A note: just a reminder from the last chapter - this is set at least 10 years ago.
I would love comments - I really want to improve my writing but need feedback to be able to tell what is/isn't working. Thanks for reading and please rate if you enjoy it.
*****
After the Christmas break, Sean and Logan hung out a few more times, aided by Al. She had attempted to get Sean's mom to let him go to the city, citing shopping, but his mother had claimed Sean's need for minimalism to prevent that. She felt as though she had a good hold of him in Greenholt, with her restrictive rules and spy network, and didn't want to lose that. She was painfully aware that the loving dynamic between her and Sean had changed. He was polite but distant, more like a lodger than a son.
In that time, Alexie noticed that Sean was generally quite detached. He stopped talking about Jake when he hung out with her and Sam. She hated the sadness in his eyes, that seemed to be becoming a permanent feature. The most he admitted to Al was that it might be too late, Jake had probably moved on.
Nevertheless, Al stepped up her search for Jake online, clicking on page after page of tiny thumbnails looking for piercing green eyes and tattoos. Nothing looked promising, bar an archive newspaper article from more than six years ago, showing a smiling fifteen-year-old with messy black hair, a cheeky smile and bright green eyes, proudly clasping a gold medal for winning a state cross-country championship, his skinny body clad in a running vest and shorts. There was little doubt that this was the right person, but it gave little new information, only the high school he'd attended. But as she knew he didn't live at home she'd put that on the backburner - she wasn't going to raise Sean's hopes until she could work out where to go with it.
Exams approached and suddenly everyone was reclusive - all needing to do their best in this final semester. Sean had applied for several top law schools, and accepted a provisional scholarship from NYU, so it was even more important for him to do well. He had told his mother he was re-thinking his career and would take a year off, in order to throw her off. She was unhappy, but he refused to engage and claimed exams as a reason to spend as much time as possible out of the house; studying in the library or working out in the gym.
There was one last party to look forward to - the Delta Upsilon Kappa end of year blowout. Alexie was planning on surprising her best friends with a new tattoo that represented them. She'd settled on a hyper-realistic image of a peapod with three peas - because the three of them were as 'alike as three peas in a pod'. She felt like it held the right amount of cute for her personality, whilst holding a huge meaning to one of the most important relationships in her life.
However, she wasn't easy to please and was struggling to find someone she trusted enough to permanently ink her. Hanging out with Bridget one day, she was scrolling through images.
"Check this out," Bridget passed over her laptop, which was open to a Facebook page called 'Phoenix Rising', "He's based in the city, and his work is amazing." Alexie scrolled through the images. They were just what she was looking for.
Alexie found the website for the tattoo parlor - North Star Tattoos. More examples of amazing artwork, from the guy who called himself 'Phoenix Rising' and from the other artists at the parlor. As she scrolled through the older pictures she gasped when she saw a beautiful colored ink of a hummingbird on a broad toned chest, its wings spread behind it. It looked as though it were moving, it was so finely drawn. But that wasn't what had shocked her.
"What's up?" Bridg asked.
"You know Sean's guy, Jake?"
"Yeah, of course. He's a tattoo artist isn't he?" Bridg was beginning to understand.
"I think this could be him," Al pointed at the picture, "I can't be sure, but it looks exactly like Sean described. Maybe this place did his tat."
"His can't be the only hummingbird tattoo though..." Bridg put a note of caution in. Al nodded, but she wasn't disheartened. It was the best lead she'd had.
****
Alexie was nervous as she sat in the waiting area, next to a shaven headed man. The friendly receptionist, her arms covered in intricately painted sleeves, had clocked her as a newbie straight away and tried to put her at ease.
"Who are you seeing?" she asked, chirpily.
"Oh...I don't know actually," she hadn't even thought to get a name, only interested in getting a booking, which she'd only managed to do because of a last-minute cancellation.
The girl clicked away at the computer, checking the bookings.
"Okay, I've got you," the girl bobbed out of her seat and into the back room.
"Your next appointment's here," Al heard her announce. She heard a deep voice respond.
"Thanks Leila, I'll be five more minutes finishing up."
A few minutes later a tall young man, with a sterile dressing wrapped around his forearm, exited the back room. He went to Leila to pay, and he was followed out by a man with glossy black hair. Al almost gasped out loud. It was him. No mistaking. There was the hair, and then the luminous green eyes and several tattoos up his bare arms that Sean had described in detail. She could even see the head of the hummingbird at the 'v' of his tank. He whispered something to Leila and span on his heel, moving with the easy grace of a dancer, that Sean had described, and Al had previously put down to puppy-love vision.
Leila took the man's payment, and then approached Al.
"Okay, Alex, Jake will be ready for you now, follow me," she twittered happily. They went into the back room, where a couple of artists were working, their clients on comfortable leather reclining chairs, and Jake was laying out clean materials. He turned and looked slightly shocked.
"Oh...hi. Sorry... I thought you were a guy. You must be Alex," he reached out a hand.
"I get that sometimes," Alexie laughed and shook his hand, trying to act cool. How was she going to proceed? They chatted for a while about her requirements and he started work just above her hip.
"I really like the bird on your arm," Al pointed at his bicep when hers was nearly complete, "is it a swallow?" Jake nodded, "Do you have any other birds?" He stood, stripping off his white vest and pointed casually over his shoulder at the crimson cardinal, and then the hummingbird. Al sucked in air. Hot.
"They're amazing," Alexie breathed, "did you do them yourself?" Jake snorted.
"I'm not that supple, my boss did those ones," he laughed. He pointed to a realistic black-lined rose on his inner forearm, "I did that one though." He then pointed at a delicate green sprig of rosemary attached to the hummingbird's leg with a yellow ribbon, and his face dropped "And that." He pulled his shirt back on.
"Do they have meaning?" Alexie asked softly.
"Yes," Jake responded shortly, before physically shaking his funk off. "Anyway, does yours, Alex?" he asked, while finishing up his application of gently graded color. Al took a breath.
"Yes, it does. And you can call me Al; my friends do," Jake looked up sharply, as if seeing her for the first time. The flashing eyes, the button nose, and auburn-red hair currently restrained by a barrette.
