The Fall

Chapter 1

"Hows it look?" I asked the tattoo artist as he took his gloves off and examined his work that would forever be on my body.

"You tell me," he cocked his head to the right where a full length mirror was propped up against a wall.

I squealed as I got up off the table and skipped over to the mirror, covering my bare chest with my hands.

Pivoting my upper body into various angels, I was able to fully inspect my new tattoo.

"How's it look compared to the real thing?" The tattoo artist asked as he held up the feather I had found over a year ago on the side of the road.

"Even better," I smiled back at him.

I don't know what made me decide on using the random feather as a reference for my first tattoo, or why I had kept it for so long to begin with, but looking at the completed tattoo, I was glad I had.

The tattoo had taken a few hours to complete and was almost the same size as the large feather itself, covering most of the space from my ribs up to the side of my right breast. The artist was known for watercolour like tattoos and he used the technique to shade the feather with a blend of purples and blues.

I loved it.

"I love it!" I told him with a wide smile.

He grinned back at me as he motioned me over to wrap it up and inform me on how to take care of it.

I waved goodbye as I got into my car to head back home. I had spent most of the day getting the tattoo done and I knew by the time I made it home, I would only have a few hours to spare before I needed to sleep.

I woke up an hour before I normally would, carefully peeling my top off of the tattoo that was quickly healing.

Once I had rubbed on some of the cream that I had been told to, I sat at my small vanity and did my makeup. I knew that my mum had already left for work so I began blasting my music through my phone as I decided on how I wanted to do my makeup. Wanting to be extra today, I winged my eyeliner out more than usual and smoked out my burgundy eye shadow until it was verging on pink eye instead of art.

With my foundation set and my lipstick on, I grabbed a basic black tee shirt dress and slipped that on as well as my white and black espadrilles before locking the front door behind me and driving to school.

My first two classes of the day were uneventful. The teachers asked for the homework they had handed out before the weekend and assigned new tasks to be completed. It wasn't long before it was recess and I was walking around aimlessly trying to find my best friend, Alex who probably hadn't even shown up to school yet. I only saw her when it was lunch.

"Where were you?" I shouted across the football field with my arms up in exasperation as I saw Alex sitting on the cement bleachers by herself.

She waved at me to come and sit with her, ignoring my question completely as she continued eating.

"You should have told me you were coming late," I said as I sat next to my friend. "I was walking around looking for you all of recess."

"It wasn't intentional this time I swear," Alex said trying to defend herself. My raven haired friend had a habit of skipping school as much as she could. "I met a guy last night and ended up sleeping in."

"Ooh! What guy?" I asked in curiosity. "Was it Kai? No wait, you stopped seeing him recently."

"Nah, it was this guy I met off of Tinder, sort of. He found me on Tinder and then somehow found my Insta. "