The Tattoo

Lis spotted him across the walkway; hatred filled part of her heart, the other part filled with a kind of aching sting. She had just walked out of the tattoo parlor where she was getting her two designs finalized for her tattoos. She knew if he found out what she was in the process of getting, he would be furious with her. Not that they were on any kind of speaking terms the way it was, but, if they were to talk, she knew just about what the reaction would be. Lis didn’t know if she had caught his eye or not when she walked out of the shop, but then again, part of her demanded not to care, it just wasn’t worth it anymore.
Gabe was standing outside of the movie theater with his perfect little friends that all had been blessed by the pope, or something like that, and she was walking to the shop next door to look for a new pair of earrings. They were all buying their tickets to their little PG perfect movie when she and her friends came out of the jewelry shop. It was very bad timing of fate in her opinion; Gabe glanced over and visibly recognized her. Her best friends Elizabeth and Megan also happened to see this, and drug her off back across the walkway just as his friends drug him off into the movie theater.
Off to the tattoo parlor for her; the designs and tattoo artist were ready for her. She was actually getting two tattoos today; a ‘Jesus fish’ on her wrist, and a butterfly on her foot. Both were going to be small, but very important to her. The fish was for her faith, a bold reminder on her left wrist; the butterfly was for her little sister Katie, so energetic and free, it seemed to fit her perfectly.
Finally, after what seemed like years passing, both tattoos were permanently inked into her skin. Once she had paid, they went to the food court to get celebratory smoothies and gawk over how awesome the tattoos had turned out. And of course, as fate would ironically have it, who did they run into? Gabe and his friends.
He took one look at her arm and his eyes about bugged out of his head; “I can’t believe you did that to yourself, you know better than that,” he scoffed in a rather demeaning and degrading way. He always seemed to know just what to say to make her feel like a spineless jellyfish that wasn’t worthy of any type of compliment.
Lis was about to break down into tears when Elizabeth came to the rescue, “So what if she did? It’s not like she had to have your permission to get them.”
“Yea, well,” Gabe replied, “She knows how I felt about them, and she should have never gotten them.”
Elizabeth was about to throw another rather piercing comment at him when Lis finally raised her head up to him, “Since when did I have to clear this kind of thing past you? You are the one that quite giving a shit about me. The day you decided you were better than me and were too good to talk to me was the day you had no more say on what I did with my life.”
That seemed to get his attention, or maybe it was more of his pride, “I never stopped caring about you.”
“Oh bullshit,” she threw in his face, “the day you stopped talking and started ignoring me was the day you stopped caring.”
“You know,” Megan threw in, “if you wanted to have been a part of this decision you should have done a lot better of a job being her friend instead of breaking her heart and shattering her soul time after time. She finally listened to us telling her you weren’t worth the time of day when you kept blowing her off and emotionally killing her over and over again.”
“I wasn’t blowing her off intentionally,” Gabe came back with quietly but defensively, “and I didn’t mean to cause her any pain, I just…”
Elizabeth cut him off again, “Oh wait, let me guess….BUSY?? Save it for the jury bud, there are some of us here who don’t give a rat’s ass.” He looked extremely taken aback by that comment.
By this time, Elizabeth and Megan had formed a little wall in between Gabe and Lis, blocking any attempts he might have to try and talk to her again.
Lis finally stood up, touched, but also slightly annoyed with the WWII set up they had going in the food court. “If he wants to talk to me, let him. I don’t care! I don’t have to listen; I don’t have to believe anything he says unless I want to, and I sure as hell don’t have to fall for the ‘I care for you deeply as a friend’ routine again. So let him at me! Come on Gabe; hit me with your best shot!”
He looked taken aback, he had never seen her get defensive and lash out like this before; he was actually a little scared of the state she was in, and of what she might say or do next. This was not the time to be messing with her, or saying something stupid. He knew what he had wanted to say, but her glare and some what fight-like defensive stance had him a bit on edge and had made him forget almost everything he was going to say. “Well, I don’t approve of what you did…,” he began.
“I didn’t ask for approval, nor was I looking for it,” she bit back rather acidicly.
“Then why did you ask?” Gabe threw at her, “Why did you ask what I thought of it?”
“I suppose I just wanted to know your opinion of the art itself, not the type of art, and,” she paused for a moment, “and wait just one second, I don’t remember ever asking you your opinion on anything.” Lis leaned back into her chair and crossed her arms and just looked at him. He just stood there staring at her.
“So, let me get this straight, are you going to stop speaking to me, and end our friendship all because I got a tattoo?”