A Swallow [15]

"Tall... dark... handsome. Well, well, well, aren't we the ultimate cliche?" the brunette he'd been watching all night shimmied up to him, her hips mesmerised him so that he couldn't look away. He smirked that infamous smirk and patted his lap as an invitation. The girl arranged her petite, yet striking facial features into a sexy pout and shook her head. She raised a hand and made a 'come hither' motion. Brian nearly jumped out his seat, following her onto the dance floor.

They ground against each-other, feeling each-other's excitement, want, need. After a couple of songs he'd had enough. Brian guided her out of there, holding onto her hand and directing her to a waiting cab. No need to tell the guys where he was going, they'd seen him with the girl a few minutes prior.

Her eyes caught Brian off guard, he'd glanced into her icy-blues after telling the cabbie directions, it took her hand on his crotch to bring him back into the moment. He got to work, kissing and touching every bit of bare flesh he could reach, without giving the creepy cabbie an eye-full.

The ride to his house was excruciatingly long, so long in fact that when they finally arrived he fired a fist-full of notes at the driver and pulled her into his house. He had considered picking her up to speed along the process, but decided against it at the last moment, that just felt a little too eager.

He led her upstairs, their shoes discarded, his shirt going the same way. They continued removing each-other's clothes on the way to Brian's king-size four-poster, until the backs of her kness gently touched the mattress and he ever-so-slightly pushed her back all the way, landing so that he was hovering above her. She kissed and nibbled his neck as he removed her underwear, with one final passionate kiss he pushed into her.

Their moans resonated around the room in pure, unnadulterated pleasure. He was shocked to feel her use every ounce of her strength to flip him over so that she was on top, head thrown back in ecstasy, grinding into him. She was a girl after his own heart.

Brian felt her walls clench around him and began pumping faster, pushing her over the edge, her moans, growls and pants were enough to excite him further. He kept up his relentless pace and with one, final growl reached his own climax.

She rolled to his left and Brian pulled her towards him wrapping an arm around her and kissing the top of her head. A thought dawned on him, he voiced it, "What's your name?" he asked.

She looked up at him and smiled, “Olivia.”


"So that was the first time you met her?" Brian's tattoo artist Gary asked.

His dopey smile was confirmation, "Greatest night of my life man." Gary smirked as he sat down beside Brian with his coffee. Gary preferred to do his consultations outside of the studio where he'd get to know his client and find out exactly what they wanted. Brian had phoned the shop asking for Gary and only Gary to tattoo him. He'd been flattered naturally, a rock-star gets your work on them and that's it, you're set. They're walking billboards.

Brian had brought him a rough sketch of what he wanted. The design intrigued him, "Can I ask who drew this?"

Brian nodded and hastily swallowed his coffee, "A friend of mine, Cam, Cam Rackam. He's this insane artist - does most of our album-art." There was a swallow with a beach scene behind it. Upon closer inspection, Gary noticed the tears in the swallow's eyes and a space just below it for a name.

"Tell me about the tattoo, what's inspiring it?"



They walked along the beach, hand-in-hand, Brian carrying her shoes. "Don't you just love the beach?" she asked rhetorically, a slight skip in her step, turning to face him, and expectant look on her face.

"It's alright, I guess-"

"Alright? Are you mad?" she asked doing an odd sort of spin as she walked, "I come here a lot."

He smiled at her and took the hand that she was offering him once again. "Is that so? What is it about the beach that draws you here?"

She seemed in thought for a minute, "Everything!"

"Come on, there's got to be at least one specific thing, if you love it so bad."

She dropped to the ground and got comfortable, patting the ground beside her for a half-bemused-half-shocked Brian to sit. He placed an arm around her shoulder and she leant her head against his, tentatively at first. He began lightly massaging her shoulders and making circles on her hand with his thumb and she relaxed into his side.

She took in a deep breath and shakily began letting it out, "You know, I've never actually took into consideration why I like coming here. I just do. I guess if I had to explain it, it could be something to do with the way the sky changes into the most beautiful pinks and oranges and reds whenever the sun sets. Or the way the sun's rays seem to spill out and dye the water a yellowy-orange when the sun rises again. I love all the smells, salt water, seaweed. The way the sand feels in-between my toes when I dig my feet into it. Or the call of the seagull. It all feels like home." Brian kissed her forehead and just so happened to glance at his watch.

"Talking of home, I think I should be getting you back. We don't need your roommate castrating me-" she leant up and kissed him, hard.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For listening to me."


Back at the studio, Brian looked around him, there were hundreds upon hundreds pictures on the wall, ranging from posters of bands to reprints of famous works of art. He'd heard good things about Gary, and, looking at the portfolio infront of him, Brian could see why. It looked like he'd poured a part of his heart and soul into each and every tattoo.

"How long have you been doing this?" Brian asked, flipping the page over and looking at an impressive back piece.

"About twenty years. There's a lot more satisfaction in putting your art on someone's body for everyone to admire than selling paintings." He looked up from the sketch he was drawing, it was a rough one for Brian, so he could see what Gary thought would look good placed where. "Hey?"

Brian looked up, "Yeah?"

"Tell me about the swallow."


