a/n chapter 1 yay. i worked hard on this, a whole hour and a half and my thumbs hurt ): ily guys btw c:
(1975sos_jamm)
•sydney•
today was a wednesday. a day like any other in the week. get up; go to work; eat; shower; sleep. same routine everyday, so as you can see, i dont really get out very much. it was now 2:53pm and there was not much sign of a customer coming by the shop anytime soon and the other two artists were currently concentrating on drawing their customers tattoo perfectly. so i guess it was just me and my manager, jack, hes the coolest boss ive had. hes funny and hes not one of those annoying people, who are complete workaholics that dont even take a second to breathe. its just work work work. jack lets us take a break when we want and lets us mess around (well not too much).
i walked over to the counter and stood next to jack, peering over his shoulder to see what he was doing.
"i need you to give this guy a tattoo at 3:00, ashton was supposed to be giving him it but as you can see hes a little bit busy." he told me, i looked up to the clock to see it was now 2:57, great he'll be here any minute now.
"why didnt you tell me earlier? i need to go and get the stuff ready" i replied, walking over to my equipment and getting everything out.
i heard a bell ring, and my eyes divert up towards the door to see a boy around my age. make that an extremely good looking boy, stroll through the door and over to the desk, jack was situated at. he was wearing black skinny jeans, some of the skinniest ive seen on a boy; and a black nirvana shirt. i could see a few tattoos peeking out of the top of his t-shirt, and many running down his arms. i must say, this boy was hot im not afraid to admit that.
"Hey calum, back again i see, well ashton is busy right now-" as jack said this, the boy looked over towards ashton and then back to jack so he could proceed. "but sydney will gladly do your tattoo for you" jack gestures towards me and i kind of froze in my spot as the boy, whos name i now know as calum, looked directly at me. he had a smirk evident on his face, as his deep brown eyes travelled down my body and back up to meet my eyes.
"ill let her do more than my tattoo", he thanked jack and made his way over to me.
i had to keep my cool. im never this nervous, im normally so confident. what is this boy doing to me?
"Hi", my voice muttered.
"Hi babe, the names calum. so i see youre going to be doing my tattoo today. i think ill prefer this to ashton", the smirk had not left his face yet, is his face permanently stuck like that or something? i raised my eyebrow at the word 'babe' he used to refer to me as.
"yes, yes i am. now, what do you want done and where?" i replied back, my voice thankfully more confident than before.
"i want this-" he handed me a piece of paper and i observed it carefully, it was a skull and crossbones, it looked very familiar to the one on the All Time Low logo. when i looked back up to meet his gaze i saw he was shirtless. and guess what? again smirking at me. am i wrong to want to slap it off his face? "-here" he pointed to a spot just below his collar bone.
"uh o-ok" i stammered over my words. fuck. i heard a deep chuckle come from calum and i swear it was like music to my ears. how could a human make such a beautiful noise. too bad he has a kinda shit personality, hes so up his own ass.
he lay down on the cold leather seat and i got out my stuff so i could clean the area the tattoo was going to be. as i touched his skin, i saw goosebumps form on the surface and now was my time to smirk. i looked up at calum, a mischievous look in my eye, but he just looked away in attempt to avoid my gaze.
"i like your shirt by the way, i forgot to mention before" i said to him as i made sure to clean the whole area of skin.
"oh really? so youre hot and you have a good taste in music." it was my turn to look away now. this was like some sort of battle going on between us, we keep going back and forth.
"i could say the same for you" i muttered, mainly to myself, but i knew he'd heard.
once i had finished cleaning the area, i got the needle and turned on the machine. i didnt need to look at the sketch again, i already had it memorised.
i was about to start, the needle almost touching his skin, but i was interupted.
"woah, stop. you have literally looked at that picture for what? 15 seconds? i dont want this to go wrong!" he exclaimed, pushing my hand away from him.
"i know what im doing, its the same skull as the one on the all time low logo. theyre my favourite band, i think i know what it looks like" i snapped back, not in a mean way. just to make a point.
he muttered a quiet "oh" and i carried on with what i had started. about 3 minutes into what i was doing, calum decided to speak up.
"so youre an all time low fan?", he questioned me, almost uncertain that i was telling the truth.
"yes, i am. are you?", i replied, making sure not to take my eyes off my work i was printing on the tanned boys skin.
"yeah, ive got tickets to see them in concert next month" with those words, i stopped what i was doing and looked up to look at calum.
"are you kidding me? youre so lucky! i tried to get some but i couldnt get any" i whined at him. hes living my dream.
he chuckled at my reaction. "well if you do this tattoo perfectly, ill give you my spare ticket and you can come with me and the boys" he winked at me, i laughed a half hearted laugh in response, knowing he was only joking.
after our short conversation i got back to work and finished his tattoo 15 minutes later. i covered over the ink and moved back to let him stand from his position on the chair and stroll over to the mirror to look at the ink imprinted on his skin. i followed close behind him and watched as he observed the tattoo.
"is it ok?" i questioned him, curious to hear his response.
"eh, its not the best one ive seen done" he winked and, again, smirked at me.
"well, fuck you" i shot back, jokingly. chuckling afterwards.
"its hot when you swear, ya know?" he said in a low, raspy tone. his body moving closer to mine, almost touching.
"um, are you gonna p-put youre shirt back on?" i stuttered, my eyes staying locked with his.
"no, i think you enjoy it much more if i stay like this" at this point his lips were right by my ear, whispering so only we could here.
"ooh, whats going on over here?" the familiar voice of violet, the other tattoo artist, questioned in an almost mocking tone.
with that, calum took a long stride away from me, sliding his t-shirt back onto his body. he turned and walked out of the shop.
of course not before giving me one of his award winning smirks.
