Candid (True Images Series)

by Michelle Pennington

  I faced Parker, listening for the sound of the screen door slamming behind Lee to let me know when we were alone. He must have caught it though, because all I heard was the soft clack of the door against the frame.

  A few seconds later, I almost laughed when the porch light came on. Apparently Lee didn’t want to leave me alone in the near darkness with another guy who had feelings for me. Then, I heard the distant but warm tones of his voice as he talked to my mom in the kitchen.

  Parker didn’t seem to be in any hurry to say anything so I took the chance to study him closer than I ever had before. He wasn’t as tall or good looking as Lee, but he was attractive in a geeky sort of way. I cared about him because he had always been there for me and we’d spent a lot of time together. I don’t know why I didn’t feel anything romantic for him, but I didn’t. I knew I still wanted his friendship though.

  “I’m sorry, Parker. I didn’t mean for all of this to happen.”

  “Yeah, I know. I am sorry I called you a liar. I was just totally freaked out when I saw….”

  As his voice trailed off, I tried to think of a way to cheer him up. “We’re still friends though, right?”

  He sighed. “Of course we are.”

  “Good. And anyway, look who’s here.”

  He turned to look over his shoulder to where I was pointing. Marisol was pulling up in front of Lee’s truck. Her speakers blared until she turned off her car, then she and another girl named Alyssa emerged from the car. They were way cuter and more stylish than I would ever be and they walked with a feminine allure I could never achieve.

  I looked at the expression on Parker’s face and knew that he was going to survive the evening ahead. Trying not to laugh, I said, “Hey, if you’re really nice to Lee the rest of the night, I won’t tell Alyssa you wore superhero pajamas until last year.”

  “Whatever, I did not.”

  “No, but I could still tell her that,” I teased.

  Before the girls even got to the porch, another car pulled up and Will jumped out. He looked a little nervous for some reason, but his smile was friendly as I introduced him to Parker. He knew the girls a little from basketball, and I couldn’t help noticing the way his eyes slid so often towards Marisol. I led everyone inside and saw that Lee and my mom had been busy lining up the pizza boxes down the counter and opening them up. Plates and napkins stood ready, as well as a pitcher of lemonade. I didn’t realize until I saw it that I’d forgotten to get soda.

  Soon we were all digging into the pizza. My mom’s oatmeal chocolate chip cookies came out of the oven soon after and were an instant hit. Nobody wanted to wait to eat them for dessert. The food was gone quicker than I could have imagined with the three boys piling their plates high. I tried to calculate how many hours I’d worked to pay for the pizza we’d finished off in about thirty minutes, but finally decided not to worry about it. It was worth it to have Lee here.

  My mom disappeared into the garage that we’d converted into her studio, letting me know with her eyes that she would be keeping tabs on us. Marisol turned on a popular radio station and moved the coffee table so she and Alyssa could dance. Parker surprised me by joining them. I’d never seen him dance before, but I had to admit that he was pretty awesome at it.

  Marisol didn’t wait long before flirting with Will and trying to get him to dance. Finally, she was successful. They looked kind of funny together. I’d never seen a Hispanic girl dancing with a red head before, but their smiles were nearly identical.

  Dancing was not something I did in public if I could help it, so I got busy cleaning up the dinner mess. I put our plates in the dishwasher, and Lee offered to take care of the empty pizza boxes. I told him where the recycling bin was and began cleaning up my mom’s cookie mess. She was a great cook, but like her art, she was better at creating than cleaning.

  When Lee got back, he continued to help me clean up. The kitchen was small, so we kept bumping into each other, but that was half the fun. We finished long before the others got tired of dancing, especially since a ballad had come on and they’d all gotten tangled up with each other. I was about to sit at the counter and watch when Lee pulled on my arm and swung me around to face him. Soon, we were dancing too, if you can call it that. Mostly, it was just swaying around with our arms around each other.

