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CHAPTER 5: EPHEMERAL
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"YEAH I SEE IT. It's two bands, right?"
Derek's eyes fade back to his normal green as he observes Scott's healed arm. At the beta's nod, Derek folds his arms before continuing. "What does it mean?"
Scott shrugs. " I don't know. It's just something I traced with my fingers."
I snort, pacing away a few feet in faux annoyance to cover my smile. Oblivious Scott McCall, getting a meaningless tattoo for an unrelated meaning.
Derek's face remains impassive, sighing. "Why is this so important to you? Do you know what the word 'tattoo' means?"
"To mark something." Stiles and I answer in unison as Scott blinks.
"Well, that's in Tahitian. In Samoan, it means 'open wound.'" I supply, and all three males regard me with shock. "What? I read."
Scott shakes his head, turning back to Derek. "I knew I wanted to get a tattoo when I turned 18. I always wanted one. I just decided to get it now, to make it kind of a reward."
Derek quirks a thick eyebrow. " For what?"
"For not calling or texting Allison all summer."
I resist to urge to slam my head on a wall. Just when you think Scott may have moved on like Allison did, he's still head over heels for her.
He'll always be head over heels for her.
And that hurts me more than one would think.
Scott continues his stupid starry- eyed explanation. "Even when I really wanted to, even when it was so hard not to sometimes. I was trying to give her the space she wants. Going four months later, it still hurts. It still feels like a, uh..."
Stiles rolls his eyes, shooting me a sympathetic look before finally finishing the whole tattoo reasoning. "Like an open wound."
Scott nods at his best friend, smiling. "Yeah."
Derek has been gathering things from around the room during the explanation, most likely not even listening and I wish I had his ignorance to spare me the deep pang in my chest. "The pain's gonna be worse than anything you've ever felt. "
Stiles looks a little green. " Ah, that's great. "
I snort at the pale human. "You're still squeamish? After all of the bodies, and alphas, and kanima shit?"
Stiles glares at me. "Well, since Derek feels like burning all of Scott's skin off, yeah, I'm a bit squeamish!"
I huff in amusement. "He's not burning all of his skin off! He's just burning through the layers of tissue above the basement membrane- the part of the skin that is actually imprinted with the tattoo. It's only a few layers."
