A/N: Here's the next chapter. It's longer than last time. I hope you enjoy it. I'll continue trying to update regularly, but I can't make any promises other than the promise to finish this story even if it kills me. I love it, it's just time-consuming. Thank you for being patient. I love you all very much.

Chelsea Pov

The next day, after finishing my farming quite early, I retreated to my room for hopefully the rest of the evening to paint. I was in the midst of a large watercolor mermaid and I was very engrossed in it.

I heard the door knock, and I broke my concentration and rose to my feet to answer it, only to hear Mark beat me to it. Fine by me.

I sat down again to paint, but strained my ears to try and make out who was at the door.

I heard Lanna speaking loudly, along with Julia. I could bet all I had to my name that Denny was with them, too.

I would have been wrong.

The girls burst into my room suddenly, and Natalie was behind them quietly.

"Chelsea! Tattoo me!" Lanna sang.

I was startled. I was not expecting Lanna, let alone Julia and Natalie, to suddenly come in demanding tattoos. I wasn't even dressed. All I had on was a baggy gray t-shirt and black panties.

Unfortunately I didn't remember this until I had already leapt up.

"Uh.. Lemme just…" I mumbled, trying to hide myself.

Julia and Lanna laughed, Natalie smiled.

"We're all girls." Lanna giggled.

I blushed, and threw on a pair of shorts.

I scooped up my sketchbook while the girls got comfortable around my room

"What did you want?" I asked, flipping to a blank page and holding my pencil to it.

"Musical notes. Somewhere on my torso." She nodded definitively.

I set my sketchbook down, stood and pulled my shirt up reveal a tiny musical note right underneath my left breast.

"Like this?" I asked. Lanna stared in wonder.

"More." She said, after composing her star-struck self.

"More?" Natalie questioned skeptically.

"More." She nodded, pointing to her side, "Tons of notes going down here… Like a river or something. I love water. I love fishing." She grew more excited with each word.

I began sketching notes of all different sizes mixed into a flowing swirl of what would be blues, greens and yellows.

I showed her the design and she nearly cried in excitement.

I traced the design onto the transfer paper and directed Lanna to lay on her side on my bed. She did as instructed and pulled her shirt up.

"Are you sure?" I asked one final time. "The side is a tender place. No muscle, just fat." I raised an eyebrow.

She nodded vigorously, she already seemed to be bracing herself.

I positioned the design on her body and pressed down gently, then removed it. The purple outline clung starkly to her pale skin.

I set up all of the ink cups, and squirted a few drops of each color that I'd use into them. I laid the needles delicately out. Each had been pre-sterilized. I plugged the power source into the wall and the gun into the source. It hummed to life.

Natalie bounced to the edge of her seat in anticipation.

Julia looked worried. Lanna stiffened as she heard the gradual hum of the gun.

"Here I go." I said to alert her. I dipped the whirring needle into the black ink and pressed gently into one of the musical notes.

Lanna yelped loudly.

"I'm sorry. It will be better in the long run if I just keep on going." I said, gritting my teeth. This was going to be one hell of a job. She nodded, and I wiped the ink with a rag and kept outlining the notes, then filling them in, one by one. Natalie kept inching closer and closer until I actually had to ask her to back up a little bit. She seemed embarrassed, but stayed close and watched intensely anyways. Julia on the other hand, kept scooting farther and farther away until her back was against the opposite wall.

She tried to make it seem casual as Natalie turned and gave a saucy smirk. "So I take it no tattoos for you?" She teased, as I began starting on the blue hues.

Julia stared uncomfortably at the faces Lanna was making, she began to pace and pat at her cheeks. "I don't know. I'm getting lightheaded just being in here." She said breathily.

"You don't have to stay." I said distractedly, adding some greens to the swirl, still having a hell of a lot more to do.

Julia looked iffy. She didn't want to leave us, but she sure as hell didn't want to stay in here.

"I'm sure Mark would love some company." I teased, still hard at work.

Julia's face reddened, and she walked to the door eagerly. She opened it after her swift goodbye, but turned and muttered, "Denny's here." She was quietly pouting.

I felt Lanna jump at Denny's name.

"Watch it!" I scolded. "This is permanent, you know."

She sunk back down, "Sorry."

I sighed, hating how I came across as such a bitch all the time. I was on a roll now though, why stop so soon? "Just hang out with them. I don't need you throwing up in here." I didn't glance away from the swirl I was now adding highlights to.

She left and Natalie kept watching excitedly. I could tell she'd want one eventually.

I felt Lanna getting anxious under my fingertips.

"Don't worry. Your man will still be out there when we're done. Don't worry about Julia, she's more than a little bit interested in my brother." I tried to reassure her.

Natalie laughed beside me. "Yeah, really Lanna. Denny's obsessed with you. Don't worry. I mean, he's a total fish head, but he made some room for you."

I laughed, "She had to fight for that, though."

Suddenly I felt out of place. Laughing and joking with these girls I barely knew.

