Second Chances

I looked up from the book I was reading and brushed my ink black bangs from my face as the door to my tattoo parlor opened. I got up and went to greet the client who walked in. “Hey, what can I do for you?”

“Hey, I wanted to get this tattooed on my thigh.” The girl said and pulled a sheet of paper from her purse, with a tribal pattern with a black tiger with white stripes on it. “Can you give me an estimate?”

“Well, how long do you have? If you want I can get the whole thing done in one session and I’ll charge only half price.”

“I’m free all day.” The girl smiled and handed me the paper.

“Nice, I’ll go draw this up for ya so give me a few minutes. Feel free to look around.” I went up to my ‘office’ and copied the print over and went back down to the scanner and printed it with the stencil ink. “Give me five minutes to get everything set up.” I took the steps two at a time and went back into my office and got the two needles that I’d need and sterilized the area. I poured black ink into a couple of small plastic cups and went down to get my client. “Come on Chica, let’s get you inked.” She followed me up to the room and got situated. She pulled the edge of her shorts up more and told me where exactly she wanted it.

“Do you think the color will fade?”

“It’s the middle of summer, I’m sure it will a little.” I laid the stencil on the girls’ leg and started with the initial outline. “So what do you do?” I found out during my apprenticeship that talking to the clients while tattooing them, helps take their mind off the pain since they’re not just focusing on the needle.

“I’m a photographer, I like focusing on bands though and not many bands need a photographer with them; especially a novice. What about you? Aside from tattooing I mean.”

“I have a band. We’re not really that well known but we do have a few fans that come to every show. We know them all by name, well the ones from here anyway.”

“So you’re a local band? What’s the name?”

“The band is Lone Wolves.” I told the Clair the background of the band and about the members. Before I was finished going on about the band and members I had her entire tatt outlined and was just starting to color the tribal part black. “You know, if you want you can come with the band to our next photo-shoot and see if that’s the kind of environment you want to work in.”

“That would be awesome Havic. You know I never heard of your band, but I’ll have to check out your music. Do you have any CD’s?”

“We’re not signed, but Jashire our lead guitarist made some CD’s for us. We put out lyric videos on youtube for everyone. Tell you what, I’ll give you a CD with some of our artwork if you agree to come with us on our first actual tour to be our photographer.”

“Of course! I’d love to.” I smiled and finished the tribal part of the tattoo.

“What color did you want the tiger? The black on black is cool in theory, but you’re not going to see the tribal.”

“Can you do a dark orange with dark gray stripes?”

“That I can do.” I went to work, making the dark orange color she wanted and finished the tiger, giving it bright blue eyes upon her request. I snapped a picture of her tattoo and wrapped it giving her instructions on how to care for it. “So give me your number and I’ll tell you when we’re having our photo-shoot.” We exchanged cell numbers before she left. As I cleaned up my room the door opened again, and my four band-mates flooded the room. “What’s up guys?” I didn’t look up at them as I sprayed down the chair and the desk.

“We have a show tonight.We’re opening for-”

“Kaos, shut up for a minute. Let me finish cleaning up before we fanboy over a band. What else is up?”

“You’re mean Havic, you know that?” Kaos, our awesome bass player was pretty much a brother. He wormed his way into my personal space a few days after we met and hasn’t left me alone since. “I won’t go on about the band, but we have to get ready like now.”

“Kay, it’s barely noon. The bar doesn’t open until six, besides I thought Elk wanted to go to the mall today?”

“Obviously, we, well I need new clothes since Kaim keeps ruining them.” Elraishi or Elk was half Asian and all badass. He played drums and was probably the ‘darkest’ member of the band. We were probably one of the weirdest bands there was, none of us had much in common. We hated the majority of the music each other listened to, hell the only things we had in common was our love for the music we made and being ourselves.

I guess that’s why we fit together so well. We were more than friends, more than family even. We got along so well that people usually assumed we were dating or related. Kaos and Jashire were the only two straight guys in the band, Elk and Kaim were together, and I was the only girl.It always amused me how well we got along despite our differences. “Kaos, what band are we opening for?” I asked as I finished cleaning up the room and stretched. Three hours bent over some girls thigh wasn’t exactly on the top of my to-do list.

“We’re opening for Black Veil Brides.” I froze and looked at him almost begging him to tell me he was joking. Jashire was the only one who knew about my past and I didn’t want it getting out. As much as I loved Black Veil Brides, I had a history with one of the members in particular and wasn’t planning on ever facing him. “Havic?You okay, you look really pale…?”

“Y-yeah, I’m fine. So are we going to go out and get shit for the show or what?” I was hoping that shopping would take my mind off of what was about to happen, but knew because of how I was I would over think until I made myself sick.

The guys agreed, so we made our way out of the tattoo shop. I locked the door and set the alarm, knowing that some asshole would trash the place if it was left open. It had happened six times before, and each time was worse than the last. I leaned against the locked door and tried to calm down. I rarely get panic attacks when hearing which band we’re opening for, but this was a completely different situation.

“Havic, does this have anything to do with your past?” Jazz asked as he walked back up to where I was. I nodded slightly and looked up at him.

“I can’t face him…not after what happened.” I looked down at the wooden porch and tried to focus on calming down. But, Jashire being the kind of guy that he is wouldn’t let me retreat from this conversation and tipped my head up so I was looking at him again.

“You have to. Have you ever thought about how he might feel after everything happened? This needs to happen, you said it yourself when we started writing music that you wanted to see him again.”

“Yeah…but that was…before.” I knew what he was getting at, nothing has changed between then and now.

“Listen, nothing’s changed except for the fact that we have a band now. I think it’s time you revive Chase and accept that she didn’t die the day Havic was born, she just shut down for a bit to deal with what happened. I understand wanting to change everything about who you are kid, I get it but you need to come to terms with it. And seeing him again will help you, you and I both know that.” I nodded and leaned against him. Jazz was my best friend, and even before we really knew each other he knew to say exactly what I needed to hear.

“I’ll try. So I call not standing in a dressing room all fucking day just to try on one outfit understand?” Jazz laughed before taking my hand and leading me to his beautiful black dodge charger. I climbed into the back seat next to Elk and leaned against him, needing emotional support from my pack. Knowing exactly what I wanted, Elk put his arm around me and pulled me that much closer to him.

“We can’t have our alpha all bent out of shape because of a boy-band now can we?” I laughed, at him and snuggled closer.

“They’re not a boy-band Elk, they’re fucking gods…sex gods…” The whole car erupted in laughter, making me feel a bit better. “Maybe everything will be alright, after all that’s what second chances are for.”

Notes

I kinda had this idea in my head for a while, but wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do with it. I still don't really know what I want to do with this, but I figured that if I started writing it, then maybe the plot bunny would leave me alone. On a side note, this won't be getting a lot of attention as I'm currently focusing on Land Of The Lost. But I'll try to update every now and then, especially if I get a new idea.