A Girl in Glass

The bar was crowded and I was trying to stay hidden from the mass, stuck in the corner of the booth with my best friends. Last night was probably one of the worse nights of my life and all I wanted to do was sit in my room and wallow in self pity, drink my self stupid and sleep. Instead I was here, at the bar, waiting for this night to end.

Jimmy said Jenny was coming with one of her friends who recently moved to Huntington. He kept going on about how nice she was and how much she was tattooed. Johnny chimed in about the girl from the shop yesterday and how hot she was. I ignored them all. I wasn’t in the mood for this.

I hadn’t quite told them about what happened, but they all knew my poor attitude was probably attributed to Anna. They were correct, they just didn’t know why. I didn’t tell them because I didn’t want them to give me the apologies and I didn’t want to hear that we were better off apart.

I knew we were better off apart, but it didn’t change how I felt about her.

I love her and she tore my heart out and showed it to me.

And I didn’t want to ruin the fun. Everyone was happy, enjoying our time off. I didn’t want to rain on the parade.

“Anyone want anything?” I chugged the last of my beer, everyone shook their heads and moved out of my way.

The bar was hopping tonight, I hadn’t seen so many people in here ever. As I made my way to the bar, I spotted a girl. A growing hunger inside of me rose. I hadn’t felt the skin of another woman in years, just the thought of touching someone else made my stomach turn at the same time it made me yearn for the touch.
What would it be like? Would it be different or the same?

Her long cherry red hair was curled and hung down her back. The tight black skirt she wore accentuated her curvy hips, the tank top showed her hourglass figure. Tattoos covered her arms, the one that jumped out at me was the goat head on her shoulder. The girl from yesterday at that tattoo shop, it was her and that tattoo was the only thing that identified her.

Should I go up and talk to her?

Should I just get another beer and pretend like I didn’t know her?

What if Johnny saw me talking to her and got mad?

All these questions filled my head, driving me insane.

‘Fuck it.’ I said to myself. I could at least by her a drink and thank her for being so nice to me yesterday.

“A Newcastle and shot of Jameson.” Her voice was hollow unlike yesterday and her cheeriness.

I squeezed in between her and another patron, “Make that two.”

I grinned at her, she looked at me like a deer in the head lights for a moment before it clicked with her. She did recognize me. The bartender grabbed two shot glasses and poured the brown liquid. She picked her glass up and turned to me, “Cheers.”

We clinked glasses and both tilted our heads back, the whiskey burned on the way down.

“Thanks, I needed that.”

“You’re welcome, can I join you for a drink?”

“Sure,” She smiled at me, “I’m just going to get another shot for the road then go smoke a cigarette.”

She motioned at the bartender with her fingers, signaling two and waved the shot glass in front of her. He poured two more shots and she threw a twenty down on the bar. We clinked glasses again then I followed her towards the patio and felt a tug on my shirt. I turned and saw Jimmy. She stopped and I motioned for her to go a head.

“Who is that?” Jimmy asked, “Aren’t you afraid of Anna seeing you with her?”

I shrugged Jimmy’s hand off of my shoulder, “It doesn’t matter, she left last night.”

I felt the anger rise and tried to keep it under control, “Anna is gone and I don’t want to talk about it. So leave it be.”

Jimmy held his hands up and backed away, “Alright man, sorry, didn’t mean to upset you.”

I shook my head in shame, “Sorry man, its been a long night and day. Anna and I got into again, she told me she was leaving me.”

I sighed, “She left me man and guess what, I’m not even surprised. The worse thing is all I got was the ‘It’s not you, it’s me’ speech.”

Jimmy gave me a tight hug and said sorry. I didn’t need him to be sorry, I didn’t need anyone to be sorry. If anything it was my fault that she left.

“Listen, I’m just having a drink with that girl. We met yesterday and she helped me out, we are going outside to talk.”

“Alright man, hurry back, Jenny is saying hi to some friends and then she is going introduce us to one of her friends, she is just dying for you guys to meet her.”

I nodded my head and made for the patio. She was standing there, puffing on a cigarette. I touched her shoulder, she jumped a little.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare ya.”

“No, I’m sorry, just a little up tight today.”

“Well, thanks for yesterday, I really appreciate what you did for me. I‘m sorry, I haven’t properly introduced myself, I’m Matt.”

