Sometimes, family just changed the way it was defined.
Epilogue
Neera
Six months later
“Okay. We’re doing this.” The buzzing of the tattoo machine in the background confirmed Elodie’s tremulously spoken words. For someone who had been so insistent for so long on getting the tattoos, she was having a hard time now. She was sitting in the black leather tattoo chair, fidgeting wildly.
“Mom,” Neera gripped Elodie’s hand. She was allowed to sit on the stool beside her. There was only one person allowed back into the artist’s booth at a time, and Neera thought it should be Scarlet, but Neera reasoned that since Scarlet was up next, she didn’t want her to chicken out on getting her matching bff tattoo. Neera could sit with both of them, since they were going in back-to-back. “You want this. You’ve been bugging us for months and months to get it. Scarlet finally caved, then she came around to the idea. Now, she’s actually excited. You can’t bail now.”
“Oh, I know.” Elodie shifted uncomfortably again. “I’m not going to bail. I’m just— you know. First times and all that.”
The guy behind her, a mid-twenties, heavily tattooed, athletic guy with neon green hair and a ton of facial piercings, grinned at Neera from behind Elodie’s shoulder. He was still getting his machine set up, the little pods of black ink set out on his tray.
Neera grabbed her mom’s hand. “You bet. I’m a nurse. I see a lot of people’s first times. First stitches, first broken bones, first needles, even, at least that they can remember. First blood tests, first tooth knocked out, first— okay I’m stopping. But those are all bad, not so fun things to have to get done. I still talk them through it and they’re fine on the other end. Well, maybe not that moment, but they will be. If I can talk them through that, I can talk you through this.”
“It’s going to hurt. I know it is. I don’t know why I suggested this. I’m terrible with needles.”
The artist— his name was Nathan, Neera remembered, from when they walked in, finally leaned in. He had his black gloves on, a spray bottle of disinfectant, and he was ready to go. He carefully applied the soap and water mix to Elodie’s shoulder, rubbed it off, then sprayed another antiseptic solution. Neera could smell the biting tang of it.
“Are you ready to go?” he asked. “I promise this isn’t going to be as bad as you think it is. There isn’t much meat on the shoulder, so it might feel a little bit funny at first, but it usually goes numb pretty fast after that. It’s a bit of a pinch and a sting, but it doesn’t feel like needles. It’s more like a bit of a sting, then a bit of a burn, then just vibrations and more burn.”
“Okay,” Elodie whispered. She clasped Neera’s hand a little more tightly. “I think I’m ready.”
“Just try and stay as still as you can. I know up on the shoulder here, it can feel a bit strange, and things can feel like you need to jump or move around, since I’m up here close to your back as well and there are nerves there that you’re going to feel, but I promise if you can just keep still for the first part, you’ll settle in. Just don’t give up after ten seconds. Wait until the five-minute mark and it’ll go a lot faster after that you’ll be done before you know, back here wanting a sleeve.”
“What’s a sleeve?” Elodie asked. She eyed Neera like she didn’t believe that there was any part of the tattoo that was going to be done and over with fast.
“A full arm tattoo,” Nathan explained, and laughed. “You never know.”
Neera grinned at Nathan, then gave Elodie her best nurse reassuring look. Nathan turned on his machine, dipped it in on of the tiny little plastic ink pots, then splayed his other hand out on Elodie’s back. She stiffened, then gasped when he touched the tattoo gun to her skin.
“Ouch!” she whimpered. “That does hurt.”
“Five minutes. Give me five minutes.”
“Of all the things we could have picked, I like this one best,” Neera said, mostly to take Elodie’s mind off what was going on. Nathan had promised the whole thing wouldn’t take more than half an hour to an hour, but she knew from experience as a nurse just how long time could seem when a person had to undergo pain they weren’t used to.
“It’s much better than ‘fuck men’.” Her eyes flicked to Nathan’s face and saw that he was biting down on his lower lip to keep from laughing.
“Much better. I’m glad you talked me out of that one.”
“And a potato on the butt cheek.”
“That would have been unique,” Nathan volunteered. “I haven’t done that one before. I actually think I might draw one of those and make it an option.”
“Don’t encourage her,” Neera groaned. She turned to Elodie. “When you really knew that you wanted to do this and you were serious and Scarlet actually agreed, you suggested butterflies, but Scarlet didn’t like butterflies. You both looked at designs for months and you finally settled on getting each other’s names in that nice, pretty script, that I had suggested in the first place.”
“Yes, well, we had to be sure that there weren’t any other options.”
“This one is going to look amazing. The prettiest script for the prettiest ladies that I know. You both have the best hearts and I’m so, so lucky to be loved by both of you.”
Nathan quirked a brow from behind Elodie. Neera knew that she didn’t have to explain, but for some reason, she found herself doing so, with more than a small bit of sassy humor in her tone. “Scarlet’s my girlfriend. She’s also my mom’s best friend.”
“Whoa,” Nathan exclaimed. “I’ve heard lots of things doing this job. Lots of sad things, angry things, not so happy things— anything and everything you can imagine.” He glanced at my mom. “Just don’t come in here asking me to cover this up. I know it’s a best friends thing, so I agreed, even though I don’t normally put other people’s names on people’s bodies.”