two? Okay?" He said, preparing the ink. I nodded, Ben walked over and sat in a stool beside me. "Want to hold my hand?" He asked, I shook my head, "No. I can do this on my own."

Flynn counted me down, and then started up the machine. As he did the tattoo, I avoided looking at Ben. For some reason, I felt like I didn't want him there. So I just stared off at a painting on the wall. 

"All finished!" He said, smiling as he showed me the final tattoo. I looked at it, and my jaw dropped. It was stunning. I knew that after this I was totally going to be getting more tattoos! "Alrighty, so it'll be itchy for about a week, just don't take this bandage off, okay?" He said, wrapping a fresh bandage onto my tattoo.

I nodded, and got up out of the chair. "If you'll just follow me?" He said, gesturing towards the front desk to pay. "I got it," Ben said, grabbing his wallet. He went to the cash register with Flynn, and paid for my tattoo.

"Thanks for that." I told him, as we walked out of the shop. "You're welcome." He replied. "You didn't get one?" I asked him, as we walked down a path lit only by street lights. He shrugged, "Just wasn't my time to get one I guess.."

I chewed on my lip as we walked down the street. "Are things different between us?" I asked Ben, stopping him. We both looked at each other, starting intently into the other's eyes. He sighed, "Baby, I don't know. After last night, well.." I wrapped my arms around him, and he wrapped his arms around me, "I don't want things to change Ben." He kissed my forehead, "Me too princess."

We intertwined hands, and continued walking. "But," Ben said, breaking the peaceful silence, "that new tattoo you got makes you even more bad@ss than you were before. So that changed." I laughed, "Well thanks. You're just naturally a bad@ss."