You made me ink | Alessia Russo

The one with the instagrams.

"Honestly, Less. I've never seen you like that in my life! You little flirt." Ella spoke loudly from their seats on the train causing Alessia to look around quickly before shushing the girl.

"Why are you being so loud?" Alessia hissed out, Ella just laughing in response. "She was good to talk to, you can't have enough friends."

Ella squinted her eyes. "Friends?" She asked, her tone full of disbelief.

"Yeah, friends."

"Oh fuck off, she was fit! You were giving her googly eyes the whole time. You don't wanna be friends, you wanna be her boo." Ella finished with a wink.

Alessia let out a laugh. "Her boo? I'm not gay, I like boys, remember? She's gorgeous, don't get me wrong, like really really gorgeous, but that's it." Alessia hoped with everything in her that Ella just accepted her response and moved on. The possibility of her liking girls was all still very very new to her. She hadn't spoken to it with anybody yet as she barely can understand the thoughts going through her head herself. She always felt like the possibility of liking girls was there, but she'd never really come across a girl that she actively liked. And then Cairo appeared. And now Alessia was questioning her thoughts now more than ever.

"It doesn't matter if you're gay or not! You don't have to be. You can just like who you like, no label. Maybe you're a Cairosexual." Ella responded. She'd had her thoughts about her best friend before, maybe that she's not as straight as she insisted she was. She's not shown any real interest in anyone, sometimes it's like she talks to boys out of obligation, rather than seeing or wanting anything with them. But she has caught the occasional wanting gaze at women they've been walking past.

Alessia looked out the window instead of having to make eye contact with the brunette in front of her. Scared that if she did, the tears and the walls she had built up around this subject would come crumbling down. Realistically, she knew Ella would love her no matter who she liked. But speaking it out loud? That made it real. That made all the thoughts in her head real. And what if she's wrong? The time Alessia thought she was gay would be the brunt of all jokes.

Ella picked up on Alessia's refusal to talk and her eyes softened before reaching out and clutching the blondes hand and giving it a squeeze. "I'm gonna get my head down for a bit mate, okay?"

Alessia again didn't speak, but gave Ella's hand a squeeze back as she nodded, watching out of the corner of her eye as the girl in front of her put her headphones on and closed her eyes.

Alessia continued looking out the window, her thoughts consuming her brain and squeezing like a vice until she was interrupted by Ella mumbling in her sleep. She let out a laugh and opened Instagram, filming her best friend for a few seconds before posting it to her story. Ella will love that when she wakes up.

She hovered on her Instagram for a few seconds before checking Ella was still asleep. She went into her jacket pocket and pulled out the business card Cairo had handed her, quickly typing in the Instagram handle before shoving the card away.

She knew in a way this may not be fair. To herself or Cairo, really. She's either teasing herself with thoughts of what could be, when her brain was busy enough. But also potentially leading Cairo on when nothing might not ever come from it.

But in the same breath, if she doesn't try, how will she ever know? You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

She clicked on the profile that appeared and allowed her eyes to wonder over the artwork on display, this was very clearly a business page where Cairo posted her work. She pressed the follow button quickly, if anything she now knew a great tattoo artist if she did decide she wanted something done.

Nearly straight away she saw the notification of the page following her back, making her smile slightly. It wasn't much longer after that till the app showed a new message.

CairoJordanInk
Rethought the whole tattoo thing already? ;)

AlessiaRusso99
Haha, not quite yet. Just looking...for now

CairoJordanInk
For now? So there's still hope, you say. I'll keep my fingers and toes crossed.

Did you manage to make your train? x

AlessiaRusso99
Yes, thank you! Barely! Had to do that awkward little run on the platform tho

CairoJordanInk
Oh no, you were one of THOOSE people? The shame.

AlessiaRusso99
I was :( I think I gave everyone on the platform the ick

CairoJordanInk
I mean, can you blame them?

Alessia bit her lip for a second debating on if she should send what she's typed out.

AlessiaRusso99
Well...did it give you the ick?

CairoJordanInk
Me? Nah. I'm much more ick resistant than that. I repel the ick away. Especially when they're as pretty as you.

Alessia smiled to herself and felt the blush cover her cheeks before quickly glancing up at her sleeping friend and then the other people in the seats around them before lifting the neck of her hoodie up so it covered her nose, hiding her reaction away from the world. Before she could think out a response that wasn't awkward, her phone buzzed again, Cairo having sent another message.

CairoJordanInk
I've gotta go round my mums for a bit, I try to avoid checking my work insta whilst I'm with people, so if you want, my personal account username is CairoJordyy. I can message on there

If you want, obviously, don't feel any pressure.

Alessia just double clicked the message to heart it and immediately typed in the username into the search bar. Smile once again covering her face as she was greeted by the different pictures of Cairo's face covering the page. Some were with friends, some with who she assumes are family, very few of her by herself.

Alessia clicked the pinned post which was a picture of Cairo grinning big with an older heavily tattoo'd man in front of the tattoo shop. It was captioned 'me and the old man bought a shop...time to ink up the city of London.' There was a video attached to it which had Cairo covering half her face with her hand as she leant on it, covering her smile but anyone watching would know she's still smiling due to the crinkle in her eyes. Alessia couldn't hear the sound but she didn't care, too enamoured in watching Cairo's eyes flicked across the screen. Alessia double tapped the screen to like the post and quickly clicked the follow button. Once again only waiting a few seconds for a follow back and again a message following through.

CairoJordyy
Eager 👀

Alessia blushed and tried to think of a witty response back to cover herself.

AlessiaRusso99
Sorry...stuck on a train, not much else to do!

CairoJordyy
Don't be, I liked it. Just give me 10 minutes, just getting in the car.

Alessia cursed herself, rereading the messages and decided she'd gone too cool about it. She took a breath and typed out a response before locking her phone and gazing out the window again. Is this what flirting with someone you actually like feels like? Not being sure whether you want to throw up or sprint for a mile straight out of excitement? Or is this just happiness because she's making a new friend with someone outside of football, someone she can just be Alessia with? Logically she know's the answer. Her heart does, at least. But her head is split in two and whirling around at a million miles per hour.