The huge black clock hanging on the large crème wall just hit eight pm, it seemed like the thing was ticking extra slowly today just to irritate the young blonde boy behind the counter. Luke sighed, this was the slowest business day of the week and he absolutely hated to work this shift, nobody ever came in on a Monday evening.

It was dark outside already, the cold winter wind howling around the building like there was no tomorrow. The only sound that was heard inside of the tiny tattoo parlour was the soft sound of the radio playing in the corner of the counter and the buzzing of Calum's tattoo gun. Calum had been lucky enough to have a costumer at this hour, tattoos appeared to be more populair than piercings. Luke sighed again, drumming his fingers against the black marble counter to the beat of the song coming through the speaker of the radio, only two more hours to go before he could finally go home.

Time ticked by even slower as Luke waited behind the counter ,ready to greet costumers but none came in so he decided to unbox a few of the boxes that were laying around the shop with the new income piercings and fill them up in the store. The blonde haired boy turned the volume of the radio up a bit as he was greeted with Greenday and softly sung along under his breath as he opened up the box and took out a few small bags with new piercings and opened them up, placing them in the drawer where they belonged.
It was about half an hour later when the door opened and the little bell above it dinged, signalling that there was a costumer. Luke looked up , studying the small blonde with a messy blonde fringe that hesitantly walk in, Luke chuckled "Think you got the wrong store kid" he said ,flashing the boy a cocky smirk before going back to opening the little bags with shiny silver piercings in them and placing them were they belonged.

The dirty blonde shook his head and walked towards the counter "No, I'm here to get my nose pierced" he said calmly while he flashed Luke a small smile before getting his wallet out of his back pocket and taking his ID out of it, handing it over to Luke like he was used to it. Luke's eyes roamed the ID carefully, it seemed legit and in all honestly he didn't even care if it wasn't because this meant he had a client.

"Michael Clifford,18" Luke read out loud and the dirty blonde in front of him nodded , Luke shrugged his shoulders "Alright" Luke said as he handed the boy his ID back , "Do you want it to be placed now? " Luke asked and the dirty blonde nodded his head "Yes please, if that's possible" Michael replied with a small smile, chewing on his bottom lip nervously.

"You're lucky that you decided to come by during the calmest business hours" Luke said while he placed the box with brand new piercings behind the counter. "Follow me then I guess " the blonde said, fixing the sleeves of his black henley before walking towards the back, Michael following behind him as he made his way through the hallway.
Michael curiously eyed all the numerous doors they passed, curious to what was behind them. It wasn't long until Luke walked through the already open door at the end of the hallway ,that had with large black letters 'Piercings' painted on the crème walls above the door . Michael followed quickly behind him, walking into the small room with different equipment set up , his eyes scanned the room in amazement, there were piercings and tiny studs shining all over the place in the bright light of the room. There were small hoops, tiny balls and studs in every shape and size imaginable .

Luke sat down on a small rolling chair "Please Michael , have a seat" he said motioning to the piercing chair that was already set up, the black leather almost looking intimidating. Michael gulped and quickly sat down much to Luke's amusement "Nervous?" the blonde questioned, his crystal blue eyes landing on the smaller boy.
Michael shrugged "Just not a big fan of needles really" he admitted and Luke chuckled "You wouldn't be the first one to come in here with that" he said making Michael let out a chuckle himself and loosen up a bit.

"Do you already know what you want or do you want to look at some pictures to decide what you want?" Luke asked referring to a large white book with over a hundred pictures of all kind of piercings.

Michael shook his head "No thank you, I just want a nose stud" he said and Luke nodded. "Alright then, Well I'm Luke and I'll be piercing your nose today" he said extending his hand and Michael quickly shook it , giving Luke a bright smile, he was actually getting a nose piercing.
"I guess we'll just start with the smaller studs , once it's healed you can always come back if you want something bigger or a ring" Luke said while he got up and walked over to grab a box with all kinds of small studs in it. He walked back and showed the numerous piercings to Michael who looked at them with big eyes, they were all so pretty.

"See anything you like? I still have a few at the back of the store If you hate all of them" Luke joked making the dirty blonde laugh as he studied the gems in the box before shaking his head and pointing to a simple white stud that had hints of a violet colour in it and silver edges. "I like that one" Michael spoke with confident , putting a smile on Luke's face as he nodded and took it out of the box carefully.

"Were would you want it being placed?" Luke questioned as he laid the piercing down on a small silver table next to the piercing chair and switched it for a black sharpie. Michael pointed to the left of his nose and Luke nodded before creating a small dot on the left side of the small boy's nose "There?" he questioned while giving Michael a small mirror to look at it.

Luke saw that Michael was hesitating to say something and quickly added "Don't be afraid to say no, just let me know if it's okay because I wouldn't want you to leave disappointed would I?" with a comforting smile. Michael nodded his head before asking if it could go a little more to the right and Luke immediately wiped away the previous dot and drew another one but this time a little bit more to the right.

When Michael looked at it through the mirror he nodded his head "There is perfect" he said with a smile, he couldn't believe this was actually happening. The dirty blonde watched as Luke walked back and prepared the piercing gun, he swallowed the lump in his throat as he studied the dangerous looking thing and thought back at the reason why he wanted it in the first place.

It was supposed to make him look so much hotter and maybe then the boy next to him in physics would notice him, he was a punk and Michael thought he was hot. It was stupid honestly , his mother was going to be so mad when she sees it.
Ever since it happened she went all protective over him, he doesn't blame her but he just wants to like a normal seventeen year old and not like he's ten. Michael wanted to move on with his life but his mother wouldn't stop worrying about him ,even though she had every right to worry about Michael he still hated being babied by his mother when he was seventeen.

