Sienna Lehman's Story

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Sienna was not having a great day thus far.

"Ryder, let me go," Sienna snapped, trying to free her left wrist from his tight grasp. Reflexively, his grip tightened and she winced. They stood beside her car and he refused to allow her to leave. It was the first time that he brought his insistence on the continuation of their relationship to her work place. The last place she needed her drama to be brought to.

"Not until you stop fakin' on me," he replied, looming over her diminutive frame with his gigantic one. At least, it always felt like he was a giant when he was in these moods. She pushed at his chest at another futile attempt for him to leave her alone and he grasped her other wrist, causing Sienna to drop her bag. "I don't even know why you work here. I already told you to stop working with these crack heads." Sienna narrowed her eyes and tried to pull herself from his hold to no avail.

"Do not bring them into this." Her tone had turned testy even as she attempted to keep it quiet. She didn't want the others, if they were in, to hear this. The last thing she needed was one more person to insert themselves into this issue. Her sister already was pissed with her for not getting the cops involved at this point. "I like them, and that's all you need to be worried about. Go shoot up some joint with Davon or something." Ryder narrowed his eyes at that and squeezed her wrists more, wrenching a small cry from the girl.

"Don't push me, Sia."

"Just let me go! You're hurting...me!" With that cry, Sienna gave one good shove, which managed to knock Ryder off his kilter. He released her in surprise and took a few steps back and Sienna pulled into herself, rubbing at the sore skin of her wrists. Knowing her, they would bruise quite easily and she wasn't wearing enough bracelets to cover both. As if suddenly realizing that he had been too rough, Ryder's eyes widened and his entire stance went from intimidating and angry to apologetic and sorrowful.

"Whoa, I'm sorry, babe," he said in a much gentler tone and took one step towards her. Instinctively, Sienna backed up until her back touched her car. She was still gripping her wrist to her chest. Neither spoke for a minute and she looked anywhere else but at him. She heard a sigh from him and when she glanced at Ryder, his hands were shoved deep in his pockets. "Look, I'll just call you later and check on you, alright? You gotta stop avoiding me, ok?" Sienna didn't say anything when he approached her and nearly jumped out of her skin when his arms went around her waist.

At one point, these arms had been comforting. She used to be able to actually relax here; cuddle after homework and classes and just forget that she'd have to start the entire process all over again. But then...Ryder...changed and suddenly, the same hands she felt safe in scared her. He had never hit her, but moments like these made it near impossible for her to not to believe a situation like that implausible.

"We good?" He muttered that into her hairline, pressing them tightly together. A moment of tenderness that should have been comforting was more suffocating and Sienna wanted nothing more than to be as far away from him as she could. So, she nodded obediently.

"Yeah, ok. We're good," she replied, voice despondent and eyes no longer focusing on him. She didn't move until Ryder had already walked off and wandered around the corner. Finally, taking a breath, Sienna fixed her somewhat rumpled clothes, raked a shaky hand through her hair, grabbed her bag, and finished locking her car. When she made it inside, she flashed a brilliant smile at her friends and co-workers present, "Hey, guys! Wassup?"

Mason jolts awake to the blaring sound of his phone going off. With a groan he searches for the offending object on his night stand. He checks the time and notices that he's slept through two alarms and three phone calls. Great... He groggily gets out of bed and goes about his usually morning routine, only rushing a little bit. He's sure he won't be late but doesn't feel like making it a possibility. Halfway through filling up his second cup of coffee his phone starts ringing again. He considers not answering, feeling as if its too early to make the effort in holding any sort of conversation, but ultimately decides it must be something important.

"Hello?" He answers.

"Mason! Hey, I've been trying to get a hold of you forever," Mason winces a little as Jessie's high pitched voice comes through the speaker. He sets his coffee aside and moves to his living room to gather up his keys and wallet. "What could you possibly need that has you calling me this early in the morning?" Mason knew one day his lenient nature towards her would bite him, and he wonders if today is going to be that day.

"Well....You see mom's been really, really busy." She pauses, as if waiting for him to fill in the blanks. Mason doesn't, allowing her to struggle with what she's trying to ask. He already knows where this is going, but he isn't going to make anything easy for her. Instead he busies himself with putting Binx into her kennel and making sure his front door is locked before heading out. "I'm heading into work so if you're trying to ask something you better do it now." He stresses, prompting her to get over whatever it is that's stopping her from asking.

