“Um, thanks for helping me, and sorry…for that..this…” I waved my hand vaguely as I raised my eyes to his and watched as he slowly smiled.

“No problem. It doesn’t look too bad, just split it a little bit. I’m Luke, by the way,” he said.

“I’m Emma,” I replied.

“Well, Emma, you ready to get inked?” Luke asked, then winked.

I blushed and nodded my head slightly. He helped me up off the chair and we walked out to the counter again so I could look through the books. I had had an idea of what I might want, in the event that I was not able to talk Allie out of her “let’s tattoo Emma” idea, so I didn’t think I would even need to look at them.

“I want just a few small stars,” I pointed behind my ear on my left side, “here. Nothing big, nothing fancy. But before I do this, I need to know how bad its going to hurt.” I was serious. I’ve never had a tattoo before and I am not fond of needles or pain in any shape or form. Except maybe a little pain in the bed…never mind. I digress.

Luke smiled and nodded. “We really don’t need to even look in the books then. Here, give me a sec and I’ll draw something up real quick.” He reached behind him to grab a pad of drawing paper.

As Luke started sketching out an idea for my tattoo, I heard Allie squeal somewhere in the back and then footsteps running towards me. I turned around in time to see her bounce to a stop in front of me, grinning from ear to ear. “Well?” I asked her, waiting for her to show me whatever body modification she’d decided on.

She gingerly opened her mouth up and stuck her tongue out. Sure enough, there was a gleaming silver stud stuck in her tongue. She slowly pulled her tongue back in her mouth and smiled at me.

“Did it hurt?” I asked her, nonchalantly, figuring that if that hurt really bad, then a tattoo is going to be worse, and it might be time for me to run screaming out the door.

“Ehhh, it stung a little, but wasn’t too bad! So did you pick a tattoo yet? Cause we aren’t leaving here without you getting one.” Allie gave me that look, the stubborn one that I knew meant that she was going to get her way come hell or high water.

“Yeah, yeah, Luke is drawing something up for me now,” I sighed

Allie squealed again. “Yay! Cant wait to see it!” Then in a low tone she asked, “Wasn’t Brandon yummy? I wanted to have something other than his fingers in my mouth, if ya know what I mean…” She waggled her eyebrows like crazy.

“My, God, Allie! You slut!” I gasped. I quickly turned around to make sure that Luke didn’t hear her, or my outburst. Seeing the smirk on his face as he studiously sketched on the pad made me sink onto a stool by the counter and put my head in my hands.

Brandon came around the corner and smiled at Allie before asking me about my lip. I told him that it was fine, though it sounded a little muffled from the way I was hiding my face.

“Luke, I’m headed down the street to grab some lunch. You got this?” Brandon asked.

“Yeah, I’m good, thanks. Bring me back a sandwich or something, please.”

“Sure thing. See you ladies later!” Brandon said as he walked out the door.

Allie sighed wistfully and poked me in the shoulder. “Are you done hiding yet? I think Luke here is waiting for you.”

I raised my head and saw that Luke was watching me with a half-smile on his lips. He picked up the pad and tossed it in front of me. Forgetting about my lip, I grinned. (Ouch, that hurt!) On the pad was a little cluster of five stars, all different sizes, but none more than a half inch in diameter.

“That’s perfect, Luke! Thanks!” I looked up at him as he grabbed the pad back and started the process to print out the transfer sheet to put on my skin.

As he worked, I looked over at Allie and gripped her hand. “You are not leaving me, right? You promise to hold my hand the whole time?” I was desperately squeezing her fingers together and she was trying frantically to pull them away.

“Emma, let go! Of course I’m going to stay. I gotta see hot stuff over there do his thing!”

I rolled my eyes at her and let go of her fingers. Luke cleared his throat behind us and I turned around sheepishly to meet his gaze.

“Ready?,” he asked.

“As I’ll ever be,” I mumbled.

Looking back, that tattoo wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I managed not to mangle Allie’s hands too bad (she only screamed once) and it turned out seriously cute and sexy sitting there behind my ear. Not to mention, having Luke bent over me as he worked, even though he was plying needles in my tender flesh, was rather erotic. When everything was all finished, I hopped up off the chair (table?) and thanked Luke profusely.

After giving us both our after care instructions, we walked out to the front to pay and say goodbye. Surprisingly, I found myself slightly saddened by the thought that I wouldn’t be seeing Luke again any time soon. Turned out, I was wrong.

Chapter 2

I rolled over in bed and reached blindly for my ringing cell phone charging on the nightstand beside my bed. As I grabbed it, I got a look at the clock and realized that its almost midnight. At that point, two things strike me. One, who the hell is calling me this late? And two, My God, I’m pathetic. I think I’m the oldest 29 year old in America since it’s a Saturday night and I’ve been in bed since 9:30. Shaking my head at myself, I hit the answer key on the screen, wincing as I pressed it too hard against my ear, and in turn, my tattoo. Ouchie.

“Emma?” The frantic voice of my sister whispered harshly into my ear.

“Jenna? What the hell is going on? Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Um, well, can you come over and sit here with the kids? I need you to get here, like, yesterday. And don’t park in the driveway! Can you park on the street and maybe, I don’t know, sneak over the fence and through the back door?”

Oh, Lord. Why did I answer my phone? Knowing better than to even ask for an explanation, I replied, “Yeah, Jenna. I’ll be there in ten. And I will try to shimmy my big ass over the fence and through your back door. But you owe me for thi-”

Jenna cut me off with a breathy, “Okay-thanks-get-here-bye,” and hung up on me.

Geez. You wouldn’t think that Jenna was the oldest of us kids, but she is. She really is an intelligent, calm, cool and collected woman, but sometimes…I worry about her. Jenna is my oldest sibling at 33 years old. She’s married to Noah Michaels, and has been since she was 22 and he was 23. Whirlwind romance, picture book wedding, and three years later, out pops my bouncing baby nephew, Jarrod Allen. Fast forward four more years and add a pinch of surprise! and here we have my now four year old niece, Hayden Michele.

Jenna looks like Barbie’s best friend. You know, the brunette one that’s just as pretty as Barbie but has dark hair? Sad thing is, no one can ever remember her name, so you know she had to be extremely jealous of Barbie. (I mean, come on, who wouldn’t be, though? That little bitch has everything!) Jenna is shorter than me at five foot four, which is not a really big difference, considering I’m only five foot six. Okay, so its actually five foot five and a half, but that really doesn’t matter, right? She’s also built like a brick shithouse (we’ve discussed this term before), but seeing as how she looks like Barbie’s friend, that would be obvious. Like me, she’s got the jade green eyes of our mother, and the dark hair of our father. Currently, hers hangs somewhere around her shoulders, whenever she takes it out of the messy topknot that is usually sitting haphazardly on top of her head. Mine is now reaching the middle of my back in long, thick dark brown waves, which sounds gorgeous. Truth be told? Its not really. Especially if its rainy or humid or you live in Ohio. Which I do. Hello frizzies!