We Come Alive 5

Tattoos And Piercings

Thursday afternoon instead of having baseball practice before their baseball game tomorrow, Ricky, Diego, Stephen, Clover, Jacob, Jose, and Ethan met up with Andrew at a tattoo and piercing parlor that his friend from college owned for an eventful evening.

Jacob walked into one of the back rooms to see Clover laying on a table holding onto Ricky's hand.

"You're gonna be fine." Ricky chuckled, standing over Clover's head as she held onto his hand with one hand and the other over her face.

Jacob frowned, walking over to them as the piercer got his tools prepared. Ricky continued to chuckle as Clover whined and whimpered when the piercer lifted her shirt to get access to her belly button.

"What are y'all doing?" Jacob asked, watching closely as Clover squeezed Ricky's hand while the older boy just laughed.

Ricky glanced at Jacob then back down at Clover. "Lucky Charms here is getting her belly button pierced but she's petrified."

Clover took a deep breath as the needle penetrated her skin and soon came out the other side. She looked up at Ricky as he was rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand to comfort her.

"You're okay." He mumbled, watching the piercer for a moment then looked at Jacob. "I gotta drop her off real quick then I'll come back. It'll take about ten, fifteen minutes."

Jacob nodded his head listening. He turned on his heels and walked out of the room to go to the next one where most of the boys were, sitting around keeping Stephen company as he got a portrait tattoo of his grandfather tattooed on the outside of his right forearm.

Jacob sat down next to Diego who was chuckling as Andrew was trying to tell jokes to distract Stephen.

"Why you always gotta get a new tattoo every week?" Diego asked, leaning his head back on the back of his chair.

Stephen scoffed, making sure he didn't move his arm. "I don't. I only have..." He trailed off, letting his brain think about how many tattoos he actually had. "This is my sixth."

"You don't even have a high school diploma yet." Andrew pointed out. "Six tattoos and barely an education. Yeah, you're setting yourself up real well there kid."

The boys all laughed, creating the female tattoo artist to chuckle too at their goofiness. Once the laughter died down, Jose came into the room with his hands in his sweatpants pocket and a smug smile on his face.

"So...Ethan has summoned you all into the next room to watch him get his ears pierced. But one of you have to get your ears pierced first." Jose announced. "He's scared."

The boys all looked at Jacob, the only one of them with no tattoos and no piercings. He looked at them with a confused expression.

"Why me?!" He gasped.

The four boys all instantly started talking at once at Jacob of why he should be the one, but the all stopped seeing Jacob's face go from it's normal shade, to red, to pale.

"I'll do it." Diego volunteered, getting up and leading the boys off to the next room where they saw Ethan sitting down in a chair laughing with the tattoo artist who doubled as a piercer. Ethan looked up at the door with a big wide smile seeing his friends filing in.

Diego held his arms out, making his way over to him. "Here I am again, saving your day." He explained, sitting down on Ethan's lap.

The tattoo artist chuckled softly at the two. He got the tools ready to pierce Diego's ears while Andrew, Jacob, and Jose stood around.

"Where the other three?" Ethan asked, leaning back in the chair while Diego sat on his knees.

Andrew pulled his phone out of his pocket when they all heard his phone ding from a text message. "Stephen is getting a tattoo and Ricky drove Clover home so Mateo won't kill her."