Shane's POV

Shane quickly leaned back on his elbows and continued to gawk at the artwork in front of him. Now he'd seen it, it was impossible to not look at it and the longer he looked the more he realised it wasn't exactly small either, especially for a first one. The tattoo was in fact a bird with blazing emerald wings that stretched across the entire left hand side of Claire's upper back. Shane couldn't for the life of him understand how Claire thought she could hide it from everyone because unless she was wearing a sleeved t-shirt with a high neck like she was at the moment it wasn't exactly unnoticeable. Plus with the bright colours that spanned the birds wings it might as well have an illuminated sign around it saying 'Look at me! Look at me!'

After a moment Shane was drawn from the shock of his discovery by the sound of Michael muttering in his sleep. This made him realise that once the other two found out about Claire's not so secret ink they would immediately point fingers at him. Oh god, they're going to kill me! He panicked to himself.

Stopping to think for a moment he decided that he could do without being murdered by his two best friends at the moment but he did need to speak to Claire about this. So carefully he pulled Claire's shirt collar back up and gently shook her awake. After a second her eyes opened and she looked at him groggily before mumbling. "What?"

"C'mon, come with me." He whispered as he pulled her from the couch.

"Where?"

Shane started walking towards the as he beckoned for her to follow. "Just come with me, Ok?"

Claire followed him with no more questioned and when they were both in the other room where they could speak without disturbing Eve or Michael Shane leaned against the nearest counter and folded his arms. "I think you have something you want to tell me."

"No I don't. I told you earlier Shane there is nothing wrong." Claire answered, looking slightly annoyed that the subject had been brought up again.

"Are you sure Claire? Can't you think of anything that's bothering you? Not even from the BACK of your mind?"

"Shane what are you-" Claire looked genuinely confused for a second but then both her face and voice dropped as her hand instinctively reached over her shoulder and touch where the tattoo was hidden. Shane's eyebrow raised as he waited for her to speak. "-Oh crap."

Her reply was enough to cause Shane to push himself off the counter and fling his arms in the air. "You've got that right. What the hell where you thinking getting a tattoo? Do you realise that those things are permanent?"

Now Claire was the one raising her eyebrows. "Yeah, I noticed that."

"This isn't funny Claire. And besides this isn't just about you. Michael and Eve are going to string me up when they see this." Shane almost shouted.

"Sshh!" Claire hissed. "If you don't keep your voice down that will be sooner than later."

Suddenly the door opened and in walked their worst fears. Michael and Eve.

Both Claire and Shane tried to look casual by leaning against anything they could and putting their best innocent faces on. It might have worked if it wasn't for the fact that Shane doesn't actually have an innocent face, just one that spelt guilt guilt guilt. Eve immediately narrowed her eyes at him. "What have you done?"

Once again Shane flung his arms in they air and gave Claire an exasperated look. "See! This is all going to be on me, you've signed my death certificate."

"How is this on you?" Claire asked in shock. "You had nothing to do with it, you didn't even know."

"Know what?" Eve interrupted.

"Yeah, what's going on?" Michael chimed in.

For a second Shane and Claire just stared at each other before Shane finally sighed. "Just show them Claire, they were going to find out eventually. Hell all of Morganville was going to find out since it's not exactly inconspicuous."

Claire continued to stare at her boyfriend but now with an incredulous look on her face. When a huff finally escaped her mouth she spun around and pulled down her top, once again revealing her secret. When she turned back around to face them both her friend's mouth's were hanging open.

It took a few moments for them to recover with a few stutters in between but when they finally did just as Shane predicted both heads turned in his direction. Gritting his teeth he waited for the yelling to begin. Eve was the one to start it. "Look what you've done! You're such a bad influence on her Shane!"

Then Michael joined in. "You promised you would look after her Shane. You swore to her parents."

Claire couldn't help but roll her eyes before cutting in for Shane's sake. "I don't know why you're blaming him. As I said before he didn't know anything about it and I am old enough to make my own decisions."

This of course turned the attention completely on her, something she had to admit she didn't like. It started with Michael and Eve turning in her direction and closing in on her, throwing question after question at her to the point that it was just senseless noise.

"What where you thinking?"

"How do you think your parents will react to this?"

"Why didn't you tell us before you had it?" To which she would have replied that was once she had the tattoo they couldn't do anything about it.

"Do you know how stupid this is?"

Shane made it even worse when he threw in his own opinion, usually by telling Claire that what the other two were say was right and that she should listen to them. When they were out of questions they moved on to insane and dramatic insinuations. Mainly wanting to know whether the tattoo would be followed by piercings or a sudden need to start smoking. Along with other stereotypes that caused Claire to struggle to suppress a snort.

Then the most hated remark slipped Eve's mouth like it always did. The one that had been used since Claire had first arrived at The Glass House and was still overused despite being incorrect for quite a while. "You're not old enough."

The shouting and screaming would have continued but those words caused Claire's blood to boil. Sucking in a breath she yelled as loud as she could. "Just shut up all of you!"

The volume of her voice was sufficient enough to make all three of her housemates stop and look at her. From there Claire continued to rage on. "Do you know what I'm sick of hearing? All this 'you're too young' bullshit. I'm eighteen for crying out loud and have been for quite a while now in case you didn't notice. And as much as you don't like it I am old enough to think for myself and I don't need you to wipe my ass for me."

The others were pretty much gobsmacked and in the end Michael was the only one who even tried to speak. "We- we were just trying to-"

"The only thing you should try is not treating me like a kid." Claire interrupted. "Then I might consider telling you guys first before I do something. Now, if you don't mind I am going to bed where I at least will appreciate my new tattoo." She headed for the door to leave the room before spinning on her heel and pointing a finger at Shane. "And if you can't appreciate it then you can go and sleep in your own room."