Lanna was blushing, or just in a lot of pain.

At the strangled noise she made shortly after, I guessed it was both.

I began touching the ink up in a few places. Her skin was already raw underneath. She couldn't have been too happy about me touching it again. Oh well, she wanted it.

"How's Pierre?" Lanna managed to spit before gritting her teeth in pain again.

Natalie tried not to blush, as she angrily looked away.

"Wait a minute..." I paused the gun. "Pierre? That little boy?" I cocked my head, horror plastered on my every feature.

Lanna howled with laughter as Natalie's face burned scarlet.

"He's nineteen!" She snapped.

"I don't judge, man." I held up my hands in defeat and began tattooing again.

"He's only one year younger than me." She added meekly, still fuming silently.

"Well… It still seems weird as fuck to me… but at least you aren't a pedophile."

"What about you?" Natalie narrowed her eyes, trying to turn the subject to me to avoid further embarrassment on her part. "Don't you have someone?"

Lanna was no longer adding to the conversation, but I could tell she was listening.

I shrugged thinking of my sweet Gale. He was my someone. He was my someone even though we both knew it was over. "I don't know." I mumbled truthfully.

At this point, I wasn't sure what we were. We would always be connected, but not physically.

"That usually means yes." Natalie shook me from my sulking.

"No, it usually means I don't know." I snapped. "It's complicated." I added, feeling guilty about snapping at her like that.

I was finishing up the music notes quietly, when I realized that they were oddly quiet as well, waiting for a response I presumed.

"We kind of broke up." I settled on this brilliant response rather than having to explain the whole "being able to see the future" thing.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Natalie said awkwardly after a minute, "That sucks."

I truly appreciated her uncomfortableness. It made things a lot easier on me. I also liked how she said it sucks, because it does and she's not going to pretend it's okay like some people would.

"It'll get better." Lanna said softly.

I rolled my eyes to myself. Like she knew.

I found that I wasn't bitter. We knew this day would come. Both of us were fully aware of that fact. Here it is, no surprise.

I wiped off the tattoo with the towel, one last time and turned the gun off.

"Wow…" Natalie breathed from over my shoulder, staring at my work.

It was a damn fine piece of work, I had to agree.

"You're all done." I said. Lanna looked so relieved it was almost comical. She stood quickly and pranced to my mirror.

"Oh my Goddess," she breathed, staring at the art. "It's so beautiful." She raised her fingers to her lips and shed a tear. "Thank you so much, Chelsea. I love it."

"It suits you well." I smiled, picking up my supplies and opening my door to head to the bathroom to wash up.

"Is it all done?" Julia asked, poking her head up from the couch.

I nodded, and she jumped over the back of the couch and ran into my room. Mark and Denny followed.

I walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind me as I began rinsing my supplies. I kind of wanted to get back to my painting. I was awfully tired after this concentration though, and I had a lot to do tomorrow.

I left the bathroom and walked back into my room where the "party" was going on.

"That's so awesome." Denny said to Lanna as he stared at her ink.

She was blushing madly as she hugged him softly.

Once they were done, I parted the crowd and rubbed some soothing ointment on it, and then covered it with a bandage.

"Take this bandage off in two hours. Don't freak out if you see ink on it, it's just excess. Don't put another bandage on it again. It's an open wound. It needs to air out. Apply this," I handed her a packet of ointment, "two times a day. Your tattoo will scab and the colors will fade, don't worry. It has to do that. It's part of the healing process. Do not, I repeat, do not pick the scabs, do not peel the scabs, do not itch the scabs, don't even look at the scabs. Just pretend they aren't there and avoid a lot of trouble. Let them fall of naturally." I thought for a moment. Was that everything? "Oh, and no chlorine for two weeks. Also, do not scrub it." The end.

Everyone said their goodbyes and Denny promised to remind her to take her bandage off, hinting that the two of them would be together later on.

Shortly after everyone left, I went to bed. I had a long day of work ahead of me with this hell hole of a farm.

Unfortunately, I slept in. Late. Noon to be exact. That put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

I kept to myself as I did my rounds in the stable and the coop, I tried to ignore Mark's irritating chatter with Julia in the field, and I didn't go to town at all.

I felt guilty about not starting my barn duties, but I couldn't bring myself to start a project like that. I was irritated, and frustrated and knew I'd end up snapping at the animals and being an all-around asshole.

I hated days like this. They happened to me all too often. I'd be okay for one day, and then the next I'd be down and feel like I'd never be okay again. It was just another part of depression that I learned to deal with. Not to love. But to put up with.

It was hard. It wasn't the life I chose. I didn't want it. I wanted to get rid of it. It was too much sometimes.

But I tried to get through each day one at a time.

I retreated to my room early to finish my watercolor, and once I did I went to bed feeling empty and hopeless for the next day.

A/N: Hope you liked it! I'll be working on more chapters and uploading them as soon as I can. Thank you!