The Past is Only the Future with the Lights On

Ma-matching - “What?!” That piercing was actually starting to sound nice. What was he doing planning something like this without first consulting me anyways?

He rolled his eyes at the typicality of my statement and grabbed my hand once more, leading me to the wall of posters, each one filled with different examples of tattoos you could choose from.

“You promised not to immediately say no to this,” he reminded me, almost sounding angry with me. He did have a point though. I was the stupid one who had agreed to such a ridiculous thing.

“Plus, its not like you have to worry about Toni or your dad. You’re eighteen now.” He turned his head to shoot me a crooked grin. My fingers tightened around his almost reflexively. ‘Open mind,’ I tried to remind myself as he began to flip through the cases with his free hands.

“What are we getting?” I asked almost inaudibly, positive the color had drained from my face, leaving me even more pale.

He looked at me and smirked, then continued searching the pictures.

“I was thinking of matching leprechaun tattoos,” he said, not taking his eyes from the clear plastic cases.

The hand that was once held protectively in his grasp, soon fell limp to my side. A leprechaun? I don’t want to see that on my body for the rest of my life.

Frank’s soft laughter soon met my ears. Of course. He had just been joking. What was I thinking falling for something like that?

“Relax, Kel,” he told me, coming towards me and wrapping his arms around my waist. “I actually wanted each of us to get matching rings.”

He chewed nervously on the flesh on his bottom lip, pushing some of my faded red bangs from my eyes.

“Rings?” I repeated…I think I could handle a ring.

He smiled and nodded his head. “I know you’re already aware of this, but I love you, Kelly. You are the most important thing to me. The only thing that matters to me. The reason I’m still alive…and happy,” he chuckled. I found myself blushing like mad as he told me this, looking down at his already heavily tattooed arms around me to avoid eye contact. “And no matter what happens between us, I’ll continue loving you.” His voice was at the most sincere I’d ever heard it. “We can have a fight tomorrow and go the rest of our lives ignoring each other, as much as that idea scares the shit out of me, and I’d still love you.”

I finally met his hazel gaze, immediately feeling overwhelmed and weak in the knees as I did so. He was searching my face, waiting for me to say something, I presumed.

“You should know by now that you’re stuck with me for life,” I said, helplessly smiling.

He beamed, clearly happy with my response, and pulled me into a tight hug.

And then it hit me. The ring of love. Now it made sense.

“And I’ll be there the whole time, Kells, holding your hand. And you can hold my hand when its my turn.” I smiled into his shoulder and nodded.

“Is this your little friend you’ve been telling me about, Frankie?” a male voice asked from behind us, breaking our hug.

Frank smiled and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “Bill, this is Kelly. Kelly this is my dad’s friend, Bill,” Frank introduced us, a large man with tattoos covering most of his body now stood in front of us.

“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Bill said in his thick Jersey accent, shaking my hand.

“Finally?” I raised an eyebrow, sensing Frank’s body abruptly go stiff beside me. I glanced at him questionably, but he was too busy staring at Bill to notice.

“Yeah, this boy has said many good things about you, Miss Kelly,” he said, patting Frank on the back and giving a wide smile. “He really does think highly of you.”

I tried not to seem too flattered as an embarrassed Frank attempted to change the subject.

“So, uh…got any designs or fonts we could look at?” he asked, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. Bill’s words really did seem to upset him or something, and I couldn’t understand why.

“Sure thing, kid. Why don’t you two go take a seat in room two and I’ll be right with you with some books?” Bill suggested, receiving a nod from the boy stood next to me.

Placing his hand on the small of my back, he lead me to one of the small back rooms. Inside, one wall was hidden by cupboards, most likely filled with tools and such used for piercing and tattooing. There were also a couple of chairs positioned in various places of the room, one larger, black chair directly in the middle. Frank and I sat down in two chairs beside each other, my stomach making nervous back flips inside me.

“You really gonna do this?” Frank asked in a voice just above a whisper, sounding doubtful that I would.

I looked at him, his eyes cautious and hopeful.

“Most definitely.”