Chapter 28

I was excited. The chance to take a picture of Laura for her father had me elated. I was glad Mrs. Satori was going to be there. I knew she didn’t trust me, not after that whole display at the Sheldon exhibit.

But after a lot of time to think about it, I understood where she came from. There was more to the story than just me taking Laura’s portrait that night on the dock—a lot more.

I’d realized that ... Well, it was eerily similar to the reason why her husband was now locked away in a prison cell. It was too much like what her brother-in-law had done when Laura was just a girl. When thinking about it in those terms, Mrs. Satori ... well ... it made sense.

First thing’s first, I had to finish April’s photoshoot. Once that was done, then I could start diving in on ideas for Laura.

Friday night, I slept fitfully, to say the least. I had talked with Laura on the phone for two, almost three hours before she yawned for the final time and fell asleep. We had discussed everything from school, to finals, to the different ideas I had for her portrait for her father, and even laughed at some of the ridiculous dedications and how many times More Than Words by Extreme was requested on the radio.

“What song would you pick?” Laura asked softly.

“What do you mean?”

“For me, you dork! If you dedicated a song to me, what would it be?”

“I don’t know, let me think about it for a second,” I answered. “What about you?”

“Oh, I know exactly what song I would pick!” Laura’s voice perked up, but still remained soft so her mother wouldn’t hear her still on the phone. “Always and Forever, by Luther Vandross.”

“Really?” I tried to hide the humor from my voice. “Why that one?”

“It’s—” I heard Laura clear her throat before finishing. “It’s one of my dad’s favorites. Your turn!”

“Danger Zone. No doubt about it,” I answered, frankly.

“What, you can’t be serious!”

“Why not?” I asked. “It’s either that or Black Magic Woman.”

“Josh, no!” Laura barked loudly. “Shit!”

Then there was an awkward silence through the line. Laura was obviously listening to make sure her mother hadn’t heard her.

When I knew Laura had fallen asleep, I didn’t hang up right away. Instead, I remained on the line, listening to her breathing, slow and steady. When my eyes got heavy, I whispered goodnight into the phone, and I finally hung up. I slipped into bed, pulling the covers up and tried to fall asleep.

The plan was for Dana to pick up Laura and show up at my house in the morning. Laura thought it would be around nine, but we both knew that it would probably be closer to ten with Dana being involved. During the week, Dana was usually up early. When it came to the weekends, she wanted to sleep in like any other teenager, myself included, except for Husker Saturdays, obviously.

I didn’t even bother to look at my alarm clock when I groaned and got out of bed. It was completely dark outside, early. The only light was from the streetlight a few doors down by the intersection. I took a quick shower and rushed to get dressed. Why I felt the need to move so quickly this early in the morning was beyond me. Still, that’s exactly what I did.

I flopped on my bed fully dressed and ready for the day, still poignantly avoiding looking at the clock. The last thing I needed to do was verify how early it really was. I debated playing a video game but brushed that aside almost as fast as it came to me. I looked at the poster of Kelly, Tiffany Amber Theisen, on the wall and debated on taking Dana’s advice to ‘empty the chamber,’ but it was too early for that. Even if I did, it wouldn’t help later.

I was poking through the cupboards, trying to be quiet but I must not have been quite as silent as I thought.

“You’re up early,” Mom said as she entered the kitchen. “Breakfast?”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“It’s fine.” Mom smiled tiredly. “Can you start a pot of coffee to make it up to me?”

I grinned and nodded. I put two scoops of ground coffee into the coffee maker and then pulled out some Honey Nut Cheerios and a gallon of milk from the refrigerator.

“So, today’s the big day.”

“Umm?”

“Isn’t that girl April coming over today to pose for you?”

“Yeah, hopefully it goes okay.”

“I’m sure it will be just fine. What time is she supposed to get here?”

“This afternoon,” I replied. “Dana and Laura should be here this morning though.”

“Oh, that’s good.” I raised an eyebrow in question. “Not that we, or I don’t trust you, but—”

“It’s fine Mom, I get it.”

“Good.” I handed Mom a fresh mug of steaming black coffee. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I guess I will make your dad go shopping with me today or something,” Mom announced. “That way he doesn’t get any bright ideas of going down to check on you.”

“That ... would be great,” I managed to reply as I blushed. “Thanks.”

“Do you know what you want to do for April?”

“I have some ideas, but it’s not just up to me. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

“Okay. Well, have fun, but not too much.”

