Pinhole
Copyright© 2022 by Fanlon
Chapter 14
I was full of anxious energy Monday morning when I got to school. The weight of my backpack might as well have been as light as a feather with how good I was feeling. It wasn’t heavy in all reality, because it only had one textbook and my two cameras tucked away inside of it. Laura had spotted me getting out of Mom’s minivan and smiled, which I returned with a wave as she waited for me to join her.
“Did you watch the game on Saturday?” Laura asked with an excited look on her face that I really liked. “Two shutouts in a row!”
“I know!” I responded just as happy about the result as she was. “The defense was great, even if it was just Kansas.”
“Did you do anything fun this weekend, besides watching us spank Kansas?”
“Just the usual stuff, nothing too exciting,” I replied, not wanting to bring up what had happened Friday night.
“Yeah, I don’t believe you. I thought you and Dana were getting together Friday night.”
There was a venom in Laura’s voice when she mentioned Dana’s name. I don’t know what she had against Dana, but whatever it was, it was not going away anytime soon.
“We just hung out, that’s all,” I said, trying to convince her that nothing happened.
Things had definitely happened. Seeing Jo in all her naked glory was a lot, but Laura didn’t need to know that. I liked our little chats, and I didn’t want to mess that up by making her mad at me. When we walked inside. I wasn’t surprised to see Dana waiting for me. Laura rolled her eyes and grumbled something under her breath.
“I’ll see you in class,” Laura said and kept walking when I stopped to talk to Dana.
“What’s her problem?” Dana asked, giving Laura back a dirty look.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “I don’t think she likes you for some reason.”
“Whatever. I don’t care what she thinks. Are you headed to the darkroom now?”
“I kind of have to,” I said and flicked my eyes to my bag and Dana understood what I meant.
“Cool, let’s go and then we can develop Jo’s picture over lunch.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I grinned, and Dana laughed.
“So, how’d it go?” Mr. Watts asked when he saw Dana and I walk into his classroom.
“Good, I think,” I answered, and Dana had a big cheesy smile on her face. “We’ll know for sure when the picture gets developed.”
“The picture? You only took one?” Mr. Watts asked, looking confused.
“Yeah, I didn’t think I needed to take two of the same picture.”
“We’ll see,” he sighed and got out from behind his desk and joined Dana and me as we went into the darkroom.
As much as I wanted to develop the picture of Jo right then, I couldn’t. Mrs. Peterson would kill me if I was late to her class. Even though I had been on time almost every day, she still watched me like a hawk and gave me a look that said she was just waiting for me to screw up again. I unloaded my two cameras and stowed them in my workroom. It wasn’t actually mine, but I was the only one using it, so it felt like it was.
“Are you coming back over lunch to develop it?” Mr. Watts asked when I shut the door to the small room and joined them in the middle of the darkroom.
“Yeah, if that’s okay?” I answered.
“That should be fine,” Mr. Watts replied. “I will send Adam and Laura away again then.”
So that was why they weren’t in the classroom. That made sense, but I wondered if that was why Laura was so mad at Dana. I didn’t think that was it, but it could have been. Understanding girls and why they get mad was not something I was willing or able to figure out.
As the morning classes drug on and on, I was getting increasingly anxious to get Jo’s picture developed. I was confident that it was perfect, until Mr. Watts had asked me why I didn’t take two pictures in case one wasn’t perfect. That was not something I had even contemplated with my pictures. Now however, it was all I could think about. If Jo’s picture didn’t turn out like I wanted, there was no way I was going to be able to recreate it.
Once the thoughts started, they spiraled out of control all on their own. I started envisioning every possible situation that could have or might have gone wrong. Light leaks, over or under exposure, did Jo move, did I move ... there were too many things that could have happened that could have ruined the picture. And that was all before I even had the chance to develop it.
When the bell for lunch rang, I was so worried that I was sweating like crazy, leaving sweat rings on my shirt around my neck, and my arm pits. The back of my shirt was plastered to my back as well. I knew I looked awful, but when Dana found me in the hallway, she didn’t have any problem letting me know about it.
“What’s wrong? You look awful.”
“I’m fine,” I replied too quickly, and Dana raised an eyebrow in question. “I’ve been thinking I might have screwed up Jo’s picture.”
“What? How?”
“I don’t know, that’s the problem.”
“I’m sure its fine,” Dana saw my pained expression and continued. “Better than fine, I’m sure it’s as amazing as we thought it would be Friday night.”
“I don’t know, we’ll see.” I didn’t feel confident at all, and the thought of Jo’s picture being ruined had me feeling awful.
Dana, Mr. Watts, and I were all in the darkroom together when I slid the photopaper into the develop. My hands were trembling with worry and both Mr. Watts and Dana could see it clearly. The tongs I was holding looked like they were in a paint shaker machine.
“Why are you so nervous all of a sudden?” Mr. Watts asked.
“After you asked about a second picture, I started thinking about all of the things I could have gotten wrong.”
“Josh, it’s going to be fine.” He put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently. “Have you had any problems with any of your pictures yet?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean—”
“This one will be fine too, trust me.” The warm smile he gave me settled my nerves slightly.
“Thanks.”
“Oh look, wow!” Dana exclaimed as the picture of Jo started to emerge on the page.
“See, I told you.” Mr. Watts hand let go of my shoulder so he could get a better look at the picture. “Nothing to worry about.”
“Jo is going to be so excited about this!” Dana announced, her hands clasped in front of her chest.
“I have to be honest,” Mr. Watts announced as he backed away from the workstation. “This is not at all what I was expecting.”
Dana started giggling at his reaction. I turned and smiled at Mr. Watts.
“What did you think it was going to be?” Dana asked the question I wanted to but didn’t have the balls to ask.
“Honestly, I thought it was going to be a more ... explicit picture.”
“You mean it was going to be focused on her tits and pussy, right Mr. Watts?” Dana asked, a knowing grin on her face.
“Something like that.”
I moved the picture out of the develop and into the stop bath. Mr. Watts and Dana went back and forth for a while, but I just ignored them. I was focused on the task at hand. Making sure Jo’s picture was perfect. When I thought the picture had been in the bath long enough, I moved it over to the fix.
“Is it okay if I have Jo come in here?” I heard Dana asked Mr. Watts.
“That should be fine.” He thought about it for a second or two before answering.
Dana hurried out of the darkroom, leaving Mr. Watts and me alone. By the time she came back with Jo, I had finished the rinse and was just hanging up the picture on the wire.
“Is that it?” Jo said the moment she walked in and saw the picture hanging in front of me and Mr. Watts.
“Yeah, want to take a look?” I smiled at her and scooted over, indicating for her to come take a look at it.
Jo didn’t hesitate and moved in next to me and gasped. Her hands flew up and covered her mouth just as she took in the image of herself. The picture was the best one yet, in my opinion. Jo was lying on the lounger, in nothing but her silky robe. Her head was tilted slightly away, and the light highlighted the side of her face and the rest of her body. You could clearly see the swell of her breasts, and even a hint of her nipples.
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