Status: Completed! Sequel up soon

Hospital Beds and Memories

Photographs for Memories

It had been a couple of weeks since my encounter with Jack. He hadn’t called or texted, but to be honest I didn’t really mind. I actually had forgotten about him. I was busy with work and was trying to get my brother off of his lazy ass and actually find a job. Today was going to be the day that I was going to be successful.

At eight in the morning, I got up and stormed into my brother's room. It was a gigantic mess. CD’s were scattered around everywhere along with both dirty and clean clothes. His desk was full of random shit and posters on his wall were peeling off. I got on his bed and jumped on it, waking him up in no time.

“What the fuck, Field!” He screamed.

“You’re getting up, taking a shower and going to find a job,” I shouted back.

“But I don’t want to,” He whined.

“I don’t fucking care right now. You promised me.”

I got off of his bed and grabbed his arm before pulling him along with me. He dragged along into the bathroom and I turned on the shower. I made sure the water was cold enough to wake him up, but not too cold to make him get sick.

“You’re going to have to take off your clothes and shower yourself, I don’t want to do that.” I shivered, not even wanting to think about having to see him naked.

With that, I went out of the bathroom but hesitated before closing the door. I knew all of his tricks, and there was no way I was going to fall for them.

“Don’t even think about just putting your head under the faucet and act like you have showered,” I warned.

“Fine,” Cameron grumbled.

About 30 minutes later he came out showered and with clothes on. I grinned at the sight of him. He actually looked like my brother, not the lazy potato that lived on the couch. His hair wasn’t stuck together in strands and his face no longer looked as pale.

“Don’t you feel a lot better now?” I asked.

“I guess,” He shrugged.

“So, now you’re going to go out and look for a job because I’m pretty sure I lost my photography job, and the dance classes are not enough to keep us this place.”

“Ok, but I won’t promise anything,” He grabbed his phone and keys.

I told him some places to check out, such as the local music store, hot topic, or just simply the grocery store. The problem with Cameron was that he didn’t go to college because of the band he was in. He had no qualifications and so couldn’t get a ‘real’ job. I still remember the day they broke up. It was just a simple day, I had just started the dancing instructor job for fun, it was never meant to be my main income. I was already at home when Cameron suddenly came stumbling in. It was a weird time for him to come home so I knew something was wrong. He told me everybody in his band had decided they wanted to quit, not because they didn’t have faith, but because of personal reasons. Cameron was rather fine with it and was actually optimistic. He asked me to help find him a new job and maybe start up a new band. I was more than happy to, but then Cameron found out about the life of being able to sleep in every day, and his mood changed. He was no longer my best friend that used to tease me about him being 10 minutes older. There was a time I barely saw him anymore. It was quite upsetting, and believe it or not, the way he was 2 weeks ago was real progress already.

I was cleaning up the kitchen when my phone rang. It was an unknown number. I hesitated, but decided to answer it anyway. Why are we always so hesitant with unknown numbers?

“Hello?” I questioned, still afraid of what danger could be lurking on the other side.

“Hey, it’s Jack,” a voice chirped back happily, making all my doubts wash away slowly.

“Oh, hey.”

“Ok, so, I have a story for you.”

“Go ahead.”

I was confused by his straightforwardness. Was he always like this? I had totally forgotten about him, hadn’t he forgotten about me as well? Normally the famous person is the one to forget encounters with everyday people, right? This guy was confusing.

“Well, so there’s this guy who decided to go out. He walked into a park and looked around at the scenery. He then thought, ‘Wow, this place is beautiful, I wish I had a camera with me. Professional photographers would love to photograph this’. So then he remembered this girl he met a few weeks ago whose photos were ruined by said guy. Now he’s calling her.”

“Ok, so you’re telling me the story of somebody else’s life. Cool. Now, what do you want?” I joked.

“Just come over here,” He whined.

“Ok, ok. Where are you?”

He told me the address and I said I would be there soon. It was pretty chilly outside, so I quickly put on my coat, scarf and wooly beanie. I was a person that got cold pretty quickly, don’t judge, ok? Next, I had to go on a hunt for my polaroid camera and the camera I used outside of work. It was a camera that was less expensive and a lot easier to use.

I decided to walk to the park since it wasn’t too far away and it was always nice to be able to easily photograph things. Whenever I was in a car I'd find all these amazing places or things to photograph, but it was kinda impossible to randomly stop the car in the middle of the road. It was actually one of the first memories I remembered. I literally stopped the car in the middle of the road, but I got arrested after that. So, that will never happen again.

