Chapter Fourteen. After a wonderful morning at the park with Rocco, I am feeling a little lighter emotionally

Alyssa

After a wonderful morning at the park with Rocco, I am feeling a little lighter emotionally. It is hard to believe that stressing over so many things could make you feel like you are physically carrying around so much extra weight. When he first told me the point of the balloons, I was extremely skeptical. How is it possible that watching a helium filled piece of rubber float away into the sky could help release the burden of issues that are bothering you? Now that I’m sitting here thinking about the whole time we spent together earlier, the freedom from the stress is exhilarating. It’s easier to breathe, to smile, to simply feel happy.

We grabbed a quick lunch at a small café that Rocco knew about. There was an outdoor seating area which was open today since it was beautiful out, so we took advantage of it along with two other groups of people. The section with about six tables was to the side of the building which allowed us to watch as people walked by. The owner of the place knew Rocco’s stepdad, so he came out to sit with us for a little bit. He looked so relaxed while catching up with the old family friend.

Now we are back in Rocco’s car traveling to the next destination of the day. He still hasn’t told me where we are going, but honestly, it doesn’t really matter. As long as I’m spending time with him, I don’t care what we are doing. About fifteen minutes later, at around quarter to one, we pull into a parking lot of a decent sized shopping center. The low, one-story, red brick building looks practically brand new. Along the front, there are a couple different clothing stores, a shoe store, and on the corner there is a jewelry store whose windows wrap around the building. When we get to the end of the walkway, there is another strip of stores that goes straight back. Some of these are more stores and some are offices. Rocco finally stops at the last door. There is a sign that says ‘Zac’s Place’ in the window. I cannot tell from the outside what kind of place it is.

When Rocco opens the door and signals for me to walk through ahead of him, I recognize immediately that we are in a tattoo parlor. Confusion sweeps over me. “Okay. What’s up?” I ask him.

Before he has a chance to answer me, a tall and very muscular guy walks out from the back room. Both of his arms are tattooed from the wrists up under his short-sleeved black t-shirt, up both sides of his neck. He is actually very attractive looking even with the piercing through his bottom lip. It seems to suit him perfectly. Combine the tattoos, the piercing along with the short haircut he is sporting and his bad boy look is complete.

“Rocco Matthews! How the hell have you been, man?” the guys asks and shakes hands in that confusing way guys do with Rocco.

“Not bad. How’s it going? Looks like business is going well,” Rocco says gesturing to the setup he has going here.

“Couldn’t be better. My wife is pregnant with baby number two. Life is really great,” he says.

“Congrats. I cannot believe Tiffani is still putting up with your sorry ass,” he laughs shaking his head.

“I still wonder every day when she will kick my ass to the curb,” the guy replies laughing with him. “Who is this beautiful girl standing here and what the fuck is she doing with your ugly ass?”

“This is my girlfriend, Alyssa. This jerk off is Zac. We went to high school and played football together for a few years.”

Zac reaches out for my hand and I shake it. “Nice to meet you,” I say.

“Rocco Matthews finally has a girlfriend? Guess you were waiting for perfection,” he winks at me. “So, what can I do for you today?”

“Not me. Alyssa,” Rocco says with a cocky look leaning his elbow on the glass countertop. What the hell did he just say?

Zac turns to look at me. “You want to tattoo that amazing skin of yours, Sweetheart?”

“No way,” I say backing up holding my hands out.

“Don’t give me that bullshit. You said you wanted one. Zac is free. Do it.” He’s ready to catch me if I try to make a run for the door.

I start shaking my head. “I also told you I was too afraid.”

“There’s nothing to be afraid of. I’m here to hold your hand.” Rocco is walking towards me holding his hand out. When he reaches me, I’m pulled in to his chest and he kisses me. Suddenly, I cannot remember what I was even thinking about let alone afraid of. “I promise,” he says, “I wouldn’t let just anyone touch you. Zac is an incredible artist. Besides, he knows I’ll kick his ass if he screws this up.” I can hear Zac chuckling behind Rocco.

“Okay. Let’s get this over with,” I sigh.

“That’s my girl.” He kisses my cheek.

“Do you have an idea of what you want or do you need to look through these portfolios?” Zac asks directing my attention to the stacks of books.

“I know exactly what I want,” I tell him pulling my phone out of my back pocket. I scroll through the pictures stored on my phone. It takes a few seconds to find the picture of the tattoo I have wanted for over two years now.

