𝐍𝐎 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐒, ꜱʙɢ

04

two weeks before 

dominique was in the middle of a run around her block. she was clad in a cropped sports bra and gym shirts which were both black. her hair was tied back into a high ponytail with a braid, a few layers of her fringe sticking out even though she had slicked them back with gel. 

"stupid, choppy ass bangs." she muttered to herself, blowing a piece of hair out of her face as she jogged lightly. her tattoos were on full display in this getup - not that she cared. she didn't care what other people thought, but she did care if decide to voice their opinion to her face or behind her back. 

'stupid old people' she thought, exhaling heavily as she closed her eyes, enjoying the music flowing through her ears from her headphones as she hummed lightly to the tune.

what she didnt realize was that she would have company on the path. 

her eyes widened in horror as she bumped into somebody's back, toppling over and falling on top of them. she closed her eyes and groaned, a couple cuts on her back from her father re-opening as they scraped against the pavement. 

dominique cursed herself out in her head, her headphones slipping off of her head as her eyes stayed closed in fear of the insults that would be spat at her. 

but it didnt happen. 

instead, she felt a hand on her back, covering up the cuts as they bled lightly. wincing a little, she opened her eyes to be met with brown ones. a look of concern was painted on the boys face as he stared at her back, before he looked back into her eyes. flinching a bit at the sight of them. 

"im so, so sorry!" dominique said, her hands clasping together as she faced the ground in embarrassment. 

"i should've been looking where i was going - but i ran into you. i promise im usually more aware of my surroundings-" she yapped, spewing apology after apology toward the boy as she stared directly at the ground. 

ben could only watch, stunned. but not because he was mad or anything. 

'she's really pretty.' ben thought, obviously not voicing his opinion. his cheeks were dusted with a light pink as he observed her in a somewhat bow-like position. 

from this angle, we got a clear view of her back, where a red, hyper realistic, spinal-cord like outline was drawn all the way up to her shoulders. above it, a bar-code was also in red ink on her neck. 

'she looks to be my age. how does she have tattoos?' he wondered, snapping out of his trance as he realised how bad this position looks to anyone driving or walking past. 

quickly, ben took out his phone and typed something into it frantically, still haphazardly listening to her apology ramble before he cut her off with a tap to the shoulder. 

curiously, dominique looked up, still somewhat surprised the boy hadn't yelled at her- or said anything at all, in fact. 

she made eye contact with the boy and he looked away somewhat shyly, finding her eyes to be very pretty and finding himself to be unable to hold eye contact with her. 

she looked down at the phone pointed toward her, where his hand was shaking a bit as she read aloud.