The Tattoo Parlor

Drug Free Family

I woke up, walked down to my apartment, showered, got dressed, and went back up to Polly's. "What do you guys think? Too casual?" "No it's you!" Madi said.

"It's not me, it's Sleeping With Sirens" I said and flopped on the couch in dissapointment. "Yes but Sleeping With Sirens is your life no go go go! You have like 3 hours of work before you can see Josh!" Polly said tugging on my arm. "I'll get up! Ally, Hannah? Help me!" "You look good, no one in this room can do make-up better than you!" Ally said. Hannah nodded and said "Go! Me and Ralph will take care of Lily."

I grabbed my black purse and closed the door. 15 minutes later I was walking through the mall to Hot Topic. My boss told me to go stock the new Pierce The Veil shirts and there was new Nightmare Before Christmas stuff coming in around 4:15.
I love Hot Topic but I like shopping at Hot Topic better.
Another typical day. Well maybe not, I get to see Josh.

*About 3 exhausting hours later*

I was still in Hot Topic and talking to a customer about pins and buttons. "Yes 2 for $3" The girl didn't speak English that well. She picked two and I added it to her total. I gave her change and I heard a voice behind me. "Knock Knock" "Josh! Hi!"

I put down my black apron and took my phone out of the front pocket.

"So... How was your day?" I asked him cheerfully as we walked towards the food court. "Well I have 1 new client other than you and the other guy I tattooed only wanted one to complete a sleeve. His tattoo was a gear to go along with a robot kind of themed thing which is my favorite and my new client wanted an American flag with the date of when his Veteran father died below it." "Sounds like a busy day"
"How about you Kaitlyn?" "Well I've been stocking shirts and pins all day. And I have to stay until 4:45 to get the next Nightmare Before Christmas stuff stocked."

"At least we get a break. Come by when you're done,  I get off at 5:00 since I stayed longer yesterday for your tattoo." "As long as your client is OK with it" I said trying not to sound excited.

We ate pizza and talked about Josh's life in Pennsylvania and my friends. "They sound fun. My family was always... Not much a family. They did drugs and drank too much alchohal. I don't want to be anything like them, that's why I have this-" he took off his beanie and turned his head. He had 'drug free' in a pretty font on the left side of his head. "My hair has kind of grown over it" he said putting his beanie back on. "I like you as a tattoo artist because I connect with you... Yesterday I got to know more about you. It was hard at first to show you my scars but you didn't say anything bad about them. I trust you, come to my apartment sometime, you can be part of our family" I took a sip of my Mr. Pibb and stared at the table nervously. "I'd like that" he said after a few moments of silence. I looked up and smiled.

"I do have three friends I consider my family but I'm happy to meet new members. My band is my family but we're on break for now, we'll go on tour next year. Two of my friends are tattoo artists, they might be some of your friend's artists actually" "I know Hannah's is Riley" I replied. "Yeah she's one of my friends. The other one is Daniel. His girlfriend, Sam, isn't a tattoo artist. She's not real friendly but I think she's part of my family" "Daniel is Aaron's artist" There was a moment of silence then he said, "I didn't have a real family until I joined Motionless In White or started tattooing. If you're friends like me my family will be expanding" he beamed. I felt bad for him about his drug addicted family but I knew he was happy from meeting his band, other artists, and me.

I texted my friends and they all agreed to meet him this weekend. Josh said he'd follow my car out when we got off work so he could come see my apartment and Lily. Everyone besides Ally and Madi had to work so they would get to meet Josh before the others. They didn't live in Kansas so they didn't have to work. They would stay in everyone's apartments until they had to leave.

"I'm glad we could talk more. I'll see you around 5?" I asked curiously. We dumped our trays and he replied with "Yeah. Good luck!" "You too Josh!" I shouted to him and we walked to our stores.