When I Look At You

The glowing red numbers on the alarm clock were the only light in the room. The time changed to six o’clock and the loud buzzing filled the room. Joe groaned and covered his head with the pillow, wishing he had at least two more hours sleep. Finally he rolled over and slammed his hand on the button, shutting the alarm off.

He sat up, throwing the blanket off his body and shoving his feet into slippers. Eyes still partially closed he shuffled his way to the bathroom, switching the light on, squinting as he did so. He turned the hot water in the shower on and stripped his clothes. A shower was the only sure way for him to wake up in the morning.

He winced as the scalding hot water hit is body and turned the cold up a little, his muscles relaxing as it went to a lower temperature. As he lathered some shampoo into his hair something clicked in his head. Faith was coming back tomorrow… with Nick of course. He knew how wrong it was, to anticipate his sister-in-law coming home because he’d finally get to see her but… he missed her and he couldn’t help it. He knew she’d always wanted to go to Spain. That’s why he suggested it to Nick when he was trying to find a good place for the honeymoon. Nick had called Joe a genius.

“If I was such a fucking genius I would have figured out how to make Faith mine.” Joe muttered as he rinsed the suds from his body.

After his shower he put a pot of water on to make his usual morning tea. He stood with the towel around his waist, occasional drops of water dripping from his hair onto the carpet, in front of his closet, pondering what to wear to work. It’s not like he had to get all dressed up. Professional photographers were business but not so business that they were boring.

He’d always loved photography. Once the Jonas Brothers fever died down he started getting even more into it by taking photography classes and everything. Now he was a “former celebrity” working as a current celebrity photographer. He loved basically every minute of it.

Today he wasn’t actually photographing anyone; he was just developing pictures in the dark room from some of his latest events. Finally he decided on a pair of jeans and a screen tee. As he was about to put his shoes on the pot whistled signaling his water was ready. Making his way to the kitchenette his phone rang and he picked it up on his way.

“Hello?”

“Good morning Joseph.” His mother said from the other end.

“Hi Mom. Why are you calling so early?”

“Well I knew you’d be heading to work soon and I wanted to catch you before you left.”

“You could have just called my cell.” He said as he placed a tea bag in his mug, pouring the water in.

“I know but that would have distracted you from driving or your work depending on when I called.” She said and Joe sighed.

“Ok, so what’s up?”

“Well I’m not sure if you remember but your brother and Faith are returning from their honeymoon tomorrow.” She said sounding all… smiley.

“Yeah, I remember.”

“Well we thought it would be a good idea to throw them a party at their new house. Danielle and I are adding the finishing touches today after your father and Kevin bring in the rest of the living room furniture.”

“That sounds like a… great idea Mom.” Joe said, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. “What time?”

“Their plane gets in at four. Kevin was originally going to pick them up but we were wondering if you could instead since your apartment is closer to the airport than their house where Kevin will already be.” She said, surprising Joe, causing him to drop his mug on the floor thus breaking it allowing the hot water to splash onto his legs.

“Shit!” he cried, trying to fan his leg and not drop the phone at the same time.

“Joseph!”

“Sorry, Mom. My mug slipped out of my hand and broke and hot water splashed on me.” He said, grabbing some paper towels and throwing them down on the puddle in front of him. “I’ll be right back, I’m going to change my pants, check for slight burns.”

He stepped over the mess and started unbuttoning his jeans as he made his way to his room. He slid them down his legs and noticed small red marks on his legs but nothing so bad to need medical attention. He walked into the bathroom and put some cold water on a washcloth, running it up and down his legs. After pulling on a new pair of jeans he cleaned up the mess on the floor, throwing the broken pieces of porcelain in the garbage. Once he was sure all the chips were thrown out he grabbed the phone again.

“Okay Mom, sorry about that.”

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. So you want me to pick them up at the airport tomorrow?”

“Yes, if you don’t mind.”

“Yeah, it’s fine. I’ll see you tomorrow Mom.”

“Have a good day. I love you.”

“Love you too, Mom.” He said, hanging up and letting out a sigh. “Why me?” he shouted, slamming his fist on the counter.

****

Joe sat in the darkroom carefully developing his second batch of photographs of the day. As the photograph he was currently working on sat in the solution and the red light shone down Joe’s memory raced. He remembered this one time after Nick’s twenty first birthday party where Faith helped him develop photos from it. Just the two of them…

“I’ve never done this before.” She said with a smile as Joe showed her what to do. “It’s fun.”

“Yeah, at first. Then you get to doing it almost every day and it’s just so repetitive.”

“I’d never get sick of it.” She said, hanging one of Kevin and Danielle up to dry. “What you do is amazing. I mean… look at these photographs.”

“They’re alright.” He said, shrugging his shoulders.

“You’re too modest for your own good, Jonas.” She said, nudging his side with her elbow. “Really, they’re good.”

“Thanks.”

“I especially like this one of Frankie and I shoving the cake in Nick’s face.” She said, pointing at the picture developing in the solution.

“Oh yeah, that was good.” He said laughing.

“But… my absolute favorite… has got to be this one.” She said, taking a photograph off of the line. She gave it to Joe to look at and it was a picture of the two of them. Joe had his arm around Faith’s shoulders smiling at the camera while Faith gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s cute.” She said smiling at him. He just smiled and looked back down at what he was doing to make sure the picture was perfectly developed.

“You do realize that I didn’t take that one though, right?”

“I know.” She said putting it back on the line. This only caused him to smile more. He was not exactly sure why.

Joe snapped out of his memories and looked down at the picture he was currently developing. It was just about finished. A few seconds later he pulled it out and hung it on the line to dry. He shook his head in disbelief of everything going through his mind. Just then someone knocked on the door. He put what he was doing down and opened the door slightly so as not to let a lot of light into the room.

“Hey Joe.”

“Oh hey Charlotte. What’s up?” he said, smiling at the “new girl” as her blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders.

“Dave sent me. He wants to see the pictures from Ashley Tisdale’s wedding as soon as possible.”

“I’m almost done with them. Just developing the last few.”

“Oh do you need any help?” she asked.

“That would be great.” He said letting her in.

“Ok, what would you like me to do?”

“Could you start packaging the ones that are ready? When you’re done you can help with the last bit of developing.”

“Sure, no problem.” She said, giving him a smile.

“You know, you have a nice smile.” He said. “Very photogenic.”

“Thanks.” She said, blushing and looking down.

For a moment, Joe hadn’t realized what just happened. He had just flirted… kind of. And this girl wasn’t Faith. She wasn’t even close to Faith but… there was something about her that… intrigued him. He couldn’t help but glance over at her every once and awhile. The way she handled the photographs was so gentle and delicate as if they could break with the slightest touch. She was very careful not to get any fingerprints on them. It took him a moment to realize that he was smiling as he watched her work. Maybe… he thought Just maybe… I can forget about Faith…