This Must be Fiction

I was shocked to see Ville sitting on the bed when I woke up. I thought I was seeing things at first, but there he was. His legs were stretched out and he was flipping through TV channels.

"Ah good morning love." He said quietly. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and managed a very drawn out stretch.

"Hey." I grumbled. I practically sprinted into the bathroom to wash the left over make-up from my face and tie my hair up before Ville got the chance to judge my morning persona. I brushed my teeth too, I got the feeling I was drooling last night. After deciding I was ready for Ville to see me, I stepped carefully from the bathroom. He was sitting right where I left him.

"So we're in California now. What was your plan of action once we got here?" Ville asked. I
jumped on the bed beside him and rubbed my chin, pondering.

"I guess... I didn't have a plan. I guess I thought I'd just figure it out once I got here. Any ideas?"

"Not a one. But we're near Los Angelas, and I'm kind of familiar with the area, so we could just explore for a bit if you like." He said.

I agreed and got dressed. I chose plain denim shorts and a lime green tank top with large black skulls running down the left side of it. Laundry needed to be done soon, as I had already re-worn some of my pants. Luckily, I had packed plenty of tee-shirts and tops, but finding clean pants was becomming a hassle. I only brought three types of shoes, also, so that was an issue. I thought about going shoe shopping as i laced up my black converse.

Ville called a cab for us instead of having either one of us drive. Driving was getting annoying. He offered to pay, and looked at me apologetically. Considering I wanted to go shoe shopping, I let him. It was weird that he wanted to pay for everything because usually it was quite the opposite with every other person. I mean come on, I was in college, no one wants to pay for anything.

Once we got to the heart of L.A. I got excited. How did I managed to make it here? Crazy. I had expected to see famous people walking casually too and from, but to my surprise it was mostly just deathly thin girls and guys that were orange from tanning. Not that I was out of shape, but I started to feel ugly around all of these model characters.

"Stop." Ville said from beside me. I looked up at him.

"Stop what?"

"Stop feeling like that. I can tell you're being self-conscious."

"Well... what do you expect? This people are all insanely gorgeous."

"You really think so? You think that these people are beautiful? This is how you picture beauty?" he looked around. As he looked at everyone walking, I gazed at him.

"I guess not. They aren't what I think of as beautiful." I was still looking at Ville. He could tell that my statement was directed at him.

"Good. Because I don't think they're beautiful either." He looked back at me, and our eyes met for a glorious moment. We both knew what we were talking about. I blinked, and he was looking straight ahead once again.

"Good to know." I said quietly to myself. Ville said he had to make a visit to a friend's tattoo shop. I neglected to go and told him I would meet him there when I was done shoe shopping.

He strolled away, floating, as he seemed to do, and I watched for a few seconds before starting my search for shoe stores. There were a lot, but none that I thought I could really afford. There was one small shop that looked interesting. The bricks on the exterior were painted pitch black. There was no sign or anything on the outside, but there was clothing and plenty of shoes in the window. The door rang once I walked into the almost empty store. I was blasted with cool air and a smell of old newspapers. It reminded me of a thrift store back home. The clerk at the counter looked at me from the corner of his eye and then continued to read his book. There was only one other man in the store, he was covered in tattoos and piercings. He eyed me from the magazine section.

I walked over to the shoe section and immediately decided I needed two pairs. One was a pair of silver high heels, covered in silver glitter. They were so sexy I needed to have them. The price tag said twenty bucks, and I couldn't disagree with that. The other pair were a pair of plain ballet flats with what looked to be blood spattered all over them, with a few speckles of glitter in the spaces between. They were fifteen, i had to have them too. I browsed the clothes for a bit, not being too interested. I stumbled upon a book section. One thing caught my eye. It was a leather-bound book with no title. I flipped through the pages and found a description of the book. It read:

"Anything you'd ever need to know about vampires lies in these pages. If you've ever been skeptical, scared, affected, or in love with a vampire, open to page one, and study this blood lusting human hunter."

