WHAT COMES AFTER THE END OF THIS

Chapter 57

Chapter 57

Chase's PoV

I loved her still; I had let her go, physically, but the ghost of her memory; her love, still remained fresh in my mind. I'd see her smile and my whole world would light up, I'd feel happier but then I'd remember that I wasn't the cause behind her beautiful smile; rather it was another man. The man I had handed her over to. Willingly. I wanted little else than to hold her to myself, as tightly as possible, never letting go. The mornings I spent buried in work; school and my father's business financials alike, trying not to think of a certain pair of sapphire coloured eyes and at night... At night I'd fall asleep crying; thinking of those very eyes; the eyes longed to behold at ample view, the eyes belonging to the girl that meant more to me than my own worthless self. But often, I would remind myself that she was mine no longer and I wasn't hers; she held me to no promises the same way I had her to none. She was gone. Gone from my life, but not from my devastated heart, my subconscious reminded me and I told it to shut up. I had to forget her and losing myself in hoards of alcohol and packs of cigarettes wasn't an option; I had to move on and there was no other way around it. I picked up my phone and dial the number I never I would,
"Hey Nicole." I greet Aleya, Bear's girlfriend's friend; the same one she had tried to hook me up with before Alli and I started going out. The same one that had feelings for me.
"Hello Chase." She greets back.
If this is what it would take for me to forget Yrene, then so be it.
"Come over. Please."
"On my way."
~*~

