life's rain // bruno mars

chapter eight

chapter eight

The next day Stephanie and I drove to the metropolitan area of Los Angeles where Bruno and I were the day before. We roamed streets and stores, mostly window shopping, until a guy walked up to us. He was tall and lanky, around our age, and directed his attention to Stephanie, not once acknowledging my existence. Stephanie flirted with him in return even though she had a boyfriend. To not stand there awkwardly in the midst of the flirtatious twirling of Stephanie's hair and the guy's charming compliments I wandered off to the store next door. It was a gift shop and had displays of memorabilia. 

Something caught my eye. A Mamiya C33 Professional, with two lens. Instructor Marone talked about this camera once, how great it was and convenient that most of the controls were all on the shutters. It was priced at only $250, and with my $456 in my savings for the Nikon I could save more than half the money I was going to spend. 

And I needed a camera.

For my photography class, I had to rent a stupid camera from the school for my assignments. Twenty-five dollars a week. Not only did I need a camera for school, but for me. My fingers itched to have one back in my possession, one that I could call mine. The world was passing with beauty that I was unable to capture. What the hell, a camera's a camera. I went in and bought it.

Stephanie was on her cell phone when I walked out of the store, a bag looped around my arm. She caught sight of me and pocketed her phone. “The hell, Lena? I was just about to call you, or nine one one for an Amber Alert.”

“Wow,” I said, at her side. “You were too into the stranger's luscious face to even notice I left you?”

She looked at me considerably. “His face was pretty luscious, wasn't it?”

“Sarcasm.”

“But it's true!” We were heading back to her car which was parked a couple streets down. “His name is Brandon. I got his number.”

“Poor Jay.” I shook my head. Jay was her thirty-year old boyfriend. I wholeheartedly loved spending time with Stephanie, but sometimes she acted as though no one else's feelings mattered but hers. And this was a nice getaway from the things I could not get away from.

“Hey.” She bumped her hip lightly against mine. “Brandon could become my best friend. Like you and Bruno.”

“Right,” I said. We stopped at the at the street, waiting for the crossing light to turn green. Stephanie mumbled quietly, “I know you like him, by the way.”

I was immediately sent into a panic. “It's noticeable?”

“I knew it.” She smiled. “But no, not really. You hide your feelings pretty well. I had to do some major investigating.”

“Investigating?” We crossed the road  with some other people walking with us. “What do you mean?”

“At first I really thought you only liked him as a friend but you hang out with him all the time and the way you look at him. . .”

We were on the street that was lined with the car meters, the Lexus waiting for us. “How do I look at him?” I asked, trying to play nonchalant. What she was telling me was actually making me nervous.

“The look people give when you're in love with them, I don't know.” We got into the car. “I'm hurt that you didn't tell me, though. I'm your best friend, we do those kind of things, you know.”

“You're right.” I sighed. “I'm sorry. It's just that. . .” He doesn't like me back and I feel pretty pathetic.

“What?” Steph asked.