24. Finn
Finn
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22ND
“ I have something to show you,” Callie grins and motions for me to join her in her classroom. School is out for the day and Lex is working on Bird is the Word . I’m just wandering the halls waiting for her to finish up so we can go home.
“That sounds promising,” I waggle my eyebrows and do a quick check over my shoulder before shutting the door and following her to the little sitting area she made for herself by the book nook.
She makes a move to lift her shirt, but I grab her hands to stop her. “Woah, woah, woah! Not that I don’t want to see you naked again, Athena, but this is probably not the best place.”
She rolls her eyes. “I’m not getting naked, I’m showing you my new tattoo!”
“You got a new tattoo?”
“Yeah, it’s on my rib cage.”
I can’t help but wince a little at the thought of needles on bone. “Aaaaah!” I rub my hands on my ribs in sympathy. “Didn’t that hurt?”
“Yeah, like a dirty bitch. But it was totally worth it. Check it?—”
“Wait, where did you go to get a tattoo? There’s not a shop around here.”
She shrugs. “Ink and Kink.”
I suddenly need to put my head between my knees. She did not just casually mention the seediest tattoo shop in a 100-mile radius. “You went to Spitz Hollow alone??”
“Okay, calm down, Finn, I’m a grown woman in her thirties. I’m allowed to go anywhere I want by myself.”
My brain recognizes that she’s right. But my nervous system remains very uncomfortable with it. “Callie, there’s Spitz Hollow and then there’s… Spitz Hollow. Ink and Kink isn’t exactly on the Tech Bros side of town, okay? Their prison is across the street. Not their jail, their prison. ”
Callie stares at the ground for a moment. “I did see some things I can’t unsee,” she concedes.
“And you’re in a giant boot! Your mobility is compromised! Why didn’t you go to Robin Springs?”
She shrugs. “Crankshaft and Nick both said their artist is in Spitz Hollow.”
“Crankshaft and Nick are both gigantic, intimidating beasts! You are not!”
“Man, you are really sucking the fun out of this tattoo reveal.”
I slow my breathing. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I know you can handle yourself. I just…you’re important to me and I don’t want to end up in the Spitz Hollow Penitentiary if someone hurts you.”
A warm smile pulls on her lips. She steps closer to me, placing a hand on my face and running the other up my shoulder and behind my neck. My heart all but stops when I look into her emerald eyes before she pulls me in for a kiss. I wrap my arms around her, careful not to touch her ribcage. Which is a great excuse to grab her ass instead.
She chuckles against my mouth and looks at me. “Nobody can hurt me,” she promises quietly.
“Because you won’t let them?”
“Exactly.”
The double meaning isn’t lost on me.
“Now shut up and look at my new tattoo. I’ve been dying to show you.”
“Reveal away.”
She pulls up the hem of her shirt enough to show the fresh design, but nothing else. It’s red and raised around the edges and I flinch again, imagining what it must have felt like. “It’s a flock of birds,” I say, hovering my hand over the black ink.
“Bob Ross inspired.” She smiles.
I’m still staring at the line-work. Just a handful of simple, black birds flying together up the side of her torso. “It’s really beautiful.”
“You’re wondering why I didn’t choose somewhere less bony, aren’t you?”
“I mean, it just had to be so painful!”
She laughs and lowers her shirt, leaning into me again. “It was as close as I could get to my heart without being a boob tattoo. And I want to keep you all as close to my heart as I can.”
This is it. That moment everyone talks about, but no one prepares you for. That moment when you realize that you are so hopelessly in love with someone that you would slay dragons for them. You’d wear an orange jumpsuit for them. You’d walk barefoot over a mile’s worth of Legos for them.
I gently run my fingers through her hair and pour every ounce of my realization into the kiss that I give her. Her knees buckle, so I pull her into me for balance. By the time we break apart, her lips are swollen and her breath is short. “Wow,” she pants. “That was…”
“Stay with me.”
“Tonight?”
“All the nights. All the days. All the time, you can just stay here.”
Callie’s shoulders drop and she looks to the side at the ground. “Finn, please, don’t?—”
“I can’t. I can’t not ask. I’ll beg if it helps, I’m not above it.” I don’t wait for her to reply, I just drop to my knees and clasp my hands. “Here, is this working?”
“Oh my god, get up,” she laughs.
I run my palms up the backs of her legs. “Not until you say you’ll think about it.”
She’s smiling at me, but her eyes are shining. “What…what would I even do here if I can’t teach? Teaching is my passion, it’s my constant..”
“You can have my job, I hate kids!”
“Hey!” She playfully slaps my face. “Stop talking like that. And stop being an asshole about your job. Like I didn’t see you preen every time someone showed you how much their layup improved after the basketball unit. You mean something to those kids, you know.”
“What about you?”
She grabs under my elbows to pull me back up to standing and avoids my question by brushing imaginary lint off my shoulders.
“Do I mean something to you? ” I press.
“Finn, I…you mean…” She’s looking everywhere but my face while she stammers, but eventually a tear wrangles loose as her gaze meet mine. “I don’t think you’ll ever understand how much you mean to me.”
Relief feels my lungs and I move in to kiss her before she presses her hands to my chest.
“But…”
“There doesn’t need to be a but,” I interrupt. “Really, I’m good without it.”
“ But …” she continues. “We only just started dating. I mean, you barely even know me, you could end up hating me by Thanksgiving.”
“No one’s ever hated you in your life, what are you talking about?”
“Hey, you could be the first!”
I’m not ready to joke yet. “This is different. You feel it too, right?”
The air is charged as her silence hangs.
She nods. “Yeah.”
“Would it really be so bad? Living here with us?”
“That’s not what I said at all.” She’s close to fully crying now and I feel like an absolute ball sack for being the reason.
“You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“We still have the rest of the school year to be together. Let’s just…let’s just stick with that for now, okay? Please?”
It’s not what I want to hear, but I won’t push her any further. Instead, I pull her into a hug and rest my cheek on the top of her head. “Yeah, of course, baby. Of course.”
Maybe Alicia has a different job here for Callie. I should ask.