The Reckoning
Page 32
“It’s hard to stop the stars from shining.” ~ Holliday Hughes
Sitting in the chair, this is easy. I barely feel a thing. The blood is wiped away as the needle digs into my skin, leaving a black trail of ink behind. When I look up, Holliday is watching with rapt attention. She didn’t say no, but she didn’t want to go first either.
“Does it hurt?” she asks as if she’s never gotten a tattoo before.
“No.”
With her fingers almost touching, she says, “Not even a little?”
“Not even a little. It hurts on the ribs.”
“I bet.” Her gaze goes back to my wrist. “Don’t hurt him,” she warns the tattoo artist.
Javi, my tattoo guy’s eyes look up at her, but he doesn’t say anything.
I keep my wrist still as he finishes up. “There’s a lot of blood.”
This time he says, “Hands, wrists, underside of the arm tends to bleed more.” He wipes the blood away and adds, “All done. What do you think?”
I hold my wrist up to Holliday and ask, “What do you think?”
Her smile speaks volumes, but she also says, “I love it. It’s perfect. Simple and clean. Perfect. Now can you make mine match?”
“Sure can,” Javi says. “Infinity symbols are popular, but I like the meaning behind your idea.”
“He came up with it. I thought it was sweet.”
Javi finishes with me and then asks Holliday to hop into the chair. “Hold still,” he says.
She doesn’t move, not even blinking for longs periods.
I take her hand and say, “Relax. I can see how tense you are. You’ll bleed more.”
“I’m nervous.”
“You’ve gotten tattoos before.”
“It’s been a while.”
She scrunches her face, closing her eyes when the needle touches her skin. “Relax,” I whisper again.
Her face goes back to normal and she looks at me. “Thanks.”
It’s quick, the design simple like Javi said, but what we wanted. After he wraps her wrist, we’re done. When we walk out, I take her hand, our fingers entwining, our wrists and new tattoos are touching like we planned. I see a smile spread across her face and she says, “Infinity.”
For the rest of my life and beyond, I repeat, meaning it, “Infinity.”
New York Times and USA Bestselling Author, S. L. Scott, was always interested in the arts. She grew up painting, writing poetry and short stories, and wiling her days away lost in a good book and the movies.
With a degree in Journalism, she continued her love of the written word by reading American authors like Salinger and Fitzgerald. She was intrigued by their flawed characters living in picture perfect worlds, but could still debate that the worlds those characters lived in were actually the flawed ones. This dynamic of leaving the reader invested in the words, inspired Scott to start writing with emotion while interjecting an underlying passion into her own stories.
Living in the capital of Texas with her family, Scott loves traveling and avocados, beaches, and cooking with her kids. She's obsessed with epic romances and loves a good plot twist. She dreams of seeing one of her own books made into a movie one day as well as returning to Europe. Her favorite color is blue, but she likens it more toward the sky than the emotion. Her home is filled with the welcoming symbol of the pineapple and finds surfing a challenge though she likes to think she’s a pro.
Scott welcomes your notes to sl@slscottauthor.com
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Other books in the series
The Resistance
http://tinyurl.com/ocwp9me
The Redemption
http://tinyurl.com/mwld9yo
Audiobook
http://tinyurl.com/q9deomq
S. L. Scott’s Author Page