Taking a sharp intake of breath as Luke nears with the piercing gun, Michael tries to calm himself down and not show that he is absolutely terrified "Ready?" Luke questions and Michael gives him a quick nod. Luke leans down and hovers above the dirty blonde, skilfully placing the gun against Michael's skin. "This is going to hurt a bit" Luke mumbles before shooting the piercing through the dirty blonde's nose.
As much as Michael tries to hold it in he still lets out a shriek as the piercing goes through his nose ,clenching his eyes shut and tightening his hold around the arms of the chair. He feels Luke clean up a little bit of blood around his new piercing and Michael hisses in pain "Sorry" Luke mumbles in reply as he finishes up and tosses the tissue into the bin in the corner of the room.

He returns a second later with the mirror and let's Michael admire the brand new diamond in his nose "What do you think" Luke questions as he studies the piercing he had just placed "It looks awesome" Michael says while he admires the newly placed diamond stud. His nose hurts like hell and it's all red and irritated "It hurts like a bitch tho" Michael complains making Luke chuckle while he walks towards a desk and takes out one of the many folders laying on there.

"Yeah, it probably will for a few days" Luke said while handing Michael the folder "I highly suggest that you clean it at least once a day and try to touch it as least as possible , you don't want an infection, any information you might need is in the folder" Luke said while the dirty blonde quickly took a look inside of the folder.
Michael nodded his head, thanking Luke and admiring the newly placed diamond once more in the little mirror. "Oh and don't remove it under any circumstances , it could cause a serious infection" Luke warned and Michael nods before he gets up to pay for the piercing and Luke motions for him to walk back to the front of the store where he could pay.

The dirty blond patiently waits while Luke rings up the piercing and the costs of placing it , once he's done Michael pays for it and leaves the tattoo parlour.
It's cold outside and his nose is stinging , the winds rushing past the sensitive skin wasn't helping at all as he makes his way home, hands stuffed into the pockets of his black coat. Maybe this wasn't his brightest idea , his mom was going to freak when he would come home with a piercing in his nose.
His parents were out for dinner and they had trusted him to stay home alone for the night ,Michael knew it was wrong of him to do this but he knew his mom would've never agreed for this and he also knew he was going to be grounded for the next couple of weeks when she found out what he had done and basically Michael was screwed , big time.

-

Like Michael had expected, his mom was beyond pissed the following morning, not only because he had snooped behind their backs but also because of how much danger he had put himself in. He knew she had every right to be mad. And she even went minor on his ass it was not that getting grounded was such an awful thing , in all honesty ever since it happened nobody bothered to be befriended with him so sitting inside of his bedroom on a Friday night, spending it with his laptop wasn't anything different from normal.

Michael sighed as he scrolled down his dashboard on tumblr , like he did almost every night, like he had mentioned before Michael really did not have any friends and it was quite a lonely life to live. He was thankful his mother did not take away his laptop, he knew she only did it out of pity, she knew exactly what a hard time her youngest son was going through and she did everything she could to make his life a little bit more bearable.

Even though everybody immediately dropped him when it happened his family stuck around and they showed more love and support than ever before, he was happy that he had his family to fall back on , he knew not everybody had that and he was extremely thankful for the fact that his family was there for him every step on the way.
Sometimes Michael longed towards some kind of friendship or love that was from somebody outside of his family as selfish as it sounded. Michael knew it was selfish , but nobody could really blame him from wanting a friend or a relationship , he was seventeen and supposed to have the time of his life yet he couldn't and the sad part was that it wasn't even his fault even though Michael did still blame himself for everything that happened.

A knock on the door interrupted Michael's thoughts, as he swooped his head around to see who it was he spotted his older brother standing in the doorway with a soft smile on his lips "Mind if I come in?" Jason asked and Michael shook his head, the older sibling stepped inside of the room, closing the door behind him before he walked over towards the bed and sat down on it next to Michael.

"How are you doing? You've been up here for forever" Jason asked making Michael shrug in reply "I'm fine, just on Tumblr and watching reruns" the dirty blonde said shrugging as he studied his brother "You going out? " Michael asked as he took in Jason's outfit "Hmm" his brother replied while nodding his head "Just wanted to know if you're alright before I leave" he said and Michael smiled softly "Yeah, I'm okay Jay" he whispered softly making his brother run his hand through his hair and mess it up on purpose "Call me if you need me Mikey, I mean it" he said before getting up and readjusting his leather jacket before leaving ,stopping in the doorway to wave at Michael before softly closing the door and leaving.

Michael sighed , looking from the door towards his laptop screen. This was typical for Jason, he would always swing by, always making sure Michael was okay. He blames himself for not being there when everything happened half a year ago and even though neither of the two could do anything about it they still think it's their own fault. Maybe if Michael had done things differently he wouldn't be in this position right now, maybe if he wasn't so stupid and looked at the signs better he could've prevented it from happening.

Suddenly not feeling as okay as before Michael closed the Tumblr tab, rubbing his hands over himself In a self-protective manner ,something he had been doing ever since that day. Sighing Michael snuggled deeper into his blankets, deciding to watch one more episode of Supernatural before he would eventually go to sleep. One episode turned into four more , it wasn't an uncommon thing to happen, he had many sleepless nights and this was how he would spent them, watching tv shows as long as he possibly can until he falls asleep, it's better than tossing and turning for hours while bad thoughts interrupt his brain.