Page 55 of When Fate Breaks
Blake’s attention turns from me to another guy in the room I hadn’t noticed before. He’s wearing all black, tattoos covering the entirety of his visible arms and neck. He’s really quite handsome, with striking brown eyes and dark hair. He can’t be more than a few years older than us.
“Carlos! Hey, dude,” Blake says, shaking the boy’s hand. “Carlos is one of the guys on my baseball team’s older brother,” he says, turning to me. “Diego. Do you remember him?” I’m pretty sure you met him once.”
I can’t remember much of anything right now but I nod anyway.
“This is Evangeline,” Blake introduces me.
“Annie,” I mumble, shaking Carlos’s outstretched hand.
“Nice to meet you. And good to see you again, man,” Carlos smiles, clapping Blake on the shoulder. “What are you doing here? You guys looking to get something?”
“Yeah, we are actually,” Blake says.
We are?
How have I suddenly lost the ability to speak?
“We’re just a hair under age,” Blake continues, “but we were hoping you could make an exception?”
“Pshhh. It’s a Tuesday night. Who gives a crap? Mike is just finishing up on someone else. You guys can come on back and we can do you both at the same time,” Carlos heads deeper into the studio, motioning for us to follow.
“Great,” Blake says, starting to follow Carlos before I grab him by the elbow, yanking him back towards me. His gaze meets mine, confusion in his expression. “What?” he asks, as if I have no reason to be questioning him.
“Tattoos?” I hiss. “Don’t you think you should have given me a bit of a heads up?”
Blake's face remains neutral, but his lips pull up just slightly. “You said you were in.”
“Yeah, before I knew whatinreally meant. I mean, Blake, this is permanent!”
“No,” Blake says, feigning a shocked expression. “Are you serious? I had no idea.”
“Shut up,” I grumble, shoving his shoulder. “I’m serious!”
“So am I.”
“Our parents will freak.”
“That’s why we get something small. In a place not that visible.”
“What would we even get?”
“I figured we’d pick for each other,” Blake replies casually.
I steel my spine, my brows raising. “It seems you’ve put some thought into this.”
“Maybe a little,” he smirks. “Are you in or are you out?”
I blow out a deep breath. I’ve always figured I’d get a tattoo at some point. I’m not against them by any means, I just assumed it’d be something that I planned for and would have some ounce of meaning behind it.
What the hell am I doing? And why can’t I just say no? And why do I kinda not even want to say no?
“I’m in.”
A huge grin breaks out on Blake’s face as he grabs my hand in his, lacing our fingers together as if in some sort of binding contract, dragging me back to where Carlos and Mike are wiping down their stations.
“So what are we doing?” Carlos asks as we approach.
“Are you gonna do hers?” Blake asks Carlos, nodding towards me.
