Krystal's POV

I hang out with Reese again a few days later. Every night we text before going to bed and I get to know him a little more. His favorite color is green. He loves tacos and burritos made only by his mother. We're both the same age but he's older by a few months. His hair is naturally curly (I was curious). He's a mix of Puerto Rican and Brazilian. I asked him what he identified with more. He said Puerto Rican only because he was born there and spent his early childhood there. He also learned Spanish and not Portuguese.

"So what are we doing?" I ask as we walk down the streets. It's mid afternoon and the sun is shining brightly. I sip on my Starbucks refresher drink.

"Don't know yet," he mumbles examining every single store sign we pass. "I'm feeling adventurous today."

"Like go skydiving adventurous?"

Reese abruptly comes to a stop. "No. More like mark my skin with ink adventurous."

We've stopped in front of a tattoo shop. Angel's Tattoos.

"You're kidding right?"

"Nope," he reaches for the door handle and I pull him back.

"You can't just get a tattoo on a spur of the moment decision. You're marking your skin with ink! And it's permanent!"

He sighs. "Always the fun sucker."

"Getting a tattoo isn't fun. It's painful."

"Only a wuss wouldn't be able to handle a little needle. Women push babies out of their vaginas, a tiny little hole. Now that sounds painful."

I resist the urge to roll my eyes. "You still can't just walk in and get a tattoo. First of all you're underage, and you can't afford it."

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a wallet, flashing me a plastic card. "Fake I.D." Then he reaches into his other pocket and pulls out a wad of bills. "Cash. Happy?"

I don't know if I'm more worried about the fact he owns a fake I.D. or the fact he has more cash than any normal un-rich seventeen year old should have.

"Where did you get all that money?" I hiss. He smirks.

"Don't worry about it," then he goes into the shop. I look around the street to make sure no one is watching before following him inside.

"Welcome to Angel's Tattoo shop," a guy greets us. He has spiky green hair and huge gauges, not to mention both his entire arms are tatted. I'm pretty sure his entire back is inked as well. His eyebrows, nose, septum, and lip are pierced and he has on a rock band t-shirt and jeans with chains that look like handcuffs.

"How much for sleeves?" Reese asks. My mouth falls open.

The guy, whose name is Rolland, explains the pricing. Reese nods and they talk coming to a decision.

"Can I see some I.D.?" Rolland asks. Reese hands him the card and Rolland barely glances at it before handing it back.

"Ok so are you paying up front with cash or a card?"

I'm shocked. He barely even looked at the I.D! Reese might as well not have even bothered to bring it. How is this place still running?

Reese pays and then they start taking about designs. Reese requests to draw his own designs and Rolland gives him a couple sheets of paper and pencils to do so.

I watch him sketch out each and every design he wants. Most of it is so....dark. There's skulls, bleeding hearts, and guns. Some don't even make sense to me like the fruit oranges, some baseball designs, and clocks counting down the time. He even draws a bird getting shot straight in the heart.

I look at him as he sketches. He's so concentrated. The last one he draws is graffiti letters that spell out VAL. There's a date below it.

3/18/1993-8/23/2014

"All done," he stands. "What do you think?" He turns to me.

I think I'm a little worried about you now.

"They look nice," I say instead.

Rolland comes back out to see the designs he'll be tattooing. "Nice man," he whistles.

"Make sure this one stands out the most," Reese points to the VAL drawing.

"Sure. Come on back," Rolland gathers the drawings and heads to the back of the shop. Reese starts to follow and turns to me. "You coming?"

"Actually I'll just hang back."

He grins. "Wuss."

I flip him off. "Whatever."

While I'm waiting I scroll through Instagram. My feed is full of people having fabulous summers while I'm stuck here. I get so annoyed I switch to Twitter instead.

About an hour and half later when I start to nod off Reese comes back out.

"And make sure you rub this ointment on your arms every night so nothing getting infected. The swelling and redness will go away eventually but it'll take a while since there's so many tattoos. I'd say about two to four weeks. There'll be some peeling but it's perfectly normal. Just let it peel naturally and don't pull anything off. Also keep the bandage on for a few days."

"Got it."

They shake hands and Reese comes over to me. I stare. His once bare muscular arms are now filled with pictures, some colorful and some black and white. And somehow it just makes him even more sexier.

Stop! Stop right there thoughts!

"Wow," I get out.

"I know right," he admires his arms.

"Aren't you going to get in trouble?" I point out.

He shrugs. "I always get in trouble, nothing new. Besides it's not like my mom can make me remove them. Ready to go?"

I stand up and stretch. "Yeah let's go."

Reese's POV

As expected I get the yelling of my life. Many items varying in degrees of harmful are thrown at me. At one point my mom is holding the broom and actually takes a swing at my head. I duck just in time.

"¡Tú estúpido niño! ¿¡Qué te es pasa!?"

I really have no answer for her except I wanted to but saying that definitely won't help my case so I just keep quiet.

"¡He levantado a un idiota! !Un Dios idiota! Ni siquiera quiero saber cómo obtuviste el dinero o el permiso, ya que eres menor de edad."

She takes a deep breath and pinches her nose. "Veremos lo que tu padre tiene que decir."

That's right. My father will be coming home from Brazil today. Sometimes he has to travel out there to take care of company business he can't do here. He travels pretty much all the time so I hardly see him. Despite that I have a pretty decent relationship with him, although just like with my mom it has gone down since the 'accident.'

