Chapter 13

I haven't seen Kendall since Disneyland and it's been around a month. However, we talked almost everyday on the phone. Literally sitting and laughing on a phone call for at least an hour at a time. Our longest call was four hours, and that genuinely made me wonder why we didn't just hang out for that long instead. But I assumed it was because had I went over to his place, or he came to mine, it would've been an all night chat session rather than a four hour one as he and I had gotten pretty close. We talked a lot about a lot, but also about nothing. I was already losing more sleep than I could afford as classes went on and I continued to let myself spend a lot of time talking with Kendall. It also didn't help that Gabby was getting slammed with shifts at the coffee shop, so I hardly saw her as well. But we'd send texts every so often, but usually the other would be busy doing something and we'd never hold a steady conversation for longer than a few texts. Besides, was still stressing over classes. I was behind in more than one class and I felt like I was going to explode. 

Whenever I was asleep, which was always when I wasn't at class or talking to Kendall, I always dreamt I was frantically trying to get papers printed, assignments done, or trying to get my car to start so I could get to class for an exam I had studied all night for. I was in the middle of one of those dreams when my phone was playing a BTR song, which I had set specifically for Kendall. I groaned and grabbed it.

"My car won't start." I complained still living in my dream land, not even opening my eyes to speak.

"What? Really?" He asked after a moment of silence. I groaned again.

"What? No. Sorry. Bad dream." I told him rubbing my eyes. He sighed.

"It's noon, Sophia." He said. My eyes opened wide as I bolted up.

"Are you kidding me?! I missed two classes!" I said putting him on speaker, and throwing the phone on the bed.

"Sophia, it's-" he was saying.

"It's not okay, Kendall! I'm going to be even more behind in Lit and I can't be behind anymore before I start to fail!" I explained throwing on random pieces of clothing from around my room which was uncharacteristically messy for me. I had a hoodie on as I tossed my hair into a bun. Sweats and a hoodie would have to do for today's UCLA full ride scholarship failure.

"Why didn't my alarm go off?!" I asked annoyed with technology.

"Sophia! It's Saturday!" Kendall hollered through the phone speaker. I stopped mid balancing on one foot to slip on a Croc onto my  other foot. I sighed closing my eyes. Thank God.

"It is?" I asked him. He chuckled.

"You are stressing me out about you stressing out." Kendall laughed on the speaker. I laughed and sighed feeling like I was about to cry at how stressed I was.

"I know. I need help." I said lying back on the sheets that were in a mound on my mattress.

"I have another surprise for you, if you'd get out of your cave of a bedroom and wake up." He teased me. I sighed looking up at the ceiling.

"What surprise is it this time?" I asked him. He chuckled.

"You'll see. Think about things you love and would like to see forever. Also, how good are you with needles?" He asked before laughing at my gasp. He then hung up before I could say anything. I was apparently getting a tattoo or piercing today. Numbers seven and eight on the list. I jumped in the shower and tried getting myself energized enough to not fall asleep in there which had happened at least once. I woke up to very cold water on my feet as I had curled up on the shower floor in the corner. I threw on a light pink skater dress with a white collar and white high top Converse. I left my hair to air dry and straightened itself out and did my everyday look along with my glasses. I then waited in the living room about to fall asleep again.

A knock woke me up. Kendall. I got up and answered the door. Sure enough there he was in a Young and Reckless top with jeans and sunglasses hanging off his collar. "Ready?" He asked excitedly. I nodded smiling. We walked down to the elevator and rode it in silence until it stopped and Kendall started talking.

"I hope you're okay with this. I mean I made the appointment and everything, but I made one for me too so I can go first if you want, but you can go first if you'd like." Kendall rambled. I giggled. I looked over at him to my right. He seemed nervous which was weird, he had a lot of tattoos.

"Why do you look how I'm suppose to be looking? Nervous about something?" I asked him. I was pretty calm, but I'm sure as soon as I got there I'd be freaking out.

"I'm nervous for you really. I'm not a nervous guy for myself, just my friends." He shrugged smiling. I smiled.

"Don't be worried until we're there because that's when I might urinate all over the place." I teased as he laughed at my blunt comment.

"Well, on that note, miss." He said unlocking his car as we walked outside and he put on his sunglasses. He then opened the passengers door and held the door for me. I thanked him and slid in. He got in then and we drove to a little tattoo parlor. Kendall and I walked in quietly as another man was getting a tattoo.

