Page 9 of Scribbled Excellence

“Why do you look like that?” August’s voice pulled me out of my daze. “Did you see a ghost or something?”

Tuesday snickered. “Nah, she didn’t see a ghost. She saw her future boo.”

I smacked her arm lightly and told her to hush. August’s face contorted before he looked around. “Who?”

“Kyro Goings. He came over here to admire her mural and told her that he was a future Stan of hers.” Tuesday had such a damn big mouth. To her, there was no business like someone else’s.

August’s head snapped in our direction. “Wait, Kyro Goings? Yo, he ownsBridged Hearts. I’ve been trying to get into his shop to get a tat by him, but he is booked up for like a month.”

“Oh, yeah. Danielle did say that he owned a tattoo shop. That’s cool. I should check him out,” I said absentmindedly.

August crossed his arms over his chest and gawked at me. “Yeah, I think you should check him out. Matter of fact, we’ve been talking about getting that matching tat that Tuesday sketched. How about we go see about him tomorrow?”

My head bucked back. “I thought you said that he was booked up? How are we going to see about him tomorrow?”

August was tripping. How the hell would we get an appointment if he was booked solid. Over a year and a half ago, Tuesday sketched an amazing tattoo for us. When she showed it to me, I cried. August and I planned to get it, but time had gotten away from us.

The smirk that surfaced on August’s face was troublesome. He was about to be on his good bullshit. “Something tells me that he’ll move some shit around for you. Let’s test the theory.”

Some Days Later

The Way Home . . .

I didn’t feel comfortable just popping up at Kyro’s business since August said that he was booked. I felt that it would be disrespectful to show up and expect him to shift his schedule because I thought he liked me. He never actually said that he liked me. Yeah, he said that he would Stan me, but I thought he meant more of my artwork.

I calledBridged Heart Tattoo Shopthe next day to see if I could get an appointment. The receptionist told me that he was booked until the following month, but she took my name down just in case there were any cancellations. Less than an hour later, I got a call back from her. She told me that Kyro had a cancellation and could take me and my brother.

After it was booked, she sent me a link so that I could do the intake process. I was thoroughly impressed with how organized his process was. You had to upload your design if you had one, as well as your state-issued identification. August and I filled out all the required paperwork. According to the terms, he would give a price twenty-four to forty-eight hours after we submitted the design. The day after we submitted the designs, the price came back at $900 total. Once we approved the price, the appointment was officially locked in.

“You ready to get tatted, Sis?” August asked. This would be my fifth tat and August’s third. It would be our first matching tat.

We were on our way to the shop. I was excited about the tattoo and the fact that I got to be a passenger princess inAugust’s car. His junior year of high school, I busted my ass with commission pieces and illustrations so that I could save to buy him a car for graduation. I made outstanding money and even had a client pay me $6,000 for a set of commissioned pieces for his family home. When it was all said and done, I was able to get him a four-year-old cash car. I was currently in the middle of the same process for Tuesday.

“I’m more than excited. Can we stop at Starbucks before we go to the shop?” I asked. I planned to milk this passenger princess thing for as long as I could.

August’s head slowly turned toward me after he stopped at a stoplight. “So, you just want me to drive you all around while I’m home. Is there something wrong with your car?”

The corner of my top lip rose with my eyebrow. “Yep, sure is. It knows that you’re home, so it can rest.”

Just as the light turned green, he erupted into laughter. “Yeah, okay.”

We stopped at Starbucks like I asked, then headed to the tattoo shop. “Wow! That logo is amazing. Do you think he drew it?”

The shop’s logo was mesmerizing. The center was a large heart that was half black and the other half red. There were Korean letters painted in gold in the middle of the heart. There was a golden bridge on each side of the heart that looked like it was coming out of it. On one side, it was an urban city setting while on the other side was a Korean town or city setting. The design was ingenious and gave what it was supposed to give.

We got out of the car and walked into the shop. The shop where I normally got my tattoos was one that was large with about eight artists. I always went there because it was known. They also took walk-ins, which was great. There were times when I wanted a tattoo on a whelm.

The inside of the shop was extremely nice. The waiting area was large and even had a gaming system. There was a refrigerator with drinks and a shelf with snacks. Sketches and photos of tats covered the walls. What caught my attention, though, was a mural.

My feet slowly walked to the mural that covered the entire back wall of the waiting room. The grown man in the center of the mural was fine. His neck and arm were completely tatted. His head was dropped and leaned on his fist. The cherry blossoms that adorned his head as he looked to be in deep thought were beautiful.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” His voice was memorable. “I worked with my auntie on this. I sketched it and she painted it.”

My head snapped in his direction. “You sketched this? Wow, this is so amazing! The detail tells a whole story. Have you or Danielle ever been to Korea?”Oh, I didn’t mean to ask him that.“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to assume because your?—”

He said that he sketched this one, but in the mural that Danielle did, there was so much detail on the Korean side of it. In my opinion, it wasn’t the kind of detail that came from just seeing a photo. It was the kind of detail that came from an experience.Simply breathtaking.

His chuckles cut me off. “You’re cool. Yeah, I’ve been several times with my grandparents and parents. It was important to all of them that I knew both my Black and Korean side. My auntie has been there a couple times with us as well.”