Wolves

My hands held my camera tightly as my eyes danced around me, every inch of my surroundings not going unnoticed. Every move of the people around me was seen, their faces drawn in my memory and my mind only on one purpose – take photos. That was my job, my passion, my life. I couldn’t see myself doing anything else besides that. Sure, I did some modeling here and there. I blogged about fashion, bands, music in general, though none of it made me as happy as taking photos.

I was amazed at how hard it was to catch the perfect moment of little actions. Your eye had to be trained, you had to notice things that other people never could. It was that thing they called ‘you have to be in the right place at the right time’. However, I still wasn’t that good and had a long way to go and learn a lot of things, but I learned something new every day and I did everything to get better at what I was doing. I guess that’s why I was getting acknowledged bit by bit.

“Luce?” My head snapped in the direction I had heard the voice call my name and my eyes were met with Alan’s grinning face. I noticed the ginger devil behind him, though I chose not to acknowledge him. He never bothered to acknowledge me as an equal to him so I wasn’t going to acknowledge him either.

“What’re you doing here?” I grinned up at Alan as he looked around a little bit, before looking at me again.

“Well, we were just walking around and saw you here so we thought we’d come and say hi,” Alan explained and Justin immediately scoffed, muttering “speak for yourself”, though me and Alan ignored it.

“I’m just walking around, looking for good shots yet so far what I have is nothing amazing,” I shrugged my shoulders, briefly looking down at my camera. I heard Justin mutter something along the lines of “loser” or whatever, but I knew he was trying to get me to react somehow just so that we could swear at each other.

“Want some company?” Alan asked with a huge grin and I briefly looked at Justin, who was watching me like a hawk. He rolled his eyes slightly, clearly hating the idea of being near me, though he chose to stay quiet.

“If you have nothing better to do, then sure, I’d love some company. I need to get in the mood for work,” I shrugged my shoulders as I raised my camera to my face and took a quick shot of Alan’s face and then looked at the camera screen. It was an innocent photo, clearly showing Alan’s surprise at seeing the camera at his face. I smiled slightly and looked at Alan.

“You’re a good model, Ashby,” I grinned at him and Alan rolled his eyes slightly, motioning for us to start walking. I fell into step beside him, as Justin did the same on Alan’s other side, keeping silent. It was strange that he hadn’t said anything in these few minutes that would’ve made me snap at him. I guessed Alan had said something to Justin about me, because he had these moments for a few hours where he wouldn’t get on my bad side, but then a few hours later it was Justin Trotta – the ginger devil once more.

“Still, you’re a better model, Luce,” Alan muttered out of the blue and I looked at him with my brows furrowed a bit. I shrugged my shoulders and chose to run a few steps in front of Alan and the ginger devil so that I could snap a quick photo of both of them.

Alan made a face at the camera and it seemed that Justin hadn’t even noticed that I had taken the photo, because his face was slightly turned in another direction and his eyes focused on something. It was one of these moments where I had caught a person lost in his own thoughts, his eyes swimming with thoughts, lost in space, forgetting reality. It looked so innocent, yet I knew that underneath it all - it wasn’t.

“Well, Alan, I’m not better than the ginger princess himself,” I smirked at him slightly, watching him give me a serious look. I loved talking to Alan about nothing and everything. He was down to earth and easy to talk to. Most of the time, it was him who helped me get up from all the harsh verbal abuse from Justin and it had made me think of Alan as an older brother. I mean, all guys from Om&m were my family, but I had the strongest bond with Alan. And yes, when I say all the guys, I even meant Justin. He was a part of them and even if he was an ass – I still thought of him as family. However, at the same time I found him attractive.

I know, shocking, but you fall for people when you least expect it and even for the people that treat you bad. Justin wasn’t bad, actually, he was a nice guy (not to me, though). I had been observing him in different situations and I had realized that he just didn’t like me for some reason, because with everyone else he acted like a completely different person.