The writing was chilling, and I felt myself immediately connected to the book. Ok, why not?
The book cost more than my shoes combined, so my shopping had come to an end for the day. But if this book wasn't worth my time I'd sell it to a used book store and make maybe half of what I spent on in the first place, but I knew that this was something I needed to read.
I followed the directions Ville gave me to the tattoo shop, and I ended up at a place called High Voltage. It was yellow on the outside and there were a lot of people coming in and out of the shop. I pushed the door open nervously and stepped in quietly. My eyes adjusted to the indoor lights and I was facing a polite looking woman writing something down at the front desk.

"Hi how can I help you?" She asked. She glanced at the shopping bag in my hand and then looked back at me.

"I'm um.. looking for my friend. He came in here about an hour ago maybe?"

"Sure, what's his name sweetie?" She put down her writing utensil. I looked around quickly for Ville but didn't see him anywhere in the massive place.

"Ville." I said. "He came here to see his friend."

The woman looked slightly shocked for a half a second and then returned her polite smile.

"Just a sec." she walked briskly to the back of the shop to a group of people who were talking. The group got quiet, and then turned in my direction all at once. I immediately blushed and thought about how i should have just waited outside. Ville rose from the center of the group and walked towards me slowly.

"Come on, I want you to meet Kat." He pulled my hand and I was forced towards the back of the shop where the rest of the people were waiting. They stared at me while I walked, making my ears and face hot with embarassment.

I waved quickly at everyone staring.

"Hi."

"You must be Molly!" An incredibly gorgeous woman stood up and hugged me. She was so radient that it was difficult not to stare like I was seeing a ghost. She was covered in tattoos head to toe, even some on her face, but her captivating features were only eccentuated by them. Her hair hair was long and black and curled, her eyes a deep brown, and her lips a ruby red and it didn't look as though she was wearing any lipstick. Her voice was deep and hearty, but so lovely all the same.

"Yes, It's nice to meet you." I smiled. She had her hands on my shoulders and I could feel how cold they were, almost like Ville's.

"I'm Kat. Ville's told me so much about you, I feel like I know you already." She laughed, long and low. I smiled at her, she was so welcoming that my shyness was wearing away. She introduced me to the people in the group surrounding Ville and I waved to everyone but knew I would never remember their names. Ville beamed at me, and wrapped an arm around my waist, almost acting like we were a couple. The heat returned to my face and I could not even look at him.

"Hey, since you've been treating this guy so great, why don't I give you a tattoo? Consider it a 'thanks for not giving this guy so much shit' present." She looked at me. I nodded.

"Sure, what'd you have in mind?" I asked.

"Hmm.. is there anything you really want?" She asked. I looked at the floor for a second, thinking.

"Not really." Ville's arm was still wrapped around me, making me nervous. How was I supposed to respond to question with his arm resting on my hips?

"How about something similar to one of Ville's?" I looked up at Ville who was still beaming at me.

"Lift up your shirt." I told him.

"What?"

"Let's see it stud." I told him again. There were snicklers from the surrounding group. He lifted his shirt up to his shoulders and I pointed to his nipple. The intricate heart and triangle swirled around his chest and I loved the look it gave his pale skin.

"Something like that would be cool." I said. Kat laughed again.

"Alright great. Where are we gunna put it?" She asked. I thought for a second.

"My hip."

"Alright you guys can chill for a few minutes, I'll draw something up."

Ville reclaimed his seat from the middle of the room and I took Kat's previous seat. The people around us stopped chatting and looked at the two of us. Everyone was covered in tattoos and I felt so extremely out of place. Ville smiled at me, trying to reassure me that these people were his friends and they weren't trying to put me on the spot. Yes, I got all of that information out of one smile from Ville.

"So Molly, what do you do?" A young man asked. He had a British accent and slicked back black hair. He was uncommonly handsome. I giggled nervously.

"Well I'm currently a student, so I've been working at a taco shop in Buffalo."

