Creatures

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock. I grunted as I pushed my face out of the small puddle of drool on my pillow. When I forced myself out of bed, I dragged my feet all the way downstairs to put on the coffee. I was so tired that I ended up crawling back up the steps. I lay down at the top, sprawled out.

"I wanna go back to bed." I whined.

I picked myself back up, not being able to wait for the nice hot shower that I was about to take, but not having the heart to make myself go any faster. When I got back into my room, I looked at my bed longingly. I cursed myself for having a job that made me wake up so early, and walked into my bathroom, stripping off my clothes and walking into the warm water of my shower, semi waking up. I washed my hair and self, wrapping myself and hair into a towel as I stepped out. I sat on the toilet for a minute before getting dressed.

I put on a gray tank top with a bunch of black anchors on it, and a dark denim skirt. I slipped in a different pair of gauges and slid a purple and black studded belt into my belt loops, with a bracelet to match, finalizing my jewelry pick with an anchor ring.

While I still had a towel on my head, I walked downstairs. I made three pancakes, slipping two of them in the microwave for Hailey and Skylar. I put a note on the front telling them that the food was in there, and had my pancake with butter, syrup, and my mug of coffee.

I grabbed my phone, book, keys, and bag on the way out to work, slipping on a pair of lime green Dr. Martens before I walked out of the door. I had stopped on the way at Starbucks to get more caffeine for my day at the shop.

"Hi, Hali." Matt smirked as I walked in. I rolled my eyes at him, remembering his actions two days ago, leaving me with awkward feelings towards him.

"Listen, Hali. I'm sorry for what happened Friday. I thought I would just have gone for it, or that I had a chance, because I really like you. Guess I was wrong?" He chuckled, feeling that this situation and conversation was just as awkward as I thought it was.

"Obviously." I said, bluntly.

"Can you please forgive me?" He begged, seeming like my forgiveness meant a lot to him.

"Why should I?" I glared at him.

"Because we're co-workers. It will suck if we hate each other." I had to admit, there was some sense in what he was saying. "Please?" He asked, biting his lip.

"Fine." I sighed. He seemed like he was about to hug me, then decided against it. Good. I didn't want him to feel any where near comfortable with putting his hands on me.

"Well, I'm going to go set up in the back. I have some early appointments coming in. A lot of dermals. You know how much I hate doing those." I grunted, causing Matt to chuckle as he started wiping down the counter.

I went to the back, and started setting up the supplies, and taking all of the barbells, circular barbells, bananabells, studs, and ball closure rings to the front, so Matt could set them up in the counter display. I wiped down my area, and set up some art I had brought in. Liam, our boss, allows us to decorate up or spaces. The walls in my area were a deep purple, seeing as that was my favourite colour.

I had many posters in here that I also had in my room. Cradle of Filth, HIM, Bela Lugosi, a lot of stuff. I had some of my literature set up in here. It was dark and mystical, but serene and friendly. I wiped down the dark purple leather chair I had, where the person who I was doing work on would get their piercing. It folded back for people who were getting anything below their collar bone or stuff on their back.

I put on the HIM 'Dark Light' album, for something to listen to, then Matt called me to the front.

"Hal!" He called. "Appointment." He said. I walked to the front, while Matt handed me the paperwork. "I already got it done for you." He smiled. I signed the paper, stating that I was the one doing the piercing. It was a legal issue, in case some dip shit who didn't take care of their piercing, or for some god forsaken reason, the piercing didn't do the work right, and it got infected, or some shit, the piercer had to take the responsibility.

Matt handed me a barbell the customer bought, for their bridge piercing.

"Come on." I smiled at the girl and her friend, as they came back with me to my area. The girl who was getting the piercing sat in the chair, and I put the chair back, so she was lying down. The girl who tagged along with her stood by her, holding her hands. I took a needle out of its wrap, and put on my latex gloves. I set the barbell down on the tray, screwing a ball off of the end. I stood over the girl, and marked where the need was going to go through with washable marker. When I had the closing pliers clamped down on her bridge, I instructed her to take a deep breath, and to breath out as the needle was going through. So she did so.