Brian parked in-front of Matt and Val's house, got out, and ran around to her side to open the door. He took her hand and closed the door behind him, locking up the car as he did so. Leading the way through their friends' house they made their way out into the garden. They were greeted with cheers and, "about time!"'s, a round of applause could even be heard from over where Jimmy and Matt were cooking on the barbeque. She sat down on a deckchair as Brian kissed her forehead and went over to the drinks table to get them both something.

"What took you guys so long?" Val asked, "When we said three we didn't mean the next day!" the girls chuckled, as did she.

"Brian took me shopping." she answered, taking the drink, which she presumed to be spiced rum and coke, from Brian's hand and turned back to the girls.

"Get anything nice?" Lacey asked.

"Oh, you know, a little of this, a little of that-" She said waving her left hand about, the sun glinted off something and Gena noticed.

Gena gasped, "Hold out your left hand!" She did as asked, looking nonchalant. "Oh. My. God! When did this happen?" Gena asked her, a mile a minute, the rest of the girls caught a look of the sparkler on her ring finger and gasped also.
***

Later on that night, they had moved down to the beach sitting around a campfire the boys had made, drinking and having fun. She had spaced out, thinking about just how lucky she actually was.

Leana kicked her foot, "What about you lady?"

"Wha- huh?" they laughed at her, she looked up at Brian for help. He was looking at her, a huge smile on his face, but it wasn't mocking, it was one of those, 'Yeah, she's my girl' kind of smiles.

"We asked what kind of animal you'd be." Matt said from the other side of the campfire, arm slung around Val.

"Oh. I'd be a swallow."

"Why, babe?"

"Because I never venture outside of Huntington - my nesting ground. The one place I know I'm safe."

"What d'you mean?"

"Well, you're here aren't you?"


Gary was finishing up drawing in some tears on the swallow's face, and making room for a banner-esque area for a name. "If you give me five minutes I'll have the stencil made and ready to go."

"That's awesome, dude."

"If you wanna take your shirt off and get comfy over there." Brian did as he was told, putting the portfolio over on the counter and took his shirt off, he noticed Gary's shop manager, Leah, staring at him and smirked. He still had it.

"Ok, sir," Brian laughed, he and Gary hadn't been formal all day, "If you want to stay still for just a moment so it's not all- hell, it doesn't matter you know the procedure." he laughed looking at Brian's arms.

Gary started on the outlining, the buzzing contributing to the noise of the other artists working. Brian found the sound, in a way, soothing, and relaxed. Well, relaxed as well as he could with needles puncturing his skin.

"Can I ask why the swallow is crying?"

"Did you hear about the car accident a few months ago?"


Pinkly's barking awoke Brian with a jolt. Normally his girl would have fed him, but she was away seeing her mom in Oakland, "Thank Christ she's coming home today, I don't know how much longer I can deal with being awoken like this. "Brian thought, sitting up and running a hand, first through his dishevelled hair and then down his face, rubbing at his eyes slightly. He swung his legs over the side of the bed as his little dog ran around his feet, barking like crazy. "Ok, ok, Pinkly I'm up." Pinkly continued to bark and yelp, running in and out of Brian's legs. He stood up, careful not to stand on Pinkly or trip over him and give himself a concussion - again.

Going into the kitchen he turned on the radio and picked up the dog's bowl from the floor. He measured out Pinkly's biscuits into the little cup and poured it into the bowl. He placed it back onto the little dog mat and picked up his water dish. He ran it under the water to clean it and filled it back up again, listening to the radio all the while, "The headlines this morning: three dead in a car accident in the early hours of this morning, the water shortage is at a ten year high, while pollution of our seas is at an all time low-" Brian stopped listening, and went through to his living room to see if he could catch more of that first story on there, if the traffic was bad her trip would take longer than either of them had anticipated.

Turning on the TV his stomach did a slight somersault, the totalled car looked a lot like her Mercedes, it was only a coincidence he was sure, she wasn't even leaving her mom's 'til this morning. Nonetheless he picked up his mobile, and, noticing it was dead, plugged it into the wall. Once it was charged a little, enough to turn on, he noticed he had voicemail. "Hey babe, it's me." He smiled at her voice, "I can't stay with them any longer, I miss you too much, I'll be leaving tonight and be bac-" the line was filled with an earpeircing scream and Brian broke down.


They had all stopped tattooing, every artist had put down their guns as they looked at Brian, his voice shaking as he spoke.

Gary started again on the shading and colour and everyone else took that as their cue to do the same, "Fuck, dude, that's... that's just, it's not right." Brian looked over at someone, obviously in discomfort being tattooed.

"What d'you mean?" Brian asked.

"From the way you speak of her, it sounds like you didn't have much time together."

"We had two years."

"Was she, 'the one'?" Gary went to chastise him for moving but Brian got there first.

"She'll always be the one. Today, tomorrow, next week, next month, even next year she'll still be the one." Brian stopped talking and took a great interest in the colour of the ceiling tiles.

"What was her name?" Gary asked as Brian remembered he still had to fill that in on his tattoo.

His eyes lit up and small smile graced his thin lips as he granted himself permission to say the one name he'd been unable to say the last few months. "Olivia. Her name was Olivia."