“Reagan and it’s not a problem.” She waved her hand in front of her, after another swig of her brown ale she spoke, “In all honesty, I was just trying gain a repeat customer.”

“How long has that place been there?”

“My boss has had the building for about a year, when I came down here from Redding to be closer to my best friend he decided to put a tattoo parlor there. He has another shop in San Diego. I was living in San Bernadino while we were remodeling, I moved here about six months ago so I didn’t commute as far.”

She kept turning away from me and brushing her hair back in front of her face while she spoke. I couldn’t help but think something was wrong. I placed my fingers on her chin and turned her head back towards me then pushed the hair out of her face.

“What happened to you?”

The cut had dried blood forming the scab, her eye was bruised. You could see the bruise clear as day even though it looked like she tried masking it with make up. She reached into her purse, she produced a pair of glasses and put them on.

“It’s nothing,” she started, “Just a rather unfortunate accident.”

I pulled my sunglasses off, hoping that it would make her more comfortable. Her fingers darted out and traced the bruise that encompassed my eye. When she retracted, she gave me a dry chuckle, “Guess your night was as good as mine.”

“You could say that, I would say I got hit in the face with a blow dryer after my girlfriend told me she was leaving me.”

“Hmm, sounds better than having your drunk ex show up on your doorstep in the middle of the night then getting angry and bashing in your front door. Then your friend forcing you to come out after all this because they were sick of me cooping myself up in my house for the last month.”

Jesus, her ex bashed her door in. If I could only get my hands on him. I didn’t even know her and would kill the guy.

“My friends didn’t force me out, but I sure as hell don’t want to be here.”

She smiled at me with a twinkle in her eye, “How ‘bout we blow this pop stand and go get a drink somewhere else. It seems like we could use the company of each other without the rest of our friends. Who knows, maybe we can gain a perspective that they couldn’t give us.”

I nodded in agreement and followed her out of the bar, ignoring my friends calls. She walked right next to me, arms crossed over her chest.

“So,” She began and lit up another cigarette, “How long have you lived here?”

“My whole life.”

“Don’t you want to get away? See the world?” That’s an odd question, but I liked it.

“Well yeah, I want to see the world. I will see the world when I tour it, I’m in a band.”

“You fancy yourself a rock star huh?”

“I don’t know about that-” I trailed off, “What about you? Don’t you want to see the world?”

“I like to travel, yes, but I always knew I would leave home one day, not be around the same scenery I grew up with.”

“Where are you from then?”

She smiled, “Seattle. The land of rain and grunge.” Her comment made me laugh.

“Actually it really doesn’t rain that much there, mostly in the winter.”

I opened the door to a small restaurant, she went in and I followed. We sat in the back corner, away from all the commotion of the rest of the place.

“So a tattoo artist?” I took a sip of my beer

She shrugged, “I prefer just artist, tattooing is just a means of income while I try to sell my paintings. I do all forms of art, I love painting, metal working, sculpture, I love it all. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love tattooing, its another form of art that I love doing and persued since my brother started teaching me how.”

She took a swig of her drink and smiled at me, a big toothy smile. I smiled back and set the empty bottle on the edge of the table.

“Your brother also tattoos?”

“Yeah, he started teaching me when I turned sixteen. I used to hang out at his shop after school, drawing, doing my own artwork. He saw that I had a good eye and decided to start teaching me. First it was doing simple sketches and stencils then he moved me up to tattooing pig skin.”

“Pig skin, huh? That seems a little strange.”

She giggled and brushed her bangs to the side, “A pigs physiology is very similar to ours and is a great canvas for someone who is starting out, especially when the ‘apprentice’ is underage.”

The waitress came back to the table with our appetizers and set them on the table, “Another round for you two?”

“Yeah, I’ll take another beer, Reagan?”

She downed the last of her whiskey, “Another Jameson on the rocks.”
“Do you see the way everyone is looking at us?” It was a valid question, I could feel eyes on me from the minute we walked in the door.

She giggled wildly, “Yeah, but come on, don’t you expect it. Look at us.” She pointed at herself then me.

“We both are tattooed from head to toe and have black eyes. You got to admit that it’s a sight to see. Plus we are both good looking, let them stare.” She made me laugh, harder than I have laughed in a while.

“So you think I’m good looking?” I put the appetizer plates in front of us and served a little bit of everything.

