Zacky had decided to avoid Victoria for the rest of the week, taking the time to fix a few things on his new house. He couldn’t pressure her too much and what had happened on that Wednesday was a sign of that. She was starting to ask him too many questions, to which he couldn’t answer. She was the most important person to him, but she couldn’t know the truth.
He washed his hands stained with paint, rubbing them vigorously. Little by little the house was starting to get fit for human habitation, but it wasn’t still good enough for Victoria.
He was staring at the ocean view through the kitchen window when he heard his cell phone ring. He walked into the half painted living room and went over a few boxes to grab it. Zacky’s lip revealed his perfectly lined teeth once he saw Victoria’s number on the screen. He stared at it until it stopped ringing, leaving his house after that.

It was only a couple of weeks left until Thanksgiving recess and everybody on campus seemed to be suffering from college midterm’s stress.
Victoria was studying at the library for almost an hour, occasionally checking her cell phone. It was the second time she had tried to call Zacky since she last saw him on Wednesday, but he never answered her. It was not like she was worried about him; he was probably busy with some paper or studying for an exam, but it wasn’t like him not to call her back. She sighed after checking her cell phone for one last time and then turned her attention to the book in front of her.

Victoria finally left the building when it was getting darker. Zacky had sat inside his car for over five hours and he finally closed the magazine he was reading when he saw her arriving at the dorm.
He waited a few minutes and finally picked his cell phone and dialed her number.

“Hi Victoria,” His raspy voice greeted her once she answered the phone. “I’m sorry I didn’t return you calls, I was at the library and I had my phone on silent.”

“I was also at the library, too bad I didn’t see you.” Her gentle voice made him drift off, feeling the urge to touch her as her words reached his ear. He needed to touch her silky hair, to see her smile at him and only at him, once again.

“Hey, I wanted to ask you a favor…”

“Anything.” He snapped back to reality.

“Could you meet me tomorrow for lunch? I need your help with something…”

“What is it?”

He heard her giggle on the other side. “Tomorrow you’ll see. Right now I just want to have dinner and get some rest.”

His face frowned, as he realized that he wouldn’t see her tonight. “Of course, I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He started the engine and drove back to his house.

Next morning Victoria woke up with wind hitting on her window. The sky was really cloudy with mist lying out on the streets. She headed to her classes with the feeling that she should have stayed in bed.
Fortunately, by the time she finished her morning classes, the mist had disappeared. Once she got out of the building, she immediately saw Zacky, waiting for her with a smile on his face and oblivious to everyone else.

“Where do you want to have lunch?” He asked once she got closer to him and greeted him with an excited smile.

“We’ve got something to do before having lunch.” Her eyes shined and she couldn’t stop smiling. “I’m getting a tattoo.”

“Are you sure you want to get some ink?”He stopped for a while. Victoria laughed and moved her long hair to her left shoulder, revealing a small tattoo on the back of her neck. It was simple tattoo, just the word Freedom written, with the letter m looking like a bird flying.
“I never realized you had one.” Zacky struggled to smile.

In that moment, tiny water drops started to fall from the sky. Victoria dressed her jacket and cursed herself for not bringing an umbrella. Zacky opened his and Victoria got underneath it, their bodies meshing together.
He could smell her perfume, the sweet scent that drove him crazy, and the wind made her hair caress his arm, like if it was begging to be touched.

“I got it when I turned eighteen.” They kept on walking. “I got it on my neck, so that my parents wouldn’t see it,” She laughed.
Zacky was actually quite surprised he had missed something like that. Over the last month he had studied her like she was an endangered specie. He thought he knew every single detail about her; like that she twitched her nose when she wasn’t particularly fond of something, that she had two piercings on her left ear, or that her left eyebrow was slightly higher than her right one.

“So of course I asked you to come, I couldn’t think of a better person to come with me.” She smiled sweetly at him, as she entwined her arm around his tattooed one and the rain poured harder.

They never stopped walking, but by that time Zacky was struggling not to stop. Inside he was having a war with himself; one part of him wanting to stop, shove her against a wall, rip off her clothes and possess her under the hard rain, but the other part of himself knowing that that would be a mistake and that he couldn’t destroy their future together over an impulse. No, he had to be better than that. He couldn’t make that type of mistakes. Not this time.

“I know the perfect place for you then.” He finally spoke as he opened the cab’s door.

The cab stopped in front of a big tattoo shop and Zacky opened the door for Victoria. Once she entered, a smile appeared on her face. The shop was even bigger than it looked on the outside, with dark hardwood floor and white and purple walls.
A girl with short black hair was behind the counter, which had a big skull with bat wings stenciled on it. She greeted both of them and Zacky talked to her while Victoria still wandered around the room. There were pictures of tattoos on the walls, vintage posters of half naked girls and some photos of two good looking guys, who she assumed to be the owners, with some celebrities. A skeleton hang next to the big leather couch where she sat and a few seconds later Zacky joined her.

“This is awesome…” She said with a big smile on her lips. Zacky was about to speak when he was interrupted by a shout.

“Zeeeeee!” A lanky guy with black hair and blue eyes appeared from one of the back rooms. Zacky got up and Victoria followed him, recognizing him from the pictures she had just seen. “What brings you here?”

“Hi Jimmy. This is my friend, Victoria. She wants to get a tattoo.”

She smiled and waved at him, but she was caught by surprise and he held her into a tight hug, feeling her blood quickly rushing to her face.

“You’ll have to excuse my friend…” She heard a voice from behind Jimmy, who finally let her go. “He doesn’t understand the idea of personal space.”
She watched the man throwing a pair of rubber gloves to the trash can, an almost mischievous smirk appearing on his face. He was the other man that Victoria had seen on the photos.
“I’m Brian.” She stretched out his hand for her to shake.

“Sooo… Do you know which tat you’re going to get?” Jimmy lowered himself to her height, like if he was talking to a kid. She laughed and nodded shyly.

“Let’s do it then!” He lifted his arm up like if he was Superman and dragged her to the back room.

Once they disappeared, Brian’s face changed in a heartbeat. He turned around to face Zacky, his smirk now gone.
“What the hell are you doing here Zacky?”

Notes

Here's another chapter, with Brian's and Jimmy's first appearence! Matt and Johnny will also appear, they will all play a small part in this story :)
I hope you've liked it!