"For now just go to your room!" She's calmed down enough and switches back to English.

When my dad finally gets back I'm called downstairs. He's not too happy either.

"Reese," he purses his lips at me. "I'm gone for a few weeks and you do this? Want to explain yourself?"

What can I say? I shrug. "I guess I just wanted to get sleeves."

"Well I guess you're just grounded," he replies. "No phone, internet, or going out privileges." He holds out his hand. I make sure to switch off my phone before handing it over.

Good thing we have a house phone.

"Now your mother and I have a date night planned and I won't cancel it because you decided to act out or whatever you're doing," I have to roll my eyes at that one.

"Don't leave this house because I will know," he narrows his eyes at me. "Got it?"

"Yeah. Got it."

He sighs. "Good."

I go back up to my room. They said I couldn't leave the house. They never said I couldn't invite anyone over. So as soon as they leave for their date night I dial Krystal's number on the home phone.

"Hello?" She picks up. "Who is this?"

"It's Reese."

"Why are you calling from an unknown number?"

"I got my phone taken away."

I hear her laugh over the line. "Called it."

"They've made me a prisoner. I'm grounded."

"Do you regret getting the tattoos?"

"Never. They'll get over it."

"I wish had half of your 'no fücks given' attitude."

I smile. "I don't really care about much these days. Want to come over?"

The line is silent. Finally she speaks.

"Come over?"

"Yeah my parents are out on a date night. They'll be out late since they haven't seen each other in a while."

"What-what are we doing?"

I chuckle. "Don't worry I won't try anything." Yet. "I'm just inviting you over because I'm bored and no ones home. You busy?"

"No actually. I guess I can come over for a little bit."

"Cool," I give her my address and hang up.

A little while later the doorbell rings. I open the door. Krystal is standing on the other side with her hair in two Dutch braids and jeans with a white tank top and tan colored cardigan. On her feet are white furry slippers.

She actually looks...cute.

Weird. I've never thought that about her before.

"What brand are those this time?" I ask pointing to her slippers.

She rolls her eyes. "If you must know they're Puma Leadcat Fenty by Rihanna."

"Well I'm honored to have you name brand slippers walk the floors of my humble casa."

She steps inside and I close the door after her.

"So this is where you live," she looks around.

"Yep. I'm sure it's nowhere as lavish as yours but it's a roof over my head."

"It looks well lived in," she says. "And homey."

Krystal sits on the couch. "So how much trouble did you get into?"

I explain to her what happened as soon as my mom saw me. She laughs the entire time.

"She really took a swing at you with the broom?"

"Yep. When my mom gets pissed she gets crazy pissed."

"Wow," she laughs.

"I'll be right back," I disappear into the kitchen and grab two bottles of vodka my dad keeps hidden before re-entering the living room.
Her eyes widened when she saw me.

"One for me and one for you."

"We're underage!" Krystal whispered even though no one was home.

"So?"

"So! This is illegal!"

"Krystal if we're gonna continue hanging out you're gonna have to get used to this type of stuff. I live dangerously."

"I can't drink this entire bottle!" She exclaims.

"Pour some in a cup then."

She reluctantly poured some and stared at the clear liquid.

"Any day now," I sang. She glared up at me before taking a big drink. Immediately her eyes watered and she started coughing and spluttering.

"Water!" She wheezed. I was clutching my stomach laughing.

"It's not juice Krystal! You can't just down it especially since you're a total lightweight."

Krystal hurried to the kitchen to get some water.

"Never again will I listen to you," she rubbed her throat. I smirked and drank straight from the bottle.

After I put the bottles back in their original spot I laid on the floor and put my feet on the couch. It was a weird habit I developed. It also was something I did to think.

"I'm pretty sure you're supposed to sit on it." Krystal folded her arms.

"There's no fun in that. Join me," I patted the spot next to me. She did and I got up to turn off the lights. We were bathed in darkness.

It was quiet except for the sound of our breathing and I stared up into nothing. It was moments like these that I would remember. I swear I could hear the drip of the leaking water from that night.

Drip, drip, drip.

"Tell me the worst thing that's ever happened to you," she whispered breaking the silence.

"Curiosity killed the cat," I whispered back.

"The cat had nine lives."

"Touché."

"So..." she prompted me. I was silent. The worst thing that's ever happened to me? That was easy. And for some reason I wanted to tell her. I just wanted to get it off my chest where it had been crushing my lungs.

"When I was thirteen," I began. "I watched as my brother was murdered."

A gasp fell from her lips.

"A car accident," I chuckled darkly. "That's what they used to cover it up."

"I'm so sorry," her voice cracked and I could hear the tears in her voice.

"I don't even know why I'm telling you this. Only one other person knows besides me. I couldn't even bring myself to tell my parents."

"I wish I could understand your pain," she said sadly. "But I can't."

"No one can." I replied quietly. "Pain isn't something you can share with someone. It's yours to be carried alone. With you. Forever."

The weight on my chest had lessened but it was still there and probably wouldn't be going away anytime soon. I liked to pretend I was fine but the truth was I wasn't.

I wasn't fine.

And I didn't know if I'd ever be fine again.

Suddenly I felt warm arms wrap around me. I realized that Krystal was hugging me. To say I was surprised was an understatement. At first I was frozen but then I slowly hugged her back.

And we just laid there in the dark.

I teared up a little while writing about Reese's brother 😢 no joke

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