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IMANI
Later that day, Landon and I took Ana to Redwood Grocery to stock up on some supplies. This entire town would be going to shit by tomorrow morning, and I wanted us all to be prepared. Who knew what the fuck would happen?
Ana stood at the end of the cart, being pushed by Landon down the aisle. I smiled at the exchange and thought about how good each member of Poison was with kids. They might’ve been the bad boys who blew up this town, but they had soft spots.
I hooked my arm around Landon and rested my head on his shoulder. “What do you want to do when we graduate?”
We hadn’t talked about what would come after graduation and when we finally got the chance to leave Redwood for good. Would the guys stay here to help raise Ana? Would they want to move elsewhere? Would they go somewhere with me?
“I haven’t really thought that far ahead,” Landon admitted, scratching the back of his head and glancing down at Ana as she skipped down the aisle. “It’s hard to think about shit like the future when you’re a poor kid just trying to survive.”
I had been thinking about college since middle school. It was hard to grasp not thinking about it at all, but Landon and I were so different. I’d had the luxury of living a comfortable life, sheltered from the truth. He hadn’t.
“My grades are shit, so I can’t get into any colleges, anyway. I didn’t even apply.”
“You don’t have to go to college to be successful,” I said. “There’s trade school.”
Landon shrugged his shoulders. “None of that shit really interests me.”
I glanced up at his neck that was covered in tattoos. “What about a tattoo artist?”
Just before Landon was about to shoot that idea down too, he paused and glanced over at me. “A tattoo artist?” he asked in awe, as if he had thought about it before but wasn’t sure about it. “Maybe.”
“Would you ever give me one?” I asked playfully, grinning up at him as Ana ran down the aisle toward the toilet paper. I leaned closer to him. “I want one right across my ass that says, Property of Poison.”
Landon chuckled. “I’m sure João would love that.”
“Come on. For real though,” I said, lightly pushing him. “Have you ever given someone a tattoo before? You have a ton of them all over your body.”
He pulled up his sleeve to show me a tattoo on his left forearm of a skull surrounded by a bunch of roses. “I tattooed this on me about six months ago.”
My eyes widened. “You did this yourself?! It’s so intricate.”
“Yeah,” Landon said, cheeks flushing slightly. “I didn’t do the skull, but the roses around it. It was a few months after we started talking online. You mentioned how you liked the skull tattoo, and I liked your screen name—Rosy. So, I, uh, put a couple roses around it.”
Warmth spread throughout my chest. I stared up at him in awe and pulled him closer to me, unable to stop the grin from stretching across my face. God, this man surprised me more and more every single day of my life.
“You did the roses for me?” I whispered against his lips.
“Maybe,” Landon said, cheeks bright red now.
“I think you should do it,” I said, following Ana. “Or at least give it a try.”
“You think?” Landon said, still hesitant.
And part of me hurt because I knew the reason why. He never really had anyone believe in him before. His parents had done nothing but hurt him and made him feel like he wasn’t good enough for this life.
I wanted to make sure he did whatever made him happy.
“Yes!” I said. “Please, try it. You’ll be so good.”
“Maybe I will,” Landon said, grabbing some toilet paper from Ana.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out.
Mom: Where are you?
I gently patted Landon’s arm. “I have to call my mom, but we’re not finished with this convo.”