I had grown to adore his expressions when he talked with different people. He had this glint in his eyes that only showed when he was so into the subject or joking around. It always seemed like his eyes were real, like a completely different living thing with a mind of its own.

“Hey, Luce?” My eyes snapped up to look at Alan in surprise. He had his eyebrow raised and somehow my eyes shifted briefly to Justin who was watching me too. I didn’t find a glare in my direction, just this hollow look with no emotion. It hurt a bit that he never looked at me like he looked at other people. It felt like I had done something, or said something that had made him snap, yet I didn’t know. I had never heard a reason why he acted like he did.

“Sorry, I spaced out,” I muttered, looking down at the camera briefly. The photo was still showing and I decided that I needed to get into work mode soon. I turned off my camera and looked up seriously at Alan. “I need to go to the bus to get my equipment. I can’t work with this camera,”

Alan looked at Justin who watched me for a few more moments before turning to Alan and nodding his head. I watched the exchange between them, my eyebrow rising in question.

“Let’s go then,” I was surprised to hear Justin speak up as he motioned for us to walk. I watched him start to move, not believing that he was acting civil for the first time. I looked at Alan and he shrugged his shoulders, though I could see in his face that he knew something.

“Sure,” I knew I sounded unsure, but I just chose to go with the flow. Maybe everything was going to change, yet I wasn’t so naïve. I still expected Justin to turn around and start acting like an asshole.

We managed to chat about the weather and what we were stoked to see today as we were walking. Well, Alan and Justin talked what they wanted to see while I had to bust my butt with work, yet I wasn’t complaining. I loved my job.

“Hey, will you photograph our set?” Alan asked when we reached our bus and I furrowed my brows in thought. For a moment I stood unmoving, thinking what were the bands that I had to take photos off before I looked at Alan and shrugged my shoulders.

“I have no idea. I mean, I am your photographer, but I have to run between stages, because some bands don’t have their photographer today. And… Seeing as today is the kick-off, they want to have as many photos as possible. I’ll try to, though,” I smiled lightly at him, hoping that I would be able to see their set or at least manage to see them come off stage.

“At least, come after the set. It’s the tradition to hug you with our sweaty bodies,” he joked and I twisted my face in disgust, but I couldn’t contain the chuckle that escaped from my lips. Shaking my head slightly, I waved my finger in his direction.

“Fuck no, Ashby. That was the moment where I decided only to see you after you’ve taken a shower,” I stuck out my tongue and he pouted slightly. I felt relaxed when I didn’t hear Justin say something snappy. It was very strange of him to be so quiet and I wondered if it was the calm before the storm.

“So sad,” he pretended to shed a tear and I rolled my eyes. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and I jumped up in surprise.

“Shit, I think I’m late!” I exclaimed, immediately running into the bus without even looking at Alan or Justin. My feet carried me to my equipment where I put away my camera and got the one that I was always working with. I put on my belt with a few pouches with charged batteries and grabbed a small backpack with all the lenses that I would need for the day.

I double checked if I had everything that I would need and when I was sure I had the pass around my neck, I left the bus to find Alan and Justin talking. Both of them were smoking and when they heard me they turned to look at me. I felt somewhat thrown off when I saw the look Justin gave me. I can’t pinpoint what it had behind it, but it was strange. I tried not to think about it too much though.

“You ready?” Alan smiled and I felt my nerves kick in right then. I scratched my head and slowly nodded my head. I felt great, yet nervous at the same time. This was my first big project and I was terrified to mess something up. It meant a lot to me and I wanted to get as much as possible from Warped.

“I’m terrified, but I think I’ll manage. Anyway, good luck guys, I’ll see you later,” I gave them both a small smile and scurried off quickly. I heard Justin say something after me, but I didn’t really hear it. I was rushing to meet up with a few other photographers and I was already in work mode. Nothing else could catch my attention right now and I forgot everything else that went on outside work. Warped tour had officially started.