My Stupid Girl (26 page)

My new friend Justin was sitting a few rows
behind me. He was probably asleep. He was a cool guy, not very talkative. He
had greasy brownish hair that probably would have been blondish if he actually
cared about it. He had a long face with rosy cheeks. He kind of reminded me of
a basset hound looking for a warm home and someone to take care of him. I’d
told Justin that whatever Lucy had planned for my birthday, I wanted him to
come, and not just because I wanted him to see that my girlfriend was real, but
because I thought that he was a pretty cool guy. When I’d unofficially invited
him along, he’d done this weird laugh/shrug thing.

He was kind of twitchy; he reminded me of
Isaiah. 

Lucy had told me that she was going to plan
something for my birthday but I had no idea what. I imagined some kind of
obnoxious party at my house with balloons and cake and singing. Something that
she would love for a birthday celebration was bound to be something I would
hate. But I didn’t really care. I knew she’d throw all her energy into whatever
it was she had planned, and she’d be so freaking happy to be doing something
for me that it’d be worth it.

Honestly, I couldn’t wait to see what she
was going to do. Three more minutes and this school day would be over. I could
drive home with Justin in tow and see what kind of shenanigans Lucy had planned
for me. 

Finally that bell rang, breaking the spell
of Macbeth bizarreness. Everyone started shuffling their books and putting
things away, which drove our English teacher crazy because he wasn’t done
talking yet, even though his time was up. He spoke over the growing clatter,
but we all ignored him in our rush to get out.

“Hey,” Justin said, as he walked over to my
desk.

“Hey, you still coming to my house?” I
asked hopefully as we walked to our lockers.

“Yeah man, I can’t wait to meet this
phantom girlfriend.” He gave me a smile overflowing with crooked teeth. I
smiled back; I couldn’t wait to show Lucy off. We walked to the main doors
together, both of us putting up our hoods to ward off the rain. I saw a shuffle
from my left eye and jerked my head over to see what it was.  For a flash of a
second I saw Isaiah, the next thing I knew he was putting a pillowcase over my
head. I heard a little giggle that made my heart jump. 

“What are you doing?” I didn’t struggle. I
figured it was part of some stupid plan that Lucy had worked up.

“Hey, it’s you,” I heard Justin say, like
he recognized someone but was surprised to see them. He must have seen Lucy
standing there with Isaiah. I wanted to touch her so badly, but seeing as my
hands were now tied behind my back, I couldn’t. 

“It’s me,” I heard her say. She sounded
like she was doing something dreadfully wrong and enjoying it. 

“I didn’t think you were real,” Justin said
stupidly. Lucy just laughed and grabbed the front of my shirt, pulling, so I
knew to follow her.

“It was nice to meet you; we are going to
be kidnapping him now.” Lucy spoke hurriedly. I could only imagine what this
looked like to everyone around me, leaving school. I had become a bit of an
attraction in this school. Now, a boy that everyone thought was a Goth was
being kidnapped by Isaiah, another Goth, and a beautiful girl. They probably
thought it was some crazies trying to kidnap kids to perform an exorcism.

“I’m coming with,” I heard Justin say.

“Sweet, more people to help hide the body.”
Isaiah’s deep voice rumbled.

“Good idea, he’s seen our faces, we should
take him with us,” Lucy’s sweet voice chimed in, playing along.

“You guys are both nerds,” I muttered from
under my pillowcase, feeling very happy.  Not only had Justin just seen Lucy
was real, but I’m sure he was now aware that she was just as pretty and cool as
I always claimed. 

“Okay, buddy, what’s your name?” Lucy
stopped and, I’m assuming, looked at my friend. 

“Justin.” 

“Okay, Justin, you take his backpack and
carry it so we can drag him more easily.” I was really wishing I would have
seen her before this pillowcase went over my head. I imagined she had her blue
and white striped raincoat on, hood up. Her cheeks were no doubt rosy from
being cold. One of her brightly colored hand-knitted scarves was probably
wrapped around her neck. Hopefully they would release me soon.

I heard a beep. It was Lucy’s car, unlocked
with the key remote. Lucy and Isaiah must have driven here together. It
occurred to me that she must have skipped her Ritalin. If she had taken it, I
think she would have over thought the riding situation and not been alone in a
car with Isaiah, thinking I might get upset about it. 

