Nathaniel Liddell (hiddenscars) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2009-07-24 21:25:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2009-06-10 |
Photographer Turned Stalker
Who: Nate and Eliza
When: Mid-morning
Where: SO Gas Station
As much as Nate preferred to be doing other things during the day, he also realized that most of the time money was needed to do those things, which meant work. Which was where he was at the moment, standing behind the gas station counter and selling several cartons of Marlboros to an overweight, balding jackass who, even when standing perfectly still and counting out his money, sounded like he had just run ten miles in the scorching heat. After a few minutes, the guy finally handed over the damp money from his sweaty palms, and Nate rang him out before punching in the few buttons that would allow said balding, heaving jackass to pump his gas outside. After his customer waddled away, Nate pulled off the blue vest they made him wear, and announced he was taking a cigarette break. It was a quiet morning, after the early work rush, and he was going to take full advantage of it before his manager made him restock the nasty cappuccino machines.
Stepping outside with his cigarette and lighter, he walked to the edge of the brick building and lit his cigarette, his eyes finally lifting to look around the area. He wished there were some other way to make cash. Something that didn't require smelling like gasoline all day, and dealing with morons who thought buttering up to you meant a discount on liquor or nicotine. He wanted to be able to do whatever the hell he wanted, whenever he wanted. He didn't want to answer to anyone. That was the dream. And his goal. He just had to do something amazing to be able to realize it.
More than anyone, Eliza knew sometimes people did not take kindly to having their picture taken, by professionals or not. But it was sort of an urge sometimes, and today she had grown tired of picturing people, and thought a change of theme would be in order. Hence the gas station, hence the cars. It was just like taking pictures of daily life like she used to, except now the main subject was the car and not the person behind the wheel. Still, because of people not warming up to the picture taking thing, she was hidden around the corner of the Gas Station building, peeking here and there to take a picture. Cars arriving, cars driving off...If she did it right she could make really cool 'effects' with dragging and freezing, or even a panning shot or two which, if done right, were beautiful.
The cars were less than impressive but that was life. After checking out her latest pictures while leaning against the wall Eliza made the corner again and almost bumped camera-first into this guy with a lit cigarette and the look of someone who wished he was anywhere but there. No, wait. That wasn't just the look; she could feel him feeling like that. Like he'd had enough and was ready to move on to much greater things; a feeling so strong suddenly Eliza almost felt that way as well. "Whoa..." She took a step back and lowered her camera in her hands. "I'm sorry. I didn't see you." She said timidly, but already looking far more curious than she should have, and it didn't help that he was kind of gorgeous; not after the talk she'd had with Lua the day before.
Nate had been so lost in his own thoughts that it had startled him when someone suddenly appeared and bumped into him. He nearly dropped his cigarette, but managed to hold onto it with a soft curse under his breath. He looked up and shook the ash off of one hand, his gaze immediately drawn not to the girl, but to the camera she was holding. Okay, strange day number three. Weird girl taking photographs at a gas station? "What're you doing?" he asked bluntly, wiping his fingers now against his jeans. "Oil stains and ice machines aren't exactly the best kind of scenery for picture taking."
Instead of replying right away Eliza stood there wide eyed staring at him; kind of like being caught with her hand in the cookie jar, if the cookie jar were a camera. "I'm...Taking pictures?" She tried the obvious. Trying for a smile, Eliza begged to differ very softly. "Well, I take pictures of little moments in people's lives, I just needed a change of set. And I'm of the mind that in the right angle anything is interesting. Construction work is boring to most people but Lewis Hine's pictures of when they were building New York City in the 1930s turned out to be quite beautiful, for instance." She nibbled at her thumb nervously. "Plus I haven't tried freezing, dragging or panning shots in a while. But I can leave, though. If...I mean, if you work here and have the authority to tell me to go. Otherwise I'm not going anywhere." She was soft, but not that much of a pushover.