I entered the park and looked around. The tall trees had turned orange and leaves showered down whenever the wind blew softly. There was a small bridge that went over a river which was covered in these orange and red beauties. I continued looking around and found Jack awkwardly standing at a bench. He was pretty lanky, making me wonder how old he was. I figured he was around the same age as me, maybe a bit older, but definitely not younger. However, he also wasn’t scrawny enough for the jacket he was wearing to not fit properly.

He spotted me and waved me over. I slowly walked towards him, not wanting to slip or trip because of the leaves and then break my cameras. I barely had enough money for the rent and for groceries, there was no way I would be able to afford to repair or buy a new camera.

“Don’t you look cute,” Jack smirked, eyeing me up and down.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that, and I’m going to give you another chance,” I said seriously, but also jokingly.

“Don’t you look all wrapped up,” He tried again.

“That’s better. But I get cold easily, so don’t make fun of me.”

“I wasn’t.”

I grinned up at him and looked into his eyes. They were close to black, but with the right lighting, they shone the deepest brown I had ever seen. I took my camera and put the strap around his neck. He looked at me with the most adorable confused look.

“You said you wanted to take photos. Well, here’s a camera,” I went to turn away, “Now, that’s my job done here. Call me when you want to return it.”

“Don’t you dare leave me,” Jack threatened, “I don’t even know how to use this thing.”

“I’ll teach you then, plus I want to take some photos of my own.”

Jack went to give me back my camera, but I stopped him, “No, you keep that. I brought my polaroid camera, I’ll use that one.”

“Ok then… Now, what do I do.”

I sat down on the bench and patted the spot beside me for Jack to sit. He laughed and sat down. I kept the cord around his neck, but took the camera in my hands. Jack looked intently at the camera.

I touched the mode dial, “So, I’m just going to do the easy stuff. No manual exposure, HDR, or manual focus for you yet.”

“I’ll just act like I know all those terms.”

“This dial is used to change the mode. Right now, it’s in Program mode, it’s the mode I use least because the camera does everything for you, you just need to press the shutter button and you’re fine.”

“So that will be the one I will use the most,” Jack jested.

I rolled my eyes and continued, “Av is the aperture mode. I’m not going to go into the technical parts, because your brain probably can’t handle it. But basically, it determines the depth of field. The smaller the number, the blurrier the background. You change it with this wheel.” I pointed at a dial just in front of the shutter button.

“Ok, so smaller number equals more blurriness.”

“Yes, you’ll see the number when you look through the eyepiece. So, Tv stands for shutter priority. Don’t ask me why, it just does. You can change how long it takes the camera to take the photo, but the camera determines the depth of field. Then we also have manual mode, but you’ll fuck that up, ‘cause it uses manual exposure, so let’s leave that.”

“Which one do I put it on now?”

“I personally like Av or Manual, but it really depends. Just mess around with it. The SD card can take over a thousand photos, so that won’t be a problem.”

“Ok, I think I can do this.”

Jack stood up enthusiastically and I followed him. We started walking around together, occasionally taking pictures. I was careful with mine, having brought only 2 packets of film, meaning I only could take 16 photos. I would have loved to bring more, but film for polaroid cameras was fucking expensive. In total it cost more than 2 dollars per photo.

“So tell me a bit more about yourself,” Jack said out of nowhere, “I know you like photography and dancing, I also know you have a brother who’s older, I’m guessing.”

I dreaded that question. There was no way I was going to tell him about my health problems yet. I always had this happen whenever I met new people. I couldn’t tell a thing about myself, and they would think I wasn’t interested in them and would rather have them be gone. But I actually liked Jack, I didn’t want to scare him away.

“Umm, yeah, photography and dancing are my life. Like, literally, I wouldn’t have a place to stay or food to eat if it wasn’t for those two. My brother and I are twins, he’s the older one though, so you got that right. Other than that there’s not much. I guess I can tell you that I hate high heeled shoes, I’ve always wanted to learn how to play an instrument, and my spirit animal would have to be a duck.”

“A duck?” Jack laughed.

“Yeah, I don’t know why though. I guess they’re just cool.”

“Hmm, I can take that. But you and your brother are really twins? That’s pretty cool.”

“Maybe,” I shrugged, “He used to be my best friend, but that kinda changed when he changed into a person who can't give a fuck about anything.”

“Is it really that bad?”

“I literally had to drag him out of bed today. But I did manage to get him to shower and go out for once. It’s progress…. So now it’s your turn, tell me a bit about yourself.”

