Ch2 – Ride
The day was winding down as I was locking up the shop; the sun was supposed to be low in the sky, but you couldn't tell it with the clouds overhead, despite it being the middle of summer. Jingling the keys in my hand as I made a few last peeks around my studio, I swept my hand over the light switches and plunged the tattoo parlor into darkness. Working from memory, I pulled free my satchel from under the counter and stepped outside, finishing off the final locks and bolts, I found myself ready to head home. Walking out the front door, I glanced up and down the street.
And that's when I bumped into Anya, playing music through the headphones around her neck. It had been a long time since we had last seen each other, and while I had enjoyed her checkups with me, visits which I had looked forward to; given that they involved a lot of good natured swearing and teasing.
The hilariously disrespectful punk had been good at getting the last word in, or taking advantage of the mirrors in my studio to poke fun at me with gestures and goofy expressions while I replaced the saran wrap taped to her bare back. I had enjoyed her regular visits immensely, especially those little intimate moments we had in my studio, with me fussing over the tattoo I had on her back. Anya had taken to straddling my chair for those visits, almost completely topless; she would shuck her tank top and undo her bra, and as she let the latter hang off her shoulders she would throw the former over the back to keep the cold leather from 'freezing her nipples into fucking skittles'.
Her wording, not mine.
But good times never lasted. And on her eighth visit, she knew it too. Walked in without her usual greeting even though she wasn't afraid to shout it out with other customers nearby, or a mom carting her kids around outside, and then assumed her position with a little more rigidity than normal.
The last visit had been disturbingly asexual. Clinical, almost. I had peeled off her wrapping, declared her tattoo fully healed... and that this was the last time she needed to come in. After that, she had only been a rare sight. Every now and again, weeks apart, she would come along with a greeting. We would spend time in near silence, her flicking through my sketches on the shelves, or making small talk about music, the weather... nothing of substance.
I missed those first encounters with her. Fresh and lively, it had been so fun and thoroughly enjoyable despite our pants staying on.
Eventually - a month ago - she had simply stopped visiting.
To be honest, I missed her.
And now she was there, leaning against a lamp-post and looking up the street, waiting for a bus.
In the months that I had last seen the crude, bubbly punk her mohawk had changed color from the neon blue I had first seen to a pale white, framed by her almost buzz cut scalp. Her slim figure was bulked up by the clothes she wore, covered by a tightly fitting grey long coat that reached her knees, its zipper done all the way up to her throat, but unzipped from the bottom up to her bare belly button. A thin scarf was wrapped around her neck to keep the headphones from chafing, its color matching the plain white thigh high stockings covering what parts of the legs that her heavy black boots did not, and a black and red plaid skirt completed her trademark look.
She turned as my parlor's door slammed itself shut (almost taking my fingers with it).
Our eyes met.
Her eyes brightened.
"Well hey there, old man! Got laid yet?" Shouted the teen as she left the bus stop to march the street, her mouth split into a smile to match my own, uncaring of the pedestrians who looked and gawked.
As soon as Anya got closer, she jerked her head back in greeting. There had been always something primal in that gesture, that antithesis of bowing your head. Unlike inclining your head towards the recipient, the act of exposing your neck seemed more barbaric. More animalistic.
On the punk, it suited her fine.
"How's it been, darl?" I asked when Anya finally reached close enough to meet my raised fist with hers. She pulled me into an unexpectedly pleasant hug, and grinned.
