Ladies First (Zayn Malik) Book 4

Chapter 30

“Right back this way boys” the tattoo artist directs us when we get inside. Zayn glances over at me to see if I was going to come back with them. I motion for him to go in, I wanted a chance to look around and talk with some of the artists first.

“Hi, can I help you?” a man by the counter asks. I turn around to face him.

“Hi” I say with a smile. “I was thinking of getting a tattoo” He gives me a wry smile and I realize that’s a stupid thing to say seeing as I was in a tattoo parlor.

“Do you know what you want? We usually like to talk with clients a couple days before they actually get one so they have time to think it over.” He explains. I nod my head.

“I’ve actually been thinking about it for a long time. It’s one of those things that’s just been in the back of my mind. You know?” I ask. He nods his head in understanding.

“Well what is it you’d like?” he asks.

“Uhh” I say pulling out my phone and finding the picture off the Internet. “This” I say, showing it to him. “I was thinking on my wrist.” He gets a small smile on his face as he looks at the picture.

“I think that could be arranged. Want to come around back so we can draw it up. See how you like it?” he asks. I nod my head and he leads me to a back room, different than where the boys went. He sits down at a desk and I hand him my phone again so he can see the picture as he does a quick sketch. He shows it to me and I nod my head with a smile. It was perfect.

“So you wanna do this?” he asks. I hesitate a second.

“How much is it going to hurt?” I ask. He chuckles.

“It depends on the person. It won’t be too bad though” he assures. I nod my head.

“Lets do it”

Twenty minutes later, I’m gritting my teeth trying to ignore the pain as Harry and Zayn walk in.

“There” Kevin, the tattoo artist, says as he puts the final touches on it.

“So you decided to get one after all,” Zayn says with a smile as I let out a breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding.

“I don’t know how you guys do it. That hurt” I say with a chuckle. They come over and look over my shoulder as Kevin begins wrapping it up.

“I thought tramp stamps went on the lower back. Not the wrist.” Harry teases, looking at the butterfly on my wrist. “Oomph” I hear Harry add and look back to see Zayn pulling back his elbow from Harry’s ribs.

“It’s not a tramp stamp” he scolds “Look, it’s got one of those ribbons on it. It means something”

“It’s the Down Syndrome butterfly,” I explain “It’s for my sister Maddie” I add, pointing to her name in script right below it.” Zayn lets out a groan and I look up at him alarmed, wondering what I did wrong.

“Man, and here I thought we’d be corrupting the American Sweetheart, but no. That just adds to your image doesn’t it” he says shaking his head, his lips twitching up in a grin. With my wrist securely wrapped, the three of us take a pictures with Paul and Kevin for their website.

“Better get out quick before fans start showing up” Zayn jokes as Paul tweets the picture. “It’s only a matter of minutes.” I thank Kevin one last time before the three of us leave. “So what now?” Zayn asks as we walk down the sidewalk. Harry shrugs slightly as he pulls out a pair of aviators and puts a beanie on to hide his hair. I almost laugh but then Zayn pulls up his hood and I realize they are actually serious about hiding their identity. I scramble for a second, to figure out how I was supposed to hide my identity, before I remember Zayn’s hat tucked safely in my bag. Zayn raises an eyebrow as I pull it out and I flush realizing that he now knows I carry it with me everywhere. I pull my hair up into a ponytail and slide on the hat. Not a very good disguise, but it will have to do. I didn’t really understand why we were disguising ourselves in the first place, but I figured they knew best.