I DO NOT OWN ANYONE OR ANYTHING IN THIS STORY BESIDES THE OC'S.
A/N: I AM TAKING A TINY HIATUS DUE TO BEING OUT OF TOWN AND WON'T BE BACK UNTIL AFTER THE NEW YEAR SO SORRY I KIND OF STARTED THIS AND LEAVING IT NOW BUT EXPECT NEW POSTS AFTER THE NEW YEAR.
Melanie's Point of View
The next night, I had drove over to the shop not that long after Kevin to start setting up the shop and getting things ready for the night. We weren't going to open for another hour so I had time to get things in the front set up and got it down in my usual record of 30 minutes so I walked to the back room watching as Kevin was setting up his station with new sanitized equipment so it will be ready for the first customer we were to have. Tonight Corey was going to take up one of the unused stations, we had a couple other tattoo artists but we had two empty so we now have one more empty stations and I never really wanted to get into the tattooing business but if we continue to have empty stations but we had enough artists.
"You ever going to let me teach you how to work this equipment? That is how Corey learned piercing." Kevin said as I let out a sigh as I sat on one of the rolling stools that the artists use.
"I don't know if I want to learn..."
"What do you want to do then? You do great designs for us and good asset, we are all thankful for your ability to draw but learning to tattoo will help you work elsewhere." Kevin said as I let out a sigh, "I just think you are doing great but with Alexander always lurking, I am sure you would want out of this tiny town to get away from him." Kevin said as he was right.
"I like where I am right now, I'm content...even though Alexander is kind of the sour puss but I like you, and Anita and little Jack."
"But I'm sure you want more." He said, and he was right. I wanted and expected more with my life than the situation I was in.
"I think I want to learn." I said nodding as he smirked.
"I will teach you the equipment now." Kevin said as I rolled over letting him teach me the equipment as I had already known most of the equipment from sitting on many and getting my own tattoos.
"So you are going to tattoo now?" Corey asked as I spun around a tad to see him and smiled a tad..
"He's going to teach me, kind of how you learned piercing I was told." I said.
"Very clever, have you told her my whole life story bud?" Corey asked as Kevin smirked.
"No, he has been saying she wants her tragus pierced and told her that you were going to start piercing here and how you got started." Kevin answered.
"Your tragus? Really?" Corey asked as he looked to me and I nodded, "Hope on up and I will get that done on you in a jiffy." Corey said with a smile and I smiled.
"Which one is going to be your station?" I asked as I got up following him to his station now and I sat in the seat pushing the hair behind my ear of the ear that I wantd pierced.
"Why the tragus?" He asked as he rolled up one of the stools for him to sit on as he moved closer and moved his tray with equipment.
"Why not the tragus?" I asked with a smile and chuckled.
"Quit being smart." He said, "You aren't afraid of needles?"
"No, did you see how many tattoos I had?"
"This is going to be different, it's going through your ear..."
"True...I can handle it."
"You want to hold my hand or arm?"
"Since you offered." I said with a smile and he smiled as he moved closer and it was slightly awkward.
"Yes, I need to be close." He said as I saw him smile out of the corner of my eye, "Blue okay? I grabbed a blue ring to match your eyes." He said softly as I felt his fingers gently press the access skin I was getting pierced.
"You remembered my eyes were blue?" I asked not wanting to move any to look him.
"How could I not? They were piercing blue, haven't seen blues like that in ever."
"Thank you?" I asked as I began to feel pressure and the slight pain as I knew he was pushing the needle through.
"You're welcome, it's done, just got to put the ring in." He stated, "Did you ever think that you would be here?"
"No, I never dreamt to be a tattoo artist."
"What did you dream of being?" Corey asked as I felt him moving things on his tray of tools and such.
"I wanted to be a lawyer."
"A lawyer, why didn't you follow through?" Corey asked.
"You know how long you need to go to school for that?"
"Not as much as a doctor."
"True."
"And lawyers are paid very well so it would have made up for all that training and such, so how did drawing come to you?" Corey asked curiously as I let out a sigh.
"I took a drawing class in high school and I really liked it."
"What about college?"
"No college, thought I was in love...are we done?" I asked wanting to end it there.
"Yeah..." He said as I stood up.
"Thank you." I said as I began to walk away.
"You might want to go wipe at your ear, there might be some blood or dried up blood." Corey yelled after me as I didn't want to go further into that conversation as I went into the bathroom wiping at my piercing to get the blood off from him piercing the skin.
"So...what was that about?" Kevin asked.
"Nothing Kevin, okay?"
"Well Corey said you kind of got uncomfortable and stormed off talking about college and how you thought you were in love." Kevin stated as I let out a sigh.
"I don't want to tell him about Alex...at least not yet..."
"You didn't have to, you could have just left it at what you said and if he had asked you any quesiton, you could have just told him you don't want to talk about it." Kevin said as I nodded as I shut hte light off in the bathroom walking out of the small room and up to Corey.
"Sorry for acting the way I did...just...I don't want to talk about my ex."
"I didn't want to talk about your ex, I wanted to know about you..." Corey stated as he smiled, "So, now that you are single, you going to go to college?"
"Haven't really thought about it." I said shrugging as I sat down into one of the rolling stools.
"It's up to you, but having a degree never hurts." Corey stated.
"Do you have a degree?"
"I do." He said nodding with a smile.
"But you resorted to this?" I asked.
"I'm doing what I love...but at least I have a degree in something to fall back on."
"That is true...what did you get a degree in?"
"Marketing."
