Where Two Collide

Chapter Nineteen - Cat

Chapter Nineteen

Cat

What kind of freaky psychopath would open shop at three in the morning? What kind of crazy person would choose to not only wake up at that time, but then start work doing a job which really required the full functionality of their brain?

Well that question was more straightforward to answer than one might think. Alex was.

Who was Alex, you might ask? Alex was the proprietor and tattooist of the tattoo parlour I was currently stood in.

"Nice place you've got here," I said Alex, who was full blown punk-goth if I'd ever seen it, with waist length black hair and at least fifteen visible piercings.

Alex nodded. He didn't say much.

I threw Addie a look that said Why the hell have you brought me here? "It's a real fine establishment." By which I meant it was not. The tattoo parlour that Addie had brought me to which had opened especially for her, was in fact in someone's house. And I wasn't entirely sure it was Alex's. The walls were painted entirely in abyss black, with various sketching's of templates for tattoo work stuck to it with bits of tape, and in the corner of the room a computer was blasting death metal. It felt like I was in underground rock club and half expected a mosh pit to form, even with just Alex, Addie and me here. The drawings on the wall I could get behind, whoever had drawn them clearly knew what they were doing, but the raised clinical chair in the middle of the room was quite unnerving.

"Dude, isn't Alex just an awesome artist," said Addie, wistfully gazing at a sketch on the wall of a dolphin jumping over an anchor. "I wish I could draw like him."

I raised my brows at her, surprised that this here fellow, who was currently cleaning his tools behind us, tool which I hoped were related to tattooing and not part of some serial killer ritual, was the one who'd designed all of the sketches. I wondered if he had studied art and where, though the stand-offish vibes he was putting out there made me choose not to ask. "Yes actually," I said and moved to stand beside her, eyeing the work on the page beside the dolphin. "So, what exactly are you getting done?"

Addie slipped a hand into the back pocket of her jeans and drew out a piece of paper. "This dope ass rose."

I took the paper from her and unfolded it. It was indeed a rose, but a wilted one, with the petals falling away. "Neat," I said, and handed it back to her. "What does it symbolise?"

Addie made a tsk sound. "Why does it have to mean anything, I just like awesome drawings and want to imprint it on my soul. Well... my body is the next best thing to my soul anyways."

"I thought that's why people got tattoos," I said, giving her a dubious look. "Because they have like a special meaning for them."

Addie snorted. "Sometimes people just like things because they like them. Not everything has to have a special meaning," she said. "I mean, do you buy new socks because they symbolise the beauty in a sunset, or do you just buy them because your feet are cold and they look cute in the store?"

"I don't think you can compare socks and your body," I said, following as she moved to the chair which Alex had prepared for her with a protective cling-film-like layer, and which was now almost entirely flat like a bed.

"Girl, I don't need you to tell me my body far exceeds the beauty of a pair of socks." She flashed me a smile. "Some things you just know."

"But tattoos are permanent, socks aren't, so the analogy doesn't really work."

"Then you've clearly never had a favourite pair of socks." She pulled her shirt over her head and pushed it into my hands, then pulled up a chair on the opposite side of the cling-filmed chair. "Sit," she ordered.

I sat, balling her shirt up in my hands. She climbed up on the chair and lay back on it in just a yellow bra and jeans. "Erm..." I hesitated, feeling warm in my chest. "What are you doing?"

She turned her head to face me. "Getting my tattoo, duh."

I was actually questioning her sudden nudity, but immediately felt stupid when I saw Alex begin to trace the rose to the side of her stomach. After he was finished, he started setting up his needle and black ink for Addie's tattoo. When the machine started buzzing, I closed my eyes. I couldn't bear to imagine the feeling of a million stabs piercing her flesh, I definitely did not want to see it. It sounded like a swarm of bees and I wondered if it felt like it too. I wasn't keen to find out for myself.

"Hey," Addie whined. "You're supposed to be helping distract me from the pain."

I opened my eyes and narrowed my eyes at her. "You told me this was going be fun. How is this fun?"

She winced as the tattoo needle touched her skin. "Yeah about that, I might have lied a bit."

I narrowed my eyes harder at her, if that was possible. At this point I might have just been squinting.

"Okay okay. I definitely full-blown lied about the fun. But can you blame me, I've never done this alone before and I couldn't bail, Alex opened up just for me and I'd have had to wait over a month to get an appointment otherwise."

I liked the way she said appointment, like this was a doctor's appointment and not the opposite of a healing tranquil place. "Are you telling me that you've had multiple tattoos done before now and this is not even your first time. You totally didn't need me here, you've got this," I said, and quickly stood from my chair, holding my arm outstretched toward her with her shirt still balled up in my hand. "You'll be fine, I'm going to go home now."

"Please Honey, I'm sorry I lied. It's just my ex used to come with me, they were supposed to come to this one too, but all this stuff happened and yeah, now we're here and I really really didn't want to come alone. And you seemed cool, so I thought what heck." Her honey eyes went all watery and I wasn't sure if it was real or she was just a really good actor. Either way, I slumped back down.

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