A Thousand Words | ✓

Chapter Eight: A Thousand Mysterious Photographs

Hi there <3 . So, I've gained an unbelievable amount of readers and followers and can't say thank you to each and every one of you like I usually would do. Feel free to skip over my long ass message at the end of the chapter, just know that I feel so blessed and grateful that you are reading this right now <3

Dedicated to Ashley, the lovely girl who felt love for Reece and Jessica's story so much as to promote my story as she did. The longest week of my life has turned into one of the absoulte best thanks to her, and I can't express how grateful I am. Enjoy weird mistakes and typos, enjoy (: xx

* * *

Chapter Eight: A Thousand Mysterious Photographs

REECE

I don't think I've ever had a more serious mental debate in my life. Jessica's portfolio sat in front of me on my bed, invisible holes being burned though its contents as I stared long and hard at it. I don't know why I don't open it. This could very well be the most important evidence I've ever had on knowing what's going on the world of Jessica Andrews.

But what was I going to do? Sit here and psychoanalyze some photos that are probably just a photography project?

I grimaced at the thought and snatched the portfolio in my hands. I took the glossy photo sheets out of the folder. Before I could close it, I saw something against the pale color of the material. Against the inside of the folder, written in small, cursive handwriting that I vaguely remember as a downgraded version Jessica's current handwriting, were the words:

January 1, 2005,

 

"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."

My eyebrows furrowed as I scanned the words over and over. Change, huh? Maybe this folder had value after all. Tossing the folder to the side, I picked up the thin pile of folders and fingered through. I frowned down at the black and white photos. You would think that there would be some truth in her happy act at school, but these photos were as sad as Rebecca's attempt to cook. Instead of the flowers and candy pictures I expected to see, all I saw were sheets of complete depression.

One glance at the first picture could bring a person's high spirits down, maybe with the words 'aw' escaping their lips without a second thought. Mine were more on the lines of confused cuss words. We all act differently. And with the closeup to someone's closed eyelash, a teardrop placed at the end and ready to roll down the cheeks of this person, I'm starting to question what kind of project this was.

The second one confused me more. White tally marks against the grimy texture of a building stacked up on top of one another. The continuation of the white chalk was blurred out to focus on the first fifteen tallies. The next was a shot of New York through a window. Old, floral pattern curtains draped around the frame of the window in a billowy manner. The dark overcast hanging over New York's buildings put a dampening on the twinkling lights, especially with the black and white effect. The next two photographs kept the stormy theme. One caught a lone drop of rain rolling down the window pane, and the next captured the rippling effect of the thousands of droplets hitting a puddle, disrupting the peaceful stillness and blurring out the reflection.

I think it was the next one that made a weird feeling stir in the pit of my stomach.