When I had the barbell in, and she was paying at the register, she thanked me and walked out. I had done hip piercings, cheek piercings, so many lip and nose piercings, eyebrow piercings, and oh god, a corset piercing until it was time for my break. Skylar met up with me, since she was on her break, too, and she was working as a hair dresser apprentice across the street as me. We went to a small Mexican style restaurant, which in my opinion, has the best salsa in the whole entire world.

"So, how's work?" She asked, stirring her strawberry lemonade around with her straw.

"So many piercings. I'm so fucking tired." Took a sip of my Coke and put my head on the table.

"Well. At least you don't have to cut hair. God. I'm starting to hate it." She whined.

"Then don't do it!" I laughed.

"I like it, but, it's so much work." She said, purposely being over dramatic about the conversation.

"I don't even want to get started on Matt." I chuckled.

"You're co-worker? Why? What happened?" She asked, putting her mouth back on her straw, which is what she chewed on every time she was listening to me.

"Friday, he tried to plant some moves on me." I said, shaking my head, taking another sip.

"Oh, ew." She distorted her face.

"What do you mean?" I asked, knowing what she meant, and already agreeing with her.

"Not to be a bitch, but, he's kind of not so attractive." She got wide eyed. I couldn't help myself but laugh. That's when our food finally came.

"So, what do you think of the new neighbors?" I asked Skylar.

"Well, they're all definitely attractive." She said, waiting until she was done chewing.

"Which one did you think was cuter." I knew this girl all too well.

"The one with the facial hair." She admitted.

"Oh. His name is Angelo." She burst out in laughter at the name.

"He's so cute!" She giggled.

'He really is. So, do you think you like him?" I smirked.

"No. Yes. Kind of. I don't know. I don't really know this boy, you know?" She said.

"Well, you know they're in a band." I told her the information I found out yesterday.

"What band?" She asked.

"Motionless in White." I gave her the name.

"Didn't your cousin make us listen to a song by them once?" Her memory ticked in.

"Yeah. But don't go acting all fan girly around them. That will weird them out." I made sure to tell her that.

"Speaking of your cousin, she called like, an hour after you left." She took another bite of her food.

"Really? What did she say?" I asked, making a mental note to call her back when I got home.

"She said it was urgent that you called her as soon as you were able to." I wondered why she didn't just call my cell phone. If I wasn't doing a piercing, I would have picked up.

When Skylar and I were done, we payed our bill, and having 15 minutes left, we went to the small book store that was next to 'Needles', the shop I worked at. I went to the horror section. I picked out 'Stiff' by Mary Roach and 'The Antichrist' by Friedrich Nietzsche. They were two of the very few books I hadn't had out of the horror section. Along with the books, I bought a few candles that were...you guessed it...dark purple.

"By, babe." Skylar kissed my cheek and hugged me, as we parted ways. I stored my stuff in my car, and walked back into the shop.

"And she's back, with one minute to spare." Matt joked.

"Sorry, decided to go to the bookstore next door after lunch." I told him, while walking back to my area, once again clearing it off. Fortunately, on Mondays, I got off at 3 in the afternoon because there were other piercers in the shop.

I parked in the driveway when I got home, and took my stuff in the house. I kicked off my Docs and sprawled on my bed, continue the Lovecraft book I was reading. After about half an hour, I heard a small knock on my door.

"Come in!" I called out, not taking my eyes off the words I was reading.

"Hey." I heard Ricky's already familiar voice.

"Shut the door." I said, monotonously, hearing the door quietly being closed.

"So what's up?" he plopped down on my bed.

"Here, let me finish reading this chapter." I told him, almost being done with it. With that, he got out something from my bookshelf and started reading along with me. When I folded the page, signaling I was done with it, I closed the book and put it down in front of me, looking over at what Ricky was reading. He had been reading my stories and poems. I blushed, seeing how he liked them, or, seemed to like them.

I didn't notice my stare drifted from my notebook to his face until he smiled at me.

"Hey." He said. "What'cha looking at?" He teased.

"You have something in your teeth." I lied. His mouth immediately closed, and he took out his phone for a reflection.

"Do not!" He chuckled.

"Yeah, I know. They're only extremely white and shiny." I mentally facepalmed. I don't know how, but I always seemed to say something stupid in front of Ricky.

"So what's up?" He asked.

