•F O R T Y O N E•

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Jamie's POV

When I come to, I find it hard to stay conscious, and immediately just want to black out again.

"Jamie," I try to see past the spots blurring my vision, the fluorescent lighting stinging my green eyes till they water up. "Jamie." I make out Riley's voice, the urgency in his strained tone catching my disoriented attention.

"Riley?" I try, not recognizing my hoarse voice. It's as if I'm trying to talk through a mouthful of cotton balls. How unbearably dry my mouth is doesn't help at all. I'm parched. The inside my mouth feels like a drought.

"Jamie. Jamie. Jamie. Jamie!" Following the sound of his voice, I find Riley strapped down to a tattoo chair, straining to pull free from his restraints.

"Jamie, are you okay?!" Riley demands, reaching for me despite being tied down at the wrists, his fingers stretch out towards me helplessly at his side.

"Are..." My head starts to pound with a fierce headache as I try to make sense of things. I try to sit up, but like Riley, I'm strapped down into a tattoo chair by the wrists and ankles. "Are we in a tattoo parlor?"

"Nate, that bastard," Riley spits, thrashing against his ropes. "I swear to god, if whatever that goon from the restaurant put in our drinks was addictive, I'm gonna put him in the nearest hospital."

I tug at the ropes, getting nowhere. I'm completely numb, as if every limb was injected with a heavy dosage of novocaine. I feel like a heavy, useless rock against the chair.

"Is Ginger finally awake?" Nate's voice comes from above me. Fingers digging into my scalp, while a bulky ring presses hard against the top of my cranium. Forcing my red head around, Nate comes into focus. The dirty blonde looms over me, his flared nostrils caked in a white substance.

"Morning, sunshine." Nate dips low, his unnaturally pale tongue darting out like a slithering snake is the last thing I see. The tip of his nose piercing feels icy against my skin, as he runs the length of his tongue from my chin to my forehead. His sticky salvia leaves a trail across my skin, though it's nothing compared to Nate's moggy, humid breath fuming against me like the worst day of summer. I try to make myself small against the chair, the flesh under Nate's touch feeling as if it's getting scorched.

"Nate!" Riley lets out an aggravated yell as he thrashes twice as hard against the ropes, that the chair under him rattles. "Let us out of here!"

With an annoyed gleam in his dilated green eyes, Nate wordlessly goes over to Riley's chair. Without warning, Nate's ring cladded rings hammers down against Riley's nose with a god awful crack.

"Fuck," Riley spits out the blood gushing down from his broken nose. "you!"

"You've never had the balls to say that to me before. I'm not sure whether I'm impressed, or angry." Nate scoffs, grabbing a fistful of Riley's matted dark hair. "But since you're my best friend - since we're all such good friends - I'll let it go." I don't like the excited look on Nate's face. The numbness starts to fade away, a sore ache all over my body takes its place as I start to regain motion.

"Nate." I tense up under the rope. "Why are we tied down?" I don't know how I manage my voice to come out so steady, but I just hope I can keep this tone.

"That's easy. It's for your safety." Unable to move from the neck down, I have to settle for following Nate move around the tattoo parlor with my eyes. "People squirm too much when it comes to needles. This is too make sure none of you hurt yourselves." Nate explains with a smug smirk that makes my blood run cold.

"Let us go, right fucking now!" Riley booms, a vain in his neck threatening to pop. He fights against the ropes again so hard I swear he'll break his ankles and wrists.

"He's just scared, like the pansy he is." Nate waves off, mindlessly smoothing down my knotty red hair. Nate's tattoo hands slither down, coming a down my nose. The cold metal of Nate's rings are heavy against the bridge of my nose. Nate's inked fingers pinch so hard on my freckle nose, I swear he'll break my nose off like a statue. "Don't talk to me like that again, or I'll break Ginger's nose next."

Riley falls quiet with a panicked look in his brown eyes. Riley fights even harder against the restraints, sending the blood oozing down his face all over his sweatshirt. When Nate's lets go, it's as if a million ton weight is lifted.

"That's what I thought. Now, how about a nice I love mom tattoo?" Nate jokes, his Australian accent making my heart slam against my rip cage with anxiety. "We're gonna remember this night for the rest of our lives." A mechanical buzzing noise tears through my ears. Trembling in the chair, I struggle against the restraints, the ropes digging into my skin. Locking eyes with Riley across from me, makes me fight harder against the ropes.

"How about a matching set for four? Perhaps an abbreviated BFF behind each of our ears. Or something else unoriginal." Nate taunts, the buzzing approaching.

"Nate! Stop!" Riley booms, pulling at his restraints till the ropes nearly give. I find myself breathless when I notice Riley's irradiated, chafed up skin going a violent red under the ropes, threatening to bleed any minute. More desperate than ever, I fight the bonds with all the strength I can muster up. Searching the parlor for anything-I'm exactly sure what, probably a miracle- I finally notice Robin.

