Tea and Tattoos

by Yasmine Magro

  ‘’You’re right Elliot, I’ll try to remember her as her happy self and try to move on, she never liked to see me sad.’’ She told him with a smile as she gave a small squeeze to his hand.

  ‘’That’s my girl. Now do you still want to order black coffee?’’ He asked her as he got up from his chair.

  ‘’No, I’ll have my normal cup of tea, please.’’ She told him with a grin, which he returned, and kissed the top of her head before he left to order. It was good to see her smile again.

  ☯

  After they had stayed for about an hour in the café Elliot decided to walk Desiree home since it was late afternoon and he was sure that her parents might be slightly worried about her.

  ‘’So there is this costume party on the 31st that some of my friends are throwing and I was wondering if maybe you would like to be my guest? I understand if you don’t want to go, we can always do something else.’’ Elliot told her as they were walking together.

  ‘’I would love to go! At what time does it start and where is it going to be held?’’ She asked him excitedly, she had never been to a real party before with people her own age. The only parties she knew where the ones her family threw when it was someone’s birthday and some church parties.

  ‘’I’ll pick you up about eight and it’s at a friend’s frat house.’’ Elliot told her with a smile.

  ‘’Sounds great.’’ She replied.

  When they took a turn into her street they heard someone calling Desiree from behind them and the sound of running footsteps so they turned around to see who the voice belonged to.

  ‘’Desiee, I knew it was you! How are you feeling, sweetheart?’’ Noah said as he enveloped her in a bear hug and caressed her back.

  ‘’Erm, I’m fine thanks.’’ She replied as she awkwardly got out of his hug.

  ‘’Your parents were a little worried about you spending the night with him.’’ Noah told her as he looked Elliot up and down with disgust.

  ‘’Thanks for letting me know, we were in fact heading there right now, so goodbye and see you soon!’’ She waved him goodbye before turning around and making her way towards her house, with Elliot following behind her.

  ‘’If you need something let me know!’’ Noah yelled, before he continued to walk down the street in the direction of his house.

  ‘’I can’t believe that you dated that guy for years!’’ Elliot told her as they walked up the steps which lead to her front door.

  ‘’He’s a really sweet guy once you get to know him, besides I have known him for my whole life.’’

  ‘’Did you love him?’’ He asked her as he stopped her and turned her around to face him.

  ‘’What? You shouldn’t be asking me this, we barely know each other!’’ She told him as she knocked on the door.

  ‘’Just answer the question, Desiree.’’ Elliot told her as he ran a hand through his messy hair.

  ‘’Yes I did, goodbye and I’ll see you on the 31st.’’ She told him as she hurriedly got through the door which Alice was holding open for her.

  ‘’Dessie! How are you? We were so worried about you when Mia told us that you went home with that boy, you know that we don’t approve of you or your sister sleeping at a boy’s house.’’ Her mother told her as she walked into the kitchen and enveloped her in a hug. ‘’And what in the world are you wearing? Go upstairs and change into appropriate clothes, dinner will be ready soon.’’

  After Desiree had took a hot shower and changed into her pink pajamas she went back downstairs to join her family for dinner. That day they were having beef with mashed potatoes and peas.

  ‘’Be present at our table, Lord! Be here and everywhere adored. Your mercies bless, and grant that we may feast in Paradise with Thee. May Holly rest in peace and enjoy your presence, amen’’ Rupert prayed before they started eating.

  ‘’Mum, dad can I please go to this party that Elliot’s friends are organizing please?’’ Desiree asked them to start conversation.

  ‘’When is it going to be?’’ Her dad asked.

  ‘’On the 31st of October.’’

  ‘’Desiree, you know that we don’t agree with Halloween, it’s a dark day and you shouldn’t go out and celebrate it, besides parities are full of sins.’’ Her mum told her.

  ‘’But mum I never went to a party and he invited me I can’t just say no!’’ She protested.

  ‘’We’ll see, now eat your food before it gets cold.’’ Her father said.

  ‘’But-‘’

  ‘’No buts Desiree, you are still a young girl, for God’s sake you are only seventeen and we are still responsabile for you. There are a lot of bad people in the world and we don’t want you to lose your soul because of them!’’ He said.

  Desiree didn’t say anything, she couldn’t say anything, instead she continued to eat her food in silence and prayed that by next week they would have changed their mind, if not she’d find a way to go anyway.

  She wasn’t the young girl that they thought she was anymore.

  22☕

  ❝Nothing on Earth is so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night.❞

  Desiree had been standing infront of her floor length mirror in her room for almost half an hour, inspecting every bit of her outfit and arranging and rearranging her hair and makeup.

