Stay With You (Anthony Rizzo)

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Anthony

If there is two things in life that I'm sure about, it's that I love Maliyah and that I hate needles. The worst part of having cancer is constantly being poked by sharp objects before being injected with different types of cancer killers. Whether it be radiation or chemo is sucks all the same. Even giving blood was a pain and the ass.

But my love for Maliyah was stronger than my hatred for being poked with a needle, that's why when she asked to get matching tattoos I said no but then eventually said yes after I thought about it for a while. At first I was sick at the idea of being relentlessly poked with a needle so I can be permanently injected with ink, but then I remember that to have something that lasts forever like my love for Maliyah, it would be a shame if I couldn't show it on my body forever. The temporary pain will be worth our forever happiness.

So I sit in the chair at a tattoo parlor where my girlfriend was a few chairs down getting her tattoo done at the same time as me so I wouldn't wimp out. She was a lot tougher than me and she didn't mind the pain. She's been through it all and this was nothing to her. But for me, yeah I wasn't so comfortable.

"Is this your first tattoo" the guy asks as he gets the outline where he wants it on on the inside of my pinky finger.

"Yeah, is it that obvious" I ask.

"A little. You kinda look like you want to cry" he admits and I laugh.

"If it's a hundred mile per hour fastball to the ribs, I can take it no problem. But if it's a tiny little needle, it freaks me out" I admit.

"Don't worry, this should take no longer than 20 minutes" he promises.

"Good" I sigh.

"So what is one of the toughest guys in baseball doing getting a tattoo of a cloud on the inside of his pinky finger" he asks and I laugh.

"It's for my girlfriend" I admit.

"That makes sense" he nods. He starts to dig in and I jump a little for the first few seconds but eventually I relax. It wasn't too bad but it wasn't fun either. "What does this tattoo mean to you?"

"It's a long story kinda" I insist.

"I got time. It's not like I can go anywhere right now" he admits and I laugh. He got me there.

"Well we wanted to get a matching tattoo on our pinky because I didn't think it would hurt as much on a finger but I was so wrong. But there's also a reason it has to be this finger. She had a really strong form of cancer and she was in the hospital for the first year of our relationship. She was down on herself a lot she had to fight real hard. I promised to be by her side and she promised to keep fighting until she got better so I thought if we got the tattoos on our pinky it can be like a pinky promise to be by each other's side all the time no matter how hard times get.

Sometimes I would go to treatment with her and it would hurt her to hold my hand because the IV would be in her hand, so we latched pinky's when we couldn't hold hands. We always wanted to be near each other, touching each other. So we also wanted to put the tattoos on our pinky's to represent how much we love to be next to each other. So whenever we latch our pinky's we can be reminded of our love" I explain and he stops to smile at me.

"Usually they tell me something cheesy and predictable, but I have to admit, that was pretty great. Your girl sounds real special" he claims.

"She's amazing. She's just so incredible, I can't even explain it" I admit.

"Okay, so I get the pinky and the girl, but why a cloud" he asks.

"On our first date we sat atop the hospital and dangled our feet over the city. She asked me if I ever thought about flying among the clouds and I admitted that it never crossed my mind. It seemed crazy that she could barley walk and she wanted to fly, most people her age don't dream about being able to fly anymore. But then she told me about her dream of flying. Her dream of getting out of the hospital and spreading her wings finally. She told me that all she wanted was to be in the clouds where she was free and undecided. She never asked for much, but she wanted so bad to be up in the clouds racing through them feeling the wind against her skin.

So we decided on getting clouds because we get to fly together now. We're high above the ground up where dreams become true. There's a castle in the sky waiting for us in those clouds. And when things change, so do the clouds, but they're always there for us no matter what we're dreaming of" I explain.

"Alright. I think you just won best tattoo ideas" he admits and I laugh.

"I sure hope so because this shit hurts" I wince.

"Don't worry big guy, you're almost done" he promises me.

"Thank god" I sigh.

After a few more minutes he finishes up and I get to see it. I smile when I bring it up to my face. It looked so good and I couldn't wait to see what Maliyah's looked like.

I go out to the waiting room where she was waiting for me. Another reason I wanted her to get hers on her left hand is so that when I proposed the tattoo will be right next to her ring and there could be two clouds on her hand.

"Let me see it" I beg.

She shows me her little pinky finger and I smile real big. I see a identical tattoo to mine on her and it made my heart happy.

I wrap my pinky around hers and she smiles. Both of our fingers wrapped up in wrap as we hook our fingers together.

"You always make me feel like I'm flying" she claims.

"I'm really happy we did this" I insist.

"Really" she asks.

"Yes. Because even though there isn't a thing I hate more than needles, there isn't a thing I love more than you either" I admit.

"Well aren't you the cutest" she asks and I laugh.

"I try to be" I smirk.