Detention ➳ Larry

Chapter thirty-six

(Harry's POV)

Louis volunteers to get his tattoo first. He's excited, to say the very least. He sits down in the comfortable seat in front of a large mirror. Max pulls up a stool for me to sit on, too. Louis clutches onto my hand tightly. Even though he's excited, I can tell that he's nervous.

"Where exactly do you want this on your ankle?" Max asks.

"Here," Louis points. It's on the left side of his ankle, right above the bone that sort of sticks out.

Max nods and places the stencil onto Louis' ankle. He dabs it quickly with a wet cloth, then peels back the paper, revealing the interlocked hearts and the quote inside. The letters are written in beautiful cursive. The hearts are a light shade of cranberry red, and the quote is written in white. It looks beautiful.

"Does it look good?" Max asks.

"It's perfect." Louis grins, and I agree.

"Ready?" Max questions, taking out the ink gun.

"Yeah." Louis mutters.

"How does it feel?" I ask. Louis' eyes bulge out a bit as the needle touches his skin around his ankle. He grips my hand tighter and I can faintly hear a whimper escape his lips.

"Fine. It just feels weird." Louis answers.

"Does it hurt?" Max asks.

"A bit, but I guess it's bearable." he shrugs. Max wiped some ink off his ankle and dabbed it dry. He continued to embed the ink into Louis' skin.

"So, how long have you two been dating?" Max asks suddenly, trying to distract Louis from the pain with conversation.

"A few months," I blush. I rub Louis' hand with my thumb gently.

"Really? Where'd you meet?" he asks.

"Actually, it's quite a funny story. We met in detention." Louis beams.

"Detention? Well, I guess that explains the quote. What'd you do?" Max chuckles while inking Louis' skin.

"Erm, it was a misunderstanding. We just got blamed for a graffiti crime. Thankfully, the teacher didn't press charges for the damage to her car." I laugh.

"I see," Max says. He finishes outlining the interlocked hearts, and starts filling it in. "I'm shocked that your parents are okay with you getting a tattoo, Harry." he says.

I gulp, "Y-yeah, they don't care." I lie.

"What do you mean?" Louis asks curiously. He raises an eyebrow at me.

"You have to be at least 18 to get a tattoo. You're old enough, Lou, but Harry had to get a note signed by his parents." Max explains. Louis looks at me questionably while Max is distracted with tattooing his ankle. I give him a I'll-tell-you-later look. He nods slowly.

The truth is, I forged my father's signature. Since he signs so many papers dealing with his business and work, he has a signature stamper. I stole it from his office the other day and wrote myself a note.

"Alright, you're all set, bud." Max says.

Louis looks down at his ankle and smiles. The skin around it is red and looks painful, but Louis doesn't seem to be in any pain. The tattoo looks beautiful. It's simple, and quite small, but absolutely astonishing.

"Do you like it?" Max asks both of us.

"Yes, thank you so much." Louis says.

"You can go see Mitchie at the front desk. She'll wrap that up for you in plastic. I'll get Harry's ankle stenciled while you're gone." he says to Louis. Louis agrees and heads over to the lobby, while I sit down where he was previously seated. I try to relax.