Your Love Will Be Safe With Me

It was Thursday morning. Hanley was making a quick breakfast before she headed into work while I looked online for a job. She sat down across from me with a blueberry bagel in her hand.

“How’s the job selection coming along?” She asked then took a bite.

I shrugged, “Better selection now that I’m eighteen.” I shut the laptop and rested my head between my hands.

Hanley’s face contorted in confusion, “What necklace is that?” She asked as she chewed.

My hand immediately grabbed a hold of the ring hanging off of the chain around my neck, “U-uhm,” I wracked my brain for something believable. “I-it was a birthday gift.” I half lied.

“Oh really? From who?”

Shit. “My grandma.”

Her face grew even more confused, “I thought she gave you money?”

“My other grandma. My dad’s mom.” I covered quickly. “You know how she is with jewelry.” I brushed it off.

“It looks like an engagement ring.” She said as she leaned forward to get a closer look.

I laughed nervously. “Really? I thought it was just a ring.”

She continued to stare at it, “huh.” She said then leaned back in her chair and looked at me. “Well, it looks really nice.” She took a bite of her bagel.

“Thanks.” I muttered.”

That was close.

I opened the laptop again and went back to job searching. No luck. I looked across the table at Hanley, over the top of the screen.

“What?” She asked through a mouth full of bagel.

“Is your shop hiring?” I asked.

“Sawyer, you kind of have to have practice to be a tattoo artist.”

“No, Stupid, as a shop keeper.” I chuckled.

“Oh!” She exclaimed then laughed. “I don’t know. I’d have to see.”

I nodded then looked at the screen again. Listings for retail working, waitresses, and receptionists lined the webpage I was looking at. Nothing interested me, though.

“When are you going to get your free tattoo?” She asked.

I looked up at her again, “I don’t know. I’m still thinking of all of my ideas I’ve been wanting.”

“Well, I’m pretty free all day, so if you make up your mind, you can come in today.”

I nodded, putting it into consideration. “Okay, I think I might.”

She got up and threw away her napkin then grabbed her bag off of the counter. “Well, I’m leaving. Have a good day, Babe.” She said then walked out of the kitchen toward the front door.
---
I dressed warmly seeing as it was a very gloomy day out. It was February in Los Angeles and that meant it was still cold. I wore Nick’s blue Snakes & Suits hoodie with dark wash denim skinnies and black heeled booties.

The drive over to the boys’ apartment was longer than usual today, but it could just be that I was anxious to get there and see Nick. When I got there, I knocked on the door, expecting someone I knew to open the door, but that wasn’t the case. A blonde guy with very pretty eyes opened the door.

“Yes?” He asked.

“Uhm,” I looked around thinking I had the wrong apartment, “is Nick here?” I asked timidly.

“Yeah… are you Sawyer?” He asked and I nodded slowly. “Oh, come in!” He opened the door wider and I walked in.

“Who was at the door?” I heard Halvo ask from the living room I was already practically standing in.

“Nick’s girl.” The blonde said and I rolled my eyes; I wasn’t his property.

“What about my girl?” Nick asked as he walked out of the bedroom with Justin trailing behind him.

“Sawyer!” Justin exclaimed happily as the two of them noticed me.

“Hi Justin.” I said with a smile.

He grinned then went to sit in the living room while Nick walked over to me with a huge smile on his face. I returned the huge smile, not able to contain it. His hair was wet and flat against his head and he was wearing pajama pants with a plain white t-shirt and a gray American Apparel jacket. He leaned down and pecked me on the lips then pulled me into a hug. I hugged back, happy to be in his embrace.

“I see you’re wearing my clothes.” He said into my ear then pulled away. “Does this mean we’re totally official now?” He said in a fake valley girl voice making me laugh.

“Not until you wear some of mine. I’ll go get a pair of tights and heels for you to wear around town.” I said making him laugh loudly and me smile. Out of the corner of my eye I said the blonde guy moving around in the kitchen. “So,” I said quietly, “who’s the new guy?” I asked, nodding his way.

Nick looked over, “Oh! Right.” He stood up straight. “Loren, I want you to meet my girlfriend, Sawyer.” The guy looked up from what he was doing then made his way over to us with a smile on his face. “Sawyer, this is the drummer of Rocket, Loren.” I shook his hand and said “hello.” “He just got in yesterday and will be staying with us the rest of the time we’re here.”

I nodded, “Nice to meet you.” I said.

“Likewise. As soon as I heard someone got Nick to commit I said I had to meet this girl. As long as I’ve known him he’d never had a girl.”

‘Well he’s stuck with this one.’ I thought to myself. “Well I’m glad I got him.” I wrapped my arm around Nick’s middle and his arms lung over my shoulders.

Loren smiled at us then made his way into the living room to join Halvo and Justin.

“So what are you going to do today?” Nick asked as he let go of my shoulders and I his waist.

“I think I want to go get that tattoo Hanley promised me.” I folded my arms across my chest.

He raised an eyebrow at me, “Oh really? And what exactly would this tattoo be of?” He asked.

I tilted my head to the side in mock thought, “I was thinking about maybe an anchor with the word “mom” on it. Or maybe a portrait of you on my back a-la Steve-O.” I joked.

He chuckled, "Oh, okay. Make sure I look good.”

I laughed. “But really. I want to get a plum blossom tree branch on my side.”

“Really? I guess for your first tattoo you could go big.”

I cringed, “It’s going to hurt like a bitch.”

He laughed, “Then get something smaller.”

I shook my head, “Nah, I’ve wanted this for a while.”

“Then go for it.”

