I sew the last rhinestone onto the dark blue sleeve and hold the completed jacket to the light, admiring my work. It's my favourite shade of blue, with cool detachable sleeves and rhinestones, old charms, and random tiny things sewn on as embellishments, painted gold and with red gems.
I try it on, and it fits perfectly, a little loose for growing space, but cosy and flattering. It's perfect. Just as I am double checking the seams, Jay saunters in, and sits down on the ripped sofa next to me, clearly pleased with himself.
He's showing off even more than usual as he greets us with a "S'up," and then looks at us expectantly. "Do you see anything different?" he prompts, smiling contently.
Mal shrugs and rolls her eyes, while Carlos looks up briefly from his tinkering and replies, "Er...Your beanie's ripped?"
Jay touches it, and it is indeed ripped. He frowns and takes it off. "Well, yeah, but not that," he says, tossing the beanie from one hand to the other. He makes a big show of tucking his hair behind his ear, slowly and deliberately, then looking at me pointedly.
It takes me a second to notice the red earring in his ear. "Wow, Jay, it looks great!" I exclaim. It really does look pretty cool.
Mal walks up to him, squinting, "Cool." she deadpans.
"Did it hurt?" Carlos asks,
"No, Diego did it for me with a rusty wire," Jay smirks, basking in our attention. "Oh yeah, Mal!" he shouts. Mal stares at him creepily while he takes two bottles out from his jacket (I designed really huge pockets for all his loot) and a squished packet of cigarettes, half full.
Mal rubs her hand together and takes one of the slightly soggy cigarettes. "Yeah, now we're talking," she says, and Jay hands her a lighter. It takes them both quite a few tries to light it, but they manage eventually. I can see Carlos sighing behind them, he probably knows a better way to light it from all the textbooks he reads.
Mal takes a drag from the cigarette and blows a perfect smoke ring. "Mal, don't. Your teeth are going to go all yellow and you'll smell of smoke," I protest, shocked that anyone could do that. My mom would KILL me if I smoked. Princesses don't smoke.
Mal just laughs at me."Fuck off Evie," she syas, sticking her finger up at me and blowing smoke into my face. I back away, terrified that Mom might be able to smell it on me and think that I was the one smoking.
She hands it to Jay and he inhales the smoke as well, blowing a bigger smoke ring. That starts them off having a competition, Mal eventually winning and Jay slumping in his seat and scowling. But then he remembers the bottles and takes the lid off one, downing a large amount in one gulp. "Hey, save some for me!" Mal exclaims, and snatches the bottle from him, taking a gulp.
Then Jay sits up straight and looks at Mal. "Mal." he says, mock-seriously.
"What?" Mal asks, wiping her mouth after another swig of beer. They've almost finished the bottle.
He takes the bottle from her and tips it to his mouth before he continues. "I want you to give me a tattoo."
Mal comprehends this. "Ok. Evie, give me a needle."
"Wait, you're not really going to get one are you?" I ask Jay, mortified. "That must hurt heaps! And how do you even get one?"
"You just need a needle and ink. I don't care if it hurts, it's gonna look awesome." He replies casually.
"Evie. Needle." Mal reminds me.
I try to protest, but Mal's look makes me hand her one immediately.
She passes it to Jay, who plays with it and opens the second bottle. Mal walks to the crooked shelf on the wall, where some random stuff is piled up, for when we might need it (mostly Jay's loot that he wants to keep for himself instead of giving it to Jafar).
"Aha!" Mal shouts, waving a crusty bottle of black ink.
Jay punches the air. "YES!"
Mal opens the bottle and takes an eyeliner pencil from my makeup bag. "Right Jay, where d'you want it?"
He points to his bicep."Here, just do me a cobra or something, I dunno."
Mal gets to work, drawing on his arm with the pencil, biting her lip and frowning to get it right, while Jay busies himself picking the lumps out of the ink with his free hand.
"Done!" Mal says.
Jay looks at it and shouts "Mal, that's sick!" It's a long, evil looking cobra, stretching all down his upper arm, with needle-like fangs and hooded eyes. Mal's drawing is amazing, but my eyeliner pencil is completely ruined. She chucks it at me, and I catch it. Luckily I use liquid eyeliner more; that gives me time to find a new one before Mom finds out.
Jay's hand is all black from picking the lumpy ink, and he suddenly lunges at Carlos, who squeals and backs away from his ink stained fingers. I catch his eye reassuringly, I can't hug him in front of Mal, she'll kill me. Jay laughs uproariously and sits back gulping down more beer. I think he's slightly drunk.
Mal grabs ANOTHER bottle from the packed shelf, which is old and dusty and seems to be full of cloudy liquid. "Hey Jay, let's get wasted," she drawls. She takes a swig, then takes the needle and gets Jay to hold the ink bottle in his other hand. Her eyes seem a bit unfocused as she picks up the needle and starts making pricks in Jay's arm, following her drawing. I hope she doesn't mess up Jay's tattoo.
She dips a rag into the ink and dabs it roughly onto the tattoo. Jay winces and grits his teeth. She wipes away the excess ink and continues.
Well over an hour later, Mal wipes off the last curl of the cobra's tail, a new cigarette hanging from her lips to 'help her concentrate'. Jay is rigid and red faced, but when he gingerly lifts up his arm to see the tattoo, he fist bumps Mal with his other hand, saying "Cheers Mal, it looks awesome!"
Mal smirks and cracks her knuckles. "It is pretty damn cool." she takes a gulp of beer, and catches me staring. "What is it, Evie? Do you want a tattoo as well?" she says sarcastically. Jay bursts out laughing and Mal sneers while I look at my boots, pretending to be super interested in a distressed patch on the toe.
Mal quickly bandages the tattoo in a rag and Jay smiles, showing off again.
Carlos looks scared, as if Mal's going to seize him and give him a tattoo as well, and as Mal and Jay start messing around with a little kid that has wandered into our hideout, Carlos tiptoes to me and I hug him. It's bad enough when one of them's been drinking, but if both of them have, then they're even more terrifying than usual.
The little kid seems to agree with me, as he faints when Jay threatens him. Mal and Jay laugh and I keep my arms around Carlos, protecting him.
"Are they going to give me a tattoo, Evie?" he asks, his eyes big and round as he looks up at me, scared.
"No, don't worry. They're just messing around, you know what they're like." I reassure him.
"Ok," he answers, and within ten minutes he has fallen asleep, his head resting on my shoulder. I suppose I should go to sleep too, it's quite late. So I get comfortable on the sofa, and fall asleep next to Carlos.
Hope you liked that, and please leave a review! Unicornyay xo