He cocked an eyebrow at her, his cigarette momentarily forgotten. "Construction is more interesting than people pumping their gas, I think." And while Nate did have the authority to tell her to leave, he didn't see any reason behind doing so. Unless he just wanted to be a jerk. But she was cute so... jerkish attitude was shelved for the moment. "I don't care if you take pictures. But if people start complaining, then yeah, you'll probably have to go." He grinned a touch and glanced behind her. "Is that why you were hiding? So people wouldn't see you?" At least he assumed she'd been hiding, since she came around the corner out of nowhere and had ran into him.
With a shrug, Eliza looked away and smiled. "It's in the eye of the beholder. There are no race tracks around here, no suitable places to photograph cars without the risk of being run over, so this felt kind of an obvious choice. I really didn't want to keep taking pictures of people downtown." She confessed. Well, it got boring! Eliza had begun to realize people followed patterns most of the time. "Well, yeah I know, I'm used to that. I was planning on leaving the second someone asked me what I was doing. Which you kind of already have..." She realized, scratching her chin distractedly. Blinking up at him, Eliza smirked. "Yeah, I guess I was hiding."
Shifting his personality from grouchy to amused effortlessly, Nate took another quick drag off his cigarette, still grinning a bit at the girl. "Yeah... I'd say you looked like some kind of private investigator hovering back there with your camera, but you don't look the type." Apparently she was one of those artsy types who thought a grocery bag blowing in the wind was a 'beautiful' thing like that gay movie years ago. That was okay with Nate he supposed, as long as she didn't try to take any pictures of him. Not that anyone would want too. He wasn't much to look at. Nate tried to place her face, wondering if he had seen her before. He had. In school, he was pretty sure. She was a year under him maybe. That's what he got for not paying much attention to people around him. "What's your name?"
Eliza noticed the shift in his mood, too. Well, she had to, it kind of couldn't be avoided. "Oh, no, not that. I'm actually a musician, at heart and hopefully career. But taking pictures is a great way to unwind, and I guess I'm kind of good at it, so..." Plastic bags were probably not a great subject for Eliza, she was much more into people. People and what they did when no one was looking, which could potentially sound creepy, but there it was. "Eliza." She answered, holding out one hand.
Eliza. The musician slash photographer. She was probably in some punk band with three other girls, doing their best Paramore impression. He took her hand and smiled a touch. Eliza sounded familiar. She looked familiar. "Nate," he said, taking her hand to shake it briefly. He couldn't really remember her, so he doubted she'd remember him if they did go to school together. "What kind of music do you play?" He went back to his cigarette, interested and yet not interested at the same time.
Smiling when he told her his name, Eliza tilted her head, narrowing her eyes a tad. "You look familiar, Nate. Did we go to school together, or something?" It had to be. It wasn't like she met guys anywhere else these days. At his question Eliza drew a breath and looked up. "Um... A little bit of everything, quite a lot of classical because of school, but I'm in a band with my sister. It's kind of indie, vintage..." She shrugged. They hadn't taken the time to define the band yet.
"Uh, yeah, probably." Definitely, actually. But if she was a year younger, there was a good chance she might have never heard of him. It wasn't like he was popular. He was just well known for other things. "I graduated in '07. My grandma listens to classical," Nate said, shifting topics again and dropping his cigarette to put out under the toe of his worn sneaker. "All the time, actually. I think it's the only reason I could tell Mozart from Beethoven, to be honest." He was more into heavy metal, but that probably wouldn't surprise anyone. Angry music for an angry boy. Yeah. "Do you guys actually go out and play, or are you stuck in the garage band thing?"
Nodding, Eliza smiled. She'd thought so. "Oh, I graduated last year." Her smile grew when Nate showed he knew classical. It was impressive, not many people did, these days. "That's really cool. To be honest, it's not the ideal of what I'd like to keep playing, but I like it. It's part of the stuff I have to do for college, so I better." She joked. And if she was honest, classical didn't look his type either. "Yeah, we play. We play a few clubs here and there, weddings, parties, that kind of thing." They were lucky that way. Might have been that the two of them together amped up the cuteness. Which wasn't a very good reason for someone who wanted to play professionally.