I looked down at his hands that were holding onto my waist. “What was your first tattoo?” I asked, looking back up at him.

He looked down and let his right hand go of my waist. “This one.” He lifted his hand and showed me the outline of a star on his hand.

I raised an eyebrow at him, “Really?”

He nodded, “I was seventeen and Hanley was over. I talked her into doing it.”

I laughed at the irony, “She’ll do an underage tattoo on you, but not on me?”

“I’m pretty sure that was the first and last underage tattoo she did.”

I sighed, “Figures.”

I laced my fingers through his and looked up at him, “Do you want to come with me and hold my hand while I cringe in pain?” I asked hopefully.

He chuckled and nodded, “I guess I can spare a couple of hours.” I smiled. “I just have to get ready.” I nodded and he lead me into the bedroom.

“Use protection!” Halvo yelled after us.

“Fuck off!” Nick yelled back.
---
We walked into Pandemonium Tattoo Parlor hand in hand with smiles on our faces. Nick truly made me the happiest I’d ever been. Happier than when my parents agreed to let me move to Los Angeles. Over the moon happy was how I was feeling.

Hanley was standing at the front desk, reading some random tattoo magazine. She looked up as we walked in. “Sawyer! Nick!” She exclaimed happily. “Decided to come in and get that tattoo?”

I nodded, “Yeah and Nick came to hold my hand.” I raised our intertwined fingers for her too see.

She laughed, “Knowing you, you’ll need it.”

My eyes narrowed at her as Nick laughed from next to me. “Oh thanks.”

She smiled then got straight down to business, “So, what were you thinking about getting?” She asked.

I let for of Nick’s hand and fished around my bag for the pictures I printed of blossoms and set them on the counter. “I was thinking about plum blossoms.” I explained.

“Oh cool. Like just a few on you shoulder or something?” She guessed.

I shook my head, “No. More like a tree branch going up my side starting at my hip bones and the tip ending on my shoulder.” I said as I trailed my finger along the area I wanted it to go.

Her eyes widened, “Oh well, that’s cool. We can do that. It’s pretty big for a first tattoo, though, don’t you think?”

I shrugged, “Go big or go home.”

They both stared at me.

“Did you just quote Bring It On?” Nick asked.

“Did you really know exactly where that quote was from?” I asked him.

He blushed, “It was on last night, okay?” He said innocently.

“Exactly.”

“Anyways,” Hanley said gaining our attention back. “how many blossoms were you thinking of?” She asked.

“Do you have a pencil?”

She grabbed a pencil from a cup that was sitting on the lower half of the counter and handed it to me. I flipped one of the papers over and sketched out a tree branch with thinner branches coming off of it. “I want some towards the bottom and some little ones coming off of it and towards the tip I want a few bunched together.” I said as I sketched quickly.

She nodded, “Okay, I can probably do that.” She picked up the paper from the counter and smiled at me “Let me draw it up real quick. Come back in a half hour or something.”

I nodded, excited that my tattoo would finally come to life.

---

In the span of a half an hour we went through a couple of the boutiques around the shop. I ended up buying a cute faux leather motorcycle jacket with the birthday money I had yet to spend. I already had one, but you can never have enough. Nick ended up with a necklace that had a feather at the end. He was genuinely excited he found it. His face brightened when he saw it, saying that he had been looking for one for a while.

When we walked back into the shop, Hanley was walking out of the back room with my design in her hand.

“You guys are back just in time.” She said. “Come back here and we’ll get started.” She led us to her work station then turned to me. “How are we going to do this? You’re going to have to be practically topless.”

I had figured this earlier and came prepared with a bikini top. I began to strip off my top layers of clothing.

“Whoa! Whoa there!” Nick exclaimed as I began to take off my shirt. “What do you think you’re doing?” He asked then looked around the shop. “There’s people here, Sawyer.”

I looked at him, my face contorted in half-amusement half-anger. “I know that, Nicholas. I’m wearing a bathing suit top.”

He shifted where he was standing, “Oh.”

Hanley laughed from behind me while I smirked.

“Sawyer, you’re going to have to untie the strings.” Hanley said once I was down to my jeans and top.

I sighed, “Okay.” I said then focused my attention on Nick, who was staring intently at me, making me self conscious. This was, after all, the first time he’d seen me practically topless. “Nick,” I tried getting his attention. His face relaxed as he looked at me, “I’m counting on you to make sure there aren’t any nip slips.” I said seriously as I took my booties off.

He chuckled and nodded, “Okay. So you’re giving me permission to look at your boobs if it happens?”

I rolled my eyes. We were married, but I just wasn’t comfortable for that, yet. I probably wouldn’t be for a while. “Sure.” I said then turned to look at Hanley.

She had everything set up and was waiting for me, so she could put the stencil on. I okayed the position it was in after looking at it in the full length mirror the shop had hanging on one of the walls.

“Okay, first lay on your back and we’ll get started.” She said, tattoo gun in hand.

I got myself situate and grasped onto Nick’s hand, who was seating on a chair next to me, watching Hanley get to work. I closed my eyes as the tattoo gun began to buzz and the needle entered my skin. She started right on my hip bone, making me cringe in pain and squeeze my eyes shut tighter along with Nick’s hand.

I had to change my position twice throughout the whole thing. From laying on my back to my side then to just sitting up straight. When I saw the finished product, though, I was stunned. It was beautiful and I loved it. Nick pecked my lips when I was done and told me I did a good job with the pain. Hanley bandaged me up and I tied the strings back onto my body. It hurt to put my shirt back on, but I managed. When Nick and I left, it was dark, but I couldn’t have been any more happier with my new body art.