Photogenic

"I'll be home in five minutes," I assured my roommate Laci. "I'm turning onto the interstate now."

My black cell phone was pressed to my ear by my shoulder as I looked out the window to merge into the lane. The sky was a pink-orange; the bright dullness of it hurting my eyes as I quickly turned my blinker on and merged into the right lane. My keys jingled from the ignition as I ended the call with Laci, promising her that I'd stop at the gas station to get a gallon of milk, bread, two cans of chicken soup and paper towels.

I turned the radio on, fiddling with the tuner to find the rock station. 101.5 came in a little staticy at first, but a mile down the interstate, it was crystal clear. The sky was a dark red as the sun fell behind the buildings. The radio switched from Metallica to a car commercial as I turned off onto Exit 184.

By the time the commercials were over, I was parked in the small convenient store parking lot and grabbed my purse and keys. I opened the door, stepping out, my black heals clicking on the pavement as I got out and locked the doors. I walked into the lights pouring onto the sidewalk holding the bagged ice freezer. A bell jingled as I pushed open the door, my purse now over my shoulder and resting against my side.

The cashier was reading a thick book in a chair behind the counter. My heals clicked on the white tiled flooring as I made my way through the familiar store. Back by the soft drinks was the gallons of milk. I opened the glass door and reached for a blue capped one, pulling it off the shelf as another slid down to replace the missing one. I let the door close as I turned and headed to the bread and canned food isle. I was looking at the canned soup when I noticed his presence out of the corner of my eye.

He was lingering in the candy section near me. His physique was alluring. With straight black hair and matching black clothes, he looked both mysterious and revealing as his low rise pants left a small gap between the hem of his turtleneck shirt and the black studded belt. His fingers were adorned with silver rings and his wrists jingled as he reached for the shelf.

I picked two cans off the shelf, holding them with my elbow as I headed down the isle to him. He didn't seem phased as I approached, a bag of Jolly Ranchers catching my eye. Unfortunately he was standing in my way of just grabbing them. He was holding a bag of Skittles and a bag of Jolly Ranchers, looking like he couldn't decide what one to buy.

"The Jolly Ranchers," I told him, grabbing a bag myself. "They're better than Skittles by far."

He debated this for a brief second before going with what I said and putting the Skittles back on the shelf with the other bags. He looked at me with wide hazel eyes framed in dark shadow and liner. By the way his eyelashes were separated evenly and how dark they were, I assumed mascara adorned them. His lips were shiny; like he had lip gloss on.

"Thanks," he said smoothly. "Rylynn, right?" His right eyebrow raised in question. It was pierced with a loop that disappeared under his hat as he raised it.

"Yeah," I quietly responded. I didn't know he knew my name, let alone could put it with my face well enough. Slightly awkward silence fell between us. What was I supposed to say? Oh, hey! Aren't you that guy from my English class? or Hi, Bill! I detest you because you're all that annoying bitch in photography can talk about. Yeah, doubt those are great conversation starters.

"You sit behind me in English, right?" his voice was deeper, slightly more mature. It was like he was trying to act a bit older than he was.

"Yeah. How'd you get placed in the class, anyway?" I asked curiously. "You're just a freshman, right?"

"No, I'm actually in my second year. Everyone just thinks I'm in first..." he stated as I began walked to the bread, hoping he'd follow. He did. He walked with such grace and ease. His long legs took smaller strides to say with me. "I'm smart."

"How old are you," I looked at him sceptically. "if you're proud to be smart?" I added sarcastically.

"Eighteen," he muttered, now seeming ashamed. His voice dropped an octave.

"Wow." I was surprised. I grabbed a loaf of bread from the shelf and held it in my right hand with the Jolly Ranchers. "You have a right to be proud of being smart, then."

"I try," he commented, stopping briefly to grab hamburger buns before we headed to the cash register. On the way, I attempted to grab a roll of paper towels, but I ended up dropping the candy and bread in the process. Bill offered to help and took the two dropped items from the floor and carried them to the counter. He set my items down, trying to help me get the cans onto the counter, also. He insisted that it was no big dead as I thanked him. He waited as the tired cashier rang me up and bagged everything but the milk.

"Thanks," I repeated, but directed towards the tired girl, as I pulled out a twenty. She gave me the change and recite and I slipped them into the purse. "I'll see you Monday then?"

He smiled as he pulled his wallet out. "Yeah. See ya, Rylynn."

I bid farewell as I pushed my way out the door, a brown grocery bag in one arm, the milk in the other hand. I set the gallon on top of my car to open the back door before setting the groceries on the seat and the milk on the floor. I smiled at Bill when he left the store as I got into my car.

REM filled my ears as I headed down the avenue, only four blocks from the apartment. I turned off the busy avenue and onto a side street that led into campus. Not a mile down Cherry Grove, I was turning right onto Dexlyn. One block up, I slowed to a stop at King Dr. before taking off again for another block and turning right onto Hoyt and pulling into the parking garage connected to the building. The radio told me that tonight was going to be another cold one so I decided to park in the garage to escape and snow that may fall. I went up to the fourth floor, the top, to gain easy entrance to the apartments. Parking in the nearest available spot to the door, I turned to car off, grabbed my purse and groceries. I locked the doors and headed through the lighted car garage. My heals echoed around the nearly silent air. It reminded me of a horror movie.

I opened the stairwell door and walked across the landing to the door labeled Floor 4 -- Apt.'s 31-40. Opening that as well, I walked past three doors and came to my familiar green one on the left hand side. I unlocked the door with the keys in my left hand and entered slowly. I put the groceries down onto the bar and closed the door, locking it afterwords.