“Mom!”

“What?” She replied smiling. “I’m your mother, what do you expect?”

She took her coffee mug and left the kitchen before I could offer any further reply to her comment.

Laura walked in the front door as she was giving Dana an earful for being late. Dana, following right on Laura’s heels and carrying a black, hanging garment bag over her shoulder, seemed to be completely unfazed by Laura’s verbal assault.

“Josh, sorry we’re so late!” Laura exclaimed dramatically.

Dana just rolled her eyes.

“It’s fine, no big deal,” I answered. “April won’t be here for a while yet anyways.”

“See, told you,” Dana shot back. Laura returned a glare that was anything but friendly.

“Is that?” I asked, looking at the bag slung over Dana’s shoulder.

“Yup!” Dana smiled proudly. “Want to see?”

“Hell yes!” I answered.

Dana laid the garment bag on the loveseat and looked over her shoulder at me and Laura who were waiting not so patiently to see what was inside. I knew what it was, we had talked about it a few dozen times, but I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.

Dana pulled down the zipper so slowly I was about to push her aside and yank the damned thing open in one fell swoop. The look on my face must have told her what I was thinking. She laughed and then lowered the zipper the rest of the way. Then, she pulled the front of the bag open to display what was hidden inside, and my eyes went wider than they ever had before.

There, tucked safely away was a massive pair of brilliant white angel wings.

“Holy shit!” I gasped, my hands immediately clamping over my mouth.

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Dana said, backing away from the loveseat so Laura and I could get a better look.

“Did you make those?” Laura asked, with a look of pure awe on her face.

“Oh, fuck no!” Dana chuckled. “A friend of my mom’s made them.”

“Those are...” I swallowed nervously. “I mean, I can’t believe it.”

“I know right?” Dana replied. “I can’t wait to see April’s reaction when she sees them.”

When I heard the heavy footfalls of my mom and dad heading down the stairs, all three of us turned to watch the hallway, listening to see if they were going to come down to the basement.

“We’re heading out,” I heard Dad say as the front door opened.

“There is sandwich stuff up in the kitchen if you all are hungry,” Mom called out. “Make sure you clean up if you make something.”

“We will, thanks!” I replied and heard the door close as they left.

“Alright, who’s on sandwich duty?” Dana said, rubbing her hands together. “I’m hungry.”

The two girls and I were screwing around with the different lights I had to use for the shoot. We were trying to set them up in various positions, seeing how each change affected the empty loveseat. We were just about to try a new idea, lighting everything from the left side with a backlight behind the loveseat when the doorbell rang and the three of us froze.

“That’s gotta be her,” Laura said. When I didn’t move right away to go and answer it, she urged, “Aren’t you going to go answer that?”

I gulped. My heart was suddenly and fiercely racing. The pounding in my chest was so strong, so intense I was sure Laura and Dana could hear it. I took a deep breath and let it out in a rush in an attempt to calm my nerves. It didn’t work. The doorbell rang again followed by a soft, gentle knocking sound.

“Oh for God’s sake, seriously?” Dana groaned and hurried to the door, and I followed a few steps behind.

I stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Dana just rolled her eyes over her shoulder at me and opened the front door to find a girl—a woman—with blonde hair, looking around nervously with a bag she held with both hands, hanging in front of her.

“Hey, you must be April, right?” Dana said cheerily.

“Um, yeah,” April answered. She looked more nervous than I felt if that was even possible. “Is Josh here? Josh Davis?”

“Yup, he’s right down there.” Dana pointed to where I was standing. “Come on in.”

I raised a hand in greeting tentatively, shyly when April’s eyes met mine. She smiled beautifully and stepped inside.

Dana watched the interaction between me and April closely. As she followed behind April, Dana gave me a questioning look, and I couldn’t help the blush that dominated my cheeks.

I walked towards Laura, who was standing at the end of the hall that doubled as the entry into the studio. When she saw the excited, albeit nervous look on my face she grinned and held out her hand, which I gratefully took. April, with Dana right behind her, walked into the studio only a second or two later.

She took only one step into the room and took everything in.

“Wow,” she spoke softly. “I wasn’t sure...”

I looked around the room, appraisingly.

The studio looked, well, like a studio ... kind of. It didn’t look like the one at the university at all, but it didn’t look like it was thrown together haphazardly either. The back drops were hanging on the wall, the window in the front was covered up by a thick black blanket that did a surprisingly good job of blocking out any exterior light. The way the lights were arrayed highlighted the raggedy old loveseat sitting in front of the black fabric backdrop.

