Ink and Blood [T@gged Fanfic]

#Two

After waking before the sun went up, Ghost ruffled her locks, fingers weaving through her own tresses. She blinked away the remnants of the high, licking her pursed lips, and pressed a kiss to Ash's forehead before turning towards the narrow stairs that took her to the exit. She knew she'd have to get the smell of smoke off of her flesh before class, lest comments be made by teachers and students alike, which meant creeping back into the house without making enough noise to rouse her parents from their slumber.

She climbed into the shower, which hissed when the handle was set in just the right spot and squealed in every other, and let the water roll down her curves, her marred fingertips drifting to the flesh of her stomach, where a puckered patch of skin was paler than the rest. It was still sensitive sometimes, but she would feel the raised skin nonetheless. The hot water made it irritated and red, her hand sliding to cover it as her locks slicked and stuck to her head, turning her blonde locks a bit darker.

Ghost used to stand in the shower like every day since she was able to stand, just letting the sound of the rushing water drowning things out. However, in the early hours, she couldn't let her mind go utterly vacant, for it drifted to school tomorrow: a hell-hole in which she would have no friends and the rumors of her being in the hospital for an overdose would spread. She knew that Ash was the solution to her isolation, but he had dropped out too long ago and it wouldn't matter how hard she thought of him; it would not make him appear to protect her.

Her hand drifted to the handle and switched it as the hot water started to turn cold, catching it just before it could suddenly turn into ice water and jolted her more awake than she needed to be. Tossing back the old curtain, she climbed out and pulled a towel to her face, drying her cheeks before it appeared she was crying, then continued to the rest of her form before twisting the water out of her short locks.

Drifting again, her mind went somewhere it was not permitted. Before she could pretend she hadn't thought about, images of skin on skin and sounds of heavy breathing filled her senses like being inside of a VR system with headphones on. His laugh echoed through her ears and she bit down into her lip, so hard that the skin broke and the taste of blood filled her mouth. She was hardly bothered by it, her fingers drifting to the gash and pressing against it gently before running her tongue over it and letting the metallic flavor coat her mouth. It was distraction enough from her previous thoughts.

Lazily, she wrapped her towel around her and made her way to her room, sitting on her bed for close to a half hour, staring blankly at the wall. She debated telling her parents she wanted to drop out and work full-time, as she enjoyed her two jobs more than education, but there was no way either of them would allow her to do so. Ghost halted in her thoughts and scorned herself. 'Am I really gonna let a boy decide my future?' she thought indignantly, 'I built myself from a scared little girl, I'm not gonna give up now'.

After her little pep talk, she glanced at the time and sighed, deciding she wanted to look good. The first day of school was the time to make her mark, and by doing so she would show them she wasn't taking their shit this year. She pulled on a black, faux leather skirt – one of her nicer pieces of wardrobe – and a black alien shirt, tucking the top into the bottom and fixing it accordingly. To her pleasure, she looked like she didn't shop at Goodwill and since she started working so much, she actually had the money to order from cheap places like H&M.