two | h.s. - t.c.

18

Emily's pov

"jenny." she said under her breath, "wow, i haven't heard from her in so long—how's she doing?" amari asked, forming a smile.

"great! i work with her actually—um, i don't know if you know the band two but we're their back-up singers." i said, and she raised her eyebrows.

"oh my god of course i know them, everyone does—and woah, that's so fucking cool!" she said before looking back over at her client.

"shit i have to get back to work, pull up a chair and we can talk?" she asked as she began to walk backwards.

i nodded, following behind her as she sat back down onto her stool, removing the stencil from the guys arm to reveal his tattoo design in a blue tint. i pulled up a black stool, placing it further to her right so that i wasn't in her personal space. i watched her as she prepared the tattoo machine, removing the sterilized needles and tubes from their pouches and placing them into the machine she held. she had a new cup of water on the counter, and she began to apply ointment onto his arm. i guess it helped the needle to move smoothly along the skin.

"so, how'd you find me here?" she asked, focused as she held onto his skin, starting the line work. i found it cool that she could hold conversation while doing something so permanent, i could tell she's been doing this for a long time.

"oh uh—my friend was looking for a tattoo artist around here because she wanted to get something done." i began to speak. i mean, that part was partly true, kayla kept complaining to me about wanting a tattoo these past days.

"and then i searched some up in the area and found this studio—your name was there, and so i was curious to see if it was the amari she had talked about." now that part was a lie—marley told me she worked here, and wanted me to go with kayla since he overheard our conversation about getting tattoos.

i knew he just wanted me to meet with her, and we all know how things are with him. you can never question what he says or say no—if you do, you end up with consequences, like jenny has been getting. i still haven't forgiven myself for going behind her back, timothée hasn't been speaking with her. i'm still really down about it all, and even when i tried to go against marley he literally tapped my phone and listened to everything we said. hence why he knew that amari was jenny's ex.

"she told you guys about me?" she questioned as she continued to tattoo his arm, the loud noise from the machine causing her to speak loudly.

"yes...oh no, is that a bad thing?" i said with a laugh.

"oh—god no, i'm happy she talks about me." i saw her smile, "the last time i saw her was when we were nineteen. she came to tell me bye before leaving our town for l.a."

"damn, it's been a while. you know, i can totally tell her to come over here before we leave for the next show—if you'd like." i said, speaking up so that she could hear me.

"i'd like that." she said with a nod before she lifted the tattoo gun from the man's skin. his whole arm was already covered in tattoos, and i assumed it was her work, they looked so beautiful—skillfully done.

"does she still like strawberry lollipops?" she asked in a lighter tone with a small smile.

"yup." i said with a nod, causing her to let out a laugh.

"she hasn't changed." she mumbled to herself.

"look—i can give you her number if you'd like." i said after a bit.

"yes um." she focused while inking the mans arm, "there's a clipboard and pen at the front table—just right it down on the top corner." she said kindly.