The Falling of Lauren Johnson

Chapter Twelve

I stand before Brandice as she gives me last touches on my hair. She pulled it into a braid with several micro braids intertwined into it. She pulls some of pink and yellow flowers out of the pots growing in the windowsill of her bedroom and sticks them into my hair. I remain quiet as she primps me for my date. I notice that while Katelyn and Melissa strive to make themselves look dark and sultry, Brandice makes me look more pure and innocent, which confuses me, or used to confuse me.

In school, they teachers taught us that back in the olden days, boys would pursue women and try to seduce them before they were even matched together. Some girls even pursued boys by wearing dark makeup and revealing clothes to lure them in. I really didn't understand this concept until just a couple days ago when I originally saw Melissa and Katelyn getting dressed up to go meet boys and how scandalously they dressed, or even when I saw the way that the creepy old man looked at me before he attacked me. I didn't understand why girls would advertently put themselves out there like that until I met Elliot and I wanted to dress like that to attract his attention.

I watch as Brandice puts the finishing touches on my hair and takes one step back to get a view of my whole self. She clasps her hands together and smirks.

"You look so cute, I can't believe I pulled it off." Brandice laughs and leads me into the living room lined with the colorful pictures and we both take a seat on the couch, finishing our lukewarm tea.

"So, tell me about these drawings that you have hanging up? And about the skin drawings." I say while sipping my tea.

Brandice clucks her tongue and shakes her head. "The drawings on people's skin are called tattoos. And the drawings are tattoo designs that I could use for potential clients."

"Okay, so let me get this straight, you draw pictures and then you redraw onto people? What's the point of that when you could hang the drawing up and see it everyday." I respond. The whole idea of drawing on skin confuses me.

"Well the thing about tattoos is that, yes, they're drawings, but they are permanent. They'll be on your skin forever." Oh, see that makes more sense. Brandice continues, "I think the reason that you're not aware of them is that they are highly frowned upon on the original's side. Like you're desecrating the most important thing in the world, and brings down an original's value as a person, but still above us copies, mind you."

I nod my head, "What does it feel like? Have you ever done a tattoo on anyone but a clone? What kind of designs do you do?"

Brandice shakes her head and smiles, "Slow down there stiff. To answer your questions, a tattoo feels like an intense almost annoying vibration being dragged across your skin, almost like you're being scratched, no, I've only even done tattoos on copies, and I do many different styles, I've practice them all. Would you like to see one of my sketchbooks?" I nod and Brandice leaps off of the couch and approaches a pile of paper and books on the floor of the living room, near one of the windows. She brings it back over to me and I greedily open up the book.

The first drawing is of a girl with long brown hair covering a majority of her body and a green fish tail replacing her legs. The next is a long spindly red animal, resembling a snake but with arms, legs, and is spitting out fire. The next is a tall, red and white swirled tower with light poking out through the top, shining down at the water below. I flip through the rest of her drawings, each more vibrantly colored and finely detailed than the last. Once I reach the last drawing, I hand her back her sketchbook and look at her with a smile.

"Brandice, you're very talented. I envy the artistic skill that you have." I pause when an idea pops into my head and grin. "You know what you should do Brandice?"