Take Me Home Tonight

"Well, Purdy boy, whaddaya think?" I asked, staring at my newly finished work that was proudly showcased on his forearm.
It had taken me only about another hour and a half to finish filling in the empty spaces after we'd gotten back to the shop and even I had to admit that the finished product was stunning.
"It looks amazing, Maddie!" he exclaimed, staring down at his now complete sleeve in awe. I couldn't help but feel pleased at how happy he was with it.
That was why I loved my line of work-- I got to watch my art make other people happy, and to me, that made all the difference.
"Let me wrap it up for you," I said simply, taking his hand in mine and straightening out his arm so that I'd be able to bandage it thoroughly. Pulling a lengthy sheet of saran wrap from the box on my workspace, I gingerly folded it over the fresh ink on his arm until it was wrapped a few times.
"Don't move," I instructed, leaving his arm resting on the arm of the chair while I searched for my tape. "Mm, babe I love it when you tell me what to do" he replied seductively before shooting me a wink. "Oh shut up, Ash," I chuckled, rolling my eyes at him while my hands found the tape dispenser and hastily ripped off two long strips.
Taking his arm back into my gloved hands, I wrapped the tape thoroughly around the edges of the saran wrap to make sure that it wouldn't fall off or come undone during his drive home. "That feel alright?" I asked as he pulled his arm away and flexed it in several different directions.
I found myself staring at the way his muscles moved beneath his tattooed skin. His deltoid shifted slightly and his bicep protruded noticeably from his arm, making me wonder what it would feel like to have those strong arms pinning me down to a matress.
'Fuck, Maddie, snap out of it!' my conscience shouted at me, causing me to bite my lip. I had to admit that for a dude who wore eyeliner, he was pretty goddamn fit.
"Enjoying the view?" Ashley asked, raising an eyebrow at me in amusement and snapping me out of my trance. Meeting his eyes, I felt an embarrassed blush flooding my cheeks while he stared at me intently.
"I..Sorry," I mumbled, giving up on even tying to compose an excuse since he'd clearly caught me staring. What was with me acting like this towards him lately? I wondered half-heartedly. I mean, of course I had a crush on him, but this was beginning to feel a bit excessive.
"Don't worry about it," he answered, standing up out of the chair with a slight chuckle as I hopped up to my feet after him. "I'll take it as a compliment," he went on, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a handful of crisply folded bills to pay me with before taking a step closer.
"Especially from a cutie like you," he winked, reaching out with his unbandaged arm and placing a hand on my side, gently pulling me in closer to him. I bit my lip.
The sudden urge to move from under his touch was what flooded my mind first, since my belly and sides were areas that made me especially self conscious. Nonetheless, I did my best to shoo the thought away. It was just Ashley, after all. One of the few people whom I'd never felt judged by, oddly enough.
"Don't start that sappy shit with me, Ash," I managed to choke out as I fought to keep my thoughts in check. Now that I'd managed to get over my sudden bout of self consciousness, all I could think about was getting closer to him.
Every time he touched me, he always made me crave more of him and it drove me crazy. It was like I could be only inches away from him and it still didn't come near being close enough.
"Sappy?" he echoed, looking at me with a mystified expression. The two of us were standing toe to toe now, his hand still gripping my side as I half noticed my hand pressed up against his chest. "Since when have you ever known me to be a sap?" he asked innocently before flashing me one of his signature Ashley grins.
I swear, I could've melted into a puddle on the floor right then and there, but instead I did my best to keep my composure. His smile was too sexy for his own good and it drove me insane. "Fair point," I remarked with a small chuckle, "You're not a sap," I corrected myself, "You're just you," I finished, smirking at him now as he furrowed his brow.
"Is that a bad thing?" he asked, eyeing me interestedly as I bit my lower lip. 'Only when I remember that your flirting with me doesn't mean shit' I thought to myself sarcastically before replying. "No," I answered with a small smirk playing on my lips, "You're overly flirtatious, asshole persona is actually kind of endearing sometimes," I said with a wink as he narrowed his eyes at me.
"As it's meant to be" he purred, leaning in closely to me now so that his lips were at my ear. "Now, what time am I seeing you at tonight?" he asked, changing the subject as his warm breath hit my cheek and sent an alternately cold shiver running up my spine.
"Show starts at 8:00p.m." he said, lightly tracing his fingers up and down my side, which left me more distracted than I should've been. "Be there by 7:00?" he proposed, before casually reaching his other arm around towards my back and started slipping what I assumed to be the money he'd pulled out earlier, into the back pocket of my skin-tight skinny jeans.
"I think I might be able to swing that for ya, cowboy," I answered, causing him to chuckle as he slowly began pulling his fingers out from my pocket and leaving the money inside.
"You'd better," Ashley smirked, just as his hand fully pulled out from my pocket and his palm came down onto my ass, patting the outline of where he'd just placed the bills. From a distance, I swear it would've looked like he was just grabbing my ass and silently I prayed that Jaimie wasn't watching.