Okay, good, she didn't really know him so that was a plus. A tad bit relieved, Nate slipped his hands into the pockets of his jeans and watched her. "Where is it that you go to school?" He figured it was good to keep asking questions. Girls liked to talk about themselves, didn't they? And being interested meant he might find out whether or not she had anything useful for him. She was pretty, so that was useful enough, he supposed. But there were a lot of pretty girls in Scarlet Oak, so he was always looking for something a little bit extra.
"University of Michigan, right here." She answered cheerfully. It meant home, and home was most definitely where her heart was. But Eliza couldn't help but notice that he knew a lot more about her than she knew about him. And Eliza was dying to know more. With a snicker, she thought she'd attempt at the oldest, most cliché question to ask at a circumstance like this. "What about you? What's your story?" Which didn't mean exactly what it sounded like. She wasn't asking about childhood memories per se.
Ah yes. Those 'stay close to home' kids. Like Danny. Or himself, he supposed, but he was still here more or less because he wasn't good enough to go anywhere else. Cocking an eyebrow at her question, he smiled faintly and shrugged, glancing toward the front of the gas station again. He wasn't a fan of answering questions about himself. Especially to virtual strangers. "It's not a very exciting one. Kinda boring actually. I work here, and I've taken a couple classes at the community college. Apparently I've exceeded people's expectations of me just by pumping gas." His voice was part sarcasm, part self-pity and he scuffed the cement beneath his shoe, feigning embarrassment. "It's not so bad. You know, it's nice staying close to home and everything."
It made sense to her in more ways than one. The UofM school of music was great, she had the band, and then family and friends. It made no sense to start everything all over again somewhere else. Eliza could tell the sarcasm was masking some sort of righteous anger about the exceeding expectations thing. Snickering, she tilted her head again. "You know, people's expectations can go, um, screw themselves in my humble opinion. What a thing to say! Who told you that?" Because she didn't believe he thought about himself that way. Just like she didn't believe he was all that attached to home. "Really? You seem like the type who'd gladly go away in search of something more fulfilling." Everything she picked up from him amounted to something like that, anyway.
Nate flashed her a brief grin. "I think I like your humble opinion, actually. It lines up pretty much right alongside my own." With another shrug, Nate reached up to scratch at the nape of his neck. "Just this guy I went to school with. Danny Montgomery... I don't really know what kind of expectations he and his friend actually had of me, but... it doesn't really matter. I've learned not to really care what other people think." Dropping his hand back to his side, he studied her, wondering how it was she knew his type already. Maybe she was intuitive or something. Maybe she actually had a brain between her ears, unlike most attractive girls. "Yeah... I'd gladly go anywhere but here. But my grandma is here, and she's getting older and I think I'd feel too guilty leaving her alone. She practically raised me, so I think it's only fair I stick around for awhile."
Eliza was smiling broadly up until Nate said his name. Her smile faded into some sort of grimace, as she rolled her eyes massively. "Oh. Of course. Yeah, don't. Don't care for one second." She said, visibly annoyed. But this wasn't the time, place or person to pour out her annoyance at Danny to, so Eliza simply took a deep breath and moved on. This was made easier by the fact that she could sense some sort of curiosity towards her, which made her smirk. That was better than indifference. "Hmm. So you're kind of stuck, then. I'm sorry." Kind of a harsh way to put it, but sometimes when she sensed things Eliza didn't really talk like herself. Well, it sucked. It really did. Not that she'd know from experience, but she knew from her powers, and that was just as good.
Curious by her reaction to what he'd said, Nate found himself turning more fully toward her, forgetting about the fact that he ought to be inside working. "Yeah, I'm stuck, but it's okay. Sometimes you've gotta sacrifice for the people you love, right?" Ha. Yeah, right. "And I won't be stuck forever. I'll see the stuff I wanna see... travel. Do things. I'm still young." His lips twitched into a curious smile. "You know Danny?" He hadn't been oblivious to the face she'd made when he mentioned Montgomery and it intrigued him. Maybe there was that extra 'thing' about her that he wanted to find.
