Because Mom Wasn't Enough

This love is a lie

The alarm on my phone woke me up the next morning. It was amazing that it still worked but I expected that at the end of the month the plan will run out and my mom won't bother to pay for next month's. I turned it off and got up to get ready for work. I threw a pillow at Cali who had to get to work as well. She worked at the piercing parlor across the street from my work: the tattoo shop. We always walked there together.

"Mehhh...whaaa?" She groaned.

"Get up lazy ass, we gotta go to work." I told her as I grabbed a granola bar from the box on the counter. Cali groaned again, but got up and got dressed. The guys already left.

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

We walked out and made our way down the street. It was still pretty early, but the streets were already filling with people. That's the big city for you. As we approached our places of employment we went our seperate ways.

"See ya, Jo." Cali called as she crossed to the other side of the street.

"Bye, Cali, see you at lunch!" We had the same lunch hour so we ate together.

"Hey, Dean." I said as I walked in and back to my little room where I worked. Dean was my boss and the owner of the tat shop, and one of my best friends. He was like an older brother to me.

"Hey, Jo?" It was Dicey, the other artist that worked here. She stood in the doorway flipping through papers.

"Yeah, what's up, Dice?" I put my pencil down from the piece I was working on. I didn't have any appointments for about an hour so I was working on new designs.

"Could you tell me if you like this design or not?" She asked me, handing over a piece of paper with a sketch of a dragon on it. "Dean has rejected my last three designs and I don't want to go for a fourth."

"Wow, Dice, this is amazing. Can you put it on me?" The intricate detail was amazing, and when it was colored in, it would look super realistic.

"Great, thanks!" She said, taking the piece back. I went back to my drawing. It wasn't so much of a picture, it was a heart with a banner wrapping around it and a line from a song I like written on the banner. It said "Hold my heart, it's beating for you anyway"

I redrew it a few times with the banner wrapping different ways, and the words in differnt fonts and stuff. The bell on the door to the shop rang and I could heard Dean talking to someone.

"Jo? Your ten thirty is here." Dean called.

"Okay." I called back. I got up and walked out to the front desk and greeted my canvas, I mean, costumer. He had a SnapBack on, huge gages, and a big owl tatoo on his neck. He looked kind of familliar. "Hey, I'm Jo." I said, shaking his hand.

"Tony." He responded shyly. I nodded.

"Well, we can go back to my studio and get started. So what do you want and where?" I asked as we walked back to my room.

"Well, I'm getting married next month and I want to get something that actually means something to my fiance. I'm not exactly sure what though." I nodded and motioned to the back wall.

"That's fine. These are what a lot of people get for someone else." Tony looked around for a moment, and then looked down at my desk. He picked up the paper that had my heart sketch on it, and smiled.

"I like this one," he said. "Could I get that here?" He asked pointing to his forearm. I started to panic a little, he was such a nice guy, and I didn't want to tell him no, but it hadn't been approved yet.

"Um, well that one was actually just drawn up this morning and hasn't been approved by the owner yet," I said. "He has to approve all designs before we can actually do them on people to make sure they're 'up to par'" I try to explain. His face dropped and he looked so dissapointed.

"Oh..." Tony sighed. I felt so bad, maybe I could pull some strings just this once...

"But I guess since it's for your fiance...I might be able to slip it under the table." His face lit up.

"Really? Thank you so much!" I nodded. I could totally lose my job for this...

I got my ink gun ready and opened up all the colors I needed.

"These are actually lyrics from a song I like." I told him. I heard him laugh a little.

"Yeah, I know." He said. I looked up at him.

"Wait, you know? Like you know Pierce The Veil?" And then I realized. "Oh my god, Tony Perry! That's where I know you from!" I said. He nodded.

"I'm guessing you're a fan?" I unzipped my sweatshirt and showed him my PTV T-shirt I was wearing. "Haha, nice."

"So one of you is finally getting married. You kept us waiting long enough." We both laughed as I started his tat.

"Yeah, I guess, but Jessica is getting a ton of hate from the Perrentes and Perrciado shippers."

"Oh, you know about those?"

"Yeah, people are pretty passionate about it. They do know it's never going to happen, right?" I laughed.

"Tell that to the Jalex shippers and they'll kill you. Those two are so adorable, I'd actually be surprised if it didn't happed."

"Oh, well Jalex is a whole different story. It's not even an act for the cameras, they really are that close. I agree with you, that's definitely legit."

We continued to talk about the band and stuff until I finished his tattoo. Wow, I just permenently marked one of my heroes. Cool. By the time I finished it, I had time to eat lunch with Cali. Thankfully, Dean never found out about the unauthorized design, but I showed it to him right after to get it approved.

"Cali, you'll never guess who I just tattooed!" I exclaimed as I met her in the park near our jobs.

"You'll never guess who I just pierced! Tony, from Pierce The Veil! No pun intended, but greatly appreciated," she said. "He got snake bites."

"He got a tat of a design I drew up, not even apporved yet! And he's finally getting married!"

"Ooohh, unauthorized tat, scandelous!"

"Shut up. I love them so much. Like honestly if I ever met them, they would immedietly start singing me Drella, 'What are you talking about! And how did you get into my house?'" We started laughing, and made our way back to work to finish up our day.

The rest of the day was pretty quiet; Dean approved my design, and I had two other appointments. Cali and I walked home together after work. At the warehouse, the guys had gone shopping before they got back from their work, and had made sandwiches for us all.

Sam came up to me after we ate and kissed me. I pulled away from him; he was a okay guy, but I just didn't feel anything anymore, and I was really adamant about getting out of a false relationship. I pulled him away from the others and turned towards him.

"Sam, we need to talk," I started, sitting him down. He cocked his head slightly and I continued. "I don't think we're going to work out."

"What?"

"It's just, you're such a great guy and you deserve someone who really cares about you. And I can't give that to you anymore."

"But why? Is there someone else? There's someone else, isn't there!" Sam jumped up and started pacing a little.

"What? No! It's just that--"

"Oh shut up! Shut up you stupid slut! I've suspected that you've been cheating on me for a while, and now I know it's true!"

"No Sam, listen to me!" I said, getting up. "I just don't feel that spark anymore." He ran his fingers through his hair and pointed to the door.

"Get out," I looked at him in disbelief. "I said get out you stupid bitch!" Tears were welling up in my eyes, but I nodded and put my few possessions in a bag and said goodbye to Cali and Mark.