Chapter 25

When the pictures were developed and rinsed, they were hung up to dry. The girls stood there looking at them and whispering between themselves while I was getting fresh, new pieces of photopaper and loading them into my now empty pinhole cameras. That done, I moved over to join the girls who were still chattering so quietly I couldn’t hear them even in this small space.

“What do you think?” I asked, wedging my way between Laura and Dana.

“It’s amazing,” Laura replied.

She turned to look at me with a small, but proud smile on her face and then leaned her head against my shoulder. I did what felt natural, wrapping my arm around her and she immediately snaked her arms around me in return.

“Told you,” Dana gave me a gentle nudge with her elbow, and I turned to see her smirking at me.

Dana had indeed told me, no question about it. The pose she came up with was a mix of sultry, exotic, sexy, and intense.

Laura was in a similar position to where she started, but with a few changes. First off, her head was facing up to the ceiling, no longer turned to face me and the camera. Instead of her eyes being open, now they were closed. Her head was still resting on the armrest, but now her hair was loose, and flowing over the end. Her back was arched, so only her neck and ass were on the seat cushion.

Her left arm was raised, grasping the top of the backrest, and you could see the tension in the muscles of her hands and arms—a strain that I managed to catch by accident. Her right arm was bent, her hand reaching up to her chest, grasping her right breasts. Two things changed because of that position: one, it hid her nipples for view completely; two, it gave symmetry between her left hand and right hand.

Her right leg was raised only slightly, but enough that it hid the fact she was wearing panties. Her ankles rested on the other armrest, her toes pointed, and her legs flexed. If I hadn’t known better, it looked like she was in the throes of an intense orgasm, but that wasn’t the case. For anyone who saw this picture though, well ... they could make their own conclusions.

The lighting was strong, covering her whole form. There were shadows present, but they were slight and muted. The muscles in her arms, thighs, and calves, as well as the slight depressions where her fingers were pressing into the soft pale tissue of her chest, her neck, and under her chin were all accented with those minute shadows.

The picture was better than I hoped for a test run of the new props and backdrops. I felt a confidence I hadn’t had before now. With Dana’s help, and Laura’s for that matter, I knew April’s shoot could be amazing if we all worked together.

“It’s going to be a bit before these are dry, should we hang the other ones?” I asked and both girls readily agreed.

After we had hung the first three pictures on the wall, I came to a sudden realization, one that I never would have thought would be the case: I was used to Laura and Dana being naked or nearly so. It was so shocking I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was just standing there, the next picture in my hands as I stared at the space on the wall between the two girls.

“Josh, are you going to hang that thing or just stand there like an idiot the rest of the night?” Dana asked.

“Wha—” I blinked, snapping myself out of my revelation.

“The picture? You know, the one you’re holding? You’re going to hang it?” Dana gave me a strange look that I couldn’t discern.

“Yeah, sorry.” I cleared my throat and walked up to the wall, setting the picture frame on the small nail Laura had hammered into place.

“Maybe we should put our clothes back on,” Dana said, turning to look at Laura. “I think he has lost too much blood flow to his brain.”

I did my best to ignore the comment, focusing on making sure the picture was level with the other three that were already hung up.

“You think so?” Laura replied.

“Yeah, we don’t want to give him lasting brain damage,” Dana answered, and both girls started laughing but did indeed move to start putting their clothes back on.

I didn’t turn to watch them. I, instead, fiddled with all four pictures now hanging on the wall. I didn’t need to. They were all perfectly level but the last thing I needed to do was get Dana’s attention. If she knew I was getting comfortable and used to them being naked, she would turn up the heat, so to speak. That, as much as I was curious what would happen, I didn’t need to happen.

I backed up and looked at the wall. The four pictures we had hung were on the left side of the darkroom’s door. The question now was to do another row below those four, or to go to the other side of the door and keep that same row going on the right side.

“Should we make another row below these, or should we put the next ones on the other side of the door?” I asked over my shoulder, still not looking at the girls as they put themselves back together.

“How many more do we have to hang?” Dana asked, pulling her shirt down over her head.

I looked over my shoulder by habit and thankfully saw that they were both now dressed.

“One more, Wendy and Abby,” I answered. “Two if Laura wants me to hang up the one from tonight.”

Dana walked over to stand next to me and looked at the wall, appraisingly.

“I still can’t believe she brought her daughter with her to pose nude in front of a bunch of strangers,” Dana said.

“To be fair, we weren’t all strangers to her. Wendy has posed a bunch of times for the group.”

“Fine, no she wasn’t a stranger, I’ll grant you that. Abby though...” Dana’s voice drifted off.

“I was shocked,” I chuckled.

“Anyway, I think we should start a new row below those four. Laura?”

“Yeah, even if I did want you to hang up the new picture, it would look strange if there were only two on that side and four on this one.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” I replied, nodding.

We got the fifth frame hung and both Dana and I turned to look at Laura. Neither of us said anything and a strange, awkward silence filled the room. Laura just watched the two of us, her one eyebrow raised in question after a few silent seconds.

“What?” Laura finally asked, breaking the tension.

“Well?” Dana replied, raising one eyebrow, mirroring the look Laura was giving us.

“Well, what?”

“Damn it, Laura,” Dana groaned. “Are we hanging up your new picture or not?”

Laura glared at Dana and then shifted her eyes to me.

“You promise you’ll take it down if my mom ever comes over?”

“Sure,” I replied confidently.

What were the chances of her mom coming down here? Little to none, if I had to guess.

Dana insisted on checking to see if the new pictures were dry before leaving to take Laura home. Unfortunately, they weren’t. Not dry enough to put in a frame and hang up, which was exactly what Dana wanted to do. Laura, however, seemed almost relieved that it wasn’t ready yet.

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Pinhole - Higher Learning

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