Pinhole
Copyright© 2022 by Fanlon
Chapter 26
When Friday finally came, the reality of the situation had sunken in. There weren’t going to be any more photoshoots—at least not in the near future. Dana was frustrated and Laura was still furious. I was upset, but not because we couldn’t find a model. Honestly, it wasn’t that big of a deal for me. Sure, I wanted to keep taking pictures and as it turned out, I was really good at it. I would still get asked about the ones displayed in the hall from time to time, but no one was truly interested in having one taken of themselves.
The thing that sucked was how it limited me for the competition that was being held by the art department at the university. I had taken enough pictures already between Mr. Watts’ assignments and the couple I got from Jo and Katie to submit the required three submissions. Every time I said as much, Dana, Laura, and even Mr. Watts argued that I shouldn’t use the ones from school. It’s not that I didn’t agree with them, I did, but I didn’t have any other options.
The thing about it is that the ones of Jo and Katie had a certain look to them, a look that I couldn’t achieve at school. Namely the nudity. Even though the girls were nude, the good parts were obscured. So, yes, they were naked, but you couldn’t actually see anything more than a hint of what was there.
Katie, it turns out, was a big supporter of mine in the hallways. She adamantly argued with anyone she heard talking about what I had supposedly done. She went as far as to ask her mom’s permission to display her pictures for the whole school to see!
“I’m so sorry, Josh,” Katie offered her sympathies and looked like was just as upset as the rest of us. “I can’t believe people are stupid enough to believe you are shooting porn. I even got into a fight yesterday after school. My parents weren’t happy at all when they found out.”
“You did what?” Laura asked, stunned.
“I just wanted to help,” Katie replied
“Umm, thanks?” I replied, not sure what else to say.
“You didn’t have to do that though,” Dana replied and gave Katie a hug. “But thank you anyway.”
“I know, it’s just not fair! My dad was really looking forward to seeing your work. He and Mom thought you had a good chance to win before all this happened,” Katie growled. “Whoever started that terrible rumor is going to get it. They just better hope it isn’t Stephanie and her clique that finds them.”
“Josh will figure something out for your dad’s contest. You’ll see,” Dana said, stepping back away from Katie who just smiled weakly in response to Dana’s words.
“I hope so. I better get going, bye!” Katie waved as she walked away and around the corner, out of sight.
“I better get going to class too, see you two at lunch?” I asked.
“Of course,” Laura smiled and moved in, wrapping her arms around me.
“Maybe, I’m still trying to find someone for tonight,” Dana replied, but from the tone of her voice she wasn’t at all confident in her prospects. “I’ll let you know what I find out later.”
I did the best I could to put my Friday night photoshoots out of my mind. I managed it pretty well, even during lunch, when Dana pouted over not being able to find someone willing to pose for me. What really started to grate on me were the looks I got as I walked the halls. No matter where I went, there were people looking at me, pointing at me. Whispers followed me like a shadow, and I hated it. By the end of the day the whispers had grown loud enough that they seemed to echo in the already noisy hallways. I needed to get out of there and that couldn’t happen fast enough.
Thankfully, I had the whole weekend to try to forget about what I had lost, what some idiot with a big mouth stole from me. I was looking forward to the Husker game on Saturday. It was against Iowa State, the worst team in the conference, but it was still college football. It was better than listening to more whispers and even some pointed allegations.
“Do you want to come to the game with us tomorrow?” I asked Laura while we waited for the bus. “It’s not going to be a great game, but it’s still fun.”
“That would be amazing, but I can’t,” Laura replied.
“Why not?”
“Because,” Laura answered. She looked like she was trying to measure her response carefully. “I am supposed to go see ... someone. With my mom.”
“Oh...”
“I umm,” Laura looked down at her hands that were clasped in her lap. “I’ll tell you about it, I promise. I just can’t ... yet.”
“Are you going to be busy all day?”
“Until dinner, I think.”
“Do you think you can come over after the game and you get done?”
“Sure, if Mom says it’s okay.”
Friday night, Laura and I talked on the phone all night long. Mom wasn’t happy about it, but she didn’t tell me I had to hang up either. On Saturday, we went down to the stadium to tailgate like we usually did. The game was a blow out. Any time you score seventy points or more, it’s not a good game. Not in Memorial Stadium anyway.
Next week was a bye week, and then it was the Black Friday game against Colorado. Now was not a great time for a bye week, but I wasn’t in charge of scheduling games. Laura didn’t end up making it over on Saturday, but we did talk on the phone again for a couple hours before I fell asleep. How we managed to spend that much time on the phone was confounding to my mom and dad.
The following week in school was horrible. The rumor mill was in full effect and everyone, and I mean everyone, seemed to be talking about it. Even Mr. Watts was absorbed into it. He took a full day explaining the difference between tasteful, artistic nudes and porn. There were more than a few giggles during class that day, not to mention Mrs. Peterson and surprisingly, Ms. Martinez. Which was strange, but I ignored it, or made it look like I was ignoring it. I wasn’t, not at all.
There were three different projects in photography class that week that actually helped. All three were landscape or still-life pictures. Not at all what I wanted to take pictures of, but Mr. Watts referenced Ansel Adams multiple times. That caught my attention, and I grudgingly tried my best, even though it was boring. Still, those assignments kept me busy and, more importantly, focused on photography, but it wasn’t at all fulfilling or what I wanted to be taking pictures of.
Taking pictures of the school, the hill by the football field, or even the line of trees on the southern edge of the property wasn’t exactly exciting. No matter how you went about it, it wasn’t majestic or awe inspiring. Those were the two big labels Mr. Watts liked to use describing other famous photographers’ works. Still-life, that was the worst. A vase of flowers and a couple pieces of wax fruit were not my idea of exciting. Still, it was an assignment, so it needed to be done, but there was little to no thought involved.
As focused as I tried to be during Mr. Watts’ class, the moment it was over it was impossible to not let my mind wander. That was because every day, between every class, people asked me about porn. It was horribly embarrassing. Guys, girls, everyone from freshman all the way up to seniors.
“Is it true?” “Did you really make a porn?” “Can we see it?” Over and over and over again.
Each time I told them that it was a lie and that it wasn’t true. I even dared them to find proof, but no one could, because it wasn’t true. They would either reply with an eye roll or even waggle their eyebrows at me with a stupid grin on their faces. It was pretty clear that no one believed me. Sure, the picture of the three cheerleaders was on the verge of (if not all the way) porn but from what I could tell, no one had seen it, thank heavens for that!
Even though I was trying to use my words and reason to combat the rumors, the sluts enlisted some of the varsity football and basketball players to help them out. There were more than a few scuffles in the halls. In short, there were some added dents to lockers that may or may not have been there before. Still, the idea of those three girls in a porno had almost everyone’s attention.
Thankfully, it was a short week of school because of Thanksgiving. Mom and Dad reached out to Laura and her mom and surprised me by inviting them to dinner with us on Thursday. Our two families enjoyed a traditional turkey dinner with all the fixings. All in all, it was an amazing evening. Laura and I were inseparable the whole time, much to the enjoyment of our moms who seemed to be acting more like sisters than mothers.
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