While her friends went to help get Noah prepped for his date the next day, Gia had a small mission of her own to complete. She really didn't want to do it alone. She preferred having Jake or Emma by her side when she broke the news to her parents. While she knew she had gone against their wishes and got a tattoo with Jake, and even lied to him about her parent's concent towards it, she still loved her parents very much, which was why she was going now to inform them of her recently-inked shoulderblade. She couldn't stop her brain from putting all the worst possible outcomes on replay in her head, and it made her feel a lot more terrible and guilty. Due to these feelings, she concluded that the sooner she let her parents know, the better. At least it was better than trying to hide it for months on end, and avoid that awkward situation when she's walking around the house in a tank top, exposing her tattoo to her parents' eyes. After getting off the elevator, Gia slowly made her way to her parent's room, but hesitated when she finally reached the door. She had a nagging thought to just drop it, and go rejoin her friends, but immediately dismissed it. Taking the deepest breath that her lungs could handle, she swiped her keycard over the scanner, unlocked the door, and stepped in. She was immediately greeted by an arctic blast of air from the room, causing her to begin to shiver a bit, as she only had on a t-shirt and shorts.

"Hello!?" she heard her mother call from the bathroom and, seconds later, the toilet flushing.

"It's me, mom" Gia responded. She heard the sink go off and, a few seconds later, her mother stepped out of the bathroom.

"Gia? Why aren't you with your friends?" her mother asked, a hint of concern in her tone. Gia sighed, and scratched the back of her neck.

"There's something I need to tell you guys. Where's dad?" she asked as she and her mother took a seat on the single bed in the hotel room.

"He went to grab some coffee." her mother filled in. She noticed Gia was shivering, and offered her a blanket, to which she refused. "Sorry for the cold. Your father and I like coming back to somewhere where we're not sweating out twice our weight." Gia smirked.

"Well, you certainly have an arctic theme going." Gia stated, earning a laugh from her mother.

"So" Mrs. Moran began. "What did you want to tell us?" Gia sighed, and hesitated as she took a breath.

"Promise not to get mad? At least until I explain."

"Yes?"

"Promise not to flip out?"

"Yes?"

"Not to become disappointed in me?"

"Okay, Gia, you're beginning to frighten me"

"And most of all, you promise not to kill Jake?" Once she said that bit, Gia watched her mother's eyes grow wide, and her jaw drop.

"You two slept together, didn't you? Like, not just sharing a bed." Her mother gaped.

"No! No" Gia assured. "Not yet, at least." Mrs. Moran placed her hand over her chest and sighed. "What?" Gia asked.

"I'd be happy for you if you did. Jake seems like a seriously kind, well-hearted, and, I'll be it, goofy guy, but for goodness sake, Gia, don't lead on like that. I thought something pretty bad happened." Gia flashed her mother a small smile.

"Depends on how you qualify 'bad'" she stated. Mrs. Moran knit her eyebrows.

"Gia…" she said in a dangerously calm tone. Hearing the tone, Gia was almost hesitant to tell her about her tattoo. However, she came this far, so she has to go through with it. After all, she couldn't come up with a decent alaby off the top of her head.

"Jake and I...well...we kinda...got tattoos." Gia said the last part of her confession so softly, she could barely hear it. Her mother, on the other hand, did hear it, and she turned pale as a ghost.

"You...you...what?" she asked, her tone switching from dangerously calm to nerve wrackingly upset.

"We got tattoos. Jake and I did." Gia said. Slowly, she turned around so she had her back to her mother, and rolled up her shirt, allowing her Mrs. Moran to see the tattoo. When she did, she let out a gasp.

"Gia…" Mrs. Moran choked up. Letting her shirt fall back down, gia spun around to face her mother.

"Mom, I'm sorry…"

"Sorry? You're sorry!?" Mrs. Moran looked at Gia with a face of cinderblock. "You went behind our backs, did something permanent to yourselves, and your just sorry?!"

"I...I…" Gia began to tear up. She quickly wiped the initial tears away, but, very quickly, more filled their place.

"And what about Jake? What will his parents think when he comes home halfway into the summer with a freaking tattoo!" Mrs. Moran shouted softly.

"He had consent" Gia sniffed and wiped more tears away.

"And you just went right along with him, huh? Knowing full well you didn't have our okay?" Mrs. Moran calmed her tone a bit, but was still pretty upset and distraught. At this point, Gia didn't hold back. She let her tears flow and stain her t-shirt.

"It w-wasn't Jake's ide-ea. He didn't f-force me into anything. If anything, I forced h-him. I begged him for us to get tattoos. I wanted m-matching ones, as a symbol that w-we'll be together forever. Hell, I even paid for the d-damn things." On account of her crying and choking up through her talk, Gia's throat was starting to get pretty sore. She could feel, with each breath and each swallow, a bit more pain in her neck.

"Gia…" Mrs. Moran sighed, and took her daughter into her arms. "Gia, we're tying to look out for you. You're officially 18 now, and you and Jake will be going off to college next year. We're trying to stop you from doing things like...like this." Mrs. Moran explained as she tapped Gia's shoulder blade. "Stuff like that, there's no going back, Gia"

"I k-know" Gia sniffed. "But Jake and I plan on getting married once we're out off college, and we w-wanted a symbol that s-showed out bond" Mrs. Moran tightened her hug around Gia.

"Gia, you know your father and I love you with the bottoms of our hearts. But you can't run off and get a tattoo or smoke a cigarette whenever you feel like it." Gia pulled away and wiped her tears.

"Mom, I swear, one tattoo is as far as I'll go. That's it." Gia assured. She fell back into the hug with her mother, until her tears finally dried up. It felt like centuries to her, but once they did dry up, Gia pulled away from the hug, wrapped her arms around herself, and let out a shaky breath, to which, Mrs. Moran responded with a sigh.

"As long as this is it." Mrs. Moran said. Gia looked at her.

"As long as what's it?" she asked.

"As long as this is the only tattoo you'll get, and as long as you don't do anything more, I'm alright with it."

"Really?" Gia asked. She hadn't expected her mother to give in so quick without a huge argument. Then again, she expected her father to be here when she spilled the news, so she was planning for a lot worse.

"Really." Her mother confirmed. She got up from the bed, and nodded to the door. "Now get back with your friends, you rascal." Gia smiled, hugged her mother once again, and ran to the door. When she was in the doorframe, she turned around again to face her mother.

"What about dad?" Gia asked. Mrs. Moran smiled.

"I'll handle your father. You make sure you have fun." she assured. With a smile as big as she had seen, Gia took off to meet her friends. Sighing, Mrs. Moran sat back down on the bed.

"What am I ever going to do with you, Gia?"