"I just...Can I crash at your place for a while, just while moms gone?"

Mason can hear her make a noise of annoyance on the other end of the line. He bypasses his car, deciding that since he isn't so far from the shop anyways it'll be easier just to walk there instead of taking the risk of losing his prime parking spot. Sure he'll get there a little bit later than he would if he were to take his car, but he figures a little exercise won't do any harm.

"She's always gone, and I can't take you to school you know, you can't skip either so don't even try that with me."

"Well damn, there goes that plan," She mumbles in a sarcastic tone, "I'm not stupid you know, I can get myself there."

"You better have bus money because you aren't taking my car." He answers her, and he knows just by his answer that he's already lost and given her the go ahead. "Speaking of, shouldn't you be in school right now?" He asks, a warning tone in his voice. The other side of the line goes silent, before Jessie starts fake coughing.

"I'm sick," She answers, meekly.

"Uh huh." He answers, completely disbelieving, "You have a key, I'm almost at work now I'll talk to you later."

"Okay, talk to you later."

Mason sighs and pockets his phone.

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Truthfully he wasn't almost at work yet, but the physical act of staying on the line with her that long was already giving him a head ache. Besides he didn't want to get anymore stressed out before going into work. Mason stops off at the closest gas station first so he can grab another cup of coffee, finding it hard to function without it, before finding himself finally at work.

He notices when he walks in that he is indeed the last to arrive, even Jake was already there. Mason wasn't ever earlier than needed but he had never been the last to show up before. "You know it would probably be a good idea to advertise that we are open," He tells the others, deadpan. He looks pointedly towards Jake but notices that he is still in his pajamas, which pretty much explains why he didn't already open. Mason sighs, finishes off his final cup of coffee and goes to open up.

"How is everyone?" He asks distantly, not particularly sounding concerned but all the same asking.

Jayce
Jay couldn't help but chuckle as he remembered Jake's face when Roanoke passed by. Honestly, he's known the dog since it was a pup, you'd think he'd be okay with Jay's constant companion. But alas, Jay's friend still is uncomfortable with Raonoke. Oh well. He watched as the rest of the merry band arrived. Sienna arrived next with a cheerful smile that hid her true feelings. Jay could point out those smiles on basically anyone. He was the king of the 'I'm okay smile' when he was growing up. He had to convice other somehow that his family wasn't fucked up so a fake happy smile it was. Over the years that smile turned real, but he could still pick them out from a crowd. But he decided against saying anything. If Sienna didn't want to talk about it, then he wouldn't push her. It probably had to do with her boyfriend. Met him once or twice and was never a fan. Roanoke tended to stay clear of the guy so yeah, not a fan.
Last to arrivewas Mason. He commented about the sign not being flipped which caused Jay to chuckle. Probably would have taken them a while to figure out why the place wasn't getting customers if it wasn't for Mason. Then again one of the girls probably would have noticed and commented about how none had noticed.
He watched as Jake slid over to Maggie, grab his cup, and greeted, "Morning everyone!" Jay greeted back, his left hand doodling as he rested his chin in his right palm. "What's the agenda for the day?" His question had become almost ritualistic at this point. Never was there ever a repeat day at Midnight Ink.

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Julia settled herself behind the counter, trailing her fingers through Roanoke's fur as she passed. "I'm just gonna stay here," she offered. As always, she added mentally, smiling. Her job consisted mostly of manning the counter, which was a more stable occupation. As of present she didn't have any projects, so most of the day was whiled away perched at the counter, watching Roanoke sleep and the rest draw tattoo designs. To her credit, she did do some designing herself, although they weren't always used.

She reached out to Sienna from behind the counter. She'd taken a liking to the younger girl, her brightness and cheekiness appealing to her instantly. "Hey, girl. Have you been arrested recently or something?" she asked quietly, gaze dropping to the girl's wrists. "Seems you've been getting bruises and stuff recently where you shouldn't." Red was ringed around them, and though Julia couldn't tell anything for sure, she'd seen Sienna's boyfriend around a few times and didn't like him much. Checking under the counter, she found a tube of soothing cream she kept around for emergencies, and offered it to Sienna. "Do you want some ice or something? I can run upstairs and get some if you'd like."

