Fallon’s head moved up and down vigorously, and I chuckled. I made my way back over to her and flopped down onto the bed. I stole some of the covers and covered up my lower half out of respect, because Fallon’s gaze seemed to shy away from it.
“That one…” she whispered. I followed her line of sight and saw she was looking at the tattoo on my rib. I moved my torso over to the right, my abs flexing with the movement – now that… that was something she noticed. I smirked on the inside.
“What about it?” I asked.
“That’s the one… That’s the one I said I liked at the shop.”
I thought back to when we were at the tattoo shop, when she was admiring all the sketches underneath the glass counter. “I remember.”
“It means ‘Be You,’ right?” I nodded as I watched her fingers slowly inch their way over to my body. Her blue eyes flicked up to mine, and gave her the approval, then I felt her warm, trembling fingers on my skin. I inhaled a sharp breath and adjusted my lower half, annoyed that goosebumps were forming on my skin.
What in the fuck has gotten into me?
If Fallon noticed my sharp inhale of breath, she didn’t say anything. She just traced the black lines of my tattoos over and over again. It felt good. Too good.
“How come you only have them on your chest and nowhere else?” she questioned, her fingers moving back over to the tattoo on my side.
I lifted a shoulder. “A lot of these were the guys practicing. I didn’t want them to mess up on a part of my body that was always visible.”
Fallon gasped. “You let the guys practice on your skin?! You didn’t care if they messed up?”
I chuckled. “Everyone has to start somewhere, right? At least it’s not on my face or something.”
Fallon removed her hand and laughed. “That would be bad.”
I raised my eyebrows and looked at her. “Yeah, I don’t think I’d let either one of them come near my face with a needle. I don’t trust them enough to not tattoo a dick or something.”
She continued to giggle, covering her mouth with her hand. It caused my cheeks to rise.
“Did you get that one for a reason?”
“Which one are you referring to?”
A small pink blush appeared on her cheeks, and I just couldn’t help it; I loved watching embarrassment steal the color off her face. It was adorable.
“The ‘Be You’ one.”
I carefully brought my attention from the tattoo displayed on my rib up to her face. “That was one of the first ones I got.” I swallowed, pulling my body a little more upright so we were in line with one another. I felt the cool wall scrape my back but ignored the sting. “I told you I was kind of a hellion as a teenager, right?” She nodded. “Well, I kind of had a hard time expressing who I really was, what I really wanted. My parents wanted me to take over the family business, the one that Dawson ended up taking over.” She nodded again, indicating she remembered. “I basically ran away from home and didn’t come back for years.”
She opened her mouth. “You ran away from Oak Hill?”
I laughed and looked away. “Yeah. I kind of went on an adventure to find myself. I wanted to explore the real me.”
“And you found out that you liked being the real you…I’m assuming?”
I nodded. “Yep. I guess you could say that I sort of found myself.”
A tiny smile appeared on her face. “So that whole ‘I quit giving a fuck what people thought’ thing came from all of that soul searching you did?”
I snickered. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.” I looked away for a second before bringing my attention back to her. “So anyway, after I reconciled with my parents, and we got over the whole ordeal, I got that tattoo as a little reminder.”
Her face suddenly turned serious as her eyes bounced back and forth between the tattoo and me. “A little reminder to be yourself…even if it doesn’t please others.”
“Yep.”
Silence passed between us. I sat back and stared at her wandering eyes. They roamed all around the room, and I could tell she was having some type of internal battle about the shit going on in her life.
Fallon’s life was kind of a shitshow.