Taking Chances

Your brother. “Um, I'm not sure I have a type.”

“So no preferences? Hair color, eye color, skin color? Athlete, geek, musician?”

Rugged surfer, with dirty blond shaggy hair, impossibly blue eyes, the most breath taking smile you've ever seen and cover him in tattoos. I'll take that, please? “Nope, none. We'll just have to start from scratch.”

Just thinking about his tattoos had me biting my lip and fantasizing again about tracing them with my fingers. He was exactly the kind of guy Sir would hate, so naturally I was drawn to him.

“Hey Bree?”

“Yeah?”

“There's kind of something I've wanted to do for a whi– You know what, never mind.”

She sat up on her knees bouncing, “No you don't! You have to tell me now. You've wanted to do what?”

“Well there's a lot of things. But it'd probably be a bad idea to do them all at once. I should spread them out, and think about them more.”

“I'm waiting Harper.”

I sighed and scooted up against the wall, “I want to get a couple piercings.”

“Pfft, I thought you were about to say something juicier than that.” Figures she wouldn't be excited, each of her ears had four piercings.

I frowned at her.

“Okay, okay! What piercings do you want?”

“Um, I don't know what they're called. But here, and here.” I pointed a finger to my upper lip, and another to my ear.

“Oh cute! Your lip is called a Monroe, and your ear is a tragus. I actually really want my lip pierced too! Do you want to go get them done together sometime?”

I looked down before stealing a sideways glance, “Could we maybe go right now? Eighteen years of not being able to do what I want, I'm kind of impatient.”

“Harper, I'm pretty sure we're going to be best friends.” Without another word she shot off her bare mattress and headed for the door. Guess that means we're going.

I'm really glad she knew the area, because she drove right to a tattoo parlor, and after chatting it up with the piercer, we were sitting in his room picking out the studs before I could even think about this possibly being a bad idea. To my surprise, I wasn't even nervous ‘til I was sitting on his chair and he was putting the markers on me. “Oh my God, Brea

She laughed and sauntered up to me.

“Don't laugh, you're next.” That shut her up.

“Okay deep breath in.” The piercer said, “A

My eyes were watering, but thankfully it was done. I glanced in the mirror and a huge smile crossed my face, I absolutely loved them.

“Oh my God those are perfect for you! Ahh I'm so excited for mine now!” Bree had also decided to get her tragus pierced so we both were getting two, but she and the piercer had agreed her bottom lip would be better for the way her mouth was set.

Another ten minutes and hers were done, I made her eat her words when she grabbed my hand at the last minute and squeezed until I thought I'd never get the circulation flowing again. We paid the guy and ran to her car, looking into the visor mirrors before we left.

“Are your parents going to mind?”

“What? No way. Have you seen my brother? They love his tattoos so they aren’t going to care about this. Besides I'm pretty sure I couldn't get them mad at me even if I tried.” She laughed, “Let me guess, daddy's go

“Ha! Yeah, I'm almost positive he's going to try to rip them out. Good thing I'm not going home for ten months!”

“Ten months?! What are you doing for winter break?”

I shrugged, “Stay here. It wouldn't be much different than being there. We don't spend much time together if we're in the same house.”

“Jeez Harper, you had the most depressing childhood didn't you?”

“Not really, I mean it's all I've ever known. I thought it was normal until a few weeks ago when you and I started e-mailing.” I think I need to stop talking about my past, because I always seem to depress everyone. “So...di

She smiled and turned to glance at me, “You read my mind roomie, let’s grab some burgers then we can stay at my house tonight. We'll move my stuff into the dorm tomorrow.”

3

            After orientation that next week, classes had started this last Monday and the first week had flown by. Brea

“Hey, hey! What's up Princess!”

“Princess! Where've you been all my life?”

I bit back my groan and smiled at the guys as I sank into the seat next to Bree, I tried not to let my disappointment show when I didn't see Chase there. No sooner had I cursed myself for spending the extra time trying to look perfect today, than two hands appeared on either side of my plate and I felt a hard chest press against my back and warm breath against my ear.

“Have you been hiding from me, PG?” He chuckled when he felt me shiver.

“Why, you miss me?”

“Of course. You're my favorite, remember?” His nose brushed along my neck and I almost turned into a puddle right there.

I sighed dramatically and leaned away from his intoxicating presence, “Sad to say you're not mine.”

“You sure about that?” He tapped a finger on my arm that was now covered in goose bumps.

“Chase! Stop bugging her, go sit down.”

I blinked over to Brea

“See something you like?” Bree leaned into my side, looking down my line of sight.

“What? No.”

“Uh huh, that's why you're biting the crap out of your lip. He's looking at you again.”

My head shot up, causing the mystery guy to smirk as his eyes met mine. I felt my cheeks start to burn and forced my head back down and towards Bree.

“How do we know he's not looking at you?”

“Ha! I knew you were staring at him.” She gri

“Wow, that's attractive.”

She tried to talk around the mass in her mouth, “You're just jealous you didn't get one too.”