Cat Got Your Tongue?

That day after school, I parked my car on the street and walked with Oli and Tom into their house. My aunt was probably over there with Carol anyway. They’d become pretty good friends over the past few days.

“Mum!” Oli called out just as he stepped foot into his house, he was excited and couldn’t wait to get the piercing done. His backpack was soon thrown on the bottom step of the staircase leading upstairs and we followed his lead into the kitchen.

They weren’t in their surprisingly, that’s where we usually found them. In the kitchen chatting away as Carol unpacked boxes and put things away in the cabinets they belonged in. Oli turned around and let out a huff as he began searching the house for our mothers.

Then Tom spoke up, “Ollieh, maybe they’re not ‘ere. Mum didn’t call back when yeh yelled out ‘er name. Try callin’ ‘er.”

I had to smile at the look on Oli’s face after Tom said that. His eyes lit up as he excused himself from the room, probably to go get his cell phone from his room or something.

“Do yeh ‘ave to go back to your house to get anythin’ before we go?” Tom asked. I nodded.

I didn’t really have to go back to my house. I just wanted to change into something more comfortable than what I wore to school today. And I wanted to put my hair up. It was quiet humid out today, and I’m sure that my hair was all frizzy by now.

Oli came bounding down the stairs a couple seconds later. He had a phone pressed to his ear and a wide smile on his face. I guess that Carol was going to let him do it. “Yea, ok, mum. I’ll tell ’er. Bye.”

“Tori, needs to go back to ’er ’ouse for somethin’ before we go,” Tom interrupted before Oli could even get a single word out.

He didn’t respond to that, Oli simple grabbed our wrists and started pulling us out of the door. “Your aunt’s at ‘home. Yeh go do what yeh need to do and we’ll tell ‘er what’s goin’ on.”

As Oli continued dragging us over and across the yards to my house I thought about what I was going to change into when I got home so that I wasn’t taking for ever. I ran up the stairs and to my room as soon as Oli let go of my wrist, little did I know what my aunt was telling them while I wasn’t around.

Oli didn’t waste any time at all once he and Tom got into the kitchen. “Mrs. Davis, why doesn’t Tori talk?”

“Ollieh! Don’t go askin’ ‘bout stuff like that. ‘m sure Tori would like to keep it to ‘erself,” Tom interpreted before Molly could get out a single word.

Instead of agreeing with Tom, Molly went right on with Oli’s question. “It ‘appened when she was seven years old. The job that ‘er father ‘ad wasn’t the best, but it paid the bills. ‘e ‘ad some rivals in his job and they were always out to get him or Tori or my sister, Cathy. The day it happened they were all at ‘ome and once Jacob heard a window break he told Cathy to ‘ide Tori in the small cubby hole they had in a closet. Seven people showed up and my sister and ‘er husband we’re shot and stabbed. Tori saw the whole thing.”

I came running down the stairs and saw Oli and Tom with shocked expressions on their faces. My aunt looked a little teary and I could have sworn that I saw Tom brush away a tear, but I could have just been imagining that. My knuckles hit the wood on the doorframe and a knock echoed through the room.

Oli jumped at the sound. “Oh, yeh ready?” I nodded and let the wondering drift from my mind. He and Tom stood up and waved goodbye to my aunt. “Tori, yeh drivin’.”

He tossed me the keys from the hook by the door and literally ran to the car. I heard Tom chuckle and he got into the backseat, while I took the wheel. “Little excited Ollieh? Not even the least bit scared?” Tom questioned.

“Me? Scared? ‘S real funny Tom,” Oli sneered reach over the console between our seats to mess with the radio.

The nearest tattoo and piercing place was Steel City, the daughter of one of my aunts friends and dragged me there with her to get her bellybutton pierced a while back. It was a on London Road which was roughly about five to ten minutes from our houses.

“Tom! Catch, I want yeh to get it on tape,” Oli shouted pulling is phone from his pocket and tossing it over the back of his seat and into Tom’s lap. I heard him mutter something about ‘might as well start now’.

“Say ‘ello to the camera Ollieh,” Tom ordered shoving the camera into Oli’s face. He, of course, immediately pushed it away. “Tori, yeh too.”

I just smiled kind of awkwardly and went back to looking at the road. Tom sat back into his seat and began to explain where we were going to the people who would be watching this video later. Oli began to absentmindedly tap his feet, which were now on my dashboard, to the beat of a song that was playing. As his feet moved I could kind of see the mud that he was smearing.

“Ow! What the ‘ell was ‘at for?” he yelled after I slapped him. I pointed towards his feet and he got the point fairly quickly. “Ohh, sorreh.”

There wasn’t much traffic out today, so we got their rather quickly. I heard Tom announce our arrival to the camera as I turned the key back and threw them into my jacket pocket.

Tom and I followed behind Oli into the building and waited beside him at the counter. “Can I ‘elp yeh?” a guy said walking out from the back of the shop. It was actually pretty vacant in here today.

“I want to get my lip pierced.”

“Follow me. I’ll get you some papers to fill out and we’ll get started,” he responded.

After Oli filled out the needed paperwork, the real fun began. Well, it was more fun for Tom and I to watch Oli squirm around. He’d suddenly gotten really nervous.

“Open your mouth just a little bit,” the guy instructed and Oli did so. He got the clamp in place and picked up the needle from the table behind him. After Oli’s eyes went wide he snapped them close as the needle went through. He put the jewelry in and Oli looked over to us.

“Did it ‘urt?” Tom asked.

“Yea, just a wee bit.”