"Nervous now?" Kendall asked as the man getting the tattoo looked like a big biker guy, so that explained why he wasn't squirming.

"What does it feel like?" I whispered as we stood close to the door.

"Well, it's different for everyone. Carlos said it was like a digging in his skin with some burning, but he said that for his all fill black tattoo on his ribs so that's probably why. I however, don't feel the burning. It's just like a lot of rubbing with a few scratches every so often." He said. "But it also depends on what you get, like if it's colored in or just outlining." He said looking at the examples along the walls. I bit my lip thinking, what have I gotten myself into? I stood next to him as the man finished up with the man in the chair and then came over to us.

"What can I help you with today?" He asked seeming nice enough. Kendall looked at me and as he saw how shy I suddenly got he smiled at the man.

"I made an appointment under her name and then one mine as well." Kendall said nicely. I then looked at the man.

"Mr. Schmidt, ah I see here Kendall and Sophia. Alright, what can we get for you little lady? I see we have on file your design already made up so you'll be going first." The man asked looking at me but talking to Kendall about his design. I went to open my mouth but I then blushed.

"I'm new at this. I have no idea." I told him honestly. He nodded and looked me up and down.

"You look like a new one. Well, I will get you started," he said pointing at Kendall as Kendall looked completely relaxed. Then he turned back to me."And I'll have my wife come out and help you decide." He smiled. He was nice, I liked him. I nodded with a shy smile. He called for his wife from the back as a nice older woman with a few tattoos scattered here and there walked out and smiled at me.

"Hey sweetie, you need some help?" She asked me. I nodded as Kendall touched my lower back before going back into a room with the man. I could see, from where the lady had us sit, Kendall taking off his shirt and leaning forward with his chest against the chair. He was getting another back tattoo.

My inner fangirl needed to control herself. I looked back at the woman as she started going through their designs and within half an hour we had came up with a great tattoo idea for me.

"Sure you're happy with this one?" She asked me printing it out and then handing it to me. I nodded.

"Let me go get a second opinion." I smiled at her as she smiled in agreement. I walked into the room Kendall was wincing in. "What happened to no pain?" I asked him sitting in one of the chairs facing his face. He opened his eyes and smirked.

"It's not pain, it's a weird feeling." He said laughing sweetly. "Did you come up with something?" He asked. I nodded and turned the page to show him the design. "It's cute." Kendall smiled at it. My idea was simple and didn't really mean anything to me. I had a crescent moon with a cute little face in the middle of it and a little star in the middle of the moon's two points. It was as a whole tattoo the size of a quarter.

"Does it have a meaning?" The tattoo artist asked me. I laughed.

"No. Not really. I mean I could probably come up with one for it, but I don't want to be limited to say that for the rest of my life. So no." I said smiling down at the design.

"Well I think it's great for a rebellious young woman to have a cute but meaningless tattoo." Kendall said as the tattoo artist continued with the buzzing needle. "Are you getting a piercing too?" Kendall asked then. I sighed.

"What do I look like I could pull off as a piercing not on my ears?" I asked him. He smiled.

"Your nose." Kendall suggested. I nodded with an evil grin. Numbers seven and eight were both happening.

We sat for a good two hours in the room as Kendall winced. I still had no idea of what he was getting tattooed on his back. "Alright, we're done." The man said as Kendall winced one last time. He cleaned up and covered Kendall's tattoo in protectant and then Kendall was free to stand.

"Let me see. Let me see." I said like a five year old. Kendall smiled down at me for a second as my eyes drifted to his shirtless chest in front of me. My breathing was uneven for a minute and then I looked up at him as he looked shyly down at his feet. He turned then and I could see the brand new piece on his back. It was a medium sized tattoo, I'd say with a  bunch of color packed in.

At first glance it looked like just an anatomically correct heart with valves. But when you really looked for detail, You could see the beauty in it. It was mostly a bright vibrant red with a little highlight of yellow and some parts were blue or even a deep violet,but in a little scroll across the bottom of the heart it read: "Can tear it apart, but it'll beat with all the pieces."

"That's absolutely stunning." I told him as I could also feel myself drifting my eyes from the tattoo to the muscles of his lower back. I blinked repeatedly trying to get my eyes back on track as he turned back around.

"Thanks. Now it's your turn." He smiled down at me while he grabbed his shirt and slid it back on. That's when the nerves kicked in.