“Well, I,” she started stuttering and turned red in the face.

We talked the night away over our appetizers and drinks. Anna and I hadn’t even been on a date in over a year. I began to feel like the weight of all the problems was lifting. I told her about my relationship with Anna and how the band was starting to drive a wedge between us.

Reagan shook her head in disappointment, telling me that you have to follow your dreams and that if the band was something I wanted than I needed to do it. She was right you know, Anna knew going into this relationship that this was a part of me and I wasn’t going to give it up.

Give it up…

I couldn’t do that. She always told me that they could find someone else to do vocals, but it was so much more than that. So much more. We were best friends, band mates, and in some way soul mates, all of us.

The restaurant had emptied out to the point where we were the only ones except some wait staff and few last minute stragglers. I paid the bill and walked with her for a little while longer.

“Thanks,” She spoke softly, so soft I could barely hear her. “I haven’t been able to talk to anyone like that in so long. After Nick and I broke up, I curled up in a ball and hid from the world. My friend Jenny is going to be pissed I ditched her, but I had a better time with you. You‘re an okay guy, better than most I run into.”

Jenny…shit. I really hope its not the same Jenny, but then again, there are lots of girls on this planet named Jenny. God, that girl was going to kick me in the shin.

“How ‘bout you take me back to your place and show me your art?”

Reagan looked at me with a worry written across her face. I held my hands up in front of me, “I am not trying to get into your pants or anything. Remember, just got out of a long term relationship.”

“Oh no, its not that. I doubt he will be hanging around if he got out of jail.”

“Your ex?”

She nodded, “Yeah, I’m still a little shaken from last night. I never thought that he would do something like that and the door still isn‘t fixed.”

She twisted her toe nervously against the concrete and chewed on her lip.

I wrapped an arm around her shoulder, “I’ll take you home and check the place out if you would like.”

She took a big deep breath and sighed, “That actually would be great. I didn’t want to call my friend Randy and wake him up to take me home. He already is coming over in the morning to fix the door.”

We walked around for a little bit longer before she called a taxi to meet us. When it pulled up to the curb, I opened the door for her. After all chivalry is not dead. She told the driver where to go.

Her house was close to the beach. It was one of those tiny, but homey beach houses, not cheap to buy and not cheap to rent, but I wasn’t going to be rude and ask how she could afford a place like this.

“I’m going to go change out of this god awful skirt. There is beer in the fridge if you want.”

I nodded and walked into the living room. The walls were lined with bookshelves that were filled with discs, movies, books, and pictures. I scanned the shelves, there was such a wide variety of everything. A picture caught my eye, it was Reagan throwing a pitch and the one right next to it was her tattooing someone.

“That’s one of my favorites.” I jumped at the sound of her voice.

“Who are they?”

She came up besides me, “I’m tattooing my brother Reese and my brother Ryan is the one sitting there. My oldest brother Ronnie took the picture.”

“What are you tattooing on Reese?”

“A portrait of my brother Robbie, he was killed in a car accident when he was sixteen. I think I was nine when it happened.”

“All your names start with R.” It was kind of funny.

“Oh my god, I know, don’t know what my parents were thinking when they named all of us.” She palmed her face.

I put the picture down and reached for another one. My eyes went wide and I blurted out, “Is that a deer?”

“An elk. Got that cow when I sixteen. She was mighty yummy too. Wanna see her?”

I followed her up the stairs and we turned to face the over hanging wall. Mounted above the stairs was the elks head.

“Yeah, was out in the freezing cold for three days before we even saw one. Got her first thing in the morning, had to follow her for about a mile before we found her.”

“So you are an artist, you played softball, and you hunt. Is there anything you can’t do?” I followed her into the kitchen.

“I don’t know. When faced with a challenge or something new, I’ve always dove head first into it. Enough about me, what about you? Is there something else besides the band, something you do for you?”

She retrieved two beers from the refrigerator. I couldn’t help myself and started checking her out while she rummaged. God, she was gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. A large fluffy grey cat came running up besides her meowing maniacally.

“God damn you Ash,” She mumbled under her breath, “Get out of here you fatty.” She pushed the cat away from her with her foot. “Sorry, my best friend has turned this guy into quite the beggar.”

“So, what do you want to do?” I asked her.

“Honestly, nothing. Your company is enough.”