A Photograph of You & I

Ville's P.O.V

"Please tell me you're kidding, Bammie." I sighed heavily and rubbed the left side of my face with my hand.

"You wish." He joked.

"Yes, Bam. I do." I replied, quite seriously. The last thing I needed right now was Bam interfering in a process that I wanted to take my time with and not screw up.

"Look, I promised to make up yesterday's incident to Aina. This is my way of repaying her." He explained.

"Then you have dinner with her."

Bam looked at me, wide-eyed. "You two are fuckin' ridiculous!" He shouted, throwing his hands up in the air and storming off.

I shrugged and put my cigarette to my lips again, heading toward the door. When I rounded the corner I found Bam with half his body through my bedroom door and the rest in the hall. I raised an eyebrow and continued walking over to him.

Upon hearing me approach, he turned, looking at me and then shut the door tightly behind him, ending whatever conversation he'd been in the middle of.

"I suggest you go get dressed in the clothes I left for you downstairs. You don't want to miss this." He said, disbelieving whatever he'd just seen.

"Bam-" I began but he cut me off.

"What the hell Ville, why don't you want to do this? You're the one who's so worried about losing her. Well here's your chance to make sure you don't!" He hissed harshly, apparently Aina was in the other room.

I looked down at the ashes burning on the end of my cigarette.

"Fine. Lose the girl of your dreams, but don't come cryin' to me when she's gone, Vil. Don't come cryin' to me." He rubbed the back of his neck as he walked away. I took a quick drag on my cigarette before snuffing it out in a beer can that lay discarded on the floor.

"Where are these reservations at anyway?" I called to Bam. He turned with a large grin on his face.

"You'll see."

Aina's P.O.V

"He has got to be kidding. I thought as I pulled on the dress that April had brought in for me to wear to this 'dinner.'

More like disaster waiting to happen.

I walked out of the bathroom wearing the dress, needing April to zip it up.

"Honey, you look absolutely stunning!" She exclaimed upon seeing me. I looked myself over in the mirror on the wall in front of me.

I wouldn't have said, "stunning," but "good" would have sufficed. I was wearing a basic black dress that came down to just above my knees. I pulled on the pair of heels that April handed me and stood, wobbling slightly.

"This is going to be a disaster."

"Yo, Ape!" Bam threw the door open and slid his body through, closing it slightly so he was only in the room halfway. His eyes immediately widened at the sight of me, Aina Mariani, in a dress. Something the world had only beheld twice, and both occasions were involuntary.

"He's going to shit himself..." Bam mumbled as April ran a comb through my hair. I winced as she met a knot and fought to get rid of it.

"What do you want Bam?" I asked, rather unhappy about the situation he'd put me in.

"Just checking to make sure you didn't jump out the window or anything." He joked, looking rather absent as he thought about something else.

Footsteps in the hallway caused him to lean back out to see who it was. Suddenly, Bam disappeared and the door shut tight.

I shook my head and April placed a hand on the back of my head to steady me. "I'm never going to get these knots out if you keep moving." She admonished, a smile shone in her voice.

"I'm sorry April." I said, sighing heavily.

"What's the matter?" She asked, relinquishing the comb in favor of a brush now.

"This whole thing."

"This dinner?" She asked, quite obviously confused.

"Mmhmm."

"Well, then don't go." She said, twisting my hair this way and that, trying to find something suitable to do with it. Finally she pulled it one too many times and I jerked away from her.

"April, just leave it down. I like it better that way." I explained, trying to keep my aggravation out of my voice. She didn't deserve it, she was only trying to help.

"Alright," Thankfully, none of her happiness was gone from her voice. "I'm going to go see if Bam needs any help downstairs. I'll be up in a few to get you."

I nodded as I made my way to the bathroom as she slipped out the door quietly. I grabbed my eyeliner from the sink and began tracing my eyes with the pencil.

Later...

"Aina!" Bam called out for me. I was still in the bathroom, leaning against the cold porcelain bathtub. I had gotten incredibly nervous after I'd applied my eyeliner and mascara. The nerves had made me light headed.

"In here!" I answered, trying to muster the will and strength to get up. He walked in before I had and looked at me sympathetically. A look that almost never crossed his face, unless I was concerned.

"Everything's ready. Are you?" He asked, offering his hand to me so that I could get up. I took it graciously and he pulled me to my feet in one swift movement.

"Thank you." I murmured. He nodded and took my hand, leading me out of the bathroom toward the door. I stumbled once because of the damned heels.

"I'm going to break my neck."

"I'll catch you, don't worry."

"Oh that's comforting." I replied sarcastically.

"Are you questioning my ability to save you?"

"No, I'm questioning your willingness to."

He snickered at my comment and helped me walk down the stairs, to prevent me from taking a tumble down them. I faltered only twice and he had stayed true to his word, catching me before the spills became serious.

"Go out the front, Dico is waiting with the Lamborghini. I'm taking Ville in the Hummer. We'll meet you there." He instructed as we reached the end of the staircase. I smiled weakly at him, feeling that he was making this dinner much more than it needed to be.

Ville and I had only been reunited a few days and they were treating it like it had been weeks.

"Will you just tell me where we're going?"

"Absolutely not!"

I sighed heavily as he led me to the front door. An incredible sense of foreboding entered my senses and I did as much as I could to ignore it.

"Have fun with Dico." Bam grinned as he opened the door where Dico had parked the Lamborghini. I gulped and widened my eyes in mock horror.

"Please don't make me..." I begged. He laughed loudly and his face was suddenly serious.

"Go." My face fell and I trudged out to the car, Brandon met me to help me over the ice patch.

I sat in the passenger's seat and looked at Bam's smiling face. I waved and moved my legs inside. Just before I shut the door Bam called out:

"Don't screw this up, Mariani!"