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Claudia had always known that the body itself could be a canvas. What had her collection of neon scrunchies, ruffled leg warmers, and oversized T-shirts been if not her most expertly refined medium? For all the hours she'd spent poring over earrings and carefully curating outfits while in secondary school, in the time since she'd come to realize that there was just as much beauty in permanence as there was change.
"This must have really hurt," Ashley said, slowly tracing her fingers along Claudia's arm. She started at the very top of her shoulder, following the flying crane and bursting wildflowers downwards. Even now, the sight of them still brought a lump to Claudia's throat. Wherever her grandmother was now, at least she knew that a part of Mimi was forever with her.
"Not really," Claudia replied.
"Really?" Ashley looked back up to her.
"Really."
Ashley shook her head. "You're just brave, Claud. You couldn't pay me to get anywhere near all those needles!"
Brave, Claudia thought. It wasn't the first adjective she'd have thought to use to describe herself. But that was just the way things were, wasn't it? No matter what she wore or put on her skin, someone could look at her and see something entirely different than she did when she looked in the mirror.
Ashley continued her journey downwards, her fingers following the steaming mug of coffee and the row of books twisting around her arm like a spiral staircase. That one had taken a handful of trips of complete. The spines themselves were wordless, but if her mother ever asked for more specifics, she could just smile and say they were anything but Nancy Drew. Then, Ashley wordlessly made her way to the numbers printed into her skin, a bloated equation that even now Claudia couldn't decipher. All she knew was that Janine had written it so many times that she easily could have easily etched it into Claudia's arm herself.
Ashley stilled, her index finger stopping just a few inches below Claudia's elbow, landing on blank skin. "Wow," she finally said after a few moments.
"I designed everything myself. If you want, I can go look for the practice sketches."
Ashley shook her head. "Maybe another time," she replied, her gaze turning back downwards.
Claudia pushed back a frown. That was the problem with college - it had sent everyone adrift in varying directions like dandelion seeds scattered on the wind. By this time tomorrow, Ashley would be back in Chicago.
"You know," Claudia said, reaching forward and taking Ashley's free hand in her own, "I'm thinking of adding something new to it."
Ashley's eyes widened. "Oh, really? What?"
Claudia shrugged. "Who knows?"
There was just no easy way to answer her. Ashley was all abstractions and ideas, concepts that needed to be put together by the brain as much as the hands. Whatever Claudia got would not only have to fit that mold, to represent something that she couldn't even put into words, but be something Ashley wouldn't be able to pull her fingers from.
She smiled, squeezing Ashley's hand. "Got any suggestions?"