  For a few minutes I was caught up in the pleasure of being held in Lee’s strong arms, wrapped in his warmth and woodsy scent. I looked up at him, and when he felt me move my head from his shoulder he met my eyes questioningly.

  “We shouldn’t have kissed earlier,” I whispered.

  “Only according to your mom. Besides, compared to what I meant to do, that could never be called a kiss. Now stop worrying about it. I’ll be good, I promise. For now anyway.”

  I rested my head back on his shoulder and drifted along in heaven until the song ended and a commercial came on, jarring the mood, I stepped out of Lee’s arms and turned the radio off. Then, wondering who had turned the lamps off, I went around and turned them back on.

  Everyone was thirsty from all the dancing, and the lemonade was gone. It wasn’t long before we’d depleted my mom’s supply of diet soda and vitamin water.

  “Sorry we don’t have anything else,” I said. “I wasn’t planning on having anyone over until today and I totally forgot about drinks.”

  “No problem,” Lee said, “How about if Will and I run and get some soda?”

  “You don’t mind?”

  “Nope. Coming Will?”

  It looked to me like Will was less than excited to leave Marisol behind, but he did. When they were gone, Alyssa looked at me for probably the first time that night and said, “So, you’re the one who takes all those awesome pictures, right?”

  “Well, I am a photographer. Are you talking about my photo blog?”

  “Yeah. It’s so awesome. So, how about taking our pictures?”

  I heard Parker groan and I nearly laughed. He knew what I was like once I started taking pictures, but I wasn’t really in the mood for it tonight so I asked,“Right now?”

  “Sure, why not?”

  “Well, it’s, like, 9:00. This isn’t the best time to be taking pictures.” But then my mind wandered to the possibilities. “Of course, if you aren’t busy Saturday morning, we could do a whole photo shoot.”

  “Yes!” Marisol and Allysa screamed together. They immediately began planning outfits and hair. I rolled my eyes and laughed, but I was excited by the idea too.

  When the boys got back with sodas, the conversation had been firmly monopolized by the upcoming photo shoot. I saw Lee look questioningly at Parker. He shrugged and said, “Man, if you’re going to be friends with Sienna, you’d better learn to like photography.”

  “I don’t mind. Besides, it’s not like she’s dragging me into this photo shoot stuff.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked. “Of course I’m dragging you into it. Who else is going to help me lug all of my stuff out into the middle of a field? In fact, why don’t the three of you come and we’ll have a picnic or something.”

  “How early are you talking about?” Lee asked.

  “Well, we were thinking about 7:00 because we want to catch the early morning sun.”

  “No way am I getting up before 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday,” he answered. “Sorry.”

  I’d never tried to be alluring before, but I was willing to give it a try now. I moved close to him until I was only inches away and looked up with what I hoped were “come hither” eyes. “I think I know a way to make it worth your while.”

  “Oh man. Why do girls have to do that?”

  Chapter 9

  Friday afternoon, I was watching the clock at work again. Tonight was an away game, but it was against Webster, a nearby school, so my mom was letting me go. I was really glad, because it gave me a chance to do my two favorite things, photography and being with Lee. In fact, I was too excited to focus much on work. Hopefully, I wouldn’t be so distracted at the game. I did not
want to get run over again.

  A girl from school named Olivia Nunes came in to pick up some prints she’d ordered and I had to shake off my fuzzy crush dreams for the moment. I got the envelope with her name and rang her up, vaguely wondering why she was so anxious to open the pictures and see them. In the days of film photography, opening your prints was always a surprise. With digital, you already knew what they looked like.

  After studying her pictures for a minute, she looked up shyly and asked, “Sienna, you know a lot about photography. Can I ask your opinion? I’m trying to self-release some songs I’ve recorded, and I need a picture for the album cover. One of my mom’s friends took these. What do you think of them?”

  I took them from her and saw why she was hesitant about them. The pictures weren’t bad exactly, they just hadn’t captured a good expression, and they looked really posed and cliché. In one she was on an old train car, in one she was walking down a railroad track and in another she was sitting on an old chair in the middle of a field. These were cool poses once, but everyone was doing them now. Plus there were issues with the exposure.