"Yeah, Jay, great thinking," she added to Jayce just as he flipped the sign. "You should take over or something, I think if nobody reminded Jake to open up every morning, we'd probably have gone bankrupt and closed down long ago."

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Sienna knew that she hadn't painted enough of a bright smile on her face the second the words left her mouth and she had to fight herself from glowering. She didn't want to think about Ryder or bring it to the shop, not yet. Not when she was pretty sure he wasn't bold enough to do anything more than bitch and moan about who she spent her time with. No, it wasn't that important. Besides, the last thing she needed was to explain why her life was so complicated when she was pretty sure a lot of people had it worse than her. She was just about to spew out another form of greeting when she heard Mason enter and a grin formed on her lips.

"Whoa there, boss man. I just got here," Sienna replied cheekily, dimples fully blooming. She winked at Maggie on her way to her little station and dropped off her bag. She turned around to say more, but found herself beside Julia in a matter of seconds. Sienna's brow furrowed just slightly in confusion before Julia's words sunk in. She followed Julia's gaze down to her wrists, which seemed to be worsening. Or maybe Sienna was being overdramatic. "It's nothing, really. Just..." Sienna trailed off at that; it was pretty obvious to her and probably to Julia that she was lying through her damn teeth and there was no excuse she could make. She smiled appreciatively when Julia handed her some cream. "Thanks, hon." If she didn't want to draw too much attention to the situation, Sienna would have hugged Julia.

Screw it!

Sienna reached over to pull the woman into a warm embrace, a real smile forming on her face despite the fucked up morning. "You're the best," she whispered.

Sienna's hesitation made Julia more sure, if that was ever possible, of the fact that something wasn't quite right with her. She kept calm, however, trying to help the girl feel more at ease. "You're welcome," she returned in a low voice.

It might have been the end of that conversation, and Julia started to turn away to deal with other matters, when Sienna pulled her into a hug. Julia, pleasantly surprised, patted her back gently, just holding her. A moment later, she pulled away, holding Sienna at arm's length.

"I am," she conceded teasingly. "And you," here she squeezed Sienna's shoulder, "need to get to work instead of being sappy. I'll bring one of Jake's cats down for you later if you want to squeeze something and be cute over it."

It was as if the rest of their colleagues weren't around anymore - at that point, all Julia cared about was Sienna's wellbeing. The girl was not all right, and damned if Julia wasn't going to find some way to fix it. She turned away, pretending to search for the book that detailed the day's schedules, trying to keep a lid on the anger rising quietly in her. She never got angry, she was the picture of self-control, and that would not break today.

Julia looked up at the rest. "Maggie and Jake, y'all had better decide who's taking charge of Amy Rose. She's coming in today, isn't she? And Jay - I got a guy the other day hoping you could do something for him, I think he'll be coming by either today or tomorrow," she commented casually, now trying almost as hard as Sienna to hide her emotions. The difference was she did a better job of it.

Jayce Nox

"Anything for you Julia." Jayce teased after flipping the sign to open and walking back to where his drawing of a woman was. He watched as the girls hugged and waited for Sienna to pull away before address her. "As for Roanoke, you can have play dates whenever, but you may not kidnap him. He is my motivation in the morning and my alarm clock." He grinned down at his faithful companion who loped over with his long tongue hanging out. Jay chuckled as he ran his blunt nails over Roanoke's fur. The large pup leaned into the touch and almost fell over in pure bliss. Jayce watched Julia's face after the two women split. For a second he saw a flash of anger?, annoyance? on her face, but it was soon replaced. He couldn't read her anymore, not that he was surprised she was a master at covering up her feelings when she wanted to. Her self control was probably better than his and that was impressive.

Jayce's ears perked when Julia called his name informing him that he would be having a customer. He gave a thumbs up as excitement coursed through him. He couldn't wait to meet his new customer. He looked down at his half finished drawing and flipped the page for Donna's tattoo. She would be coming in today to finish her sleeve. Her tat had to have been one of his favorites and yet hardest. She came in with a rough idea and together they created a beautiful piece of art. Altogether she had visted him five times and he'd be lying if he said he wouldn't miss the fiery woman. But alas his time with her was coming to a close. Then again tattoos were addictive and she may find she wants another. He would never turn her away or really anyone.

"Julia, what time is my appointment with Donna?" Yes, Jayce could be extremely lazy.

Donna's tattoo