“Ok… I’ll do my standard introduction for interviews first. My name is Jack, I’m 27 years old, and I play the guitar,” Jack said very seriously.

“You're 27?”

“Yeah, you?”

“You don’t ask a girl how old she is!” I playfully gasped and playfully punched his arm, “No, but seriously, I’m 23.”

“Not bad,” Jack nodded his head.

“What’s that supposed to mean!”

“I honestly don’t know.” He chuckled, making his eyes squint a little.

“Now continue.”

“Ok, well I have 2 siblings, an older brother and older sister. No twins though. And being naked it one of my favorite things to do,” He grinned.

“Ok then… that’s not weird at all.”

We walked onto the bridge and stopped in the middle of it. I looked out at the river and my eyes went wide. This was a perfect shot.

“Jack, give me the camera,” I commanded and held out my hand.

Jack managed to clumsily take it off and give it to me. I kneeled down and placed the camera on the floor so the lense was sticking through the banisters. I switched the camera so it was on Tv and put on a long shutter speed.

“This is going to take a while, don’t move the camera, or you’ll ruin the photo.”

About a minute later the camera had finally taken the shot and I picked it up from the floor. I grinned as I saw the result and showed it to Jack. The leaves in the river stayed in the same place, but the water underneath it was running, making it look like the leaves were resting on a pillow. You could also see the path, so people were blurred as well.

“This is why you’re the photographer and I’m not,” Jack pointed out.

“The only thing I do is think of locations and settings, the camera does the rest,” I chuckled.

“But still.”

“Can I take your picture?” I asked out of nowhere, seeing an opportunity to practise taking pictures of actual people.

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Stay on the bridge.”

I walked back off the bridge and neared the river. If I wanted to get the photo from the angle I desired, I would have to nearly stand in the flowing water.

“Ireland, be careful!” Jack shouted out.

“Don’t worry, I am. If I fall in, it will just have to be a sacrifice I made for the perfect shot.”

“Just be careful, I don’t want to have to save you.”

I laughed and took small steps closer to the water. Jack leaned on the banister and I pointed the camera at him, taking a couple of shots. Suddenly I slipped slightly, stopping just before the edge. I looked up at Jack with wide eyes, he looked at me with a similar expression. We burst out laughing and I took another picture.

“And that’s how you get the best shots: Making people laugh, even if it might risk your own beautiful white jeans.” I chuckled as I walked back to the path.

Jack met me there and I showed him the photos. He said his favorite one was of him laughing and that I should get it printed billboard sized. I hit his chest and told him I would never ever want to have a photo of him that large.

“So, I think it’s time for me to go home,” I announced.

Jack pouted, “Ok, but let me at least walk you home.”

I agreed and let him join me. It wasn’t too far, but it was nice being in Jack’s presence. I had only known him for a day or two, and yet it felt like he was my best friend already. The last thing I wanted to do was leave him, but I had to check and see if Cameron was home and ask him how everything went.

“It was cool hanging out with you again,” I said.

“Yeah, we should definitely do it more often,” Jack agreed.

“I’ll try to make sure to call you, otherwise call me. Just know I won't be trying to avoid you, I might just be really busy.”

“Ok, got it.”

“Well, bye then.”

“Yeah, bye.” He awkwardly smiled back and let me go inside.

I walked up the many stairs to the loft and finally made it completely out of breath. As I opened to door. I heard that the TV was on once again, meaning Cameron was home. I called out his name, but got no response. Great, he was asleep. Notice the sarcasm? I made sure to close the door loudly. Cameron shook awake and looked at me.

“How did everything go?” I inquired.

“I got a girl’s phone number,” He grinned sleepily.

“That’s pretty cool,” I said optimistically, “And how’s the job hunt going?”

“Umm, about that…”

‘You didn’t even look, did you.”

“Well…”

“Ok, whatever.”

I watched as Cameron fell asleep again in no time. Why was he like this? He had been to the doctor and therapist many times, but they couldn’t find anything wrong with him. He was just plain lazy and didn’t care about things.

I got out my phone and rang the only number I could think of.

“Hello,” He answered.

“Jack, I’m going to be straightforward here and ask you if I can stay at yours tonight,” I sighed.

“Umm, sure. What’s wrong?”

“I know we haven’t known each other for long, but I really can’t take Cameron’s shit right now. He won’t even realize I’m gone.”

“I’ll be there in 5, wait outside for me.”
♠ ♠ ♠
Decided to put this one up as well. The shitty writing is making me cringe so badly.