The Boys and Me

80. Send It

The next day Heath left to go do some last minute things with Shane and their dad, leaving me free to finish sorting out his Christmas present.

I drove across town to the dingy little basement Romeo worked from, walking in. I had told him a week ago I'd be coming in so he should have been expecting me but walking in and seeing the shocked look on his face said he forgot. And also the fact that Scott was standing beside him also gave it away.

From what I could see, Scott had his shirt off and a fresh tattoo seemed to coat a small area around his belly button.

"Uh" I uttered, not completely sure how to react to Scott being here. I don't think anyone was worried about finding his new tattoo, more that he knew I was here to get one as that's pretty much the only reason we come to see Romeo.

"Holt" Scott greeted, pulling his shirt back on gingerly. His tattoo had looked a little red and irritated, perhaps due to infection, but I was going to keep my mouth shut.

"Hi, is this a bad time?" I asked, looking from Scott to Romeo. They shared a look before Scott looked back to me.

"I was just leaving." He said, grabbing his wallet and keys.

"Oh and Holt?" He said as he reached the door. I turned to face him and he half smiled at me.

"The boys don't need to know about this tattoo, so you can trust they aren't going to find out about yours either. Not from me at least" He said, walking out the door.

"Alissa, I am so sorry. He showed up out o the blue and I couldn't say I had to text you, he would have been suspicious." Romeo quickly apologised. I simply smiled.

"Don't worry too much, it's not going to be a complete secret soon enough." I said as I walked closer.

"What exactly are you getting?" He asked and I sighed, wondering if this was a stupid idea or not.

"Do you know the small paper plane tattoo Heath has?" I asked and he laughed as he nodded.

"Duh, I gave it to him as soon as I got a gun" He said.

"Wait, do you want a matching one?" He asked and I shrugged.

"I mean, I bought him a few things but can you imagine how special he'd feel if I chose to mark my body with something he has?" I asked and Romeo sighed.

"And what if you guys break up? You're going to have a tattoo that reminds you of him forever" He said, making me shrug.

"I've got a tattoo that means I'm in the boys forever, what happens if I leave? Still marked. At least I'm opting to do this one" I said.

"But leaving a group is different than breaking up with a partner" He said and I nodded.

"What if it also symbolised that I'm basically like a piece of paper flowing in the wind? I've moved around a lot and I love to travel, going wherever life takes me" I said, actually liking the idea of that. And as Romeo grinned, I knew he liked it too.

"Where?" He asked and I shrugged.

"I can't think of any places to hide it until Christmas" I said. Christmas was admittedly just around the corner, as in a few days away. Perhaps there was somewhere?

"Do you wear socks around the house a lot?" Romeo asked. I laughed as I nodded.

"Religiously." I admitted and he grinned.

"Get it on your ankle. Hide it with socks and then on Christmas show the boy, he'll love it and ankle tattoos are really in fashion right now" He said. My smile gave him all the answer he needed to know, him getting the necessary things ready while I took my shoe and sock off.