Taking a Bite from the Big Apple (Complete)

31

“You look a little pale, honey. You sure you want to do this?”

“Of course. You got yours done and it was fine, didn’t hurt, right?”

“Just a pinch, sweetie. Doesn’t hurt at all now. And I love it; the stone is an amazing shade of red. Right up your street babe”

"Of course it is, I invented red TT. It's my colour"

They were in the piercing shop; Cheryl sitting back on the chair waiting for the guy who had done Toni’s piercing to come back. Cheryl had thought that they should get them done on her actual birthday since it was her present. Toni had gotten the simple barbell with a dangling emerald green pendant and Cheryl’s matched, but with a ruby red pendant.

The man, whose nametag said Paul, came back in, sterilised equipment in hand and the redhead’s eyes widened. She had decided to stay outside when the brunette was getting hers done for fear that watching would make her chicken out.

“Okay, sweetheart, close your eyes. Close them now,” Toni said and Cheryl quickly complied, “It looks much scarier than it is.”

“Afraid of needles?” Paul asked kindly.

“Terrified,” Cheryl answered, her eyes shut tight.

“It’s very quick,” Paul answered, “And the bellybutton is one of the least painful places to get it done.”

“Yea,” Cheryl nodded, “Lips or tongue would hurt pretty bad, right? Nerve endings and stuff.”

“Nipples or hood hurt a lot more.”

Toni saw her girlfriend lose the small amount of colour that was left in her face and held her hand tightly.

“But you’re getting your navel done, so you don’t even need to think about that,” she assured.

Paul mouthed a ‘sorry’ to which Toni smiled as he walked to sit over ’s other side. He nodded slightly at the brunette, indicting for her to keep the smaller girl distracted and wiped at the area with an antiseptic wipe.

“So have you had a good birthday so far?” Toni asked, rubbing her thumb over the redhead’s knuckles.

“Been great,” Cheryl replied, a dreamy smile on her face as she thought back on the day so far.

Her birthday had happened to fall on a Saturday, so they had, as was inevitable whenever they had the chance, spent the morning in bed, before getting up and ready and had gone for a walk in the park, getting hotdogs for lunch and had come to the piercing shop afterwards.

“I hope you’ll like the rest too…” Toni said secretively, looking down to see Paul inserting the needle, her girlfriend not even flinching, apparently still lost in thought.

“You’re really not gonna tell me?”

“Nope.”

“You’re lucky that I happen to like your mysterious side, you know.”

“All done,” Paul said, getting up and walking over to a trash can.

Cheryl’s eyes sprung open and she looked down, the silver and red glinting back at her.

“I didn’t even feel it!” she said, then gave the brunette what looked like an understanding smile, “It’s okay that you felt the pinch, baby. Some people just have higher pain thresholds than others.”

“Oh yea,” Toni scoffed, “You were just too busy thinking about what my tongue was doing to you this morning to notice.”

Cheryl’s eyes widened and she glanced over at Paul, who continued about his clean-up as if he hadn’t heard, even though he must of, given his close proximity. Toni gulped and bit on the skin of her nail, before mouthing a ‘sorry’.”