The group laughed. They continued asked me some mundane questions until eventually light conversation broke out between everyone and I became comfortable. Kat strolled back over to us and held up a piece of paper with a tattoo very similar to Ville's.

"How's this?"

"That's great! Wow I can't believe you're actually giving me a tattoo." I stood up to face her.

"Aw it's no problem! My schedules clear for the rest of the day and like I said, it's a thanks for treating Ville so great. He's got his ways of alienating himself." She joked. Kat led me over to a table where I laid down and had to shimmy out of my jean shorts so they were barely hanging on my body. Ville started walking around the room after he said good-bye to his friends, and the entire group left the shop except for the British man and another tattoo artist who went busily to work on a client.

"So what made you want this tattoo?" Kat asked as she got the ink and gun ready.

"Umm... well I guess it will always be a sort of reminder of how I met Ville.. our trip... sort of a reflection on my choices, I suppose."

"How very regal of you." Kat joked. Ville had meandered away and was inspecting some stuff around the shop. I happened to notice that High Voltage was covered in similar symbols to the one I was getting tattooed on my hip.

"This might be a crazy question.." I started.

"Mhmm.." Kat mumbled as she got some stuff ready.
"but what does this symbol stand for? Ville's got it on him a couple times and it's all over your shop... but I can't figure it out."

Kat looked at me with a wide open mouth.

"You don't know? Haven't you heard of Ville's band?" She asked.

"Well yeah when he told me about it."

"Oh my gosh I can't believe you're getting this without even knowing what it stands for! It's his bands symbol, well technically it's HIM's and Bam's symbol. Called a heartagram." She said.

"Oh... well I hadn't really heard of HIM before Ville... is it bad of me to be getting this without even knowing them?"

Kat looked at me without speaking for a second.

"You know what? I think this tattoo has more to do with what you guys have done over the past few days than anything else, but I have a feeling you'll appreciate it as time goes on." She paused. "But, I'll play some HIM for you. Have you ever heard them at all?"
I shook my head.

"Well what a good time to rock out then huh?" She winked and asked the woman at the front desk to put in a CD. I heard a piano at first, then guitars, and finally Ville's voice boomed over the music. My draw dropped. This is Ville? Holy shit! How did I not know this? Why am I such an idiot? This is amazing!

Ville looked over at me and Kat and then continued poking around. If I could have guessed I would say he was embarassed, but I couldn't see him. The music was so loud it encompassed every other sound in the shop. I felt like crying. This was Ville? That was his voice?

"Pretty great right?" Kat shouted. I just nodded. She held up then tattoo gun as if to ask if I was ready, I nodded again. Ville made his way over to us and sat down by my side. I held my hand out for him to take because I was worried about the pain. He grabbed it and I was immediately relieved. He smiled at me and winked, making my stomach turn in knots.

Kat began the tattoo and the pain was not bad. It was more annoying than anything. None of us spoke because of the music, and I preferred it that way. I needed to hear this. About thirty minutes later, Kat announced she was finished and the music was shut off, leaving an eerie silence in its place. I walked over to the mirror and couldn't stop smiling. This was my tattoo. And it matched Ville's. This was crazy. Ville put his hands on my shoulders and kissed the top of my head. He then lifted up his shirt to reveal his tattoo and we laughed together.

"Looks so great!" Kat shouted at the two of us.

"Thank you so much!" I embraced Kat. She put some sort of ointment on the tattoo and then a bandage and told me to keep it out of the sun for a while. Ville and Kat hugged for a long time before we left, and we both reassured her that we'd be back sometime soon.

I grabbed my shoes and book and walked out into the L.A. nightlife. Ville grabbed my hand again and I took it greatfully.

"I'm glad you got that." He said.

"Me too. I'm more glad that I got to hear your band. That was amazing Ville." I said bashfully.

"Well thanks." He said in a joking tone. We were silent for a bit and Ville hailed us a cab.

"Shall we go out drinking tonight?" Ville asked.

"Yes! Please I would love to."