“That’s me!” Natalie squeals, and as soon as her eyes land on him, she seems to forget the guy behind the counter.

But he’s not looking at her. He’s looking at me.

I’m still sitting on the folded black chairs as we stare at each other, and I feel a settling weight of remorse land in my gut. Something about him has changed since last year. It’s not just the new tattoos or the way his shoulders don’t seem to fill out the T-shirt in the same way they did before. There’s a little less life behind his eyes.

I stand and walk toward Natalie, trying to pull myself from the trance I fell into the second his crystal blues fell on me. “It’s her,” I say as I point to my friend.

“You don’t want a tattoo?” he replies with a crooked smile. It’s contagious because I feel my own smile grow across my face. Without knowing why, I put my hand against my cheeks to hide the grin. The world’s worst flirter, right here.

“N-no,” I stutter.

He shows his pearly white teeth, and I swear my knees buckle.

Natalie cackles next to me. “Her? Get a tattoo? Yeah, right.” I realize she’s teasing me, so I lose my smile and glare at her. I get that I look a little innocent, but I’m no saint.

“Well, maybe one day,” he says, and I’m under the spotlight of his stare again.

“I think I want a dolphin on my shoulder here,” Natalie says, pointing to her back. “To remind me of my time here. It’s special to me,” she says, looking at him through heavy lids.

He nods at her and takes a deep breath, an expression I can tell means he’s mentally preparing himself to deal with yet another bubbly young girl and her dolphin tattoo.

I smile to myself as I follow them back to his station.

Logan

God, I fucking hate spring break. It’s nothing but drunk, rich fucks and dolphin tattoos.

But the business is good, so I guess I shouldn’t complain. Murph loves the girls this time of year, but I could live without them. They come to Wickett (I refuse to call it Wicked) once a year to get their kicks with the dirty locals and take off back to their lives of big houses and upstanding boyfriends. We are a proverbial bucket list for these girls.

I lost a bet to Murph, hence why I’m stuck with the dolphin, and he gets to take the next walk-in. The shop was slow for a minute, and I bet him the next customer to walk in would be a frat guy on a drunk dare. It’s past 8:00 p.m. on the first night of spring break. Getting a stupid tattoo is like a rite of passage. But when we heard the door bells ring, we both peaked our heads around to see two girls walk in. One looking like she was ready to fuck the coat stand if someone didn’t step up. And the other…was her.