"Well, I just got off of work, so I decided to try and finish my book." I said, starting to stretch my torso backwards, while I was laying on my belly, and bending my knees, making my feet touch the crown of my head. From when I was 4 until last year, I had been a dancer. I was still able to do everything I used to.

My teachers always insisted I had become a Prima Ballerina, since on top of hardcore ballet lessons, all private, I had been taking rhythmic gymnastics, too. When I was done stretching, I looked back at Ricky, who was looking at me, wide eyed.

"What?" I asked, like nothing was wrong.

"That's insane." He said.

"What is?" I said, still confused.

"You just like, made your feet touch your head." He said, astonished.

"Yeah? What about it?" I didn't see what was wrong with it.

"How did you do it?" He asked, again.

"I have been dancing for 16 years." I started letting him in a little about my life.

"That's awesome!" He exclaimed.

"Thank you." I accepted the compliment. "So what about you? What's your past?"

"Well, I like dark literature. HIM. Bela Lugosi. I play bass and guitar. I love to read." He smiled. It was so sweet and calming.

"You're exactly like me." I smiled in awe, causing him to chuckle.

"You're adorable." He smiled.

"You's cute, too." I smiled back. Suddenly, I remembered about my cousin. "Ah, shit." I mumbled, taking out my phone.

"What?" Ricky asked, concerned.

"Have to call my cousin." I said, while pressing the call button. She answered on the third ring.

"It's about damn time." She said. I could hear she was in a car.

"What's up? Is something wrong?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.

"Me and my mom got in another huge fight. I couldn't stand it, so I left." She said.

"Oh. I'm sorry. Can I do anything to help?" I asked.

"Well, you have four rooms, right?" She asked.

"Yeah, you know I do. There's one open, if you want to come stay here." I offered, even though I knew she was going to ask.

"Alright, I'll head over there, I have all my stuff packed already." She admitted.

"That a girl." I giggled.

"I'll pay rent. But I only have about two thousand saved up, so I'll have to get a job." She said.

"I'll help you. Remember, I don't have work on weekends and Wednesdays." I reminded her about my work schedule.

"Okay. I'll see you in a few days. I'm driving." She sighed. She lived in Miami, and we lived in Los Angelas.

"Alright. Be safe." I warned.

"Don't worry about me, you know I will." She chuckled.

"I love you." I smiled.

"Love you, too. Bye." Click.

"What happened?" Ricky asked.

"Cousin's coming to live with us." I said, putting my phone down.

"That's cool." He sighed. I was still trying to get myself comfortable with him, so there were still awkward silences between us.

The next sound was Ricky's phone ringing.

"Hello? Yeah, I'm next door. Okay, I'll be over. Really? That was quick." He chuckled. "Alright. Bye." Then he hung up his phone and turned to me.

"So what's up?" I asked.

"TJ, Angelo, and Ryan decided they wanted to come home early." He looked down. "I knew they wouldn't last for a week." He chuckled. His laugh made my stomach flutter. He was so adorable. But, no. I couldn't like him. I built my walls up for a reason.

"What else?" I asked, interested.

"Well, Chris and Balz said a new episode of the Office was on. I kind of want to watch it." He admitted.

"Oh." I said, looking down, and playing with my thumbs.

"You can come if you'd like." He offered.

"Okay!" I said, shooting up, slipping on some flip flops, showing off the tattoo on my foot which said in small script "Let Death Not Deprive Us." It was my only tattoo, and I planned on getting more, soon.

We walked over, to find that there was an Office marathon on. "Chris. Balz." I greeted them.

"Tsup, gorgeous?" Balz teased.

"Hey, Hal." He smiled. I sat in between Chris and Ricky, and I noticed that there was a bunch of junk food on the coffee table. Chris must have noticed me staring at it intently, because he offered for me to help myself, and that I did.

"You're going to eat yourself in weight." Ricky teased me. I had grown to notice that his arm was around my shoulders.

"I'm like a bottomless pit." I joked.

I remember it being really late, and falling asleep over at their house. I woke up in the middle of the night, and all of the lights and such were turned off, and I noticed that I was laying on Ricky. Under usual circumstances, I would get up and go home, but I was far too tired, so I put my head back down, falling back to sleep, instantly.

(c)Shannon.