money, but that's no problem I have money.”
“I have money too!”
“Cool. You better win this, or you'll end up like them.” He pointed at a disheveled woman laying on a sidewalk with a sign that said, “Please feed me. I couldn't join a faction and Jeanine left me here to rot on my ass.”
He shrugged. “Or you can just be some footballer's wife. That's not too bad. Just make sure to never cheat on him and you'll be good.”
He burped and pointed up at a sign above. “We're here!”
I looked up as we stopped in front of the store. The sign at the top was shaped as a giant tattoo needle and said,
“Chink in the Armor Tats! Get yours today so you two can be loved long time by a nice illegal immigrant!”
I shared a look with TB4. He said, “Yeah, they have one sick sense of of humor. Then again, all of us do in Trickers. Get used to it Mika.”
“I've already been used to it. My Dad says racial jokes all the time. They're so funny.”
TB4 chuckled lightly. “That doesn't surprise me. You get your tacky fashion sense from your Mom?”
“Hey!”
He laughed, shaking his head, and motioned for everyone to get in.
“Come on everyone! This here's the place.”
Al smirked, and patted TB4 on the shoulder as we walked in. “Don't lie boss, you got yourself a nice quickie from one of these girls huh?”
“Yeah, but not the best one.”
We walked in, and TB4 pointed at the Asian lady that tested me. She was behind a counter, scoping a magazine, with smoke billowing from her cigarette in her left hand. It flowed up to the ceiling like a chimney blowing smoke to the sky.
Al said, “Oh come on, don't tell me a guy like you is whipped by it too.”
“Aren't we all?” TB4 sighed and walked up to her, us following. Limp stood at the door and said, “I'm not taking any fucking tattoos.”
TB4 smiled at him and said, “Hey, I'm not making you. Go ahead, peruse the town if you wish. Just make it back to the facility by 8:00. Sleepy time.”
Limp spat at the ground. “How about this, I make it back to the facility by 10:00, and if you make it a problem, I'll bash your face in?”
TB4 paused. “I'd love to see you try. You're all jacked up, and while yours are bigger than mine, my mind is sharper than yours.”
Limp chuckled, spat on the floor and marched out of the tattoo parlor.
“That kid...too rabid. Too rabid.”
Al smirked at Christine and I, as if he was telling us TB4 would have no problem with Limp gone.
We got up to the cash register where the Asian lady was and TB4 winked at her.
“Hello there, how's business?”
“Slow. Like your game.”
That got a laugh out of Al. “Oh boy, this girl. She just insulted your game man, you're gonna take that from her?”
TB4 smiled and said, “It's cool, it's cool. So, I got the initiates here with me. You have some room for them right now?”
She turned a page on her magazine and said, “Yeah, sure. But that Klansmen girl goes last.”
“What? Who?”
She pointed up at me, without looking at me. “Her. The girl with the weird name, the Vanity girl. I want her last. I'll do her myself, we have history.” She looked up at me with what I thought to be the first genuine smile I saw out of her. “Ain't that right Mika?” She took a puff of her cigarette and then exhaled a cloud of smoke.
---
“So you learned not to be a racist bitch yet?” said the Asian lady, finishing up my tattoo. She hadn't spoken to me the entire time, and I considered that very convenient. It was as if I were writing a book and didn't know the process of getting a tattoo. So I started with her finishing my tattoo while she starts speaking with me. Cool.
“What do you mean? I'm not racist!”
“You love to call me Asian lady...my name's Juniper. Juniper Lee.”
“Like that cartoon?”
“What?”
“Nevermind. Um, I'm not racist I swear. Just because my family reports every black person, calls Asians China-man, and thinks all