Ding, went the bell by the door as I left the store. I finally had IT, I had wanted IT sense I 16. I had seen it three years ago and knew it must, no, had to be mine. I even paid for it three years in advance.

“Hey Joe,” a male voice said from across the street. I looked over it was Meo.

“Hey Meo,” I replied.

“What are you doing here this late?” Meo asked.

“Getting my Tat,” I told him with a smile.

“Ah so you finally can afford it,” Meo said with a smile.

“Yep! So, what are you doing here?”

“Oh, I’m waiting for your brother.”

“Really? Oh then I should probably leave,” I told him as I turned around. What I didn’t expect was that my brother was right behind me, so I ended up running right into him.

“Hey little sis, what are you doing here?” Ross my big brother asked.

“Umm…,” I stuttered.

“She was just hanging around with me,” Meo covered wrapping his arm around my shoulders.

“Romeo, Why are you here with my sister?” Ross asked. He could be overprotective even when I was with my friends, or rather our friends. Yes, Meo’s real name was Romeo, but I liked to call him Meo, and yes, he was friends with Ross and me.

“Ross cut it out we’re just hanging out,” I said hitting Meo in the stomach. Ross look uncertain.

“Well, I’ll just leave now,” I said excusing myself. As I walked passed my brother he looked at me.

“Hey sis?”

“Yeah?”

“Why do you have a bandage on your back?” Dang I shouldn’t have worn a tank top today.

“Oh…um…well…you see…I…um,” I tittered, I didn’t usually titter but this was an exception. My brother didn’t know that I was getting a tattoo; sure, he knew that I had wanted one, one in specific, but he defiantly would blow up at me if he knew I had paid for it and I had just been waiting to be out of the house and legal to get one.

“Oh she just hurt herself today,” Meo covered for me again.

“Really, how?” Ross questioned.

“Oh I fell of the couch and landed on one of my heels,” I told him. Thank god, I was the one to get the talent to lie through my teeth!

“Didn’t I tell you that you should have cleaned your apartment,” Ross scolded.

“Yes well I’m a slob,” I defended, and actually, I wasn’t a slob I was just lazy and I wasn’t big on the idea of cleaning.

“Whatever,” Ross scuffed. I smiled a started to walk away when all of a sudden I heard Ross shout,

“What the fuck?” Turned quickly to see Seth, the tattoo artist who did mine, holding my school bag and talking to Ross. Meo’s face was pale and I quickly ran towered them.

“Oh hey Seth,” I said innocently. Oh, please god let Seth have said nothing about my tattoo.

“Joanna Zebear, why was your backpack in Pricked Art?” Ross asked.

“I was just talking to Seth and admiring his art,” I told him, “right Seth?” Seth looked confused then realized that my brother didn’t know and wouldn’t approve so he responded,

“Yeah right!” Ross gave me shocked look then gave me a guilty smile.

“Sorry baby sis that I yelled at yea,” Ross apologized. I smiled at him.

“No worries, you just being you over protective self, and if you weren’t you wouldn’t be my older bro,” I told him. Seth, Meo and Ross a laughed at what I said. I pretended to pout.

“Ha-ha, sis don’t look like that,” Ross contained to laugh, “Didn’t you have some place to go?” He asked to get my face to change. I laughed at his attempt to change the topic and I just decided to go with it. I smiled and nodded.

“Well then, get going,” Ross, said giving me a shooing motion. I nodded my head again and quickly gave him a peck on the check and hopped down the sidewalk.

I was now waiting outside of the mall perched on the wall waiting for my friend Jess to show up. As I waited for Jess, a blond guy came up to me.

“Hey, cutie, what ’cha doing here all alone?” the guy asked.

“That would be none of your business,” I responded. He ignored my outburst.

“How about the beautiful lady comes with me, you’ll defiantly have more fun with me,” the guy said.

“No thank you, you PIG,” I spat the last word as if I had some bad taste in my mouth.

“Oh now, now there is no need for complements,” the pig said.

“I rolled my eyes and spotted Jess coming out of the mall and looking around. I turned to the guy smiled and told him,

“Well, excuse me sir I must leave now.” I said that and turned to leave, but he grabbed my arm.

“Come on baby don’t be like that,” he purred. I turned my wrist and pulled, pulling it out of his grip. He hadn’t been prepared for me to be so strong so well he was still in shock I decided to take my leave. I turned again and made my way to where Jess was standing.

When I walked, up to her she smiled and I asked,

“So how was work?”

“It was okay, nothing to interesting today,” she told me.

“Oh, but that’s no fun at all,” I giggled in response.

“Yeah I know, but there is still tomorrow,” She reminded me with a poke to the side.

“Don’t,” I giggled louder and she did it again, “that tickles,” I told her. She stopped and I quickly breathed in. I looked at her again.

“Let’s go home,” she said smiling at me.

“Yeah, I want to show you my tat,” I exclaimed happily, clapping my hands together. She laughed, and walked to the parking lot and I followed.

We walked over to her red beat up truck.

“Hey, Gus,” she said rubbing her truck. I opened the door laughing. When I sat down I rubbed the head board and said,

“Great to see yea again Gus,” I was still giggling.

“I can feel the love,” Jess said, “you shouldn’t be so hard on the old boy, he gets us where we want to go!” I stopped laughing.

“I know I’m sorry Gus,” I told the truck. This time Jess laughed.

“What’s so funny?” I asked her.

“You are,” she told me, “I would have never believed you would apologize to Gus!” She continued to laugh and I joined along.

When we got back to our apartment building, I helped Jess take out her bags from the car to the apartment we shared. She had to visit her family, then she had to go to her friend’s mother’s work lunch, and then go work out and lastly go to her job. I really had no idea why she had to go work out, but she insisted on it and there was no changing her mind once it was made up.

We got into the elevator and I press the button that had the 6 on it. Yes, we lived on the sixth floor, which was also the top level in the building. The elevator dinged and we got off.

I counted the doors on the right; G15, G13, G11, G9, and G7 our room. I dug into my purse and took out my key, opening the door.

“Were home,” I called into the house. A black cat came running into the room and started circling my legs. I put down Jess’s bag and pet my cat Midnight.

“Hey girl,” I said. I had had since I was 10, and I loved her deeply. She was like a sister to me, and I’d have to say she’s my favorite sibling.

I grabbed Midnight and Jess grabbed her other bag. I walked into the kitchen and put down my keys and my purse on the table. I took out Midnight’s cat food and put some into her bowl. I rubbed her ears and went over to the phone.

The light was blinking so I pressed the button and the machine told me I had 5 messages. I rolled my eyes I new that they where all from my ex-boyfriend. I rolled my eyes again as I heard his voice come from the first message.

‘Message one; Joe please listen, I’m sorry. I’m very, very sorry.’

“I bet you are,” I mumbled to myself and pushed the delete button.

‘Message two; Joe I didn’t mean to kiss her! It’s just she… she jumped me!’

“Yeah and I bet you did everything you could to get her off,” I muttered to myself and again pushing the delete button. Message three through four were like that, but message five was from some one I wasn’t expecting.

‘Message five; Hey Joe, how are you? I hear you went through a nasty break up, I’m sorry. Though I must say no one is good enough for you especially who ever he was. Oh and by the way it’s me… your mom.’

I swear the moment I heard that voice my mouth hit the floor.

“Hey Joe what’s up?” Jess asked as she came into the kitchen. I turned my head towered her.

“My mom called us today and left a message,” I told her, her face had shock written all over it, I’m sure, just like mine.

“You haven’t heard from her since the fight you guys had two years ago!” Jess said, very excited.

“I know,” was all I could say.