Some Kind of Normal

So why was I thinking that his mouth was so interesting?

Squirming, I dropped my eyes to my book, but the words were a total blur, so after a few moments, I gave up and glanced at my cell. Only an hour to go until I was supposed to meet my best friend Hailey at the pool. She was a lifeguard, and after her shift we were going to hit Big Burger and then maybe a movie.

I know. Exciting times in Twin Oaks, but when you’re stuck out in the middle of nowhere, you pretty much take what you can get.

Trevor’s finger tapped along the table, and for the first time I noticed that he had tattoos a

cross his knuckles. They looked like a bunch of nothing to me, but I suppose the weird markings meant something to him.

“Courage.”

Startled, my eyes shot up, and then, bam, my heart took off so fast and hard that for a moment I forgot how to breathe. I felt like I’d just been caught sneaking a cookie from the proverbial jar.

“Excuse me?” I whispered, totally thrown off balance by the way he was looking at me. As if he was trying to figure something out.

Trevor stretched out his fingers and laid his hand on the table. He pointed to the markings. “It’s Sanskrit. The one on my other hand means strength.”

“Oh.” Like I knew what Sanskrit was.

“It’s Indian or Hindu or something like that.” Trevor shrugged. “Nathan’s into that shit, and after I came out of the coma, I had a lot of stuff to deal with.” He studied the markings for a few moments. “Most of it sucked.” He smiled, not a full one but a small glimpse of something pretty nice. I found myself smiling in return.

“We went to New York at Christmas. It was the first time I’d gone anywhere since I’d been out of the hospital, and man, that city blew me away.” He frowned, his eyes intense. “Have you been to New York City?”

I shook my head. God, I hadn’t been out of the state.

“It’s an amazing place, and I’m jealous as hell that Nathan’s there for the summer. I met his girlfriend, Monroe, and the night before Nate and I had to fly back to Louisiana, all three of us got tattoos. We all got the same ones.”

A pause.

“Courage and strength.”

I cleared my throat, because suddenly there was a frog as big as a donut stuck down there. “It’s really cool.”

Trevor nodded. “Yeah. I like ink, you know? I like anything that inspires me. Words. Music. Tattoos.” His eyes met mine again, and even though it was as hot as a furnace in the library, I shivered. “You got any?” he asked.

“Any what?”

“Tattoos?”

“Me?” I had to laugh at that. Wow. Before last year that would have been grounds for major punishment. Heck, up until my senior year, I hadn’t been allowed to wear lip gloss. Now I wasn’t so sure that my mom would even notice, and since I avoided my dad whenever I could…

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “My skin is untouched.”

His eyes widened a bit, and I felt heat creep up my neck. Great. Now I was blushing again.

“Untouched,” he said with that lopsided smile that made my stomach dip. “I like that.”

“You do?”

“Yep. A clean slate. There’s something almost poetic about that, you know? Tragic too. How many people get a do-over?”

Trevor reached for my hand, and though my first instinct was to snatch it back, his long fingers enveloped mine before I had the chance. He turned my hand over so that my palm faced up and then traced the little blue lines that ran down my wrist.

I can’t lie. It felt weird and good, and my heart took off once more, so fast that I was surprised he couldn’t hear it.

“This is…kind of…like ink,” he said, his words a little slow as if he was thinking hard. “But it’s alive.”

He glanced up again, and all I could do was nod before my eyes dropped to his hand. Mine was still there, small and pale next to his large palm and tanned skin. I saw the thin blue veins that ran down my wrist, the ones that carried blood from my heart, electrifying my cells and feeding my body.