I Am Invincible

At about 10 o’clock the next morning after I’d had a shower and some breakfast, I picked up my phone and found Skyler’s number. After pressing the call button, I held the small device to my ear and waited. Zach was in his bedroom getting dressed.

In the middle of the fourth ring, Skyler picked up, “Ch-hello? It’s Sky.”
“Hey!” I said brightly into the phone.
“Cameron?”
“Yep, that’s me!”
“What’s up? Haven’t seen you around the shop for a while.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. I’ve been a bit busy. But, hey. Do you have any appointments free today?” I asked hopefully.
He went silent for a minute or so, presumably to check in the appointment book.
“Hmm... yeah I have a couple of appointments free. Why? What for?”
I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist, frightening me, and I let out a small squeak, then recovered. “Uhh... hip piercing?”
“Hip piercing? For who?”
“Me?”
“Oh. Really? Well, sure. Um. I have a free appointment at 2 or there’s one at 10:30 if you can make it?” he told me.

I covered the mouth piece of the phone and relayed all this information to Zach. He told me that we could make it to the 10:30 if I hurried. So I accepted the 10:30 appointment and hung up the phone quickly so I could make myself look partway decent. I decided to stay in Zach’s sweat pants because I didn’t want to be wearing tight pants if I was getting a needle shoved through my skin right near where my jeans would usually sit. I rolled the ends up so that I could actually walk without tripping over them and slipped on my flip flops. I then made my way into Zach’s room, opened his closet door and inspected its contents. I decided to wear his purple Volcom v-neck t-shirt, and slipped it over my head as I walked out of my boyfriends’ bedroom and into the bathroom. I fiddled with my hair for a little while, trying to make it sit the way I wanted it. But I gave up on that pretty quickly, because my hair decided to be stubborn and not sit right.

“Whatever,” I muttered to myself, and exited the bathroom to find Zach sitting on the couch, waiting for me to finish beautifying myself (ha!). He jumped up when he noticed my presence, then ran over to grab my hand so he could drag me down the three flights of stairs towards his car. After throwing me into the front passenger seat, he flew around to the drivers’ seat, and was already driving down the street before I even had my seatbelt on. I swear he’s more excited about these hip piercings than I am.
We reached Needle&Ink in record time and before I knew what was happening, I was lying on the piercing table with Zach sitting next to me holdinghis my shirt, both of us watching Skyler get everything sterilised and ready for the piercing.

When he came over to the piercing table with a tray full of needles and jewellery and stuff I started shaking, and looked sideways at Zach. He gave me a small smile and told me it’ll be fine. Sky agreed with him, saying that usually when he pierces hips, the client doesn’t even know it’s done until the jewellery is in and they’re free to leave.

Sky started talking to me about what was going to happen while he poked and prodded at my hips to get a feel of exactly where the needle would go. After grabbing a pen and marking dots on my skin, Skyler stood back to scrutinise his work. When he was satisfied, he turned to his tray and grabbed a clamp. He told me to relax, and I let out a huge breath as I tried to do as he asked. Cold metal touched the skin of my left hip and I wriggled a little bit. Sky glared at me, and I stopped moving at once. When the clamp was in place, Skyler turned to the tray again, this time picking up the sharp pointy object that was going to pass through my skin.
“Okay. Now, you have to concentrate for me. Now. I’m going to ask you to take a deep breath in, and then when I say, you’re going to let it out really fast, okay?”
I nodded.

“Okay,” he said. “Now. Deep breath in.” I obliged. “Now... Breathe out fast”. I let my breath out in a rush that made my head spin.
“Is it done?” I asked.
“One is. When the other is done, you can look at them before I put the bars in,” Sky said.
“Did it hurt?” Zach asked me. I shook my head. He smiled, and I returned it with a grimace.
“Cameron. Concentrate,” Skyler scolded me.
“Sorry.” He clamped my right hip, and picked up another needle.
“Deep breath in.” I sucked in some air slowly. “And now...out, fast!” I did so, and once again, I felt a little lightheaded, but, like before, I didn’t feel the needle go through, which I was grateful for.
I sat up slightly, and saw that Skyler wasn’t tricking me, as there were two needles with small corks on the ends (to stop them going through completely) sticking out of the skin near my hips.

“Righty then. So now I’m going to put the jewellery in. Lie back down,” Sky commanded.
Before I knew it, I was sitting up on the piercers table with 4 shiny silver dots protruding out of the slightly tanned skin around my hips. I gotta admit; they looked cool. I could tell Zach liked them. He kept staring at them while Skyler was telling me all about cleaning and making sure I don’t bump them or anything. He told me that I needed to be careful with them for at least a few weeks to give them a chance to settle in and start to heal.

When he finished lecturing me about making sure I clean them twice a day and to come into the shop if I had any problems with the piercing or if the jewellery was getting loose, I gave Sky a brief hug goodbye and made my way outside; Zach following after me. We were safely in his car and on our way back to his apartment before Zach said anything.
“They look...totally hot,” he sighed out, causing me to blush. “I can’t believe how quick it was; I thought it would take heaps longer. Did it hurt?”
“Same. Mhm it didn’t hurt while I was getting it done, but it’s starting to hurt a little now. I’m going to take a couple of painkillers and have a sleep, okay?”
“Sure, baby. I have a bio assignment to do anyway, so I can work on that while you sleep,” Zach said as he pulled into the car park and into his spot. I got out of his car carefully, and walked slowly up the stairs to his apartment.

Zach used his key to let us in and I headed straight for the kitchen cupboard, where I knew Zach and Ryan kept the painkillers. I grabbed the box and popped two out of the packaging, before swallowing them along with a glass of water that Zach got for me. My hips were really starting to hurt. I stood on my tiptoes and pecked Zach on the lips before I left the kitchen and headed towards his bedroom. On the way there, I noticed Ryan watching TV on the couch.
“Hey Ry.”
“Hi, sweetie.” Ryan has a thing with calling everyone he meets pet names like ‘sweetie’ and ‘gorgeous’. It freaks some people out, but I’m used to it. “Nice hips. Must be sore, though?”
I grinned. “Thanks. And yeah, they are a bit... Well, anyway, I’m going to have a nap for a bit.”
“M’kay, sleep well,” Ryan replied vaguely, turning back to the TV.

I made my way into Zach’s room and gingerly lowered myself onto his bed and flattened myself out. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light. I guess that’s what you get when you have conversations with your boyfriend at 3am about things that could’ve definitely waited until the morning. Oh well.