Playing with her camera, careful not to mishandle it, Eliza snickered at what he said. "You don't really mean that." Oops. Smile and nod, Eliza, dammit. "I mean, it's not as much a sacrifice as it is a trade, for you, is it? You take care of your grandmother, you have a place to stay while you get your stuff together to finally do those things you want to do. But I think it's noble that you at least take care of her. A lot of people wouldn't even bother." She said, giving him a winning smile. Well, there had to be some good in there somewhere. She snickered again when Nate asked about Danny, looking away. "All too well, actually."
He lifted his eyebrows in mild surprise at her comment. He didn't really mean that, no, but she wasn't supposed to know that. He wondered if she was a telepath. Nah. If she had been, she would have known he was lying about a lot more than that. "Yeah, I suppose it is a trade, though I feel better about it, thinking about it more like a sacrifice," he admitted with a soft chuckle. "But I guess I'll take nobility, if that's what you think. Girls like noble guys, right?" Nate rolled his eyes and shook his head with a smile. "Sorry for the cheesiness there. I don't know what my problem is." At her snicker, he felt his curiosity grow further. She knew him all too well. Which meant they'd had sex. Or maybe just dated. "Ex of yours?" he asked, trying not to make it sound too sympathetic. "I don't remember too much of the Scarlet Oak High School dating cycle, to be honest..." Maybe they had been together afterward, he didn't know. Or particularly care.
Eliza mimicked his chuckle, nodding. "I see. Whatever helps you sleep at night, right?" She teased. And then, at his comment about what girls liked, she giggled. "I don't know, it's kind of different for everybody. But I guess yeah, everybody likes nobility." Eliza saw no problem in what he had said, if she was honest. It was pretty normal to want to be liked, she supposed. "Oh yeah. Bit of a dick, actually, but you already know that." She shrugged. "I don't know, maybe I'm just bitter because I ran into him yesterday. Not pleasant." In fact she didn't know what Danny's problem was, actually.
"Yeah, he's a dick," Nate agreed, the one thing he was one hundred percent sincere on thus far in their conversation. "He and his friends used to make my life a living hell in high school. I'm not the biggest fan of his." In all honesty, Danny had never really done anything to Nate. But he was guilty by association just for being friends with the other assholes. Nate tried to curb the anger in his voice and instead released a short breath and smiled again. "Now's not the time for self pity. I think run-ins with an ex are always going to be the opposite of pleasant. Sorry you had to experience it. I hope he wasn't too big of a jerk to you."
With a nod, Eliza sighed. "I'm sorry. As someone who's dealt with them before, I'm terribly sorry for all those assholes." A group which she wasn't a part of, nor had she ever wanted to. Just because she had been Danny's girlfriend didn't mean she had to adopt his idiot friends, and she didn't. But now maybe she knew the reason why Nate seemed so...bitter. Angry. Maybe he hadn't gotten over it, few people did. Emma Jane hadn't, she still took certain things harshly and had a prompt response of equal sarcastic value. "He kind of was, kept looking at the clock and made this almost scene about cream cheese." Eliza shrugged, smiling. "Whatever. Honestly I don't know what the hell I was thinking." It was no secret.
"Cream cheese? I'm not sure I want to ask," Nate said with a soft snicker. "His loss. Take it from me, sometimes when guys lose a great girl, and they know it, rather than trying to make it better, they just become bigger jerks. Don't ask me why, I think it's just instilled inside of us." Nate smiled at her again, eager to get off the topic of Danny now that he'd had the information he'd wanted. "So what about you then? You have a new guy to serenade with your indie vintage band?"
Eliza snickered. "He didn't ring them up and then when I told him about the error he started on a tirade about how I could never just accept anything. It was pretty...idiotic, I think is the word." She joked. She wasn't going to comment on how exactly he knew she was a great girl, especially because Eliza wasn't so sure he was saying that just because. "I don't want him to make it better, honestly." She said with a shrug. Hell, if she could she would hardly ever see him again. That would be just peachy. Eliza just giggled at the question. Oh, if only he knew about her plans with a 16 year-old in need of some cheering up. "No, not at all." She answered, pouting slightly.
