Poison Ink Read Online Free PDF

her pillow, and the girls turned their assault on Sammi, who surrendered in a fit of giggles.
    Letty stood on the bed like the Queen of the Mountain, looking around at them with the pillow in her hand, ready to defend herself. Then something in her face shifted. Her milk chocolate eyes narrowed, and Sammi saw a kind of light dancing in them.
    “I have the coolest idea ever,” she said.
    They all looked at her. Letty knelt down on the bed, and they crowded around her like schoolchildren waiting for the teacher to read a story.
    “We should get a tattoo,” she whispered.
    “Tattoos?” Caryn started to laugh.
    “No, no. Not tattoos, not like we go together and everybody picks out something different,” Letty went on. “We should get a tattoo. The same one for all five of us, something totally unique that nobody else in the world would have.”
    “I don’t know,” T.Q. started to say.
    But Caryn began to nod. “That’s brilliant. Something that’s just us, that, like, represents our friendship, so no matter what happens for the rest of our lives, we’ll never forget what we all mean to each other.”
    “And you can design it, Caryn,” Katsuko said.
    Sammi laughed softly, in disbelief. She stared at Katsuko. The idea seemed crazy, but wonderful at the same time—a permanent reminder of the bond they shared. But she never would have thought Katsuko would go for it.
    “I love it,” T.Q. said. She reached around to touch the small of her back. “I could get it right here. That would look so cool.”
    “What would the design be, though?” Sammi asked.
    Caryn smiled. “I could come up with something. Or I’d do a bunch and we could all choose the one we like the best.”
    Several seconds ticked by without another word. The only sound in the room was the television and the breathing of the five girls. They all wore smiles of mixed disbelief and excitement.
    “Are we really going to do this?” T.Q. asked.
    “Definitely,” Sammi said.
    Letty let out a whoop of joy and jumped down off the bed, hugging everyone she could reach.
    But Katsuko had gone silent, and her smile had disappeared.
    “I can’t,” she said. “It would be amazing. To share something like that with all of you, I would love it. But my parents are never going to let me get a tattoo. And I don’t think anyone’s going to do it for us without permission from our parents. Nowhere good, anyway, where we could be sure they’d be safe.”
    Caryn and Letty started to try to persuade her, but then T.Q. swore.
    They stared at her. T.Q. never swore.
    “My parents, too. I don’t think they’ll go for it.” She looked up. “What about you, Sammi? You know your parents would kill you.”
    Sammi only nodded, heart sinking with disappointment. That would be all her parents would need right now; something else to argue about. They all seemed to have deflated.
    Then Katsuko spoke up again.
    “Screw it. I’m so sick of being a good girl, always having to worry about what my parents will think. This means too much to me. They’ll never understand, but they don’t have to. It’s got nothing to do with them.”
    “Yeah, but you were right,” Sammi said. “You have to be eighteen, I think, otherwise you have to have a parent with you. I mean, Rachael Dubrowski has a tattoo shop, but I can’t see her breaking the law for us, even if she is dating my cousin.”
    Caryn shook her head. “No. There must be places where nobody will ask questions.”
    T.Q. slumped back onto her sleeping bag. “Places we could get the ugliest tattoo ever, where they could mess up big time, or use a needle with disease all over it. If we could even find anyone willing. These guys have to be licensed, right? If they break the rules, they get shut down.”
    “Damn, aren’t you Little Miss Sunshine?” Letty said. “C’mon, Simone, don’t be like that.”
    T.Q. shrugged. “Just being realistic.”
    “So we just go out of state,” Caryn said. “New Hampshire’s