It wasn’t a professional studio, but in my own estimation, it was pretty close.

When April saw the wall of the darkroom and all the pictures that were displayed, she immediately moved over to get a closer look. Dana, Laura, and I all followed but remained a step or two behind.

“I have seen a few of these,” April murmured as she canned the framed portraits. “That’s you, isn’t it?”

April turned to look at Dana, who was leaning against the wall smiling. She nodded affirmatively, and April giggled sweetly before looking back at the pictures.

“That one was my favorite at the gallery exhibit.” April was looking right at the picture of Laura on the dock. “A lot of people were talking about that one. That’s you, right?”

Laura beamed proudly and wrapped her arms around me lovingly.

“Yeah, it is,” Laura answered. “I was a nervous wreck leading up to it though.”

“Seriously?” April looked stunned at Laura’s admission.

“Oh yeah, I locked myself in the car and didn’t want to get out. Josh here...” Laura leaned back, her arms still wrapped around me and looked me in the eye. “He came over and talked to me and ... well, I felt safe after that and the rest is history, or well not so much history but you know what I mean.”

April giggled again. “Yeah, I think I do. I was so nervous the first time I posed for Je—”

April suddenly had a shocked look on her face, more scared in that moment than shocked. The look caught me off guard and I thought something had just gone terribly wrong.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, uhh, no,” April stammered. “I know when we talked on the phone. I told you I would come over, but ... I brought someone with me.”

That was definitely not what I expected, and my face scrunched up in internal debate on who it could possibly be and, where were they?

“I don’t have to have them here!” April rushed to say. “You know, inside, but he...”

“Breathe, before you have a heart attack or something,” Dana said, moving to stand next to April and putting a hand on her shoulder. “Who came with you?”

Thank you, Dana!

“My friend, Jeff.”

“Where’s Jeff?” Dana asked.

“He’s uh, in the car?” April answered which sounded more like a question than a statement of fact.

Dana turned her gaze at me. I didn’t know what to say so I just shrugged. I didn’t care if Jeff was here. It’s not like he didn’t know what was going on. He was the one who instigated all of this in the first place.

“I’ll go get him,” Dana announced. “If that’s cool with you?”

I nodded my assent, and she hurried out the front door.

“It’s really okay I brought him, right?” April asked.

She was still unsure; it was painfully obvious from the way she fidgeted.

“Yeah, it’s fine. No big deal,” I answered, my voice warm and even.

It didn’t take long for Dana to return with Jeff in tow. Jeff didn’t show an ounce of nerves. That didn’t surprise me at all. The guy had a confidence about him ever since the first day I met him at the university.

“Dude, this is awesome!” Jeff announced, walking into the studio like he owned the place.

“Pretty cool, isn’t it?” Laura said, and Jeff nodded. “Hi, I’m Laura, Josh’s girlfriend.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Jeff replied. “I’m Jeff.”

“Oh, I know who you are.” Laura smirked.

“Someone’s been talking about me, have they?” Jeff asked, looking at me with a smirk.

“I umm...” I tried to reply but I was suddenly tongue tied.

“Don’t worry about it, dude.” Jeff chuckled. “I wasn’t exactly nice to you when we met.”

I nodded slowly.

Not exactly nice was not how I would have described it. He was an asshole that day.

“So, what should we do first?” Dana asked in her no-nonsense, let’s get going, voice. “Do you have something you wanted to do, or...?”

“You should probably go and get changed,” Jeff told April who looked around as if lost all of a sudden.

“Come with us, we’ll help you get ready,” Laura offered and reached out a hand to April who graciously accepted the offer.

“Thank you!” April sounded relieved.

Dana and Laura whisked April away leaving me and Jeff all alone. That was awkward, to say the least. Jeff and I weren’t exactly friends, more like friendly acquaintances who crossed paths every now and again.

“I didn’t think your setup would be this ... cool...” Jeff remarked.

“Yeah, I think it turned out pretty good.”

“You actually got a spinning door for your darkroom?”

“Yeah, I got some help with that.”

“I bet.” Jeff chuckled. “Most people just use a regular door.”

“Want to see inside?” I offered. “We can check it out before the girls come back.”

“Yeah, let’s see what you got...”

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Pinhole - Higher Learning

Fanlon

90,515 Words.

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$6.99