Nate smirked. "So he was trying to give you something free of charge and freaked out when you wanted to pay... yeah, sounds like he's still... nevermind." Anything he could have said would have been too crude to say to her at the moment. He slipped his hands into his jeans again, rocking back on his heels. Nate smiled. "What do you think of noble guys?" Maybe he was being a bit bold, but sometimes playing it coy just didn't cut it.
Giving yet another shrug, Eliza leaned her shoulder against the wall. "Don't know if he's under the impression I read minds, or something, like I'm supposed to guess this stuff." She joked again. Then, at his question, Eliza's eyebrows went up and she smirked. "Haven't met enough of them to have an educated opinion. But I'm sure they're not as good as bold and daring ones." She teased. Oh, Lua was going to have a field day of this.
Nate chuckled and looked down, rubbing at the nape of his neck again. Was she flirting with him? Maybe. He wasn't sure. It wasn't often he actually talked to a girl like this. Especially a girl like Eliza. He felt smug that she was responding, but still felt a little out of his element. "Nah, probably not as good. So... if I asked for your number, would that elevate me up into bold and daring?" He looked up at her expectantly. "Or would that just nudge me into the 'sad and pathetic'?"
Yes, yes she was. The run-in with the ex-boyfriend had somehow encouraged Eliza to go back into flirting with random boys and plotting making the ex-boyfriend jealous for her own amusement. She was 19, it was only natural. Plus, it was Summer, she had more free time and she was in no rush to fall madly in love, which meant she could do this kind of thing as lighthearted as ever. So, yes, she was flirting. Hey, he was painfully cute, there was no denying it. Wait. Not cute. Nate wasn't cute; he was more on the painfully sexy side of things. With a chuckle, Eliza tilted her head. "Yeah, probably. I don't think you'd get to the sad and pathetic state unless you somehow started crying and begging for my attention. Which hopefully you won't do. Please don't." She said quickly, with a slight giggle. Not that she thought he ever would. Holding out an open hand, Eliza gave him yet another flirtatious smile. "Give me your phone, I'll type it up."
Laughing softly, he lifted his hand to cross his finger over his heart. "I swear there will be no crying or begging." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his cell phone, flipping it open and getting it to his Contacts screen before handing it over to Eliza. "I think I'd rather hover around the bold and daring categories." Hey, he was getting another girl's number. Though this was a big different than Rowan. Rowan he wanted to teach blood magic. Eliza... well, there were other things Nate wanted to teach Eliza.
Eliza smiled softly, sighing. "I know. You'd rather die than beg or cry for anything, am I right?" Oh, she was. She totally was; otherwise she was probably ill, or something. She typed up her number and name rather quickly, with expert fingers from hours and hours of texting her best friends - especially the one who didn't talk on the phone. Once she was done, Eliza handed the phone back to Nate with a smile. "So can I ask you something?" It was standard procedure. If he said no she'd just have to get him when he wasn't looking.
"Sounds like you've got me pegged," Nate said, watching her type her number into his phone. She really had no idea what he was like. Which worked in his favor, actually. Nate took the phone back, glanced at her number and then shut the phone before sliding it back into his jean pocket. "Sure, go ahead." She could ask him anything she wanted, but that didn't mean he would answer it. Or answer it truthfully anyway.
Not quite yet but she'd work on it. Because that was how Eliza rolled. "Uh-huh." She nodded, smirking. With a quick glance down at her camera, Eliza licked her lips. "Okay, it's not a question, it's more of asking you for permission to do something. I take a picture of everybody I meet. And I know it's kind of silly, or whatever you'd like to call it, but I make no exceptions. Can I take a picture of you?" For her 'files' so to speak. Some pictures were never looked at again, some she had printed and were now displayed on her bedroom wall. Like Lua's and Gen's. Danny's had been taken down shortly after their breakup.