"Robin's out cold. Tsk tsk, this is why they warn you not to mix your liquor with heavy medication." Looming over an unconscious Robin with a buzzing tattoo gun in one hand, Nate tightens the ropes capturing her into the chair with his other. Robin's sprawled out in the chair, laying so still her chest is barely falling and rising. Her dark locks hang over the edge in a tangled mess, while the fluorescent lighting gives her skin a pale, yellowish hue. I'd give anything for Robin to wake up, and somehow get pull a stunt only she can do to get us out of here. Robin doesn't even stir when Nate rips a hole through her black stockings at her knee. Every hair on my freckled body stands on end as Nate runs a swap dosed in disinfect across Robin's exposed skin.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" With a strength I didn't know I had, I fiercely jerk against the ropes. "Please. Not Robin. Leave her alone." I mange in between ragged breaths.

"Don't you fucking touch her!" Riley roars. Thrashing in his chair again.

"Doesn't she sleep like an angel?" My entire body breaks out in a cold sweat when the needle makes contact with Robin's exposed skin. I don't recognize the pain filled cry that rips pass my throat. Robin wakes up from the pain. Immediately screaming out vulgar words at the top of her lungs so loud, I barely hear Nate's deafening, off key rendition of "My Girl".

"Hold still. You're fucking it up." Nate grunts, twisting Robin's writhing leg at a sickening angle. Tears pooling in her blue eyes, Robin tries to kick Nate off but to avail.

"You bastard!" Robin screams, fighting back tears.

"You sick fuck! When I get out of here, I'm going to beat you till you can't move!"

"Let her go! Let her go!" I have never screamed so much in my life. I've never been a yeller, but it's as if I have to be heard over the sheer chaos. Needing to be louder than the blood pounding against my ear drums, louder then Nate's pitchy singing or his tattoo gun, louder than Robin's agonized cries and Riley's hostly, I scream till my throat gets sore.

"There," Admiring his work on Robin's knee with a triumphant look, Nate shuts off the tattoo gun, with it it's as if he shuts off our protest and threats, the immediate quiet heavy and eerie on my ears. "You ain't shit." Nate states fondly, lowering his head to shove his tongue past Robin's trembling lips.

"This is a reminder, that without me, Robin, you ain't shit. Without my money, without my roof over your head, without my love, that you're nothing. Without me, you'd just be another trashy runaway, putting out for a place to sleep. You're shit. Without me, you'd always be shit. You. Ain't. Shit." Something in me crumbles how Robin uncharacteristically goes quiet. She doesn't fight back, just cowers into the chair, with an exhausted look.

"Even on Robin's worst day, she is better than you on your most sober day." Riley spits out more blood flowing into his mouth, while shaking in his chair not from terror, but with rage. "Robin isn't nothing. She's everything to me. She's the person who knows me best, she's the reason I get up in the morning, she's is most exciting thing that's ever happened to me! And you're lucky she even bothers with y-"

"Is that your declaration of love? After all these years, after all the build up, I was expecting something more remarkable. Jesus, it's just pathetic as you are." Cutting Riley off with a cackling laugh, Nate throws his dirty blonde head back and gasps for air. The crushed look on Riley's bloody face causes my heart to sink, stopping my heart so abruptly that I lose breath. Dejected, Riley looks so broken. He doesn't even have it in him to be angry.

"C'mon," Nate eggs on. "You've been mooning over your dream girl for all these years. Say the best part. The big finish." Taunting him, Nate hovers over Riley like an eagle swooping down for a small fish. With his ring cladded fist, Nate beats on Riley's chest with thud that will surely leave a bruise. Riley weakly raises his head, the lifeless look in his brown eyes landing on me. It must be too hard to face Robin.

So I feverishly nod my head yes, mouthing "Do it. Do it. Do it." over and over again. Riley's love for Robin is not insignificant. The way Riley loves Robin... noting else even compares. Riley loves Robin especially because of her faults, adores her mistakes, he loves her for everything she is. From the moment Riley fell for Robin, Riley has loved even the briefest of moments he could have with her, he even loved Robin when she didn't love herself enough to leave behind the person Nate was and the person he is now.

Riley loves Robin so selflessly, so vastly, so tragically... Robin is Riley's first love, and he deserves to say it. I want this for him. Not like this, but he didn't say then, if he doesn't say it now, it's never. So, I silently plead for him to admit. Tell her, Riley. The way Riley feels about Robin is just as important and valid as he is. Say it, even though she won't say back. Say it because it matters.

Say it, Riley.

"I love you." Riley has never sounded so powerful. Riley's affections fills up the entire parlor, making it a bit less horrifying. It doesn't hurt like how he first told me in the middle of our living room after we hooked up. Not even a little. "I love you, Robin." Render to nothing, Nate's smirk slacks off his face.

"I'll give you points for having the balls to say that in front of Ginger, here." With iron clad grip Nate's painfully cups my jaw.

"Hurts, doesn't? Being so unloveable." Nate growls, tightening his grip like he's trying to dislocate my jaw. The mechanical buzzing confirms my worst fears. "Not as much as this will."

