Dilara

Chapter 53:

Xuan beckons me to the seat next to him. I go and sit there.

'How you holding up?' He asks. 'Are you still ok?'

'Yup,' I reply, stuffing my face with strawberries.

'What are you gonna do today?' He asks.

'I want to get a tattoo, but I can't exactly drive there.' I sigh.

'I'll drive you,' Xuan says.

'Really?' I ask, not hiding the tone of surprise.

'Yeah, the mood in this house is kind of depressing anyways.' He puts out his cigarette. 'And didn't you say I should try be less selfish?'

He stands up and I follow him.

'We'll be back soon.' I say to everyone.

'Don't do anything Stupid,' Zoya says.

'Or illegal,' Lorenzo adds.

'I won't be the one cleaning up your mess Xuan,' Alora says.

'We're going to be absolutely fine.' He sighs.

He grabs my arm and we walk out of the house together.

We walk towards his silver Mercedes and get inside. Xuan drives us to the tattoo parlour.

'What are you getting?' He asks as we walk inside.

'Nothing with any value to you,' I reply. Xuan shrugs and sits down in one of the chairs.

'How can I help you?' The tattoo woman asks.

'I'd like to get a tattoo,' I reply.

'What one?' She asks.

I take a piece of paper from the desk and write something down.

'Are you sure that's what you want?' She asks concerned.

'Yeah,' I reply. 'It has a lot of sentimental value to me.'

The woman nods and takes me to the tattoo chair. I roll up the sleeve of my hoodie and extend my arm out.

After a while she's finally done with the tattoo. She puts some gauze on it and wraps it up. It'll take three days to heal.

I pay the woman and walk back to Xuan.

'Can I see what you got?' He asks.

I show him my arm, and on my wrist are the words;

'Brick by brick - A'

'That's the weirdest tattoo I've ever seen,' he says as we walk out of the parlour.

'I like it a lot.' I reply with a small smile.

'Can we grab something from Starbucks before we go home?' I ask.

'Yeah, why not,' he sighs.