Tattoo Artist | o. diaz

setenta y ocho: pickles

Over 24 hours had passed since anyone has seen Venus since she left the tattoo shop to go visit DeShawn. Everyone, meaning the Santos, Luciana, and her parents, were calling and texting to try and get ahold of her, but at some point, her phone died.

"If someone doesn't find my baby in the next 20 minutes, I'm leaving." Lisbet said in frustration, sitting in Venus' living room with her arms crossed as Emiliano rubbed her thigh. "Can we call the cops now?"

"They won't do shit. Kids have been missing for years and all they do is send a earch party for 20 minutes." Andres commented from the kitchen table. Lisbet glared at him, and Andres threw his hands up and looked away.

Everyone started talking over each other, not even hearing what everyone was saying because they were just freaking out. Venus unlocked her front door and walked into the house with Luis and some cotton candy. "Who died?"

Everyone went silent, just staring at Venus like she was a stranger until Lisbet ran over to hug her. Everyone in the house joined in, basically suffocating Venus and Luis for a reason the two didn't know. "We watched movies." Luis smiled.

Lisbet pulled back and slapped the back of Venus' head, making her wince and Luis purse his lips with his eyes squinted. "Where have you been?! We haven't seen you in 32 hours and 13 minutes!" Lisbet exclaimed. It was almost 10:30 pm the next day after Venus went to the prison, so everyone was thinking the worst.

"Long story, but basically I was at the prison for like 6 hours because there were Prophets and I wouldn't let Luis in unless they left. Then, I got into a car accident on the way back with some dumbass who was driving drunk and like 3 other cars. So like, we went to a mechanic, but they had to keep the car overnight so we got a hotel." Venus explained nonchalantly. "Oh, then we went to the movies and the beach."

"You could've answered your phone, puta." Pablo commented, smacking his lips in the process.

Venus hummed and pulled out her old iPhone that was split in half. "It flew out the window when we crashed."

"I got bandaid." Luis commented, showing everyone his Iron Man bandaid on his knee that a cop had given him.

"Wait, you got in a car crash?" Pablo grabbed Venus' face and started checking it for any marks, and Luciana held her hair back so Venus couldn't hide anything.

"Guys, I'm fine." Venus said. "But we're tired and would like to sleep in our beds."

× × ×

Luis' tongue stuck out in concentration, then he smacked his lips when he got nail polish on his finger. "Mamá, I messed up again."

"Papito, your nails are already painted. Stop playing with the nail polish." Luis pouted as Venus took away the light pink nail polish and put it on her desk. Luis stared at Venus doing paperwork for a few minutes, then slid off the couch to bug people in the shop.

Luis spotted Luciana doing a tongue piercing and walked over to her. Just as Luciana was putting the needle in the girl's tongue, Luis tugged on her leg. "Amorcito, you're supposed to be inside the office." Luciana stated, glancing down to Luis every so often while doing her job.

"I brought juice." He commented, holding a small box of Orange Juice up to Luciana while she was grabbing the barbell to put in the girl's tongue. "Look my nails. I match mamá." Luis stuck his other hand up and Luciana glanced down before smiling.

"They look very nice, Luis." The toddler smiled and brought both of his hands down, holding the juice against his chest until Luciana was done. "Let's go back with mama." Luciana exaggeratedly groaned as she lifted Luis up, then squished his stomach. "You're getting big."