Fish Eyes

8

There I was, yet again, in Joy and Glee.

 Lawrence was still on the clock, technically, but I was impatient.

"I have to do my actual job, Dalia," he muttered as he adjusted something on his camera, squinting.

"Ugh. You're a bore. I'm tryna win an international competition here!"

"Do you have this amount of energy for everything?" He glanced over the camera at me. "What are the chances we even win this thing, anyway? You said it's international?"

He had on one of those Essentials hoodies with khaki shorts, opting to wear shades of brown to match the fall season. His slender legs were adorned in tube socks and creaseless Jordan 1's. He cleaned up nice for a starving artist. 

"It is."

He stopped before putting a hand on his hip and swinging his attention towards me. "You for real?"

"I hate repeating myself."

"Dalia." He paused for an unnecessarily long time after saying my name. "You have not seen a single picture I have ever taken."

He was right. I was solely being led into this endeavor by intuition; I figured he wasn't half bad if he'd been introduced to me as a prodigy.

"So show me," I gestured an arm out.

Lawrence hesitated before looking at me where I sat perched up at the bartop stool and the door he had to leave out of shortly again. He was in the middle of something, I knew, and I kept distracting him. I would've come later in the day, closer to his closing, but I was anxious for one. Two, I couldn't drive so I had to hitch a ride with Wendy when she was available after school. It was the Monday after movie night, and I'd spent the whole weekend ruminating over the possibilities and staring at the past winners of Young Art. I knew it was a long shot, but something in my gut told me to pursue it anyway.

He raised a groomed eyebrow at me. "Just go to my website portfolio."

"Your what now?"

"My website portfolio."

"Okay, Mr. Fancy," I pursed my lips at him to show I was impressed. "Where might I find this website portfolio?"

"There's a link on this place's website. I'm sure you can find it. I gotta go," he gave me one last look before he rushed out.

I murmured to myself. "You ain't that busy."

I pulled up the Joy and Glee website to find a surprisingly modern interface. I tended to underestimate my parents. They clearly had some young people on their team helping them out with some things.

 I lazily scrolled through, trying to casually browse, until I saw a headshot of a handsome face. "Lawrence Jake," read the caption.

I read through his bio briefly before finally arriving at a little link. It opened up in another tab which was struck me with an entirely different energy than the studio's website.

It was sleek and mainly black. The main page had three pictures on it, lined up horizontally. None of them featured faces. They were all pictures of Black hairstyles, ranging from braids on the left to locs on the right.

I switched back over to the Joy and Glee page to look at his studio work. Then I switched back over to his website. The images on both were vastly different.

The kid was a prodigy, that was for sure.

If it wasn't for my parents and my own failed stint with photography, I wouldn't take it seriously as a career. Taking pictures couldn't be as complicated as people made it seem.