"You touch her, you jackass, and I promise you I'll break  your every limp, you sorry excuse for a sociopath." Riley snarls, thrashing against the restraints so viciously he's almost upright.

"Nate!" Robin suddenly screams at the top of her lungs so deafening Nate nearly drops the tattoo gun. Looking more like herself, Robin's blue eyes shoot a glare so ferociously it might kill. "I'm warning you. You hurt Jamie, and that's the end of us. I rather die than be with you for another minute." Robin's every word is so sharp, it cuts even into me. Never a sheepish one, I'm sure that is the bravest thing Robin has ever done. She finally did it. She finally conjured up enough courage to leave Nate.

"You're full of it." Nate crudely laughs off.

"No!" All three of us scream as the tattoo gun comes down so fast it blurs before my green eyes. The needle doesn't go too deep, it doesn't even break the skin at all. In actuality, the needles's point endlessly scorches across my skin, the friction only intensify the pain with every touch. The jagged end of the needle suddenly drags across like Nate's casually crossing out a grammatical error with a pen in a letter. The second time he cuts a line, I feel my entire arm convulse against the agony.

"After Riley gets dumped by Robin, you should let me cop a root. I'm not against sloppy seconds." Nate sing songs, but I can barely hear him over my screaming. When my voice goes hoarse, I weakly repeat "stop" over and over again between shuddering breath. Nate's ungloved hands manhandle my arm as if it's a piece of raw meat, stretching the skin as far as it goes. Wrists trapped, my hands helplessly shake at my sides, trembling with need to shove Nate off or wipe away the hot tears falling down my freckled cheeks. I can hear Robin's and Riley's yells, but can't understand them. Their screams, the tattoo gun's buzzing... It's just noise grinding against my ear drums.

"Shit happens." Nate presses his chapped lips purposely too hard on the chafing, throbbing skin. So immersed in pain, I don't even flinch.

Having nothing to say me, Nate walks off to harass Riley because I'm meaningless to Nate. Feeling like collateral damage, I'm shock at the weight of the ink on my skin. It almost feels heavy... it feels foreign... it feels like it's not suppose to be there.

"Any last words?" Nate jeers.

"Just two." Riley lifts his head up. "Fuck. You."

"Funny," Nate bites. "That's what's going to be on your arm for the rest of your life."

Riley's POV

The inside of my arm feels like it's on fire, as if I've just been branded, while the rest of my body is clammy with sweat. If I ever decided to get a tattoo, I never took myself for a screamer. I only thought people with low pain tolerance cried. Perhaps because it's Nate behind the gun, but that was one of the most intense pains of my young life. If I wasn't tied down, I doubt I'd been to sit through it till it was finished. The pain was so excruciating, so immense, I almost passed out. But the freshly marked skin doesn't hurt as nearly as bad as my broken nose, which sears with pain with every draw of breath, forcing me to breathe through my bloody mouth.

All I can make out is Jamie's small gasps for air in between her sniffling, Robin's choked up swears on the opposite side of the parlor, and Nate's pig like snorts. Bent over Robin, Nate inhales a line of heroine off Robin's collar bone up his nose.

"Let us go." I pant, trying to focus on anything but the harsh ache edged on my arm or the broken nose. I've never hated Nate more, but nowhere close to how much I hate myself. Tears sting the back of my eyes each time I glance at the permanent mark on Jamie's arm. This is all my fault. All of it.

"For fucks sake," Nate breathes, groping Robin's chest before straightening up. "Shut up, you prick." Nate growls. Despite bleeding through the ropes, I thrash against them one more time, still not able to get free.

"Want me to let you go? Be a good girl and put this on your tongue, and I'll untie you." Nate bribes Robin, sticking out his tongue to reveal a sheet of drugs glued to it.

"Go fuck yourself." Through the overwhelming pain, a big part me is content with Robin's new found tenacity. I've been dying for this moment for years. Undeterred, Nate settles for brute force. Smacking his mouth down onto hers, Nate grossly shoves his tongue down Robin's throat. It's grosser than watching a couple share gum. In minutes Robin's out cold, not even drifting off, but abruptly passing out.

"What did you give her?" Jamie and I both demand.

"You know opium was once the best drug on the market? Then around 1972 everyone was all about ecstasy. And do you remember when molly came out not too long ago? Well this," Nate sticks out his tongue, showing us the little sheet of drugs stuck perfectly in the middle of his tongue. "is what I'm going start pushing. That's business, always advancing." Nate busies himself as he fights with Robin's knots.

"When they find you in the morning, come straight to me, Riley. You got a lot of work to do." Nate smirks, carelessly hefting Robin on to his shoulder like a rag doll.

"You're leaving us here?" Jamie croaks.

"Maybe even for a day or two," Nate flicks off the florescence lights with a smirk. "I'll send the guys to get you when Robin gives me a wristy." Is the last thing Nate says after he slams the door, leaving us tied down in the dark.

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