chapter 2: Tattoo & House
Bella POV
"I'm Lexi"
"Bella"
"What brings to this nice middle of nowhere Bella?"
she asked with a smile that made me want to open up to her.
"I'm heading to Florida. You?"
"Georgia. Florida sounds cool, vacation?"
"Not really. My dad decided to ship me off to mom"
"ouch"
"yeah. You?"
"Meeting a friend"
As I said that Charlie shipped me off to Renee, it hit me. He is shipping me off to Renee, just like when I was a little girl at the end of the summer. For a moment I saw red. How dare he move me around like a ragdoll? Last time I checked I was eighteen years old (considering the typo that ob/gyn nurse made to my records that has my birthday being in September when it was actually in June, today if I'm not mistaken).
Lexi kept talking but all I heard was her voice, gentle and slightly mocking in the background as I opened my day planner (birthday gift from Renee) and pulled two pages. I grabbed the pen and started writing.
"Charlie,
Thank you for taking me in march and I'm sorry if I made your life a living hell but if you wanted me to leave you could have just asked me.
Love,
Bella
P.S. I'm not going to Florida. Time to check my own wings"
"Renee,
I'm sorry to write this and I know it will hurt you but I have to do it. I love you but I don't want to come to Jacksonville. Thank you for wanting to take me in now but it's time to check my own wings.
Love
Bella"
Also on auto pilot I excused myself from Lexi and walked to the store in the airport and bought two envelopes. I put the letters inside and after writing both my parents' addresses, mailed them and returned to the table feeling much lighter. Lexi was busy texting but didn't seem upset over me suddenly leaving her and simply welcomed me back and we started talking over summer plans.
"You know what? I'm bored here waiting for the flights to pick up again"
"Yeah same here"
"I'm gonna rent a car. Feel like tagging along?"
"To Georgia?"
"uh huh... you just said you didn't really want to go to Florida"
I mulled the thought for a minute. It was true I had mailed both Charlie and Renée less than two hours ago.
'Truth be told you're the one raising them, not the other way around'
Was the little angel's voice that sounded a lot like Lexi's on my shoulder. But what if Edward comes back?
'Well if he does come back you're not in forks anyway'
Said the little devil on my shoulder whose voice sounded surprisingly like Allison. My best friend in Phoenix who died last year and by the way was the real reason I moved to Forks. That was true as well. Alice is supposed to see me making this decision, if he wants to find me he can. I felt a slow smirk building on my lips and nodded
"To Georgia it is then"
Lexi responded with a smirk identical to mine. She left to rent a car and I paid for our coffees and headed outside to wait for her.
"Bella please don't do this. She's a stranger"
I heard Edward's velvet voice in my ear and jumped. I turned around quickly but there was no one in the fainting sunlight.
"I'm going crazy"
I shook my head and my eyes fell on a tattoo parlor across the street. Huh, I always wanted a tattoo. I was pulled out of my musings by a small bright yellow car with tinted windows. The cutest Smart was in front of me with a blond girl in the driver's seat. She pulled in at a shadowed parking space and we loaded our luggage right behind the seats. My cherry colored suitcase and duffle bag fit perfectly and while she had a small problem with a cooler she had she managed to fit it all. The down side with smart cars? They have no space save for the actual seats. I glanced at the tattoo parlor again
"Hey Lexi"
"yeah?"
"What do you think about tattoos?"
"I have one"
"I want one"
"Then you will get one"
Without another word we headed to the parlor. The place was small with curtains covering the windows. I pushed the door to be greeted by a nerd looking guy that was tapping furiously on a laptop. Judging from the positions of his fingers on the keyboard he was playing an RPG. I waited for him to pause his game and look at me. Lexi completely relaxed was browsing the dossiers filled with tattoo designs and photos.
"I want a tattoo"
I told him when he looked at me. He smiled
"Any ideas? Or do you want to look at photos?"
"I know what I want"
"Alrighty! Mark!"
he shouted and a tall, big guy with broad shoulders with not one inch of his skin not covered in tattoos appeared though a screen door from the side. I gulped.
"the girl wants a tattoo"
the guy named mark smiled revealing a set of dimples that transformed his bug guy image to a cute overgrown boy and motioned me to follow him. I winked at Lexi who was still browsing the dossiers and followed mark. We were in a room on the large side that looked like a doctor's office. I sat on the recliner in the middle of the room and told mark what I had in mind. He pulled a sketch pad and started drawing as I spoke. When I finished he showed me his design.
A band that would go around my left wrist in a flowy manner. Right up from my ring finger on the palm would rest a dark purple star, straight up from my index finger on the wrist would rest a pink heart and on the inside of my wrist straight up from my thumb would rest an orangeish flower. Perfect. I agreed and after dubbing my skin with enough disinfectant to kill even the thought of germs, Mark pulled a brand new shaver. He shaved my wrist, not that it had any hair to begin with and started to outline the tattoo. The sound of the drilling pen panicked me for a moment but when he pushed it to my skin I only felt a light ticking sensation and was able to breath again. As he worked all I thought were the horror stories of how tattoos hurt like someone is skinning you alive (Allie's words when she and her brother did their tattoos) and would chuckle. I refused to let any thoughts like 'I'm at an unknown place with unknown people getting a tattoo and getting ready to head off onto the sunset with an unknown girl' evade my mind. There was something about Lexi that made me ignore the obvious danger. Maybe it was the way Edward and the Cullens left or the way my parents decided to act like parents but I threw caution to the wind. What's the worse that can happen?
Roughly forty minutes later the tattoo was done. After asking for my permission and getting it Mark took a couple photos of his artwork and then he dubbed gently with a cream that was used for burns saying it would be ideal for tattoos and wrapped my wrist in the same thin plastic cellophane I use to wrap meat in when I cook and want to put it in the fridge overnight. Then he put a bandage around my wrist giving me directions to put the cream on twice a day, not to get it wet, not to put any kind of weight or pressure on it and not let the sun kiss it. Finally he put in a small paper bag the shaver and all 5 needles he used and a card.
"Why are you giving me the needles?"
"Proof I won't use them on someone else after you"
"Makes sense"
I nodded and headed back outside to pay. The nerd guy told me I was eighteen if anyone asked and laughed when I showed him my id and I paid. When I asked him where my friend was he said she was with Mike getting her own ink. Then he went on a tale on how his parents loved the letter M, Mark, Mike and Matt. Yeah the three guys were related, if you can believe it!
A few minutes later Lexi was out looking better than before. Her previously slightly pale skin seemed to have a little color and her eyes were brighter. Huh, I guess either she gets off on the slight pain or she and Mike did more than a tattoo. She smiled at me, paid and we were in the car.
As she sat in the car and moved to adjust the seat her top pulled up a bit and saw the bandage on the small of her back. She told me to sit back and relax.
Georgia here we come...