I hand my phone over to Zac. “That will look perfect on you. You want this on your foot like in the picture?”

“I do, but I want to change the design a little,” I say.

“Is it okay if I text it to my phone? This way I can print it out and then you can tell me how you want it.” I tell him to go ahead. “Don’t worry, Alyssa. I’ll be as gentle as I can. I’ll be right back.” He goes back into the office.

“You don’t hate me, do you?” Rocco asks trying to figure out if I’m really alright with this.

“I could never hate you,” I reassure him. I’m quite excited about this now. It’s something I’ve always wanted but would have never done on my own.

Zac comes out of the back room with the picture printed on a piece of white paper laying it on the counter. He grabs a stool and holds it out for me to sit on. “Okay, Sweetheart. Challenge me,” he says with another wink taking the pencil from behind his ear.

It’s not that hard to explain when you have been envisioning it for this long. “First of all, I don’t want it this long. Maybe only two or three inches.” He jots that down on the paper. “I’m thinking it should start just below my second toe then angle to the outside of my ankle.” He nods. “I like the vines that are in the background, but I would rather they are more like swirls. Sort of like wind, but prettier, if that makes any sense.” He starts drawing next to the picture I sent him. When he’s finished, he holds the paper out to me. I cannot help my smile. Rocco was right. Zac is a very gifted artist. He drew some simple swirling lines, but then decorated them by adding fancy patterns around some of the curling parts and then simply doubled the lines in other areas. “Perfect! Now this one uses all different butterflies. I only want to use one specific butterfly, three or four times, and in different spots within flight.”

“You mean one with wings open, one with the wings closed, and maybe one or two more at different spots in between?” Zac looks for confirmation.

“Exactly,” I tell him. “I like this one they have here,” I say pointing to the picture. The design seems simple to repeat, but it’s still pretty. “I also like that theirs is all black, but could I have a hint of blue in the wings of the butterflies?”

“Absolutely. It’s going to look just as beautiful as you, I promise,” he says. “I’m going to get set up. I’m thinking it will probably take about an hour or so,” he winks again. “Give me a couple minutes.”

“Thank you!”

“You look as excited as Joey and Jake did when you gave them the balloons today.” Rocco comes up behind me wrapping his arms around my waist and laying his chin on my shoulder.

“What’s not to be excited about?” I say leaning into him. “I’m about to do something I’ve always wanted to do and I have the best boyfriend in the universe here with me.”

“Yes you do,” he says pulling me tighter.

“Let her go, Rocco. I need her over here,” Zac calls from across the room.

“I have some pretty shitty friends,” he mumbles so low only I can hear him as he leads me over to Zac’s station. Once everything is set up and I’m comfortable, Zac goes to start on my foot. “Oh shit! I can’t let you do this,” Rocco almost shouts making both me and Zac look up at him. “I haven’t even met your dad yet. If I send his perfect daughter home altered with a tattoo that I took her to get, he’s going to hate me.”

My tension subsides the moment I understand why he was starting to freak out. I nod to Zac to get started and Rocco stiffens next to me. “Rocco, I’m already forever altered because of you and it definitely has nothing to do with this tattoo.” He visibly relaxes. Our eyes are locked and he draws my lips to his once again.

“Matthews, I’m ready to kick your ass out of here,” Zac warns him making me giggle.

Rocco takes a step back holding his hands up. “I’ll behave. I promise.” He winks at me. “Alright Sunshine. What’s the story with the butterflies? Don’t even try to tell me there isn’t one, either.”

I take a deep breath and exhale slowly. “My aunt loved butterflies, so she had this garden full of plants that attracted them. We used to sit out there watching them for hours. She taught me the names of each type of butterfly that would come through the garden. Once I knew all of those, she bought books and we learned about others we never saw. One day while we were playing outside, a crazy storm moved in real fast. The wind picked up out of nowhere.” I pause remembering the day like it was yesterday. “There was this Monarch my aunt had pointed out a few minutes earlier. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw it get caught up in the wind. I didn’t even know that could happen. It seemed so helpless and I stood there frozen watching it. My aunt was telling me to get inside, but my feet were planted to the ground. When the rain started, she came over to pick me up. I lost sight of it before we got into the house and I started to cry. She asked what the tears were for. It was hard for me to explain to her how I felt like that butterfly. I felt like I was lost in the wind with nothing or no one willing to hold me down. For a long time, I felt that way, especially after she died.” I wince for the first time since Zac had started my tattoo. It is really hard not to look at what he is doing, but fear of not letting him finish if I saw the needle set in. Plus I want to be surprised when it is all done. It must look like I am going to turn my head to glance over because Rocco put his hand on my chin to keep me from turning. That or he is trying to distract me.

