Cleopatra

Chapter 35 -Tattoo

C L E O

"Happy Birthday babygirl." Reuben said as he hugged me.

"Thank you." I smiled. "But you know you're early yeah, I'm not ready yet."

"It's cool, finish getting ready, lemme see my son real quick."

"He's in the kitchen with Tyra and that." I told him. He nodded and made his way to the kitchen whilst I went back to my room to get my shit together.

My 18th birthday has finally come after what has felt like months of Tyra sneaking around when really it's only been a like three weeks of her acting suspect. Either way, I'm not gonna lie and act like I'm not excited even though I don't know what she's been planning. A lot of unknown shit is happening today and it's all starting with Reuben taking me out. I've been told to pack birthday outfit that I got a few weeks ago when I went shopping with Tai, Aiya and Malika. Other than the fact that I'm going out with Reuben and I need my outfit I don't know what else is going on. To be honest I don't mind surprises so I ain't worried, and Tyra knows what I like and don't like anyway.

When Reuben came I had done my hair and makeup and was in the process of trying to find an outfit to wear during the day. There weather wasn't appalling, it wasn't too hot or too cold either so I settled on a khaki midi dress and a denim jacket with black and white Adidas sliders. When me Aiya Tai and Malika went out I got my nails done and I needed an opportunity to show off my pedicure. After that I packed my outfit, shoes and jewellery and make up into one of my bigger handbags and then made my way downstairs. When I got to the end of the stairs Tyra and Reuben were standing by the door talking in hushed tones and stopped talking immediately upon my arrival. I decided not to bother asking what all that was about and went to unlock the door. Reuben handed Isaiah to Tyra after I kissed him on the cheek and Tyra told Reuben to make sure I wasn't late to whatever they had planned.

I just shook my head becoming aware that this was going to be a very long day indeed.

"Where are we going?" I asked after Reuben had been driving for about 20 minutes.

"You'll see." He said smirking and I rolled my eyes. I guess I should've known better than to expect an actual answer from him but it was worth a try.

About 10 minutes later he parked outside a tattoo shop making me look at him sideways.

"You're joking yeah?" I asked him and he laughed and shook his head.

"Nah, I remember you saying you wanted to get tattoo when you turn 18 innit. You've got your ID yeah?"

I just stared at him finding it hard to believe that he remembered me talking about wanting a tattoo. That's something I said when we first started talking so it was a surprise to me that he remembered that.

"Come man I can't be late or else Tyra will hurt me, we've got to be getting ready by 5." Reuben said pushing me towards the entrance of the tattoo shop.

We walked in and there were a few people getting tattoos but besides the noise from that it was quiet with background music playing. The tattoo shop wasn't what I expected at all. That could be due to me only going to one tattoo shop and that was to get my ear pierced. It had loads of different pictures on the walls of tattoos and the lights were low as well which added to the atmosphere.

At the back there was a counter and I spotted JV sitting there chatting to some dude. "Happy Birthday Cleo." She said getting up to give me a hug. "Rah, you didn't waste no time, you've been 18 for 10 minutes and you're already getting a tattoo."

"You can chat, you got your first tattoo at 16." The boy said to her making her frown.

"That was because you wanted to try something, you're lucky it turned out nice as well."