If this was true, I was going to have to
try to get her alone at some point this evening. I felt guilt rush through me
as I thought this. But then I banished it, knowing I wouldn’t do anything she
would regret. I just wanted to be alone with her when she wasn’t so tensely on
edge, with such a harsh wall up.

I felt hands on my head, bending it down
like policemen do in those cop shows, so I could get into the backseat of her
car. I expected Justin to sit next to me but was happy to feel a much warmer,
softer body next to mine. Isaiah started driving the car while Lucy untied my
hands, she scooped them up quickly and held them in hers, kissing them every
few minutes. 

“You untied him?” Isaiah accused.  

“Oh come on, I wanted to hold his hand.”
Lucy kissed my hand again, she was bouncing all around in the back seat,
excited about something.

“Do not take that pillow case off,” he said
in a warning voice. Lucy snorted at his commanding tone, but the pillowcase
stayed where it was, firmly affixed to my head.

“We’ll be there in about ten minutes,” Lucy
whispered to me. Her voice was pitched higher than usual in excitement. She
grabbed both of my hands, clasping them together.

“Happy Birthday,” she said it quietly, so
just I could hear. 

“Thanks sweetie.” I kissed the top of her
head, thru my pillowcase.

The thing was starting to annoy me.   

“We’re almost there,” Isaiah said after a
few minutes, in a kind of warning tone. I was about to find out what these two
had planned for me. I really had no idea, which was kind of cool because it
wasn’t easy to surprise me. I guessed that was why they had put something on my
face.

I don’t know why Isaiah tied my hands
together, probably just because he thought it would be funny. Jerk.

“Wow, neat,” I heard Justin say from the
passenger seat in front of me. 

“What?” I asked, hopefully. 

“You have to wait, prisoner,” Lucy
whispered in my ear. 

The car stopped and everyone got out,
helping me by holding the top of my head again. Lucy grabbed my hands instead
of dragging me from my shirt this time. 

We sloshed through puddles for a bit then
walked into a room that felt colder than I expected. There were drilling sounds
and a distinct smell, I think it was rubbing alcohol but I couldn’t be sure
from under this thing. 

“Did you take me to the dentist?”

No one answered me for a minute. I heard
some male voices speaking in low tones off to my left but couldn’t make out any
words.

“Okay, Luce, let him see.” Isaiah spoke
suddenly. 

Lucy pulled the pillowcase off my face.

It took a second for my eyes to focus and
for me to take in where I was standing. It looked like an art studio, but with
six big sections where people were either getting tattoos or piercings of some
kind. 

“Holy crap.”

Smooth, I know, but that’s all I could
think to say.

“Happy Birthday!” Lucy’s voice burst out,
her arms around my neck and jumping up and down. 

“What?”

I always think of the best things to say.
Lucy stopped jumping and looked at me. 

“Isaiah and I are going to pay for a
tattoo!” That took a moment to sink in, as well.

“Wow…” I spoke in a dazed voice, but then
snapped to reality as I looked down at Lucy’s hopeful eyes. I smiled. 

“This is amazing. Only thing is…” I didn’t
want to hurt her feelings so I edited my words, “I don’t want just anyone’s art
work.”

“You’re such an artsy fartsy snob, man.”
Isaiah smirked at me, standing with his hands in his pockets, looking amused.

“Well, birthday boy, I knew that, believe
it or not. So I brought you this.” I looked down at what she was waving at me
and, for the first time, noticed that she held my sketchpad in her hands. I
narrowed my eyes at her.

“Did you go through my stuff, Lucy?” I
wasn’t really mad; I didn’t have anything to hide, but I felt like putting her
on the spot.

“It was Isaiah’s idea.” She pointed quickly
to the side where he stood. Isaiah’s face instantly went bright red.

“Yes, but I would never violate your
privacy like that, dude. I’m not a privacy violator like your girlfriend,
here.”

“Traitor.” She slapped at Isaiah’s arm
absentmindedly, more focused on me. “I’m sorry, David, but I wanted you to have
what you drew.”

“How do you know I have the drawings I
wanted to get a tattoo of in this particular sketchpad?” Making her uncomfortable
was really fun. I rarely had this kind of power. 

