Tattoos and Bad Boys

Ch2: Manny & Ralph

The bell rang and I turned my head to the door as ralph went to start on some drawings.

It was a man with an owl mask, black shirt, red jacket with black stripes on the sleeves, some jeans and sneakers.

He came over to me and put his hands in his front pockets.

"Can I help you?" I asked as I noticed two others with different masks and clothes outside the door like guards.

"Yeah." He replied," I've heard good things about this place from other gangs, so on Thursday can I have a scheduled appointment for a friend? He is definitely gonna lose a bet we made so I'm just doing this ahead of time."

I wrote it down and then manny came to the second register and confirmed his costumers pay. The couple left and I looked back at him.

"Alright, I have you down on thrusday! Do you guys wanna come in at a specific time?" I asked," And I'm assuming you're a leader of a gang so would you want a private room for this and what name do I put down so I don't have to make one up?"

"How can you tell-"

"Only the leaders ever talk to me about appointments so they wouldn't risk any of their buddies getting caught for voice recognitions." I said," Now a name, time and private room?"

"BBS, we'll come in whenever he's done with it and no. We can handle public." He replied

I wrote it down and nodded.

"Mamá, I need to go meet my professor during his lunch! I gotta go!" Manny said

"Let me drive you-"

"It's fine, my friends are picking me up down the street!" He said," Tell ralph I'll be back."

"Alright." I replied

Manny took off his apron and left it on the counter. He left and I turned to the counter ralph was at.

"Ralph-"

"I heard Misses DP, don't worry!" He said as he took out his homework

"You need help on homework then I'm right here." I said

"Okay misses DP." He replied

I turned back to the guy and closed the book.

"Your all set for the appointment! Now to just wait!" I said

"You have kids, and what looks like no husband." He said," Divorced?"

"No, I adopted manny and that one works here and still has his mom." I said," I've never been married."

He hummed and then headed to the door. He left without another word and then ralph called me for some help.

I headed to him and crouched next to him. I helped him with his work and then the bell rang.

"Yo it's wreck it ralph!" Tom cheered," How ya doin little man- oh wait! Big guy!"

I looked at tom and chuckled as ralph hid behind me.

"Aw c'mon kid, I ain't bad!" Tom said

"Hi mister tom." Ralph greeted a bit quietly

I encouraged ralph to continue his work and I stood up an went to tom.

"So what happened to not taking the stupid with you this morning?" I asked an teased

"Ugh! Don't remind me!" He complained," okay so what happened was-"

I bursted out laughing and he tried to make me shut up so he could explain.

"You just said not to remind you and now you're gonna talk about it you dork!" I teased