Yrene's PoV

"No. No. No. No. No." I continue shaking my head at Jason as he laughs in that manner of his that I so love so much and kisses the top of my hair from behind me.
"Relax baby, I'm the one who's getting one. Not you."
"But it hurts." I pout up at him and he kisses my nose,
"Come inside and I'll show you. Come. Stop pouting like a baby."
"I'm not a baby!" I protest and he smiles,
"I never called you a baby, I said you were acting like a baby, besides you are my lil baby."
He kisses my forehead once again and drags my still protesting carcass into the tattoo parlour. I was not prepared for this; tattooed blokes move around the entire place, girls pierced to the teeth chew gum and carry tattoo guns but what shocks me most is the way these people greet Jason; fist bumping him, hugging him and some psychotic birches have the audacity to kiss his cheek. Hello? Can they not see the mark on his neck! I left it there! He is mine, only mine. The boys look at me like I'm a piece of their favourite meal and some have the nerve to wink at me which of course earns them a growl from Jason. They seem to back away instantly and so I adopt the same technique to deal with the girls flirting or attempting to flirt with my boyfriend; it works like magic.
"Hey Jay man, here for another one?"
Another one? What does this bloke mean by 'another one'? A tattoo? Wait... Does that mean Jason has a tattoo? Jason has a tattoo and he never told me? Why? I look up at him with an accusatory and questioning glare in my eyes; he only winks at me and answers the man,
"Yes! Another one!"
"Who's the girl?" The man shouts back, "does she want one? And I'm assuming you will have Melissa do yours?"
Before either Jason or myself can answer, a girl with a sandy blonde ponytail, green eyes and barely any clothing walks out and answers him,
"What Mason? You think a girl as preppy as this one would get a tattoo? Look at her and the way she's dressed." She turns to Jason, "What Jay, did you not tell her this wasn't her mama's Sunday Brunch?" Jason doesn't say anything other than a greeting, directed towards the mean bitch,
"Melissa."
She walks up to Jason and attempts to straddle his lap before he pushes her away and she walks away rolling her eyes at him,
"What, Jason, do my tattoos not intrigue you anymore? Do you not miss hanging out in the back room?"
My blood boils and Jason turns red, this woman is actually testing my patience at this point and if I cannot break something else I might as well break her jaw but that is wrong. I cannot be jealous of Jason's past, not when he as told me everything, how he had slept with a different girl at every party but that had all been because he was trying to fight his love for me and now that he had me he would not do anything to hurt me. I was sure of it and the way his grip on my hand tightened for fear that I might leave strengthened my belief. So instead of lunging at the much older than myself woman I smile politely at the man who had initially questioned us,
"Actually, Mason I'm assuming?" He nods and I carry on, a slow smile spreading on my face as the much braver girl in me breaks through the weaker one, " I think I will be getting one, too. Oh and I'm Jason's girlfriend." I say the last part and turn to the scantily dressed woman. She gives me a purely evil smile.
"Girlfriend?" She turns to look at Jason who as if on cue shows her our conjoined hands and smiles at me despite the shock I had given him a few minutes back about getting a tattoo which had resulted in his jaw hanging open from its hinges.
"Yes. My girlfriend and my love." He says this and looks around the whole parlour at all the men and women alike, as if challenging them to do something.
"Well Jay man, you can wait for a few minutes till Melissa gets done with Chris. And who will do your girlfriend's?"
Jason tells him simply that he'd rather have 'Carlos' do ours, which earns him a sour expression from the blonde tattooing who I assume is Chris. Jason leads me to a corner and kisses my forehead,
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"For not walking out on me. For not falling for Melissa's bullshit even when you knew it to be true."
"I would never do that. Never. I trust you and love you. Your past is your past and I am your now. It doesn't matter; not as long as I have you with me."
"No, baby, you were my then, you are my now and you will be my future. Nothing can change that, the same way nothing has been able to change my love for you."
I kiss him then, putting into that one kiss the feelings that words cannot do justice do.
"Are you sure about the tattoo though?"
One look at Melissa's smirking face is enough to steel my will and I nod at him,
"Good because otherwise I would have convinced you to get one anyways." Ignoring the fact that I am under the age for getting a tattoo I punch his arm lightly remembering that he had said this was for him and just then I am also reminded of his tattoo, consequently the one I have no idea about.
"No. Show me now!" I whine. And he reprises with a smirk on his face,
"You will see in a bit."
"Nowwwwww!" I squeal stomping my foot on the ground in resistance.
"Oh look it's our turn. Now you can see for yourself."
I scowl at him and one swift motion he removes his shirt and turns his back to me, the instant we enter the curtained chamber, and there on his lower back in black ink is the date,
"16.12.04" and the letters "YJ"; my date of birth and my initials. This man really was something, I trace the his tattooed skin and wonder how I had not noticed this before; oh wait I had never seen his unclad back before. I turn around to his smiling face,
"Like it?"
"When did you get it?" I question with tears in my eyes; I could not believe that this amazing man could love me so much that he got my initials and my birthday tattooed on his body even when he didn't have me, when he couldn't have me. And still he had done it. My love for him grew impossibly in that one instant.
"Junior year." He answers and I hug him,
"Jay... I don't even know what to say except that I love you so fucking much. I never thought I would but I do. I love you."
He makes his way to the chair and holds my hand, blindfolding me and showing the tattoo artist a picture on his phone for the new design, giving me time to think about what I want.
"Why can I not look?"
"Because it's a surprise, idiot!"
"But Jay, I wanna see!"
"You will see, sweetheart, in just a bit. Okay?"
I continue tapping my foot impatiently and after what seems like four hours they finally undo my blindfold but I still can't see much due to his bicep still being bandaged.
"Your turn. And this time I'll be blindfolded. When you're done you can see mine and then when we get home,I'll undo you bandage myself." He winks at me and I slap him, when I make a move to remove my sweater he stops me,
"Hey hey hey, what do you think you're doing?"
"Taking if my sweater, you retard!"
"Why?"
"Because that's where I want it! On my waist! Stop being a baby!"
He looks away and glares at Charlos,
"Try not to touch her more than needed." Carlos backs away and tells him not to worry and says something along the lines of 'she's like my sister' and gets to work right after I show him what I want on my waist and then another one on my shoulder. Yes, I'm getting two tattoos, and to think I was scared of even getting one. The needle touches my waist, right below the point I've lifted my tank top up from and it hurts like a bitch! I grip tightly grip Jason's hand and he rubs soothing circles over it and I bite my tongue to keep from crying out; not wanting to provide any form of satisfaction to Melissa who is working in the booth next to ours. In no time the tattoo on my waist is completed and Carlos begins to work on my shoulder after bandaging the one on my waist. Both of my tattoos tackle considerably less time than Jason's one and I wonder what he got. Within an hour I am bandaged and set to go, Jason deciding to keep his bandage on till we get home. And nothing in this world could have prepared me for what I saw etched into his bicep when we entered my room; my eyes went wide as I gawked at the image; a portrait of me smiling candidly and although the background isn't tattooed I can easily remember that it was a copy of the picture Jason had taken of me at the hidden lake when I had been gazing at the dazzling snow falling at our feet a few days ago. The portrait makes what I got embellished into my skin seem as small as an ant in a hundred acre field. I can't even form proper phrases let alone a sentence and I just continue staring at him awestruck,
"It's my favourite picture of you and I wanted it as close to my heart as possible but not on my chest because that is too mainstream and I know my sweetheart doesn't like mainstream and so I went for the bicep. You live in my heart already and now you will live here too, so I can have you when you're not there."
"I love you so damn much Jason Dawfield and I'm growing to love you more than ever every passing second."
"I love you more."
"I love you to infinity and back."
"I love you to a thousand infinities and back."
"I love you to a million infinities and back."
He kisses me to shut me up before ordering me to take off the sweater so he can look at my tattoos. I oblige him. Left in my tank top he gawks at me,
"I thought you said you were getting one on your waist!" To prove my innocence I lift up my tank top and show him the second bandage.
"You got two!"
"What does it look like? Smartass. Carlos made one of them for free so that you wouldn't notice when you paid for two in total." He mimics my actions before undoing the bandage on my waist like an eager child on Christmas morning, he grins in delight before kissing my still red skin, right where his date of birth is inked,
"I love you, Yrene Jones, and I know I say it a lot but I don't know what else to say. You remind of the beauty in the world."
I reach out with my left to run my thumb on the high plane of his cheekbone before snatching it back, remembering my scars and instead use my right hand for the action. He turns his face into my palm kissing it softly before he gets that excited gleam in his eyes again and rips off the bandage from my shoulder and this time he is confused by the date.
"What does this one mean?"
"24.12.20, it's the day you confessed that you were in love with me. Idiot." I smack him and he picks me up, throwing me on my bed and kissing me senseless, whispering sweet nothings in my ear but somehow they don't feel like sweet nothings at all, they seem meaningful. And they are as words spoken by the people we love always are.