Love in a Hellhole: Rewritten

Chapter 3

"The thing about pain, is it demands to be felt,"- Unkown

Nina Martin

"Come on, please?" Amber asked me for the millionth time as I sat on my bed and flipped through a magazine.

I took a deep breath. "I said no, and that means no, Amber."

"Why not?"

"First of all, my mom would kill me. Second, my mom would kill me. Third, my mom would kill me."

"Ugh."

"Besides, Amber, you know that your parents would probably disown you if they found out."

"So? It's my birthday!"

I sighed. "Okay."

Amber squealed and began to jump up and down.

"…On one condition," I finished my sentence. Amber abruptly stopped jumping and squealing because she knew my conditions were typically very heartless. "If I don't like it, and I get in trouble for it, I get to blame everything on you."

Amber's face lit up. "Yes! Yes! Yes!" she screamed as she began to squeal and jump up and down once more.

I rolled my eyes and shut my magazine.

"Aren't you supposed to be, like, eighteen, though?" I asked.

"Well, I called the shop, and they said that you have to be sixteen, and you have to have some way identify yourself. We both have our drivers' licenses, and we know where our birth certificates are, so everything will go smoothly."

I looked at Amber curiously. "You really thought this through, didn't you?"

She nodded, "I've been wanting this for years, since seventh grade when Tammy Wallace showed hers off and I just thought that they were just the most majestic things ever invented. I wanted to wait a few years to make sure I would still want it and it wasn't just a phase I was going through."

"Wow. If it means that much to you, I'll definitely do it."

"Thank you so much!" Amber yelled and gave me a screwed up hug, as I was laying on my stomach on my bed.

"Now all I have to do is find my birth certifi-," Amber interrupted me by showing me my birth certificate and driver's license.

I looked at her curiously. She just had all of it planned out, didn't she?

Sighing, I asked, "Whose car are we taking?"

Amber smiled at me and said, "Mine."

We arrived at Nelly's Body Piercings, and Amber cut the engine off.

"How bad is this supposed to hurt, anyway? I'm just curious." I said.

I really didn't have a problem with pain, I actually have a high pain tolerance. I only asked that question because Amber is the complete opposite of me, and I really need to know how long I'm going to be comforting her.

"Not that bad," she said. "But if I start to back out, make sure I don't walk out of that piercing shop without my belly button being pierced, okay?"

I nodded.

We got out of the car and walked inside the small building. The girl at the counter smiled at us.

She had black hair, snake bites, spider bites, an eyebrow piercing, and a nose piercing. I didn't see any other piercings, but I was positive she had more.

"Welcome to Nelly's Body Piercings. How may I help you?" she asked, her brown eyes curious.

"Um, we're both her to get naval piercings," I said. "How much are they? I heard that they were around sixty…"

"Ah, the amateur belly piercing. You'll eventually want more, just like I did. But anyway, here, we do in fact charge sixty dollars for them. Together your total would be one twenty, but it also depends on how much the jewelry you choose will be," the girl rambled.

"Oh, okay."

"I will need your birth certificates and driver's licenses, and you can get those out while I find you two the paper work."

I nodded, and everything I needed from my purse while Amber did the same.

Amber and I traded our birth certificates and driver's licenses for clipboards with a sheet of paper on it, along with a pen.

We sat down in the black chairs and filled out the paperwork before handing the clipboards back to the girl, Ashley, as I read on her name tag.

"I'll be right back. I need to take these to the back to make copies, to prove that you did in fact have the necessities. When I come back, you guys can browse the jewelry and I'll get Miss Nelly. She's piercing a guy's lip right now, but you won't have to wait long, as she's probably done anyway because lip piercings are pretty fast."

We nodded as Ashley went to the back.

Amber and I gazed at the body jewelry in the glass case inside the counter.

I instantly fell in love with a barbell that had the Superman logo on the bottom. It was only twelve dollars.

"Which one do you like?" I asked Amber.

"I like that one," Amber pointed to a barbell with a pink crystal ball at the bottom.

I nodded.

"Which one do you like?" she asked.

I showed her the one I wanted and she rolled her eyes.

Ashley then returned from the back and handed us our things.

"Miss Nelly is waiting on you, so I'll show you where her room is. Have you chosen which ones you'd like your belly to be pierced with?"

Amber and I both silently nodded and showed her which ones we wanted.

Ashley grabbed both of the small packages from the shelf behind her labeled Naval Piercings and led us to the room Miss Nelly was in.

I wondered if Miss Nelly did all of the piercings herself, or if she had others work for her. I really don't know, or care, as I'm shattered and I have been since I got home from school, which is why I probably seem out of character to you, and why there haven't been nearly as many rambles as there usually are going around in my head.

I would have taken a nap, but I don't feel like ruining my sleeping schedule and wasting the last seven days' work of trying to get it right for school.

We arrived to the room Miss Nelly was in and Miss Nelly smiled at us.

"Hello," she said, tightening her ponytail and combing her fingers through her dirty blonde hair. "So, you two girls are getting naval piercings, correct?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Amber.

"You have the patience, responsibility, and capability of caring for a naval piercing?"

We both nodded.

"Who's going first?" Miss Nelly asked.

I looked to Amber, who was starting to fidget with her jacket zipper, and just decided that I'd take on for the team and go first.

"Me," I said.

"Sit down on the chair, sweetie," Miss Nelly said.

I sat down on it and was a bit startled when she began to lower it to the ground. I felt like I was at the dentist's office.