“Um, it fell open?” She said it like a
question.

“You are a horrifically terrible liar.” I
scooped her up in my arms and kissed her. I had wanted so badly to do that
since I heard her voice outside of school. “So did you see yours?” I kissed her
softly again.

“I did and I love it!” She grabbed the book
and flipped right to it. 

It was a cross, in honor of all her
religious stuff. The top, bottom, and sides were exaggerated and wider than a
normal cross would be. Two intricately detailed wings sprung out from the
sides. I had the words “Psalm 63:3” written underneath it. 

“How did you find this verse?” Her eyes
were sparkling with hope. 

“I Googled ‘bible verses with the word
love’ in them. I read through them all and this one was my favorite.”

“What does it say? I haven’t had time to
look it up.” I looked down at her, my amazing girlfriend. She was like no one
in the world, like no one I had ever met before. I loved her so much it was
becoming ridiculous.

“It says, ‘The only thing that counts is
faith expressing itself through love.’” I kissed her nose gently.

“Wow.” She put her fingers over my artwork.

I grabbed her hand and walked the book over
to Isaiah and Justin to show them what I’d drawn for myself. It wasn’t a full
sleeve, like I said, I’m too chicken. It was a half sleeve that I wanted to put
on my left arm. It started at my shoulders and ended above my elbow. It was a
mixture of different pictures. There was a sun setting over waves, some koi
fish with long wavy tails, a tree with roots that hung and ended the picture by
growing out to the sides.

“How can I help you?” I heard a
surprisingly quiet voice behind us. 

“This guy is getting a tattoo,” Isaiah
said, blushing furiously when he saw the cute-looking girl with black hair and
bright red lipstick talking to us from behind the counter.

“I need your ID.” She sounded unconvinced,
like we were wasting her time. She smiled when she looked at it, wished me a
happy birthday, and brought me over to a large woman with so many tattoos that
her arms just looked blue if you didn’t look closely enough.

“Hey cutie, what’s it gunna’ be?” She was
smacking bright green gum and made me feel very uncomfortable. As an artist it
was hard to give my work to someone I didn’t know, with questionable taste in
her own tattoos, then ask her to permanently put it on my body. I looked
sideways over at Lucy who looked back at me with excited eyes. 

“He drew this.” She opened up the
sketchbook for the woman to see and the lady whistled. 

“That’s pretty sweet.” She took the book
from Lucy and looked at it more closely. “It’s going to take a lot of work, and
money. You’ll probably need more than one session.” She smacked her gum in her
big teeth again.

“Could I see some of your work please,
ma’m?” I was trying not to sound rude but there was no way I was going to let
her get near me with any kind of ink if I wasn’t convinced she could do this. 

“Sure can, love.” She walked over to a
photo album that held hundreds of pictures and handed it to me. “I’m going to
go and copy this on the transfer paper. Be back in a few.”

“She’s good,” Isaiah said, looking over my
shoulder. “She’s already over there copying your stuff. She knows you're going
to let her, man.” 

It was true. Just from looking at the first
three pictures I was amazed at the fine detail that she put into her tattoos.
There were pictures of her and the people she had tattooed. The more pictures I
saw the older she got and the more tattoos were added to her body. It was like
watching a time machine. She started out young, platinum blond, and as she got
older and older her hair altered in length but stayed pretty much the same
color. She really was amazingly talented. I almost wished I’d given her free
reign to do whatever she wanted. I bet she would have come up with something
incredible.

I looked over at her wall and saw some
awards for her work. I only had one nagging thought in my head that I had to
get straight before I went ahead with this.

Approaching her hesitantly, I cleared my
throat, trying not to disturb the fine lines she was tracing over my sketch.

“Excuse me, ma’m?” I tried to say it
quietly.

“What’s up, bub?” She spoke without looking
up.

“Can you tell me about some of your own
tattoos? It doesn’t look like the stuff in your album.” It looked pretty
terrible compared to the stuff in her album, actually. I wasn’t going to say
that, but I had to know why a woman so talented would be a walking billboard
for dumb tattoos. She seemed to understand exactly what I was asking because
she laughed as she put down the pencil and looked up at me.