  I met her doubtful, troubled eyes. “Well, if you want the truth, I think you need to get a different photographer. If this is a big deal to you, you want to do it right, huh?”

  Her shoulders slumped. “Yeah, but I can’t afford to hire one. The studio fees took every cent I had. One of my mom’s friends took these for free if I recommended her to other people.”

  “Well, can she give you a cd with the digital files on it? Maybe I can clean some of them up for you. I’m pretty good with Photoshop.”

  “No, she says she’ll only give me the file for the photo I choose. That’s why she sent some in here - so I can look at the prints. I think she’s hoping my mom will buy some of the others from her later.”

  Feeling sorry for her, I began to see her as though looking through my camera lens. She had an original, fairy sort of look with a far-away in the clouds personality that showed in her expression. This girl was an artist and would take amazing pictures even though she wasn’t classically beautiful – with the right photographer that is.

  “Tell you what, I’ve got a photo shoot planned with some friends of mine tomorrow morning. Why don’t you come along and I’ll see if I can take something you like better.”

  “You’d do that for me – for free?”

  “Sure. I just wondered if you’d mind if I put one of your pictures on my blog. Have you seen it?”

  “Who hasn’t? Everybody knows about it.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t say everybody. But look, if I put up your picture and say it’s for your album, maybe you’d get a boost in your sales. I have over a thousand followers now.”

  There were stars in her eyes. “That would be awesome! I can’t believe it. Just tell me when and where to meet you.”

  “Here’s my address. Meet us there at 6:40 in the morning. Wear something cool but not busy. You know, like a solid color, not a print. Oh, and is that your guitar in these pictures?”

  “Yes.”

  “Bring it with you.”

  She thanked me and started to leave, but turned back to ask, “What do I do about these?”

  She was holding up the photos from that other photographer. I answered simply, “Sorry. I don’t know what to tell you if it’s your mom’s friend. They seriously need to learn what they’re doing before they charge people money. Though I guess some people might be perfectly happy with that. But you need something better, so even if it’s awkward, do what’s right for you.”

  She looked resolute as she agreed, but her shoulders slumped as she left the store. I didn’t envy her situation, but I knew I could get a better shot for her to use.

  My mind drifted to backgrounds, angles, and photo composition as I tried to think of a creative way to capture Olivia at the shoot tomorrow. Maybe I didn’t need to worry about being original so much as being right.

  I usually had a good instinct for what worked, so I gave up trying to plan ahead and got busy with all the things I had to do before the store closed down. It didn’t take me long to wipe all the finger smudges off the display cases and empty the trash, however, so I still had some time to blow. Mr. Foster was helping our only customer, so I went into the store room, determined to clean it up a little.

  I threw away some trash and stirred up some dust, but hadn’t done much more before I heard Mr. Foster step in and turn the light off.

  “Hey, I’m still in here!” I called. I didn’t want to stumble around in the dark.

  “Sienna? What are you still doing here? I thought you’d left a long time ago.”

  “Why would I leave without telling you?”

  “Well, you should have been off twenty minutes ago.”

  “Oh no! I’ll see you on Monday, Mr. Foster. I’ve gotta go or I’ll be late for kick off.”

  As I climbed into my car, I pleaded to it, “Ok, girl, forgive me for everything I’ve ever said about you. I need you to get me to the game. And I’m sorry, but I’m taking you out on the highway, so get ready for some real exercise.”

  When I got to Webster School’s stadium, the parking lot was crammed full. I had to drive around until I found another lot to park in. My car had a worrying rattle as I finally pulled into an empty spot, and it seemed to sigh as I turned it off. Now, if only it would get me back home again.

  From my parking spot, it took me a good five minutes to walk to the stadium. As I hurried, lugging all my equipment, I regretted not grabbing a sweatshirt since there was a cool wind picking up. I still wasn’t ready to admit that it was fall, even though the trees were bright with color. I hated the cold.

