She walked into the building, clutching her friends arm as if it were the last link to the real world, a world totally seperate from that which she was about to enter. Face ashen, shaking like a leaf, the feeling of nausea rushed over her once more, this time not diminishing as the seconds ticked past. "Are you SURE you want to go thru with this?" her friend asked, attempting to lessen the death grip which was cutting off the circulation of blood to her fingers. "I'm here, aren't i?" she snapped back, instantly regretting the tone, but knowing there was no taking it back now. "I'll be fine. I know it will be over soon. I'll be fine." It was her new mantra, 'i'll be fine' as if by repeating it a few times, she really would be. She released her friends arm and scoped out the room for any signs of a restroom, in case the nausea caused her to revisit her lunch of bread and chicken with spinach, mozzarella and tomatoes. "You're sure?" She didn't see a restroom, but there was a rather inviting potted plant sitting in the corner, just in case. "If i'm sure about anything, it's that you're repeating yourself. I'll be fine." No, she wouldn't be. But she said she'd do it, she HAD to do it. It seemed to be the only way.
The woman behind the desk gave them the once-over, and decided they might actually be clients, instead of merely another round of bible-thumpers, there to tell her and her co-workers they'd all be burning in hell for what they were doing. "Can i help you?" she asked, hoping she'd gauged them correctly so she wouldn't have to sit thru another round of 'Thou shalt nots.' "Um, i have an appointment" the blood which had seemed to disappear from her body, suddenly coursed once more thru her veins, causing her pale face to become absolutely florid. "Ah, you must be Ruth, have a seat. He'll be with you in a minute."
Knowing that if she DID sit, the nausea would become a known fact to all and not merely an incredibly uncomfortable feeling she was experiencing, she instead chose to look around for a bit, trying to get her mind off of what was about to happen. Magazines, as out of date as most cluttered the tables, a few actually still in the rack hung on the wall. Torn covers, crumpled pages, all indicitive of the number of nervous people who had come before her. "You can always back out of this, you've only told three or four people. They'll understand..." she looked over at her friend, watched her lips move as she tuned out what she was saying. She'd been hearing the exact same thing all day long, thru their morning of shopping, their lunch downtown, the arguments hadn't changed then, they weren't going to change now. She had made up her mind, and once it was set, there was no going back, even if the bile was three-fourths of the way up to her mouth, promising to erupt at any moment if she didn't turn around and walk right out the door.
"Ruth?" She looked up at the man who had appeared next to her. 'Wow, he's tall' she thought, 'And cute...I can't puke on him, he's too cute. Like he would ever look at me as anything other than a client. Yeah, i can see that happening. OK, maybe i can puke on him then.' She shook her head, trying to dislodge the incoherent ramblings of her mind, forced a smile, and looked up at the Adonis who had appeared from nowhere. "That's me. Guess it's my turn to walk the plank, huh?" a weak attempt at humour, by any standards, but more than she thought she had in her at the moment. "Yep, you sure you want to go thru with this?" she somehow managed to keep the scream which was begging to be let loose from voicing itself, pasted an even more forced smile on her face and said "I'll be fine. Let's get it over with."
She followed Adonis into a small room, grabbing her friends arm again to pull her along too. He instructed her to get up on what could only be described as an examination table, and to relax. "Fat chance," she snorted, under her breath. He gave her the routine pre-procedure speech, what she should expect while he was doing it, what would come afterward, how to care for herself so there wouldn't be any complications after it was all over with. She managed to hear and process every word, before detaching herself from the reality the other two were experiencing and venturing into one of her favorite daydreams, while still managing to perform all the tasks he asked of her. The words "you're going to feel a little discomfort now" vaguely registered in her mind what seemed like mere moments before "Ok, all done." She gave a huge sigh of relief, and held back the tears that wanted to stream down her face. "That wasn't so bad now, was it?" her friend asked, putting away the camera that had documented the whole ordeal. "You want to take a look?" Adonis asked, holding a mirror out for her, which she hesitantly accepted.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, preparing herself for her first look at something that might forever change her life. Slowly, she opened her mouth and stuck out her tounge, only then opening her eyes and raising the mirror. One small, shiny ball rested on the previously unmarred pinkness, with its twin resting on the underside. "Well, what do you think?" Adonis asked, expectation in the eyes of both him and her friend. "My mother is going to kill me." I said and smiled, for real this time.
yep, that's right...i now have a hole in my tongue. How long it's going to stay that way, i'm not sure...dude messed up my piercing. at least, i think he did. i need an expert opinion first...(oh expert...expert...where are you?????) i did enjoy the diet of ice cream, baby food an pudding tho. and it's broken me of my habit of sucking my thumb in my sleep (yeah, i'll admit it, i'm 22 and still sucked my thumb...we all need to let our inner child let loose whenever the hell it feels like it) i'm still alive, so that lets you know one fact, my parents don't know yet. i'm trying to decide if it's easier to let them find out on their own, or just say 'hey mom, dad...i got my tongue pierced. Deal with it.' (this is a great time to decide to do this...when i'm trying to convince them that 2,000 miles isn't THAT far of a distance for me to move) oh well. we all ahve to get immature supid ideas out of our systems in our early 20's so we can assume the responsibility of adulthood by the time we're 30 so we can have all the mature stupid ideas we want. that sentence made no sense, but that's ok. i'll get over it.