Miss Nelly told me to raise up my shirt as she got as marker and marked the points she'd be piercing.

Next, she went to the sink in the corner of the room and washed her hands for quite a while before pulling on a pair of rubber gloves. After that, she opened a small packet and brought out an alcoholic tissue, and sterilized around my belly button.

Then, she opened another packet, though it was much longer, and brought out a needle. Just to make sure, she opened another packet thingy and cleaned the needle with the new tissue.

"Ashley, wash your hands and pull on some gloves, then pass me the barbell when I ask for it, okay?"

Ashley nodded, and Miss Nelly re-marked the two points.

"Okay, I'm going to need you to take a deep breath when I insert the needle in, okay?" Miss Nelly said.

I nodded.

The next thing I knew, a needle was being entered through my body, taken out, a Superman belly barbell was being inserted, and the cap was being screwed on.]

It was rather fast, and it barely hurt, but I could still feel a small sting.

Wow, that was only like thirty seconds, probably twenty. I think I want to be a professional piercer, if I can make sixty bucks in only thirty seconds, because with all of the weird piercings some people have, I'd be rich.

"You're next, right?" asked Miss Nelly asked Amber.

Amber's eyes were widened, and her lips were barely parted. I could hear the sharp intake of her breaths.

She nodded stiffly.

Amber climbed onto the chair and laid down.

Miss Nelly had rewashed her hands, put on new gloves, sterilized Amber's belly area, and was tearing open the paper of the needle when Amber began protesting.

"I've changed my mind!" she exclaimed. "I don't want a belly piercing anymore!"

"Amber," I reminded her. "You already said yourself, about ten minutes ago, in the car, that you did not want to leave without a belly piercing."

Amber tried to get up, but I pushed her back down on the chair.

I looked to Miss Nelly. "She does this a lot. She just doesn't like pain—a low pain tolerance, if you will. She's weak though, so it won't be much to keep her down, I'll do it if you want. But pierce her, anyway."

Miss Nelly nodded. I knew she understood because many people are like Amber she's been through this many times.

I held Amber's struggling shoulders, while Ashley held her legs.

Amber screamed as Miss Nelly inserted the needle into her.

It really hurt to see her eyes welling up with tears, so I had to look away, or else, Amber would have gotten free and most likely injured herself.

Miss Nelly then inserted Amber's belly ring into bottom hole and screwed the top.

Ashley and I let go, as Amber lay there.

"See? It wasn't so bad, was it?" I asked.

Amber looked up at me as she sniffled. She didn't say anything.

"Well, there you go. Here are booklets for each of you about aftercare and such," Miss Nelly said as she through the needle into a special looking bin, and threw the gloves away in a normal trash can. She handed the booklets to us.

"Now, I don't want you changing the ring before six weeks, because if you do, there will be risk of rejection, infection, and complete closing of the hole. And I'm sure you have enough sense to know not to take it out. Make sure you clean it at least twice a day—the booklet explains how, and with what.

"The piercing itself won't be healed from four months to up to a year from now. I don't want you swimming in any open-water places, such as the ocean, or a lake, until it is fully healed. Swimming pools are just fine, though. If you have any trouble or questions, you can call my number, which is on the back of the booklet, okay?"

I nodded. "Thanks so much, Miss Nelly."

"Oh, it's my job, hun."

With that, Ashley led Amber and I back to the front, where we both paid and then left.

"Do you want me to drive home?" I asked.

Amber simply nodded. She hadn't said a word since the piercing, and she was still silently sobbing.

Once we were in the car, I stopped and read through the booklet, looking for the section listing the supplies you'd need to clean it with.

"We're going to stop at Walmart and I'll get out and grab the things we'll need to clean the piercings. You're staying at mine tonight?" I asked.

Amber nodded.

"I'll be right back," I said before slamming the door shut and running into Walmart to quickly grab the supplies.

Hey, guys! I know this is kind of cheating by uploading a chapter where nothing drama-related happens, but I couldn't help it. I was just thinking randomly, and this idea flooded into my head.

I'm going to try to stop rambling in my authors' notes, but omg- the third season! I just love Willow and her stalkerish ways-I swear I would act similar to her if I went to the same boarding school as Sibuna. KT is becoming to be one of my favorite characters. I admire her ability to be sarcastic and still manage to be kind at the same time. And, for some reason, I'm finding myself shipping KT and Eddie together...

Something else- was I the only one who got really pissed when Mara yelled at Alfie? I already didn't like her that much, so now she's slowly inching up my Most Hated Characters list.

Anyway, I know that you have to be eighteen to get your belly button pierced, or you have to have your parent's consent/present, but this is a fanfiction, and we all know that I barely ever ask you guys to pretend that you can do something specific, so...

And, a heads up: Nina is a teenager. So I really hope you guys can take some of the things teenagers do. There will be swearing, drinking, sexual jokes, etc. I'm trying to make her as real as most other teens in the world. So, there may be a random hashtag in a random chapter, because she's a teen, and it's much different from Nina being 28 years old and having a random hashtag... There most likely won't, but you never know.. this Nina is much more spunkier than the Nina in Red.

Nina's not five, you guys aren't five, and I'm not five... so please, don't make any flames complaining about swearing and such.

Please review! I'm really not lying when I say they are my motivation to update. That's why I take so long to update- I need to know that at least some people want to read a new chapter... Ugh! I'm rambling again! I'll stop. Not that anyone actually read Author's Notes, though.

But I am trying to make a new schedule for updating. I'll keep you guys posted on that...

Anyway, please review! They make me very happy! :)