Platonic.

17

Alana winced at the sting of the needle as it punctured her skin repeatedly. She's immediately taken back to the moment when she experienced this pain for the first time in a much less sterile environment as a teen, the stale nostalgic scent of weed and cheap male body spray in the air. This time around, the air in the brightly lit tattoo parlor smelled of sweet incense and air freshener. A much more pleasant and favorable experience, although she couldn't decipher whether it hurt more then than it did now to have such a sensitive area tattooed.

The insistent buzz drowns out the sound of her softly whimpering but Alesha glances up from her phone at just the right moment to catch Alana's expression. She smirks.

"That shit hoit don't it?" she asks and Alana glances over at her with menacing slits for eyes, baring her teeth as if she were about to cuss. She's silenced quickly when the tattoo gun goes silent and the artist turns away for a moment to switch needles and open up new ink. His long curly brunette hair is pulled back from his face in a low bun and his exposed arms and hands are riddled with intricately designed tattoos that were so faded that it was a task to decipher what was what. Alana had been using his ink sleeve as her focal point to cope with the pain of having her regretted tattoo covered up. She's thankful for the brief break in the pain and the tension in her jaw dissipates before responding.

"Nope. Feels great...like butterfly kisses.." she says with a fake smile and both Alesha and the distracted tattoo artist laugh in unison.

"You doing alright? We can break if you want but we're pretty much almost done. The shading part goes fast.." He says as he prepared his gun for that portion of the session and Alana watches him warily as he returned his attention to her hand. She looks at the tattoo with a winced expression, seeing how much of the tattoo wasn't done and scowling.

"Almost done?" she mumbles and Alesha snickers.

"You got it! Shading is easy..Just squeeze your cheeks. Plus it doesn't hurt as much anyway," Alesha adds from beside her, making Alana roll her eyes.

Through about 10 more minutes of pain, the artist lathers the side of Alana's hand with antiseptic foam and wipes any remaining blood and ink from the finished tattoo. After rubbing some ointment over it carefully with his gloved finger, he tilts his chin in the direction of Alana's hand as he scoots back an inch in his wheeled chair.

"Alrighty...take a look," he instructs monotonously and both Alana and Alesha lean in to examine the very detailed red rose in full bloom. It was amazing how all traces of the poorly drawn design beneath it were concealed by the shaded petals of the flower. Alana feels a slight pain in her heart at the realization and she smiles in spite of it. She hated that tattoo, even though she'd grown used to it over the years and she expected to feel nothing once she could see that it was gone.

"I love it." she grins and Alesha nods in agreement.

The sun is blazing down on them as they exit the tattoo shop, the sounds of mid-day traffic growing in volume the closer they got to Alesha's waiting vehicle. Alana walks with her attention on her phone, texting carefully with her plastic-wrapped hand as she steps down from the curb. A smile crosses her face and Alesha takes note of it just before entering her side of the car.

"I know...I just KNOW...you are not over there texting that crusty footed yuck mouth fraggle headed ass..." she begins and Alana's head whips up in her direction with a confused frown.

"Huh?" she crinkles her brow and Alesha nods over the hood of her car before stooping down to enter it. Alana follows suit on the passenger side and immediately gives her friend an expectant look as she got situated.