Page 59

‘Come on through. I’m Sammy.’

‘Jessie,’ I said, not wanting Meredith to overhear me giving out a fake name and then ask awkward questions. ‘This is Brooke.’

‘Nice to meet you both.’ She had a broad Boston accent, and I wondered how she’d ended up here. It was probably rude to ask.

Her space was cordoned off from the rest of the shop, where two heavily tattooed guys were adding more tattoos to people who didn’t seem at all bothered that they were having needles repeatedly jammed into their skin. The noise from their machines was louder than I had expected – a sharp buzzing that hurt my ears. I could only imagine how it felt for the people getting tattooed. I wasn’t sure that I ever wanted a tattoo, but the belly button piercing idea had taken hold in my head.

Sammy had a chair and a bed like the one at my doctor’s office, covered in both plastic and a layer of paper. In one corner, she had a glass cabinet full of jewelry – brightly colored gems winking from belly bars, as well as studs for ears and hoops for eyebrows and noses.

‘I need you to read and sign this,’ she said, handing me a clipboard with a consent form.

I’d gotten my ears pierced at the mall when I was five, and I still remembered the process: holding a teddy bear with pierced ears while a woman jammed the earrings into my earlobes. It had hurt. I remembered that, too, and nerves fluttered in my belly.

It wasn’t enough to put me off, though.

The form was straightforward, and I scrawled my name at the bottom, adding a year to my date of birth in case there was a problem with my age. She hadn’t asked for ID, and I wasn’t going to offer. The second page was a ‘How to Care for Your New Piercing’ pamphlet, and I took that and folded it so I could shove it into my pocket.

‘I’ll pierce it with a bar, but you can switch over to ahoop in about eight weeks if you want. You can come back here or to any piercing shop and they’ll help you if you need it.’

‘Sounds good, thank you.’

Sammy went to the cabinet and pulled out a tray with the different jewelry options on it. I wasn’t into the sparkly ones – I was sure they looked good on some people, but I wanted something a little more discreet.

‘How about that one?’ I asked, pointing to a plain black bar with a ball at each end.

‘Nice. Hop up onto the bed for me.’

Brooke came around and I reached for her hand, more for her sake than for mine. I squeezed it, and she squeezed back, and I fought the urge to squirm.

‘You ready?’ Brooke asked, teasing.

‘Definitely.’

Sammy came back with a silver tray prepped with a long needle in a sealed bag, my black bar in another, a Sharpie, a mirror and a bottle of some kind of clear liquid.

Brooke squeezed my hand again as Sammy explained the procedure, showing me that the needle hadn’t been used before and the bar was brand new. I nodded through it all, and nodded again when she put two tiny dots on my belly button to guide where the piercing would go.

‘Does it look okay?’ I asked Brooke.

‘Great.’

She was white as a sheet.

Sammy had me lean back and then snapped on clean gloves.

‘Breathe slowly for me,’ she said. ‘Do you want me to talk you through what I’m doing or shut up until it’s over?’

‘You can just do it. I don’t think I need the details,’ I said with a laugh.

‘Okie-dokie. Stay still for me. It’ll be pretty quick.’

I reached for Brooke’s hand again and she threaded our fingers together. Partly I wanted the reassurance … mostly I wanted to hold her hand.

I closed my eyes, not needing to see the huge needle go through my flesh. Sammy grabbed my belly fat, swiped it with the alcohol, and then came a bright, sharp pain as she stuck the needle through my skin.

I forced myself to take another slow, deep breath as she manipulated the bar into place.

Brooke’s grip on my hand suddenly went slack, and I opened my eyes and lifted my head right as Sammy slapped her hand down on my chest to stop me moving.