  It was Halloween night and thankfully had parents had let her go to the party with Elliot, as long as she was back by half past midnight and didn’t drink any alcohol and of course no wild behavior and stupid decisions.

  Desiree had went to a costume shop with Mia the day before since they both had to pick out costumes for separate parties. Mia chose the bunny costume which most of the girls picked out, while Desiree picked out a gorgeous black flapper costume.

  As she started in the mirror she swore that she looked like a different person with the bright red lipstick, smokey makeup and the costume which showed off her figure. She was nervous about going to her first party and meeting Elliot’s friends, but she knew that as long as she was with him she was safe.

  At about eight o clock she heard the doorbell ring and rushed downstairs after she had sprayed some perfume.

  Both of her parents were working until eleven that night and her sister was with a friend of hers whose parents detested Halloween, so that was the only reason that her parents had let her go after checking.

  When she opened the door her heart skipped a beat. Elliot was wearing his all black apparel the only thing that he had different were the devil horns and a red rose which he gave to Desiree, if her parents were there they would have locked her up in her room.

  ‘’My lady are you ready to go to this wonderful party?’’ He told her as he offered her his hand.

  ‘’I sure am!’’ She told him as she took his hand and walked down the steps to get into his black Range rover.

  His friend’s house wasn’t very far away from her house so they didn’t have much time to talk.

  ‘’Desiree, you shouldn’t be intimidated by any of my friends, they are all nice once you get to know them so don’t be shy.’’ He told her as he parked his car infront of a huge house.

  She could several teenagers in costumes in the front garden and going inside the house which was filled with loud music. She could feel the butterflies in her stomach and a bit nauseas but she took a deep breath and walked out of his car.

  They walked together inside the house earning looks and a few glares from the other people as they walked past them. She instantly knew that Elliot was well known there because he earned plenty of grins ,giggles and greetings.

  Once they stepped inside the house they were greeted with a tattooed guy who gave Elliot a manly hug.

  ‘’Desiree, this is Colby one of my best friends.’’ He told her as he introduced him.

  ‘’It’s nice to meet you Colby.’’ She told him as they extended out her hand.

  ‘’I heard so much about you Desiree, welcome!’’ He told her as he gave her a hu
g, ignoring her extended hand.

  Colby was quite handsome with light blue eyes, full lips and his sandy blonde hair. He had fewer tattoos than Elliot which ran down one arm and was wearing a red cape. Desiree instantly liked him and could tell that he was a good guy despite his rough appearance.

  After they had talked with him for a little while Elliot asked him where the rest of the group where and they made their way to meet them. They approached a group of four people who were all sitting on bean bags in the kitchen with bottles of beer and red cups in their hands, she instantly knew that they were his friends when they all yelled his name and motioned for them to join them.

  ‘’Elliot it’s been a while since we last saw you!’’ A blonde girl wearing one of those bunny costumes told him as she winked at him.

  ‘’Yeah, I was a little busy.’’ He told her.

  ‘’With this beauty I’m guessing.’’ A boy with black hair who was sitting in the bean bag opposite Desiree said as he gave him a knowing look and she blushed.

  ‘’Chase, it’s good to see you like your old self again.’’ Elliot told him with a smile.

  ‘’Yeah, I moved on from that bitch.’’ He told him as she took a sip from his half empty beer bottle.

  ‘’Good for you mate!’’ Elliot told him.

  ‘’Elliot introduce our guest to us, we want to get to know her.’’ Another guy with ginger her said as he eyed Desiree up and down.

  ‘’Guys this is Desiree, my friend, these are Betty, Chase, Will and Anne.’’ He introduced them as she he pointed to everyone of them when she mentioned their names and they gave her waves and winks. She instantly disliked Betty, the blonde, but Anne looked like a nice girl who was quieter than the rest of them and wearing an angel costume.

  ‘’Would you like a beer or some vodka?’’ Chase offered them.

  ‘’I’ll take a beer!’’ Elliot said as Chase threw him a beer from behind him.

  ‘’And you beauty?’’ He asked her.

  ‘’Um…’’ She looked at Elliot, hoping that he’d help her since she had never drank alcohol and had no idea what to drink.

  ‘’She’ll take a vodka coke.’’ Elliot told him.

  ‘’I’ll get it, I need to refill my cup.’’ Anne said as she got up from her bean bag and went to get her drink.

  When she came back with two red cups in her hand and handed one to Desiree she stared at the dark brown liquid for a while. It smelled just like coke so she gave it a try. When she tasted the burn of vodka she coughed a little but then took another sip and another after she mothed a thanks to Elliot.