“When did you stop feeling that way?” The frown on his face made me a little sad, but I knew my honest answer would wipe it away.

“This morning,” I speak so softly he may not even hear me.

Rocco holds both sides of my face in his hands and tilts his head into mine, carefully so I don’t move my leg. “I won’t ever let you feel lost again. I promise,” he’s whispering now, then kisses me on the head.

Neither one of us moves for a while. It’s baffling to me how I’ve never felt like this with anyone before. When we were together, I could have sworn I was so in love with Jeff. No one would have been able to convince me that what we had was anything other than love. After all, we had known each other for over a decade. There wasn’t anyone who knew us better than we knew each other. Now, I feel absolutely nothing for him. I don’t even hate him anymore. The guy before him doesn’t count. There was never any love there. I couldn’t even tell you what that was. Maybe I just was fascinated with the idea that someone showed an interest in me.

Now, there’s Rocco. I’ve only known him such a short amount of time. It cannot be love, so what the hell could it be? It’s not possible to love someone you just met, is it? The excitement pours through me when I’m going to see him. My breath catches when he looks at me certain ways. There are even times he can be kissing me or just saying the sweetest things like he just did, where my heart actually skips a beat. Seriously, I can feel it. Every time it happens, I’m begging for it to start beating again because the possibility that I could die right then and miss out on another minute with him is too much to bear. The way he acts like there is even a small chance he might feel the same way about me makes me light-headed. So, I ask again, what the hell is this?

Eventually, Rocco pulls away from me, but he didn’t go far. He slides a stool over to sit next to me and holds my hand the rest of the time. He starts a conversation with Zac about what they’ve been up to recently and how their families are doing. I keep trying to hide how nervous I am that Zac might mess up because he is really having a good time laughing with Rocco. Eventually, a few other people start showing up for work and setting up their stations before their clients come in. They are all very nice and all but one of them know Rocco. Every time he introduces me as his girlfriend I think my heart grows a little more, just as his smile does. When we finally walk out of Zac’s, the guys promise to get together soon.

There is plenty of time before my class tonight, so when we finally get back to campus I’m thankful for the break. My foot started hurting a little while ago and I’m wondering why I was crazy enough to pick such a sensitive spot to be tattooed. Now that I’m looking at it again while Rocco is rubbing ointment on it, I cannot ignore how I absolutely love it.

“I’m so glad you are this happy about your tattoo,” he says.

“Me too. Thank you, again. Today was one of the best days ever!” I tell him.

“Yes it was,” he answers.

Just as he’s getting ready to cover it up, Leah walks through the door with Tyler and Julia trailing behind her. “Where have you two been all day?” she asks. Then she almost freaks out when she sees the gauze sitting on the couch next to me and my foot on Rocco’s leg. “What the hell happened to your foot?” She rushes over and glances down to my foot. Her smile mirrors mine. “You finally did it!” Leah blurts out.

“Finally did what?” both Tyler and Julia ask at the same time.

“Oh my goodness, Lyss! I love it!” Julia practically screams. “How bad does it hurt?”

“It actually hurts pretty badly right now,” I admit. “I don’t think I’m going to my class tonight. Just the thought of putting on my sock makes it hurt even more.”

“If you want to go, I’ll drive you over and pick you up when it’s over,” Rocco says. He looks like he feels bad.

“Don’t you dare,” I demand.

“Don’t I dare, what?” he asks me.

“Don’t you dare feel bad.”

“I do feel a little bad.” He looks down at my foot biting his bottom lip. “But it does look really awesome.” He’s holding my foot from underneath. “I have to admit, I was a little worried when you said butterflies, but it suits you perfectly. Very sexy,” he adds running his hand up the back of my leg.

“Oh please,” Julia says.

“No, it kind of is, Jules,” Tyler says looking over Rocco’s shoulder. “Right, Leah?”

“Totally,” Leah agrees.

“I wasn’t talking about that. I was referring to Rocco totally eye fucking her right here in front of us.” Rocco and Tyler burst out laughing. However, I’m not sure if it’s because of what Julia said or my reaction to it.

