A.N.: So next chapter! I hope you like :)
Pics and slideshow of Bella's portfolio on my blog (k8ln713fanfic dot blogspot dot com/2013/04/the-reason-why-i-smile-ch-2 dot html and k8ln713fanfic dot blogspot dot com/2013/04/bellas-tattoo-portfolio dot html) and please review! I'm loving the response I'm getting for this story so far. Keep it up! :D
~SMILE~
It was not too long after that I discovered that Edward was an asshole. Especially to me.
He would argue with a lot of his coworkers over stupid shit and he would particularly corner me to lash out at me for a shitty job I've been doing. I was so close to walking out on him, but I would always stop myself from doing so because he's been so helpful to me. I was thankful for the help he's blessed me with, but I did hate him. For a little while.
Actually, I quite enjoyed fighting with Edward. He would yell at me and I would get right into his face and spit harsh words at him back. But for all the horrible things we'd both say to each other, I never walked out and he never fired me. He also never kicked me out of his home and he never let me starve.
He never gave up on me.
It wasn't long till I realized that he wasn't going to give up on me, no matter how much I fucked up, and I felt angry with myself for fighting it for so long. When I had my epiphany, I walked right up to him when he finished adding ink to some guy's sleeve and hugged the shit out of him, not caring if anyone was watching.
And he hugged me right back, pulling me more into his arms and refusing to loosen his grip.
It was from that moment on that Edward and I bonded… more than we should have, especially since he saved me. I refused to think of it as a Superman complex or whatever the fuck it is.
It was only about three months after I was saved from the trouble I was in that Edward and I formed our friendship.
One day, Edward caught me drawing. I remembered that day.
It was a slow morning at the shop. I was bored out of my fucking mind. Everyone was just hanging around their stations, laughing at some shit Emmett, one of the tattoo artists and one of the friends I made through Edward, was doing. I wasn't feeling all that well when I woke up and opted to just chill at my desk in the front of the shop until I felt a bit better.
Because I was bored, I decided to see if I still had my artistic skills like I did in high school. I was an art geek with my friend Angela. We loved to draw and paint. Drawing was more my specialty while painting was hers, but we still loved both equally. She went on to go to art school, but I was unsure at the time of what I wanted to do and, of course, I never ended up going to college after my parents died. Now that I was on my own and had been working with Edward for about six months, I started to consider taking some classes at the local college, but I was still unsure about my future. I was only turning nineteen.
I pulled out one of the sketch pads I stash on the shelf for Edward, Emmett or Rosalie to take when they ran out of paper for their designs and started to sketch a bird and some flowers behind it.
But then Edward caught me drawing. I felt him before I even heard him speak. I gasped when I did feel him behind me and went to cover up my sketch. Edward was quicker, though. He snatched the sketch pad off the table and looked at my drawing.
"Wow," he breathed. "Bella… this– this is amazing! Where did you learn to draw?"
"Oh… um… high school," I answered, blushing. "I was kind of an art freak then."
"You're really good! Why didn't you go to school for this? Did you ever consider becoming an artist?"
"Well, I– when I was in my senior year, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I always considered art as a hobby, not a career choice. I decided not to go to college right after graduation, wanting to take a year to find out what I wanted to do. Then my parents died the night of graduation and I started to lose myself and then you found me. And here I am."
Edward was silent for a minute, chewing on his lip ring and staring at my sketch of the bird. Then he spoke up. "What about becoming a tattoo artist?" he then asked.
Huh… I never thought about it.
"I never really considered it before," I answered Edward's question.
I never once thought about becoming a tattoo artist before, but I've been in this environment for six months, surrounded by people who became my best friends and were in the industry. Surely something they did would have caught my interest.
And it did. I was engrossed in how Edward and Emmett did their artwork on people's bodies and how Rose lost herself when she'd hold that gun and do portraits. Alice and Jasper handled piercings, and even though I had plenty of piercings – earlobes, an industrial, cartilage, my nose, my tongue and my lip – I didn't see myself doing that for a living, but it was still quite fascinating.
"You're really good, Bella. What do you like to draw? Portraits? Or just about anything?"
"Anything really."
"Well, if you continue to draw and come up with a portfolio of some stuff, I'll give you an apprenticeship if you'd like. It'll get your feet wet and you can see if it's something you'd like to do. You don't get paid to be an apprentice, but you do the same shit you already do. I'll pay you to do that stuff, but the actual tattooing you don't get anything except a tip you earned from a client."
"Oh… wow. Um… okay. I'll do it."
"Great," Edward said with his signature smile that I began to love.
At that moment my career as a tattoo artist began. First, I started getting tattoos, to get a feel of what it felt like to get one. As I started my apprenticeship, I started getting addicted to getting ink. When I began apprenticing, I decided to start off small, getting some birds filled in with black in and the words 'Fly away' written underneath them along the outside of my left arm. From then on I was always getting something new.
I built up my portfolio, drawing whenever I had some downtime at the shop or when I was at the apartment or when I couldn't sleep. I drew a lot of feminine things that were pretty cliché – birds, flowers, dream catchers and feathers. I then knew my niche with drawing and what I would prefer to tattoo on a client.
Edward was impressed with my portfolio. When he was satisfied with it, he then taught me the things I needed to know when it came to tattooing, especially safety. When Edward taught me how to use the tattoo gun, I started freaking out, scared out of my mind about using it, but he calmed me down. He naturally calmed me down and made me smile. With his reassurance, I felt more confident in myself when it came to pursuing this kind of art.
After I learned all that stuff and Edward felt I was ready to actually tattoo something, he lent me his body to practice. At first I said I shouldn't, but he promised me I'd do fine. He was letting me start off small to get a feel of actually tattooing something and then would let me do bigger and more advanced shit.
I prepared the stencil of a rose he wanted me to tattoo on his stomach, which would eventually lead to a whole collage of roses that was for his mother, Esme, and when I turned around to put it on the area he wanted, I just about bugged my eyes out of the sight of him.
I knew he was fucking gorgeous since the night I met him, but he was a Greek god personified. His body was perfection, chiseled in the right places. I had to collect myself before I started to work – I didn't want to fuck up the first time I actually did a tattoo and for something that was for his mom.
After putting my gloves on and preparing his body for the stencil, shaving the baby hairs and sanitizing the area, I placed the stencil down. He looked in the mirror and approved it.
"Relax, Bella. It's gonna be great."
I nodded, trusting the words he said and then I got to work. I wanted to work in complete silence as it was my first time doing this, so the shop was closed and it was just the two of us there.
After forty-five minutes, I was finished. Edward grinned and said he loved it. I then applied the ointment and the gauze and gave him the words he told all his clients about protecting the new ink.
"Bella, you did amazing tonight. You're getting there. In no time you'll be like me, Emmett and Rose."
~SMILE~