Tattooed

“Shit. I have to go.” I grabbed my shoes and guitar before running into the house.

“Why isn’t diner cooked?” He was glaring down at me.

“Because it’s only 4 and you weren’t supposed to be home for another 2 hours?” I was careful choosing my words and trying not to sound condescending.

“Get to cooking.” He shoved me into the wall and went into his office shutting the door. The sliding glass door I’d just came in slid open and Zack walked over.

“Are you ok?” He touched my arm.

“Yeah. You should go home. He’ll get pissed if you’re here.” I kept staring at my feet as I walked into the kitchen and started pulling out the things I’d need to cook.

“I’ll help.” He started grabbing things.

“Zack.” I placed my hand on his. “It’d fine. Go home.”

“But… I want to help.”

“Fine but he can’t see you here.” I sighed in defeat. We made dinner joking around a bit and talking about music making sure to be quiet.

“Hey honey. Oh Zack, what are you doing here?” My mother walked in the kitchen dropping her purse on the counter.

“I thought I’d help Danni make dinner.” He smiled down at her.

“Are you planning on joining us?” She grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. Zack looked at me receiving a shrug.

“If that’d be ok, I’d love to.” I put the finishing touches on the food as they were walking.

“It’s done. Zack can you help me set the table?” I grabbed a stack of plates but he took them from me.

“I got it.” He set the table by himself refusing to let me help as my mom went to tell Aaron dinner was ready.

“What are you doing here?” were the first words out of his mouth. I could smell the vodka on him.

“Mrs. Johnson ask me to stay for dinner.” Zack gave a fake smile. Aaron just gave my mom a disapproving look. He wasn’t going to lose him temper with Zack here and for that I was thankful. We ate fairly quietly; Zack and Aaron across from each other, glaring while the other wasn’t looking.

“Danni, Zack, the meal was delicious!” My mom and Zack were helping clear the table after Aaron had slipped back into his office. “Thank you for helping Zack.”

“No problem.” He smiled.

“I’m so glad to see you two getting along. I’m happy you’ve made friend Danni. I was so worried you wouldn’t.”

“I actually have 7 other friends too.” I shook my head. I’m not that unlikable…

“Really? That’s surprising.” She actually looked shocked.

“Yeah mom.” She slipped off to somewhere I didn’t pay attention to as I started the dishes. Zack joined me.

“Looks like your mom has a lot of faith in you to find friends.” Sarcasm dripping all over that statement.

“I know right.” I laughed and we quickly did the dishes.

“Hey, you want to hang out at the mall? I’ll see if Zina wouldn’t mind giving us a ride.” He offered once all the dishes were put up.

“Sounds fun.” He disappeared out of the sliding door. I ran upstairs and grabbed the was of money my dad had given counting it. Damn, he gave me $900. I know what I’m blowing it on! I went back downstairs to see Zack walking to the door. I met him there.

“Let’s go.” His smile still made me melt.

“Let me put shoes on.” Once I had then on I followed Zack out the front door and to the car. We arrived at the mall quickly.

“Meet me back here in 2 hours.” Zina said running to meet a group of her friends.

“So where do you want to start?” Zack’s arm was once again on my shoulders.

“Anywhere. Some me places of interest.” He just chuckled and started to lead me through the mall. I saw a place up ahead and immediately grabbed him hand, pulling him in.

“I should have known taking a girl to the mall we’d end up shopping for clothes.” He sighed. The store was filled with band t-shirts, jeans covered in chains, and other things. (Like Hot Topic before they went gay.)

“Oh come on. I’m not bad I promise. Besides, I’m in here for you!” He looked at me confused. “Trust me. What size do you wear?”

“Large.” He was still skeptical. I should have figured with his muscles he’d need bigger than he looked. “If you’re making me dress up, you have to too.”

“Deal.” I smiled wickedly and started grabbing random band shirts of bands he‘s mentioned, a few pairs of dark jeans, and a pair of black Chuck Taylor’s. I found him with a stack of clothes in his hands.

“Here.” He switched the piles of clothes and we headed into the dressing rooms; we were next to each other. I have to admit he did have some fashion sense. “Ready?” He asked after a few minutes.

“Yeah.” I walked out wearing a low sitting tutu like black and hot pink skirt paired with a top that had only the right sleeve, tied on the left side next to my breast, angling from my shoulder to the tie then back down to my right hip leaving most of my left side uncovered. It had the stripes that followed the angles causing a triangle effect.

“Wow. I did good!” I looked Zack head to toe. He was wearing black Misfit’s shirt with a pair of ripped jeans. My jaw dropped. This was definitely a pleasant change from his normal more preppy look.

“Something’s missing… Got it!” I ran over to the hats and grabbed a black on that had “LA” on it in white. I put it on his head. He smiled.

“I actually like this.” He looked himself over in the mirror.

“Good. Now try something else.” We spent a good hour trying on clothes the other picked out. Zack looked so much better when he wasn’t wear that stuffy crap he had been.

“We should be getting ready to head out. We’ve got half an hour.” He said through the wall as we were putting our original clothes on. Once out I took the stack of clothes he had along with mine and walked up to the register.

“Did you find everything ok?” The woman asked ringing everything up. I nodded.

“You can’t buy me all of that!” Zack protested.

“Can, will, and am,” I smiled at him.

“That’ll be $489.50” The lady said looking at the register. I handed her the money and grabbed the bags.

“You can pay me back by buying me shinny objects when you’re famous. Baseball players make good money.” I laughed. He took the bags from me.

“I’m at least carrying the bags.” I rolled my eyes as we walked out of the store. I spotted a music store.

“Do we have time to go in there?” I pointed.

“Yeah, for a few minutes.” He walked straight to the guitars. He set the bags down and picked up left-handed crimson Gibson SG.

“It’s pretty.” I ran my hand down the neck. I smiled nodding and start to strum on it. An idea popped into my head but I’d have to do it later when he wasn’t with me. He looked at his watch. “We better get going…” He reluctantly put it down and grabbed the bags. We made it home around 9:45.

“I’ll see you in the morning. I had fun today.” We were standing at my door. We had tried to separate the clothes the best we could but there was so much it was hard.

“I did too.” I got lost in his prefect eyes as he leaned down. His lips landed softly on mine causing the bag in my hands to fall to the porch as I wrapped my arms around his neck, his arms round me resting on the small of my back. He pulled away resting his forehead on mine again. I looked up into his eyes and it seemed everything was right in the world. Our moment was cut short yet again by Aaron opening the door.

“Get inside.” He was glaring. Zack pulled me into a tight embrace before allowing me to disappear into the house to receive another beating.