“Don’t be jealous, Julia. You just miss getting that look from Tommy. Maybe you should have held out a little longer,” Leah says plopping down next to me smirking.

“Okay, that’s it,” I say getting up. “I’m going to class after all.” That just sends them all into another fit of laughter.

I leave the room shaking my head. Rocco comes in after me still chuckling. “Let me finish covering that up for you.” We relax on my bed for him to apply the gauze. His hands lingering on my skin ignite something inside of me that I’m not ready for yet. “Sunshine, we need to get out of here.” Knowing he feels the spark as well makes me think this will be happening entirely too soon.

Rocco grabs my backpack and we head out to the living room. “See you guys later,” I say to my roommates.

“Lyss, we are grabbing Chinese for dinner. Want your usual?” Julia asks.

“Sure, thanks. Don’t wait for me to get back. I’ll just reheat mine,” I say pulling money out of my pocket and sticking it under the magnet on the refrigerator.

“Rocco, you want anything?” Leah offers.

“I’m going to grab something with the guys. Thanks, though,” he tells her opening the door for me.

“Just so you know, your girlfriend is ours tonight. We have a ton of shows to catch up on. We’ve gotten far behind since you two started this dating shit,” Julia says giving him one of her serious looks. They aren’t nearly as powerful as Leah’s, so he just laughs her off.

“I’ll think about it,” he says. We leave and start walking to the parking lot.

“I can walk to class, Rocco. You don’t have to take me.”

“I know I don’t have to. I want to. Besides, I’m not going to let you limp all the way across campus.” He raises his eyebrows daring me to push the subject further.

“You are too good to me.”

“Sunshine, you haven’t seen anything yet.” He gives me the smirk that sends shivers through my body.

He leaves me right outside of the building reminding me he’ll be back to pick me up by the time my class is over. This almost three hour class always drags, but tonight it seems exceptionally long. By the time class is over, my foot is throbbing from being inside of my shoe and I’ve grown quite grumpy. That is until I walk out of the door and see my boyfriend leaning up against the wall across the hall waiting for me. I cross the hallway and fall into his open arms.

“Hey, Beautiful. Let’s get you home.” It feels so good right where I am. We start to leave when someone calls Rocco.

“Yo, Matthews! Hold up a sec.”

Rocco turns around searching for the voice. It belongs to one of the guys I recognize from the class I was just in. “What’s up, Ryan?” he answers irritated pulling me closer to his side.

“Haven’t seen you around the Village lately. What’s going on?”

“I’ve been busy. Do you need something?”

“So the rumor is true.” He looks me up and down then back to Rocco. “Rocco Matthews actually has a girlfriend.” The cocky look on his face bothers me. These two are clearly not friendly. “Nice to know.”

“Leave her alone, Ryan.” Rocco is clearly warning him away. What the hell is going on between these guys?

Ryan starts laughing. “Keep her close, Rocco. See you around, Beautiful,” he says to me before turning to walk down the hallway in the opposite direction.

“What the hell was that about?” I ask Rocco as soon as Ryan is out of sight. He leads me down the hall and out of the building where his car is waiting in the commuter parking lot. When he opens the door for me, I don’t get in. “Are you going to answer me?”

“He’s a scumbag. Make sure you stay away from him. If he bothers you, I need to know about it right away. I don’t care where I am. You call me if I’m not with you. If you can’t get me for any reason, you call Shane.” He’s looking me straight in the eye. He hasn’t answered my question and I’m getting annoyed. “Alyssa, do you understand me?”

“Yes, I get it. Now answer my damn question.” I don’t mean to snap at him, but I don’t like being ignored either.

“Ryan thinks I’m the reason his girl dumped him. He thinks I slept with her.”

“Did you?”

He sighs before he answers. “No. She tried coming on to me one night at a party. I’ve never really liked Ryan, but I wouldn’t sleep with anyone’s girlfriend. I have some morals. She tried to follow me when I left and some of her friends told Ryan that I took her to my room. I have no idea where she went, but it wasn’t with me. I’ve never brought a girl back to my room other than you the entire time I’ve lived here on campus.”

I believe him and relax immediately. I put my hand on his cheek and kiss him quickly. “I promise I will keep an eye out and call you if he bothers me. Now please take me home. I have cold Chinese food and TV shows waiting for me.” He chuckles shutting me inside the car.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-30