  ☯

  An hour had passed and all of them were laughing and sharing jokes, Desiree had downed down six cups of vodka coke so she was a little on the drunk side whilst Elliot had only drank two bottles of beer and a whiskey.

  ‘’Let’s play truth or dare!’’ Will, the ginger guy said. ‘’I’ll go first!’’

  ‘’Betty truth or dare?’’ He asked her.

  ‘’Dare.’’ She slurred.

  ‘’I dare you to give a bj to some random guy.’’ He told her.

  ‘’Easy peasy.’’ She said as she got up from her bean bag in search for her victim, and after a few minutes she joined them again.

  ‘’Done! Now let me see, Elliot! Truth or dare?’’ She asked him.

  ‘’Dare.’’ He told her a little bored, he had thought that it would be a little better party since it was Desiree’s first, but by the looks of her she was having fun as she was grinning and talking with Chase, but stopped when she hear his name getting called and looked up at him.

  ‘’I dare you to make out with sweet little innocence here, I’m going easy on you since I owe you.’’ She told him with a smile as she pointed at Desiree.

  He looked at Desiree and lifted a hand up to her face as he looked into her sparkling brown eyes. He could feel the eyes of the group on them so he hesitated a little, but when Desiree bit her bright red lip he lost it and smashed his lips with hers. He asked her for entrance which she immediately granted and their tongues started to move in sync together as she let a little moan.

  It was the second time that they were kissing and he wondered why he hadn’t kissed her more often. She was like his own peace of heaven, she was perfect.

  As he deepened the kiss Desiree moved so she was now straddling him as the group started to wolf whistle as his hands started to slowly travel down her back. He wanted her and he wanted her at that very moment.

  ‘’Okay we’ve seen enough!’’ Betty yelled as things had got even more heated, so they parted, but Elliot wrapped his hands tightly around Desiree’s waist so she was sitting on his lap as he played with her hair.

  ‘’Will, truth or dare?’’ Elliot asked since it was his turn.

  ‘’Truth.’’

  ‘’Why did you beat me up?’’

  23☕

  ❝I wanna be drunk when I wake up, On the right side of the wrong bed❞

  The next morning Desiree woke up in her room with a terrible headache. She sat up in her bed and rested her head in her hand as she tried to make some of the pain go away and block out the sunlight from her vision which was bothering her.

  As she lied there with her eyes closed she tried to remember some of the things which had happened at the party the other day. She remembered the rose that Elliot had gave her which was on her bedside table, arriving at the big house with the loud music, meeting his friends and taking a sip from her first alcoholic drink. After that her memory was blurry and she couldn’t remember anything, it was like someone had erased her memory.

  Desiree got dressed in a blue sweater and shorts and went down to have some tea, she didn’t have the apetite to eat breakfast since she was scared that she would throw up at any second.

  Having a hangover wasn’t fun at all and she wondered how most teenagers drank every weekend when they went out clubbing if the next morning they woke up feeling like that.

  ‘’Good morning Desiree.’’ Her mother greeted her in a cold tone from her seat as she drank a cup of tea in her nurse uniform, her father must have already left to work.

  ‘’Morning mummy.’’ She told her as she poured a cup of tea and sat opposite her mother.

  ‘’Had fun last night?’’ Her mother asked her.

  ‘’Yes, it was quite fun.’’

  ‘’Can you explain to me why Elliot brought you home at two in the morning and you were passed out?!’’ Her mother yelled at her, losing her calm.

  ‘’Erm I can explain, we left the party at about eleven thirty and on the way here we stopped at his parent’s house since his father wanted to tell him something important and while they were talking I watched the TV on the sofa and fell asleep on the sofa.’’ Desiree quickly lied.

  ‘’Make sure that this doesn’t happen again, because if it does you won’t go out to another party as long as you live in this house, capiche?’’ Her mother asked her.

  ‘’Yes mum, I understand.’’ She told her as she looked down at her phone which had vibrated.

  ‘’Now I have to go to work, make sure that you prepare dinner for the night since we may be home late, and you and Alice can go to the cinema I heard there is this good rom-com showing.’’ Amber said as she gave her a kiss on the head and walked out of the door with her bag in hand.

  Desiree looked down at her phone and opened the text message which was from Elliot asking her if she was okay after the previous night and if they could hang out that day.

  She was writing him back a reply when Alice walked into the kitchen.

  ‘’Morning Al!’’ Desiree told her with a smile. ‘’Mum just left for work and she said that they may come home late tonight.’’

  ‘’That’s okay, do you want to go to the beach or somewhere? I don’t want to stay inside today.’’ She told her as she poured some cereal in a bowl, without milk.