Tattoo

• Rosanna Matten
• Short Story
• 2012

Last Night
Riley paddled the canoe as it went glissading down the river in the glowing light of a sunset. We were imitating the rich snotty girls and guys that attend our school, laughing as we went. It was then and there that he pulled out the cheap silver ring got down on one knee in the middle of the canoe, not caring that water was toppling in at the sides, and asked, “Will you please go to the school formal with me?”
After a magical night of dancing, Riley and I ended up in vast fields of grass in the spotlight of a full moon. He was gripping my hand tightly not daring to let go. The cold was hitting my arms as I frolicked aimlessly in my dress. I was tripping all over the place, I knew my heels were going to be wrecked by the time I got home but I honestly didn’t care. His overjoyed laughter echoed though my head.
Present
As I dragged myself to my room I shook my head trying to understand how my reason to breathe had been taken away. There sitting at the foot of my bed, where Riley had helped me take them off after calling me his Cinderella, sat the ivory leather stilettos I had worn. The heel on one of the shoes had snapped and both were covered in mud and grass stains ruining my favourite shoes. But I didn’t care. I was never going to fix them, fixing them may erase a memory I had of Riley.
He was everywhere in the house. The air carried his scent. The rooms were clattered with his clothes and belongings. Every wall was covered with pictures of him and of us.
I opened the doors to my wardrobe knowing that it’d be hanging there in plain sight. My formal dress, the blue and green sparkly one Riley picked out for me an hour before the dance started, was calling out to me. It was speaking the words Riley said to me that night, “I love you”. It was pressing against my ears, ringing through my head. A rapid tingle coursed down my spine. It seemed to grow hot around the area of my tattoo that was permanently embedded into my skin above my heart. The tattoo that read Riley’s name. The identical tattoo on his chest read mine.
And then our fight came rushing into all of my senses, my body was freezing over with emptiness. My heart seemed to race. The tears seeped down my face, unstoppable.
The car crash was all over the news. Every single detail was repeated over and over again. They kept on saying and saying his name and I just wanted it to end.
I know Riley is gone.
He’s never coming back for me.
And yet he’s part of everything I do. He’s always on my mind, haunting me. He’s always in my heart.
He’ll always be with me just like my tattoo.