  I wasn’t as familiar with this stadium, so I walked down the fence, looking for the gate, and for Lee. Since this school was so close to ours, we had a lot of fans show up for the game, crowding the visitor’s side of the stadium, making it hard to move around. It took me a few minutes, but I found the gate and Lee at the same time.

  He was talking with some of his basketball friends. As I walked towards them, he saw me coming and smiled. My stomach flip-flopped as always. Since that little brush of a kiss on Tuesday night, there seemed to be an invisible string between us that constantly tugged on my awareness.

  I wondered if he felt the pull of it as much as I did. Maybe he couldn’t be my boyfriend in the usual way, but there was no denying that we were growing steadily more wrapped up in each other.

  “Hey there,” he said as I joined him and his friends. “Did you get off work late?”

  “Yes. I didn’t even have time to go home first so I’m starving. And cold. Where did this crazy wind come from? The North Pole?”

  “You don’t have a jacket?”

  I could see from his expression that he was concerned, but I was more worried about getting to the game. “There’s one in my car, but I don’t have time to go get it.”

  “Oh, man - and I don’t have one either. Do you want me to go get it for you?”

  “No, I had to park all the way out in Africa, so there’s no time. Don’t worry. I’ll make it.”

  Will was standing next to us, listening. “Here, take my sweatshirt. I’m not that cold.”

  “You might be later,” I protested.

  “Well, maybe you can get yours at half-time. Here.”

  Since he was putting it around my shoulders, it was hard to say no again, and then it was so warm with his body heat that I put my arms in and zipped it up. “Wow, that’s great. Thanks. Hey, it smells good too. I like your cologne.”

  Wills smile was a little crooked as he mumbled, “Thanks.” He shot a nervous glance at Lee, who was looking less than happy with the situation.

  “Ok then, now that you aren’t going to freeze to death, shall we get out on the field?” Lee asked in a clipped tone.

  Surely he wasn’t bothered by me wearing Will’s sweatshirt? They were friends and Will was totally crushing on Marisol. “You don’t mind, do you? That I’m wearing Will’s sweatsh
irt?”

  “No comment,” he said. He’d tried to sound like he was joking, but I could hear frustration in his voice as well and I could see the muscles working in his jaw as he clenched his teeth.

  Since he was holding the gate open for me, I let it pass. I waited for him to follow me and slipped my hand around his arm. I felt his muscles jump beneath the fabric of his long sleeved t-shirt when I touched him.

  Trying to tease away the pucker between his eyebrows, I said, “Are you excited about tomorrow morning?”

  “I can’t believe you talked me into it. I’m going to hate you when my alarm goes off in the morning.”

  “No you won’t. Besides, you’ll have fun,” I promised as I began to set up my equipment. Two minutes had already ticked off the time clock, so I needed to get going.

  “What could possibly be fun about hiking out into the middle of nowhere at the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning?”

  “Isn’t being with me fun?”

  Almost as if it was against his will, a smile broke over his mouth. “That’s the only reason I’m doing it. I just don’t understand why we can’t do it later in the day.”

  “The best lighting for photography is in the morning and early evening. I have to work Saturday evening though. Now, pay attention. I don’t feel like getting killed tonight.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”

  I was busy watching the game then and didn’t notice that we’d moved steadily closer to the cheerleaders as we followed the play down field.

  “Hey Britt,” Jordan said, her voice nearly as loud as when she was leading a cheer, “I noticed nerd-girl hasn’t put up any new pictures on her blog. I wonder why that is?”

  “I heard she got shut down. Isn’t that too bad?”

  “Yeah, that really sucks.”

  “No what sucks is that awful car she drives. Have you seen it? You couldn’t pay me to get in that thing. I’d need a tetanus shot.”

  My shoulders were tense with the effort of ignoring them – or at least pretending like I was. They were trying to start something and I refused to let it happen in front of all these people. Even if they were laughing like they were the funniest people in the whole world. Even if my hand itched to smack their mocking faces.