CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Website where all photos of all outfits mentioned is on my profile.
Waking in the morning is not a pleasant experience, in the space of a few seconds I go from sound asleep to wide awake. My head is throbbing and my stomach feels like it's trying to turn itself inside out.
Struggling to sit up it doesn't take me long to realise what has woken me, the constant pounding on the door would be enough to wake the dead. Managing to get to my feet I make the few steps and throw the door open. My tiny friend dances into the room past me, her smile splitting her face. "Good morning Sarah."
"Nope." I say.
"Here, have some breakfast." Donna holds a takeout box for me and the second the smell of the greasy food hits my nostril I spin and dash into the bathroom.
When I emerge several minutes later I'm sure my face is an unusual shade of green.
I flop back onto the bed and glare at Donna, "I hate you."
"No you don't, you love me. But I do want some answers." Donna plonks herself beside me on the bed, pushing the container as far away as possible.
"What about?" I question taking the water bottle she's handing me and drinking some slowly.
"Why is there suddenly a rumour sprung up overnight that you stole Ima's shoes and made her walk home barefoot?" Donna raises an eyebrow at me.
I cough and force myself into a sitting position. "Fuck sake." I mutter. "I didn't steal her shoes; I reclaimed my shoes back off her from when she stole them out of Jax's room."
"Why were your shoes in Jax's room?"
"From the other day when I started cleaning. I forgot about it." I explain, pointing to the shoes which are still sitting in the corner of the room. "But trust me if that bitch put on my clothes she can keep them. There isn't enough bleach in the world to clean that stink off."
Donna giggles at little and I lay back down, my stomach is still churning and the water I've managed to drink is sloshing about.
I'm drifting in and out of sleep with Donna beside me running her hands through my hair, working the tangles out of the long lengths. I'm more awake then asleep when she starts talking, "Are Al and Cam coming tonight?"
"I'm not sure, I know I told them I'd see them today, so either they'll be coming here or I'll go over there."
"You sure as shit ain't leavin' here." A voice growls from the doorway. I prise open my eyelids and see Jax standing in the door in his usual outfit choice of jeans, white shirt and kutte.
"Well, then I guess they're coming here." I reply, the contempt for Jax's actions from the night before obvious in my tone. I close my eyes again and relax back into the pillow "What's the time?"
Donna lifts her hand and takes a quick glance at her watch, "Almost 1130."
"Can I have that bag out of Ope's room please D?"
Donna leaves the room to retrieve the bag for me but is back quickly, something I'm glad of as Jax is still standing in the doorway and I've been biting my tongue hard to not say anything.
Sticking my hand into the end pocket I pull out the phone that was given to me when I arrived and dial Al's phone.
"Morning." My blonde friend sounds far too cheerful for how awful I feel.
"Hey, we still up for today?" I ask.
"Sure thing, I'll be at the clubhouse at 1230 if that's good for you?" Al sounds excited, and I know she probably is. She enjoys tattooing almost as much as sex she once told me. I'm pretty sure she was lying, but you never know.
"Okay, see you then." I snap the phone closed and roll off the edge of the bed and manage to stand up without feeling sick, grabbing the underwear out of the bag I head into the bathroom and straight into the shower.
Half an hour later I emerge from the bathroom feeling a lot better, grabbing the water bottle from the table I collect the bag jammed with my clothes and drop it back in Opie's room where Donna's bag is sitting, before carrying on walking down the hall to the main room.
Stopping by the kitchen to get coffee I take a seat outside with Donna and Gemma who has shown up to get the main room cleaned and ready for the Saturday night Pussy Parade.
I've drunk about half my coffee and managed to eat some toast, my stomach now feeling a lot more settled, and the Tylenol I took earlier has made the headache vanish completely. Looking around the lot I realise that there are almost no Sons around, the line of bikes which normally stretches along the railing is shortened to about 4 bikes.
Gemma sees my confused look, "They went for a ride, they'll be back at 4ish."
I nod, I don't need to know their whereabouts, I have no claim to any of them. "Is Hap still here?" I ask.
Gemma nods, "Yep he's inside somewhere."
A few minutes later a cab pulls up into the driveway and Al jumps out, a backpack slung over her shoulder. She wanders towards me, stopping a couple of feet away, "Ready for some colour?"
"Hell yes." I reply, jumping to my feet. "We have to go to storage first though."
I walk into the clubhouse with Al and we find Bobby and Miles at the bar, "Perfect." I say as I walk over to them, "Miles, can you do something for me please?"
Miles turns and looks at me and Al, "That depends, am I going to get in shit?"
I shake my head, "No, not at all. I just need a quick trip to the storage locker so I can get some stuff."
Bobby looks at me, "Nope, you're not going. What do you need and we'll get it for you."
"There are 3 big hope chests in the unit; I need the one with the big A on the top."
Bobby nods and takes the keys from me; the 2 men go to one of the tow trucks and leave the lot.
"We better go get sorted." Al says as they leave.
She follows me inside and we find Happy in the exercise room, though that's not the best name for the room that holds the boxing bag and a set of weights, "Hey, can we use the room?" Happy nods and pauses in his boxing to pull the keys from his pocket and direct us to the room he's commandeered.
Unlocking the door Al puts her bag on the chair before pulling out her IPod docking station and IPod, setting them up in the corner she hands me the remote before going back to the bag and pulling out her sketch book, with the basic outlines done already she's only using it as colour reference, but wants to keep it nearby.
By the time she's got all the surfaces wiped down with the spray cleaner she found Bobby and Miles are back with the chest full of her stuff. Opening the top of it she lifts out the tray with the inks on it and sets it on the lid, choosing the tattoo machine that she wants for today she takes a few minutes to set it up before she pulls the table closer and picks out the colours that we'll be using today.
Happy sticks his head in and seeing the chest open steps through the door, the pair of them talk inks and machines while Al is finishing the setup, I'm working through the playlists on Al's IPod trying to find the one that I set on it back when we started this piece. We'd calculated about 14 hours total so I'd put 16 hours of music on one list and saved it to her IPod for the sessions.
"Right, go change." Al looks over at me, I'm standing in the dress I wore last night, pulling it over my head to show the shorts and singlet I have on I climb up on the table and let Al sort where she wants to start.
"I think we may be able to get it all done today if you're happy for a long session instead of two shorter ones." She says after a few seconds of examining.
I nod, "Yep I'm happy for whatever. But if you get tired tell me, K?"
Al grins, "Like that would happen." The longest Al had tattooed for was 13 hours, she did stop for breaks every hour but she was working on a piece for a show and the person getting the work done wanted it all done in one weekend.
"Right, we'll start at the bottom, the bits round your ankle are going to hurt like a bitch, you know that right?" She looks at me through her eyelashes and I just roll my eyes at her.
"The outline stung, I don't think the colour is going to be any less painful." She pokes her tongue out at me and calls me a smart ass as she picks up the device which will be inserting ink into my skin, dipping the end of the needles in the blue ink.