Ash

Chapter 43

Ashton's POV

I slowed to a stop as we pulled into the hair salon. "You ready for this?" I spoke, looking over to Sam, who gave me her daredevil smile. We all got out of the car and I took a deep breathe before entering the hair salon, thankfully they weren't busy today.

"Welcome to Hair On Your Head Salon, my name is Andrea, how may I be of assistance to y'all today?" Andrea had long pink hair cascading down her back and the most piercing blue eyes. "Hi, I'm Ashton, this is Sam, Penny, and Charlie. I want to dye my hair purple, Sam wants hers silver, and Penny wants white tips. Can you do that?" I spoke. She smiled, "Don't the moon light the sky?" I laughed and took a seat. Sam followed my lead and plopped into the chair to my left while Penny sat in the one to my right. I closed my eyes and let myself relax while I waited patiently for her to get the purples and ask which one I wanted. I pointed out the one I liked and she set it to the side.

"You know I have to bleach your hair first, right?" I nodded, fully aware that the purple wouldn't show up in my black hair. We would all have to bleach ours, but mine would be the most work since it's naturally black. She began to put the bleach in my hair as I started to relax. I closed my eyes and let Andrea do her thing. "So, how many times will we need to bleach it?" I asked. "Well, I'd say at least twice. You can either get it done this time and wait around for a while and do it again later today, or you can do this one and come back tomorrow."

By the time we were ready to leave, Penny had white tips, Sam had silver hair, and my hair was a light shade of brown. I paid Andrea and we headed out to lunch. We stopped by Mandarin Express and got some Chinese. Charlie was extremely bored and was falling asleep in the car, so we turned on some music. The tattoo shop was gonna be at least an hour drive, so we ate on the way there. I got sweet and sour chicken with shrimp fried rice, Penny got mandarin chicken with shrimp fried rice, and Sam got mandarin chicken with some lo mein noodles.

When we arrived at the tattoo shop my heart began to race. This was it. No going back now. I got out of the car and walked through the door. I locked eyes with a feisty looking girl. Her blue eyes pierced my green ones, but instead of backing down, I stood taller. She was about 5'1, only an inch or two shorter than me, so I wasn't too intimidated. She grinned at me as her black hair shone under the bright fluorescent lights. I smiled back and reveled at the beautiful tattoo she was getting. It was a skull surrounded by diamonds. Another tattoo artist called me over to ask what we wanted, I told him I wanted a rose with a crescent moon under it, Penny was getting a compass with an arrow running through for one of the needles on her wrist, and Sammy wanted to get the tree of life between her shoulder blades. I was ushered over to a chair.

"Okay, Ashton, my name is Derik and I'll be your tattoo artist for today." I smiled up at Derik and showed him where I wanted my tattoo. I decided to show him a picture of what I was thinking of just to make sure he knew. He nodded. Penny pulled up a picture of the one she wanted and so did Sammy. Derik nodded at me and asked if I would rather lay down or sit up. I decided I would lay down on my back. I realized that my sleeve wouldn't roll up enough, so I took my shirt off and laid it over my bra. My heart raced, I was terrified he would make some sexual remark or he would notice my tummy pudge, but he just drew up the design and made sure I liked it. A guy named Jake was working on Penn's, and there was a girl name Sienna doing Sammy's. Of course I'd get stuck with a guy and have to take my shirt off. Sammy laid down on her stomach and took off her crop top and placed Doug under her so her bra wasn't visible. Penny laughed and rolled up her sleeve. I stuck my tongue out, "Shush Penn, you just got lucky this time." She laughed again and shook her head.

I felt the tip of the needle press into my shoulder. I was scared at first but then I realized it doesn't really hurt. People say it hurts, but I actually liked the way it felt. Mine didn't take long to do the outline for, so he went ahead and began filling it in while Jake and Sienna kept working. The girl was still here to my surprise, but she was done with her tattoo. I must've been staring, cause she looked at me and said, "Names Kae." I blushed and was about to introduce myself, but she cut me off, "I heard you earlier, nice to meet you Ashton." I smiled and returned the comment. Sammy groaned, "Dude I'm so tired. I'm glad we're in Erik's car instead of me bringing my motorcycle." Kae's eyes flashed with...desire?

"You have a bike, too?" She asked Sammy. "Hells yeah I do!" I smiled. "Here, we should go for a ride some time, I'd like to see what you got," Kae spoke up, handing Sammy a piece of paper with a phone number on it. I shook my head. "Nice to meet you, Kae, be safe." She laughed, "No promises," and then she was out the door.

About three hours later all of our tattoos were done and we were each being educated on how to take care of them. I tried to put my shirt back on but my shoulder hurt more than I wanted to admit. I winced in pain. Derik noticed the look on my face and offered to help, I didn't want to be rude and I did appreciate it, so I accepted. He carefully pulled my arms through the shirt and pulled it down over my head. He then helped me put my leather jacket back on. "Thanks, Derik, I appreciate it." He replied with something similar to "no problem Ash" and I paid for our tattoos. I was too sore to drive so I let Penny take over. This is gonna be one hell of a ride.