Fire and Freedom - Book One of the Café Latte Trilogy

Chapter Nine - Jasper

Chapter Nine – Jasper

I woke up groggily to a knock on my door. "Get up, you lazy arse!"

"Go away," I muttered, but Andrew opened my door and walked in with no intention of going away. I sighed and buried my head under the pillow, but he took it off me and threw it to the other end of the room.

"It's not even ten yet," I groaned. "It's a Sunday - Sundays are a blessed, pure day. It's too early – let me sleep."

"It's not too early," Andrew snorted, rolling his eyes. "Trust me, I've been up since eight because Mum 'surprised' me with breakfast in bed."

"Eight?" I repeated, aghast. "On a holiday?" I then frowned. "Did you find that annoying?"

"Very annoying," he nodded.

"Good, then you'll sympathise with me now," I snapped. "There's some maniac trying to get me out of bed at nine-thirty. Get out of my room."

My only response was the curtains being flung open to flood the room with ridiculously bright sunlight. I groaned, trying to shove my face into the pillow. "I hate you. I can't wait 'til you go back to the uni. That dinner party last night was painful enough, must you prolong the experience?"

Andrew hopped onto my bed, jostling me, and sat beside me while I adjusted to reality. "So, I wanted to talk to you about last night."

I opened one eye, and irritably said, "I'd like to talk to you about personal boundaries - namely, not waking me up in the morning, you dick. What do you want to ask?"

"It's just about photography," Andrew replied, and then pointed at my wall, where I had some of my better shots framed. "You're good. I like those ones especially."

I craned my neck to see that he was looking at my photographs from a winter competition. "Thanks, the middle one won second place in a magazine."

"Seriously?" Andrew said, getting up to examine it closer. It was taken at sunrise, overlooking the city, with frost across the grass and flowers right in front of the camera. "It's brilliant. How early was it?"

I thought back to when I'd taken the snaps; Cyri and I had camped overnight in the middle of nowhere to get up early in the morning and take photographs.

"About six," I said, yawning as I stretched. "Give or take half an hour. We had a timer set for sunrise, but it was a few minutes off so we were panicking we'd missed the good shot. Cyri camped out with me. It was fucking freezing."

Andrew paused. "How come you didn't tell me it had won second place?"

"I forgot," I shrugged. "Honestly, you know how it is with phone calls while you're away. I get to talk to you for ten minutes and then Mum snatches the phone out of my hand. Plus, you know I get awkward talking about things I've won, it feels like bragging."

Andrew sighed. "It's not bragging, it's being proud of your accomplishments. So, have you entered them in any more competitions?"

"I've got a competition I want to enter," I nodded. "But it's a competition photographing people, so I've got to find some people who don't mind their photo being taken."

"I'll do it, if you need people," Andrew smiled.

I nodded. "I might take you up on that. But I need a group of friends or family, and I don't particularly want to photograph Mum and Dad...I might just ask from friends at school."

"That's fair enough," Andrew grinned. "Can you imagine photographing Mum and Dad?"

I snorted, imitating Mum's voice. "Oh, darling, please don't get my face in it – or my elbows, I don't like my elbows. Can you edit out my smile?"