"Really? You as a marketer? I can't picture it." I said with a chuckle.
"So now you know why I didn't pursue it after I graduated."
"Yeah..." I said with a smile, "Why did you go to college and spend all that money if that isn't what you are doing? Are you doing that at your day job?" I asked.
"You know about my other job?"
"No, I just know you have a second job is all." I said shrugging as he nodded saying a soft oh.
"No, it is nothing to do with marketing unfortunately." He said as I nodded, "What do you do here?"
"I book appointments, set people up with their tattoos, help prepare the artists with the customers and such...not much..." I said shrugging.
"I offered to teach her how to tattoo since she has an amazing talent in drawing." Kevin said jumping in as he walked by to pour himself a cup of coffee at the small break area we had.
"Is that so? I think it'll be great." Corey stated.
"Do you now?" I asked.
"Yes I do." Corey said with a smile.
"You don't even know if I will be good at it." I retorted with a smile.
"It's just like drawing but with a needle." Corey said trying to compare the two.
"I am more afraid of it being permanent...tattooing is permanent and drawing in my sketch book, I can erase and try again." I stated.
"You can drew it up first then do that stencil trick that I do and most of us do to help so you won't be as nervous." Kevin stated.
"He's got a point so you can't say that it's permanent cause there is a way around it." Corey said as I sighed.
"I think maybe I can give it a try." I said as they both smiled in victory.
"We'll start tomorrow...but first I need you to update our website, and other things to now include that we have piercing available." Kevin said as I nodded as I stood up heading to my office area and got to work on things that needed to get done tonight. At the end of the night, I shut the lamp light off along with turning off the things that needed to be turned off before I headed over to the back where the tattooing and piercing took place.
"Hey Kevin, I'm ready to head home..." I said. Kevin always walked me to my car in case my ex was out there waiting for me to get off shift even though my ex hasn't had a problem in the past of coming into the shop but there is the element of not knowing still.
"Give me a few more minutes and I'll walk you out to the car." Kevin said as I nodded as I looked over seeing Corey still cleaning up his station, at least that is what I presumed.
"I'm done and heading out, I can walk her to her car." Corey said as he put his bag on his one shoulder.
"Thanks." Kevin said as I smiled. Corey walked over offering me his arm, I looked at his arm then up at him with a half smirk.
"I don't bite, I promise." He said softly with a smile as I rolled my eyes sliding my arm into the gap between his arm and body resting my hand on his elbow as I walked beside him out of the shop. "Which car is yours?" He asked as the door shut behind us as I pointed out my car. "You need to upgrade the ride."
"Right now my finances aren't really spot on so it is holding up for me for the time being." I said truthfully.
"Totally understand...so, what do you have planned tomorrow?" Corey asked.
"Besides work, nothing much...why?" I asked as i pushed a strand of hair behind my ear feeling myself blush.
"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out...nothing other than going to the mall...or a movie or something." He asked.
"What about your day job?" I asked curiously.
"Day off, I'll bring you here and even drive you home..." He said as I bit at my bottom lip.
"Sounds like fun...I need some away time for a little while." I said truthfully, for once I hadn't thought about my ex.
"Alright, where should I pick you up at?" He asked curiously.
"You know where Kevin lives?"
"Yeah..."
"I live with them..." I said ashamed of saying as I looked down between us as I felt his forefinger and thumb gently grasp my chin lifting my face to look up at him.
"I'll see you tomorrow, is 11 okay?" He asked.
"Sounds wonderful." I said with a smile as he reached over pulling my door open for me and watched as I climbed into the car.
"Drive safe, I should see you tomorrow."
"Yes you should." I said with a smile as he smiled back at me as he pushed the door shut and he walked back up to the sidewalk watching as I pulled out. I felt like I was a little girl with a crush, this was my first date with someone other than my ex and I wasn't even sure if it would classify as a date. I headed back to the house where I let myself in and locked it up behind me, I headed into the kitchen seeing Anita opening the microwave.
"I heard you pull up, how did it go?" She asked.
"Tonight went good...I have a date tomorrow."
"With who?" She asked curiously as she set the plate of food down in front of where I began to sit.
"Corey. He is picking me up here if that is okay." I said as she smiled.
"Of course it is. You really like him huh? Your face lites up when speaking of him..."
"I do...I am just worried about him with my ex." I said truthfully as I bit into the food.
"Trust me when I say that Corey can take care of himself when it comes to that type of thing." Anita said with a smile.
"Is there something you and Kevin not telling me?" I asked.
"Nope, not at all."
"So what are you going to do on the date?"
"Not sure, think he said the mall or hte movies." I said shrugging as she smiled.
"That should be fun, did you get a piercing?" She asked turning my face so she could see it better, "Corey did that, he does a great job."
"You should let him pierce you."
"I am not that daring." Anita said with a chuckle as her and I continued to chat until Kevin got home which wasn't much later. "So Miss Melanie has a date with Corey tomorrow." Anita broke the news as Kevin smiled.
"Do you now? I am actually shocked he did it."
"You knew?" I asked as I looked to him as he let out a chuckle.
"Yeah, he was talking about it while you were working and he wasn't sure if you were going to say yes." Kevin answered as he sat down beside me.
"Did you tell him I would?" I asked as I saw him bite into his food, "You did didn't you?"
"Yes." Kevin said with a smile and chuckle as I playfully smacked him and he chuckled more.
"I'm going to bed so I could rest up nicely for tomorrow." I said as I stood up taking care of my dishes before I headed up to my room to get ready for bed and fell asleep.