The Thoughts of One Moment

Gerard's POV

Mikey stood to the right of me along with Frankie and Bob. Ray stood on the left by himself as we posed for the camera. Central Park was strangely deserted, so I guess they’d planned on doing the photo shoot here.

The two photographers were talking over what the problem was. The one actually taking the picture, Desiree or something of that nature was obviously new behind the camera. “Why don’t you try again. Don’t get nervous this time.” The older of the two women said.

Desiree nodded and walked back over to the camera. “Are we good?” I asked her. She nodded and angled the camera. I glanced at the other members of My Chem. and once again for the tenth time, placed my hands on my hips and smirked.

The camera flashed off and the older woman shook her head sighing. “Did we finally get a good shot?” Mikey asked. He couldn’t believe that it’d taken almost 2 hours just to take a couple pictures. Nikki shook her head. “I’m sorry guys, I really thought we’d have this done sooner.” She eyed Desiree.

“Don’t worry about it.” I covered for what the boys really wanted to say. She walked away and pulled out her phone, calling her boss or whatever.

“Tell us more about your date.” Frankie asked me. “No, I already told you everything.” I said. “Was there a connection?” I rolled my eyes. “I thought there was one. I mean she was pretty open.” I said.

Frankie looked over my shoulder and smiled widely. I looked at him in question. “I think your girlfriends walking by.” He claimed. I looked behind me and saw her. Rikki was walking by, carrying a case filled with her stuff, listening to music on an ipod.

I bit my lip and turned on Frankie when he started singing that childish little rhyme. You know the one with the two people sitting in a tree. “K-I-S-S-I-N-G...” He trailed back to the boys. “You are so stupid.” I called turning to face them. “Hey Rikki!” He started to call. “Don’t.” I said rushing to cover his mouth with my hand.

She looked right at us and smiled, pushing the hair out of her face. “Oh, she’s blonde.” Frankie said. “What’s wrong with that?” I furrowed. “Nothing, I think its cute.” He claimed. I glanced back and watched her type away on her phone. “Gerard says hi!” Frankie shouted across.

She stopped and smiled again, only more nervously. “I don’t think she even heard you.” I said. He snickered. “She heard me alright.” He pointed to her crossing the street and walking over into the park.

“Okay, Oprah, enough barging into his personal life.” Bob dragged him away. I mouthed him a thank you and turned to face Rikki. I cleared my throat. “Hey.”
“Hi.” She said looking from her feet to me. “How have you been?” I asked. Oh my God, I am such an idiot. “Good, I-I guess. You?” She managed. “Fine.”

She looked around with just her eyes. “So, what’s going on?” I rustled my hair as I glanced behind me, the two photographers arguing and Frank harassing Bob, and Mikey and Ray talking by themselves. “Just your regular photo shot.” I said lightly. She smiled and bit her lower lip. “And how’s that working out for ya?” She asked. “Um, well, we’ve been here for almost 2 hours and haven’t had a single decent photo taken.”
“That’s not good.”

“Nope.” She chuckled softly and bit her lip. “You mind if I take a picture of you?” She asked sweetly. I shrugged and she pulled out a camera. I stood behind her when she backed up closer to me and held the camera at an angle above us. She shook her head and blinked a couple times. “Man, I always hated the flash. You wanna see?” She offered.

The picture was actually really good for not being planned. “You’re Rikki, right. You work for Richard Reynolds?” The one asked. “Uh, yeah, sadly enough.” “I’m Nikki Ouellette, can I see that picture you just took.”

“Okay.” She handed Nikki the camera. “This is really good. And you weren't nervous at all.” She shook her head. “Do you wanna take a picture of them as a band?” She offered. “Sure, but my camera’s full and all packed-no problem, I have one for you.” She said, dragging Rikki along with her to her set up area.

Rikki came back suddenly looking all serious. This girl isn’t Bi-polar, is she. Nikki walked up behind her and ordered the band to line up and resume the pose. Rikki studied us. “Hold on.” She claimed. I glanced at Ray. He shrugged.

She walked over to us and stared for a minute. “Mikey you need to...back up a bit.” She pushed on him slightly. “Frankie, your fine. Bob, good. Ray needs to turn a bit towards the right. And Gerard...” She studied a bit more.

“Put your hands on your hips and look up, and lean in but with your torso only.” She described. “I tried doing what she showed. She laughed. “What am I doing wrong?” I asked trying not to smirk. She walked closer and lifted my head about an inch higher. My heart skipped a beat. “You’ve got a good face but you have to bring more attention to your better side.” She claimed.

She finished and walked behind the camera. Desiree was behind her, still fuming over how Nikki went with Rikki instead. Flash. The camera went off a few more times before Rikki announced she was done.

Nikki checked the quality of the film and smiled. “These are great. Thank you so much. We’ll send ‘em to the magazine, stating Rikki as the photographer and we’ll print off a couple copies for you guys. You did a great job Rikki.” She finished. Rikki thanked her and caught my eye. She smiled and walked back with Nikki biting her nail like a nervous teenage girl.