Chev was getting in my ass.

– Give me a hand here.

– Just a sec, I wanna finish this.

– A sec my ass, get the fuck over here and give me a hand.

I got up and walked across the shop, the copy of Fangoria folded open to an article about a new wave of bootleg Eastern European ultrahorror DVDs.

– Put that down and hold this.

I lowered the magazine, looked at the girl lying frozen on the table, her shirt pulled up, one tit untucked from her bra, tension in every muscle of her body a thin stream of tears running from her eyes, flipped him off and took hold of the Glover Bulldog clamp locked on the tip of the girls nipple, stretching it taut for the needle.

The girl banged her heel on the table.

– Dont pull on it, dont pull on it.

– Im not pulling on it.

She squirmed.

– Youre sooo pulling.

– I am not, youre moving.

I looked at Chev.

– Did I pull on it or did she move?

Chev turned from his kit, a large needle between the fingers of his left hand.

– Just hold it steady, both of you.

The girl froze.

I looked back in my magazine and read about a scene in a movie called Amputee where a guy has his eyes gouged out and his toes are amputated by the bad guy and sewn into his empty eye sockets.

– Im holding steady.

The clamp vibrated slightly as Chev ran the needle through the girls nipple and she jerked.

I peeked at her over the top of the magazine.

– Not too bad, huh?

Part of a smile crossed her face and she shook her head.

– No, not too bad.

I nodded.

– Yeah, here comes the bit that really sucks.

Chev twisted the jewelry into the hole hed just put in her nipple, and gripped the ends of the open hoop of surgical steel with two pairs of needle-nose pliers, torqued until they lined up, popped a tiny bead between them and pinched them together so they held it tight. The girls mouth flew open and she made a long whining noise and a little urine stained the crotch of her way too fucking expensive for their own good jeans.

I looked at the photo spread in the magazine.

– See, hurts like a motherfucker.

Chev took the clamp from my fingers.

– Asshole. Get the fuck away.

– What? I was helping, you said I should come over here and help.

He released the clamp and the girls nipple snapped back.

– Just get out of here, will you? Go get me some smokes.

I twisted the magazine into a tube and stuffed it in my back pocket.

– Give me some cash.

Chev looked up from the blood he was swabbing off the girls tit.

– No.

– Fine, Ill tell them were not using money anymore, that weve moved beyond outdated concepts like commerce and that they should just give me your American Spirits because its a goodwill society now.

He placed a gauze pad over the girls nipple and had her hold it there while he taped the corners down.

– I gave you money for breakfast this morning and you never gave me the change. Use that in lieu of goodwill and go buy my smokes.

– Thought the change was a tip.

– It wasnt. Go. Get out.

He took a card full of cleaning instructions from his work table and handed it to the girl and started telling her how to care for the piercing, blotting her eyes for her with a Kleenex.

– Youre gonna want to take the bandage off in a couple hours, in the shower with water running over it so it doesnt stick to the dry blood. Then you gotta clean it, rotate the jewelry under the water.

She made a face and he stroked her hair and she leaned her head against his hand.

– Itll be cool. Itll hurt, but not bad. The hard part is over.

I leaned against the wall by the door.

– Until mom sees it and you have to explain why the hell you let some creepy tattoo artist poke a hole in your tit.

Chev stepped away from the girl.

– Go be useful. Now.

I slid my shades over my eyes.

– I am useful. I serve a constant reminder that youre not as cool as you think you are and that you used to run home early from school every day so you wouldnt miss Star Trek and it wasnt till you shaved your head and got inked and opened this shop that chicks like her would even look at you.

– Now, out, the fuck out!

I pushed the door open.

– And you have the whole original series on deluxe DVD and an autographed William Shatner picture that you got at a convention when you were fifteen and had chronic acne.

The door swung shut behind me as I walked into the sunlight, whatever Chev was saying to me muffled and lost.

I didnt need to hear it. Id heard it all before. Anything Chev has to say to me, Ive heard it. Most of it starts with asshole and ends with such a dick.

I dug in my pocket and found the six odd bucks left over from the breakfast run Id done over to the Dennys on Sunset. Id planned on using it for some tacos later.

– Crap.

I stuffed the money back in my pocket and headed out.

Mostly Chev is cool. Until a chick he thinks is hot comes around. Really, its not any different from our whole lives. Only difference is, back when we were kids, Chev turned into a worse stuttering dork around hot chicks than he already was and tried to make up for it by being a dick toward me. He doesnt get nervous anymore, mostly, but he still acts like a dick toward me. Which, sure, sometimes I deserve it, but mostly hes just trying to be cooler than he is. So whos the dick?

I walked up Mansfield, cut east and made for the big red Las Palmas Market. I could have just gone up Melrose from the shop and gotten the smokes from the gas station at La Brea, but everythings cheaper at the Market. Save some money on Chevs smokes and thered be enough for a soda and some gum. Chev cant ask for change I dont have.

Well, he can, but I cant give it to him. So that gets us both off the hook.

Coming back to Melrose with the smokes, I saw the girl coming out of the shop, Chev holding the door open, thumbing the digits of her phone number into his cell. I stood there and watched him watch her ass as she walked to the 2008 Z her mommy and daddy bought for her. She climbed in and waved and pulled into traffic and Chev held up his phone. Ill call.

I waved at her as I crossed the street and she punched it and almost ran me over.

Chev laughed and I walked past him and into the shop.

– Jailbait.

He let the door swing shut and caught the pack of smokes I tossed him.

– Asshole.

– Total jailbait.

He stripped the cellophane from the pack.

– Just turned eighteen. Her folks gave her the car as a birthday present.

– Bull. They gave her that car as a bribe to keep her from dropping out of high school and going up to the valley to become a porn star.

– Dude, shes eighteen. I carded her when she came in.

– Fake.

He dropped into one of the two old barber chairs customers sit in for easy arm and leg pieces.

– I know a fake when I see one. Shes eighteen. Legit. And smokin’ hot.

I unwrapped a piece of gum and stuck it in my mouth.

– Shes a spoiled piece of high-maintenance ass that thinks itll be cool to fuck a tattoo rocker because shes already taken it in the ass from every rich boy in Beverly Hills and variety is the spice of life and her familys money makes her life boring so she has to slum with losers like us.

He lit up and blew smoke at me.

– Losers like me, Web. Losers like me.

I took the magazine from my pocket and opened it back up.

– Well I hope you enjoy the fatal case of cockrot youre gonna get if you nail that chick. -Jealous.

– Gonna be like this movie Corrosion.

– Bitter.

– Your flesh being eaten away.