OLDER
CONTACT ME
DIARYLAND
2003-04-17 - 2:43 a.m.
I sipped my drink then said, "You could ask, but I'm not promising an answer."
She stared at me across the table, blinked twice in shock, and then started to say something but stopped. We stared at each other for a few more moments. In that time I noticed that her hair was a much lighter color at the roots than the black of the rest of it and her right eye wasn't quite the same green as her left. Some would say these are trivial details, but to me this is what life is made of. Again she tried to speak, but was cut off by Natalie coming back to our table. "How are you two kids doing?" I nodded at my drink, which was mostly empty, and she grabbed my glass. Nikki just looked up at her and smiled. She walked away, rolling her eyes at the two of us. When she got to the bar to refill my glass Doug grabbed her arm before she could get away. He leaned in close and whispered something to her. From the look on her face I knew it wouldn't be good. She came back to the table with my drink and said, "Doug said that since the night crowd is coming in, he wants you two to leave. As soon as you finish your drinks, you two leave, all right?" "We were leaving anyway." I said. I stood up and fished some money out of my pocket, I knew it was more than our bill, but Natalie's truck needed gas; she would appreciate it. I picked up my back pack from the floor, took Nikki's hand, and led her out of the bar. When we got out of the bar I let go of her hand and began walking; again expecting her to follow. She caught up to me when I reached the small park next to the church. Rev. Rollins waved to me from the front porch of his house across the street. Nikki sat down next to me on the bench and he abruptly put down his newspaper and went inside. I couldn't help liking this girl simply for the effect she had on the townspeople. "I didn't think you would follow me again." I turned to look at her and pulled a notebook out of my back pack. "I almost didn't this time. I knew the bar would be safe because there were other people around. But I wasn't too sure about this." She pulled her left knee up to her chest and rested her chin on it. "I'm almost perfectly harmless, Nikki. Some of the people in town just don't like me because I don't seem to have it as hard as they do." "You still haven't answered my question though, where did you get the scars?" I looked up from my notebook when she asked this. Her eyes fixed upon mine, her gaze never wavering, the wind blew her hair across her face masking it somehow. I couldn't help but want to answer her. I put my notebook and pens away. I held my arms out in front of me, forearms up. I looked at her, then back down at my arms. Not even noticing the tattoos, just the scars, their pink fleshiness shining back up at me in the streetlamps pale light. "Some are from accidents, some are from things I've done on purpose, some were done to me. Where would you like to start?"
