*Exclusive sneak peek of my novel SHAMELESS.*
Every student at Shame U has their secrets, and Henley Brooks is no exception. Struggling to pay for college and maintain her perfect reputation has become overwhelming. When her friend Gigi Oxford offe...
We slipped into the back of Beef's Durango as we headed back to my apartment with Laney by my side. I'd been working on her back piece for months, and today I was going to fill in some of her flowers with color.
"If you don't stop, you're going to have more ink than me," I quipped.
"It's therapeutic," Laney replied with no amusement in her tone. She was the type of girl who was perpetually sad, and I wondered if the pain from the tattoos served as some sort of atonement for her self-perceived sins. Four months ago she'd met a girl, who happened to be straight, and fallen in love. She was humiliated after confessing her infatuation.
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"When are you going to stop blaming yourself for who you are?"
She laughed sardonically as her black-lined eyes met mine. "Who else's fault would it be?"
"You can't help who you love. D' you know what I mean?"
"What would you know about love?" she asked, turning her head away from me and hiding her face behind a curtain of her wheat-colored, shoulder-length hair.
"I know it's never wrong."
"Really?" her head twisted back to face me. "Even if the person was married or something?"
"There's a difference between loving someone and acting on it," I countered, earning me a glare as she picked at the fraying strings on the knee of her jeans.
"You can't love someone and not act on it. It's impossible."
"Why not?"
"It's like this physical ache that takes over. If you don't act on it, the loneliness destroys you like cancer."
"Sounds awful."
She smirked, but her eyes still held sadness. "It's the most beautiful thing in the world."
"Why subject yourself to all of that pain?"
"It's not a choice."
"Yes, it is."
"You're in for a rude awakening, my friend." She laughed, shaking her head.
We pulled up to the curb outside of my building, and I slid out, holding open the door for Laney. Making our way to my bedroom, I closed the door and sank down on my desk chair as she laid out on my bed.
"Which do you want to work on today?" I asked as I pulled on my gloves.
"The bougainvilia."
"The..."
"Paper flowers. Magenta."
I began to work on her, bringing pops of color into her tattoo as she continued to tell me about the girl she'd loved and lost... or never really had.
"So, who was that girl?"
"What girl?" I asked, brushing my hair from my forehead with the back of my hand.
