Life Through a Lense

Chapter Eighteen

An unfamiliar number flashed across my screen for the fifth time today. Finally deciding that it might be Ivy trying to reach me because she lost her phone or something, I finally decided to pick up. 

"Hello?" I answered.

 "Hi, Dana Montgomery?" 

"Yeah..." I responded a little warily. 

"It's Tracy...Chris's aunt," the voice clarified. 

"Oh hi," I said, curious as to what she was calling me about. Maybe she was calling to tell me it was the deadline soon. 

"I was calling to get in touch with you about your pictures," she said. 

"Oh, yeah...I'm sorry-

"Sorry?" She interrupted. "We loved them, the whole internet loved them.  Isn't your Facebook going crazy?" 

What was she talking about? Maybe she had me confused with someone else. I rarely looked at my Facebook The deadline was three days after Chris and I broke up so I didn't think it would be a great idea to send my photographs to the company where his aunt worked at. I felt like I would be overstepping some sort of silent boundaries. So, I didn't. 

"Um, I think you've got me mixed up with another person," I told her. "I didn't submit any photos to the contest." 

"Your facebook profile has a picture of you in a....ugly Christmas sweater and another lady who looks like your mom?" She asked.

 I recalled my Facebook picture. The last Christmas picture I would ever take with my mother. I hadn't gone on Facebook in months. Days of selfie posts were over. I couldn't think about complaining about traffic on my status when I had a 16 year old to take care of. Plus, I couldn't take all the sympathetic posts and messages from people I hadn't spoken to since high school or my mom's friends that I had never met. Enough people like that had shown up to our front door and the funeral. At least those people had made the effort to actually say grievances in person. I didn't need to respond to the people that sent a message over fucking facebook. There were probably at least twenty messages that had gone unanswered the last time I logged in. 

"Yup, that's me," I answered. 

"Well, your profile posted them, so maybe you just forgot about it?" She suggested. 

"Maybe...." I trailed off. "Hold on just a second." 

I logged into Facebook on my laptop. To my shock, I had a shit ton of messages, notifications, and friend requests, way more than there would be about my mom.  I clicked on the source of the notifications and sure enough, my pictures were uploaded from my account onto the Newson Mutual Insurance Company facebook page. Had I submitted these? Maybe I had submitted them while black out drunk or something. Problem is, I can barely tie my own shoes when I'm that drunk let alone download pictures from my camera and upload them to Facebook. There was only explanation...

"Ivy!" I yelled out into the apartment, but no answer. Then I remembered that I was on the phone with someone. "Hi, sorry...I completely forgot I posted them, it's been a hectic week. I didn't think I would get a call after what happened with Chris and I..." 

"What happened with you and Chris?" she asked. 

"We broke up," I told her. "You didn't know?" 

"No he didn't mention it when he gave me your number," she answered. "But knowing Chris, he wouldn't want your break up to get in the way of the contest." 

Of course, Chris was a goddamn angel. He couldn't be an asshole like every other guy I had ever dated so I wouldn't feel so guilty about falling for Tristan. Chris had never been passive aggressive with me after our last break up, unlike I had been to him. He was just an all-around decent guy, which made all of this even harder. 

"Still, I would feel weird if-

"The contest winner isn't up to me, it's up to my boss," she informed me. "But after I told her I knew you and could get a hold of you, it would be awkward if I had to tell her I got nothing. Plus, first place is twenty grand." 

Well, that certainly got my attention. 

"Wow, that is..." 

"Yeah like a third of my yearly salary," she muttered. 

"And you're saying that I...

"You won it!" She clarified. 

Paralyzed from excitement, I dropped my phone. I couldn't imagine what I could do with $20,000. Obviously, I would put most of it towards Ivy's college fund, but maybe we could actually afford to something fun for Spring Break this year since I would have it off as well. Tracy's voice broke me out of me stupor, making me pick up the phone off the floor. To my relief, the screen wasn't cracked. 

"Sorry, I dropped my phone," I told her. 

"No worries, as I was saying, all we need you to do is come down to the office to sign things and make things official," she said. 

"Of course, when?" 

"Come by anytime you're available tomorrow, does that sound good?" 

I nodded, but remembered she wasn't actually here in person to see my head motions (something that I've been doing since I was a little girl). "Sounds great."

"Awesome, then I'll see you tomorrow," she said. 

"Thanks so much." 

As soon as I heard her hang up on the other end of the line, I yelled Ivy's name again. After a couple times of calling her name, my bedroom door finally swung open. 

"What do you want?" she muttered, rubbing her eyes. 

"Did you post my pictures to the contest?" I asked, feigning a pissed tone. 

She rolled her eyes and huffed. "Yeah, what's your point?" she asked. 

"So you stole my pictures, illegally hacked into my facebook account and posted them without my permission?" I clarified, maintaining my feaux anger.

"Yup," she said with no sign of remorse in her voice. 

"Well...you just got us twenty thousand dollars!" I said, unable to keep up the act any longer. 

Her jaw dropped in an uncharacteristic show of emotion (other than annoyance at me). "Holy shit, what?" 

"I won the contest," I told her. 

"Well then obviously I get half the money...since I was the one that illegally hacked your account and made sure that your pictures were entered into the account," she claimed.

"Sure...straight into your college account," I agreed. 

She groaned. 

"You'll thank me ten years from now when you're not still paying back student loan debt," I assured her. Heaven knew I'd probably be paying off my own student loan debt until I was forty. 

"Why'd you do it?" I asked her. 

"Your stuff is good," she admitted. "The world deserves to see it. Plus, mom would want you to pick that camera back up again." 

***

Finals are over! But then I'm leaving for Cambodia for two weeks on Friday where the wifi will probably be pretty spotty. So...I'll write as much as possible before I leave! 

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