"I'll see ya later tonight then, Mads," Ashley said simply, pulling away from me and placing his cowboy hat back onto his head before turning and walking out the door.
After he was out of sight, I let out a small sigh and reached into my back pocket. Pulling out the bills, I unfolded them carefully and counted out a couple hundred dollars which seemed accurate for the amount of work it had been. Then, in-between the last few fifties, I found a concert ticket to the Black Veil Brides concert tonight.
Well, I guess there was no way that I was getting out of this now-- especially not after telling both Ash and C.C. that I'd be there. Oh well, how bad could it be? I wondered silently to myself.
After all, there was no guarantee that Kina would be there. Hell, who knew, maybe she'd moved on from Ash and found a new boy toy to fuck around with. Brushing away the thought, I decided that it wasn't worth worrying about just yet.
Flipping my hair over my shoulder, I hastily cleaned around my workspace, throwing out ink stained napkins and putting each vile of colored ink back into its respective place on a small wooden ink stand on my desk. "Alright, Jaimie," I hollered, walking over to room 3 where he'd taken Lissa this morning.
I could still hear the tattoo gun buzzing from outside before it clicked off. I guess he must've actually heard me yelling at him above all of the noise since he stood up from his workspace and told whoever he was working on that he'd only be a minute.
"What's up, Maddie?" he asked, cracking the door open and looking at me before his eyes flitted around the rest of the now empty shop. "You outta here?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at me. "You called it, boss" I said, cracking a small smile as he rolled his eyes at me. "I'll see ya whenever you work next, then" he said dismissively, shooting me a casual smile before shutting the door and returning to his work.
"Alright," I mumbled to myself, patting at my pockets and making sure that I hadn't left anything in my workspace before heading out the door. Keys, money, ticket, wallet..Yep, I was set.
Turning on my heel, I bounded across the shop, remembering to hit the time clock mounted behind the front desk before I made my way over to the door and stepped outside into the warm California air. Pulling out my keys, I unlocked my baby which was parked at the far end of out lot.
I drove an vintage jet black Dodge Charger from 1969 which I'd done work on to make it look even angrier than it already did. I'd plasti dipped the headlights to make them appear foggy and blacked out while the hub caps were a matte black finish as well.
Stepping over to the car, I swung open the door and hopped into the driver's seat, making sure to rev the engine like a total douche bag before pulling out of the parking lot and taking off speeding down the road.
Once I'd gotten home to my apartment on Magnolia Blvd. in North Hollywood, I clamored up the stairs and made my way up to the third floor by foot since elevators had always freaked me out. Once I opened the door to my apartment, I was immediately greeted by my cat Sparrow who was meowing at me angrily.
"I know, I know" I mumbled as she looked up at me impatiently with her one yellow eye as I made my way over to the kitchen to grab her cat food. I vaguely remembered when I'd first gotten Sparrow. About a year or so ago, I'd actually rescued her from a local shelter, and although I'd wanted to adopt several cats, my apartment rules limited me to only having one. So much for being a crazy cat lady.
Sparrow had caught my eye in the mix of all her brothers and sisters because of her eye, which I immediately noticed was a bright yellow color that resembled goldenrod, when she'd stared at me through the glass. Unfortunately, due to an eye infection when she was young, she only had one eye. I didn't mind though-- to me, she was perfect.
"Here ya go, killer" I said, rolling my eyes as she stood up on her hind legs to watch as I scraped wet food from a can into her bowl and placed it on the floor. Glancing over to the clock, I noticed that it was only noon, which meant that I had a good 7 hours before I needed to be meeting the guys at the concert venue.
Stretching my arms above my head, I yawned sleepily, causing Sparrow to glance up at me from her food. "Don't give me that look," I mumbled as she stared at me curiously. "I'm going to bed," I said, more to myself than to anyone else before turning on my heel and making my way down the short narrow hallway that led to my bedroom.
I was tired as hell, which meant that if I didn't get rest now, I'd be irritable as fuck later. Not to mention that if I was going to have to see Kina tonight, I'd need all the sleep I could get. Then, as if on cue, my phone began buzzing inside pocket. Hastily pulling it out of my jeans, I couldn't help but laugh bitterly when I saw her name flash across the screen "Kina" it read, with a tiny green message bubble icon next to it.
I rolled my eyes before opening the text, which consisted of only 7 words that somehow had the power to make me cringe. "Are you going to the concert tonight?"
Kicking my shoes off angrily, there was no denying that I was pissed. I knew that I was being irrational since Kina always ended up following Ashley around like a puppy-- and that was a fact I knew all too well, but me being aware of it didn't change anything.
Ashley always acted differently when he was around her and I hated it. Not to mention that the rest of the guys and myself hated her. I sucked in a deep breath in an attempt to calm myself down before collapsing down onto the bed. So much for not worrying about it.

Notes