My heals echoed as I made my way to my room, the second door on the left. I opened it and flipped on the overhead light. I slipped off my shoes next to my dresser and undid my earrings, leaving them on the polished wood. They were quickly followed by metal bracelets, rings and necklaces. I let my hair down from it's usual bun and brushed it quickly.

Walking back out of my room, I put away the groceries while listening to the messages on the machine.

"Rylynn, this is Mom. I was just calling to see how you're doing. Your father wants to know if you're still coming up next weekend."

I rolled my eyes upon hearing this. My parents loved me to pieces, but sometimes they were a little over protective. I was almost twenty-one, I think I could live on my own longer than a week. But try telling that to my parents.

"Message two. Friday, 11:55 PM."

"Ry, Laci here!" she giggled as I put the milk away. "I'm with Ma-Mason! I'll be there tomorrow and we can party! Bye Babe!"

I smiled at my roommate's message. She was spontaneous sometimes. It's a wonder how she completes paintings sometimes. She's adorable, though. Really sweet and understanding. A great listener when it comes to others problems and shes very photogenic. I've done a whole project on her for photography last year; it turned out perfect.

Once the groceries were put away, I decided I needed a shower before bed. Luckily, I had no papers to do this weekend or even a job to attend to, so I could relax and enjoy some time to myself. After my quick shower, the phone began to ring. I hurriedly dressed and sprinted to the phone. Picking up the cordless, I answered all but breathlessly.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Rylynn," my mother greeted. "How are you?"

She acts sweet and caring, but deep down I know it's just a show. She wanted me to come see her, which was fine, but she wanted me to come home every weekend. She doesn't understand that I have work and assignments I have to complete.

"Hi, Mom." I could at least try to sound pleasant. "I'm good. I've just walked in." I had to think up some excuse so she doesn't think I wasn't going to call her (which I wasn't).

"What are you doing out this late?" she asked, keeping her voice curious, but I could hear the accusing tone.

"My job. We closed late because of the season." I worked at Chicago Rock!, a clothing and media store in the mall that sponsored and sold Chicago rock bands. It's also a place that lots of bands come when they're in town for signings and whatnot. It's a pretty cool job; and it pays well. "How's Dad?"

"He's good. He finished re-staining the deck yesterday. It looks so much better than what it used to be. You know I've been asking for him to do it for years; hell, before you graduated!" she rambled. "Oh, Natalie passed the ACT test! We just got the letter in the mail."

Natalie is my younger sister. She's a senior and going to be an author. She's a pretty good writer. She mostly writes horror stories, not my taste in books, but some of them are really good and captivating. She's written a few children horror books for our baby brother, Melikah. He's adorable for a ten year old.

"That's great!" I smiled as I curled up on the couch. "How's school for her?"

"It's going good," she paused. "What about you? Any more pictures to send us?"

"Not yet, Mom. We're learning about human photography now, so the next batch will be with some model, not just grass and flowers or animals."

"That's amazing, dear. Do you know who the model is?" I could tell she was doing laundry while she was talking with me. I could hear the flick of her wrists and the whoosh of air as she tried to flatten the fabric.

"No. Next week we'll get to choose, I guess. Professor Fert didn't really say if we get to choose, or not yet."

After another half hour of talked to her about my life at collage, the question abut next weekend came up. I told her that'd I'd have to think about it and let her know if I can get work off. By the time we'd let each other go, it was closing in on one thirty and I was full of yawns.

The alarm blared throughout the small room, jolting me from my dream state and pulling a groan from my throat. I smacked the alarm clock, attempting to shut it off, but it only resulted in the high pitched beep to increase. I groaned louder, shifting angrily and pulling the clock off of the nightstand, and the plug out of the wall. It hit the floor with an annoying sound and finally shut up. I groaned as I mentally kicked myself for leaving the alarm on. It was Saturday, I should be able to sleep in. But as luck would have it, I was fully awake now, so I got out of bed and stumbled into the hall, hoping for a cup of coffee to satisfy my anger.

Laci was in the kitchen already, making a cup for herself. She took a look at me and began making another, for me I hoped. I pulled one of the wooden chairs out from the table and sat down, leaning my head onto the cold surface. A coffee mug was soon placed in front of me as Laci sat down across from me.

"Are you going tonight?" she asked, cradling her own cup. "It's supposed to be the best party..."

"Yeah," I agreed, taking a sip of the hot liquid. "Why not? I don't have to work..."

"Finally," she commented. "I was going to call in and tell your manager off for not letting you off sometime. That bitch."

"Laci..." I warned. "Please don't. It's good money."

"Yeah, but sucky hours." she said, laughing lightly. "Anyway, Mason and Joey will be here at seven to get us."

"And how are we getting back?" I asked, of course being the responsible one when it comes to drinking. "Drink drunk?"

Laci burst into laughter at my blunder. I laughed along, fixing my mistake as I did so. After we calmed down and she said that we'd crash at Joey's place, which was right next door, I guess. I didn't really like Joey, but he was a nice guy when it came to things like this. He was just... too cocky sometimes. Okay, a lot of the time.

So, for the next few hours, I sat in my room editing a few photos I'd taken on the train last week. I was listening to the radio as I did so, singing along to myself to songs I liked. After I was satisfied with my final products, I saved them and shut down my laptop, wanting to watch a movie or something before it was time to get ready. Laci was already in the living room, curled up on the couch with a blanket covering her as she watched the TV. I joined her and soon was engrossed with Half Baked, a movie about getting high that was regularly played on Fuse.