He stared at her for a second, wondering if she was serious. What would she want with his picture? "If you make no exceptions, why're you asking me permission?" Nate asked dryly, trying to drag out having to actually answer her. "I'm not very photogenic at all..." Not to mention he just hated getting his picture taken. He'd never done, not even in school for the yearbook. The only photos of Nate were at his grandma's house, and they were of when he was much younger.
Closing her eyes for a second, Eliza smirked. "Because it's one thing to take a picture of you from afar, it's another to take a headshot of you without at least letting you know it's coming. Come on, stop stalling." She urged, and then snickered. "I'm pretty sure you'll do fine. The photographer is fond of the subject, so you'll be fine." And, because she had no time for back-and-forths and if he refused he'd have done so already, Eliza raised the camera which, despite being digital, had a very neat viewfinder that she still used, and in less than two seconds Nate's picture was taken. "There!" She said with a winning grin. "Now you'd have to wrestle it from me."
Nate was trying to come up with a smart answer, or at least an excuse not to have his picture taken, but before he could respond, Eliza was already taking the picture. Dammit. He sighed and shot her a look. "I was taught that it wasn't polite to wrestle girls or steal their things. I bet you've got a great picture there." He rolled his eyes but grinned a tiny bit. "So you get my picture, and I get your number. I guess that's a pretty even trade off, don't you?" He was sure he could destroy her camera with magic if he really wanted to. Thankfully for her, he liked her. So far.
Giggling childishly, Eliza turned the camera back off to economize battery before looking up at Nate again. "It's not unless they want you to." She retorted casually, with a flick of her eyebrows. "Not that I do." Because really, that had been a bit forward. Or maybe her mind was in the gutter lately. "Yes, yes it is. And thank you." She nodded courtly.
His eyebrows lifted at her comment, and he couldn't help but smirk a tiny bit. Yeah, it was a little forward, but he really didn't mind it. Nate had a feeling Eliza would be a lot of fun. "I think you might want me to," Nate replied simply before he grinned. "And yeah, you're welcome." He thumbed back toward the doors to the gas station. "My five minute break has turned into.. well, this. Not that I'm complaining, but my grandma would probably kick me out if I got fired so... I should get back to work."
Eliza cracked up at his comment. Not cocky at all, no. It was true, but that wasn't the point. "Oh, really?" She teased, biting her thumb again. She nodded when he turned to go, until she remembered something and walked after him. "Yeah, but hang on. You sell coffee in there right? Or Red Bull?" She needed her little fix. She would need an intervention if it somehow affected her judgment and daily functions. "I'm not following you all needy like, by the way. I just need some coffee." She added.
"Yeah, yeah. You've become a total stalker. I've got that effect with women, I've found," Nate teased, leading her into the gas station. He got a dirty look from Cynthia, the manager, but he didn't give a shit. She wasn't going to fire him, not when he consistently worked the third shift whenever she asked him to. "We've got coffee, and Red Bull both so..." He waved in the direction of the cooler. "Take your pick."
"I'm terribly sorry for you, then." She teased back, walking into the gas station after him. Presented with both choices, Eliza decided to go for the Red Bull instead this time, and removed the camera from around her neck to stick it in her bag before she retrieved the can from the cooler. "I'll take the Red Bull." She said with a contented smile as she approached the cashier counter, already retrieving money from her never ending tote bag. Producing the right amount of change, she gave Nate a nice enough smile and cracked open the can. "Have a good day; it was very nice to meet you."
Nate grinned at her as he walked back around the counter and grabbed that ugly blue vest to slip back on. "Yeah, it was nice meeting you too, Eliza." He would be calling her soon, he knew that much. "Feel free to take pictures outside if you want," Nate told her, chuckling a bit. "There might be new oil stains that look good on film."
She wasn't planning on telling him to call her, like a lot of girls did. That was pretty pathetic. If he called, then good. If not...Oh well. Tapping her palm on the counter with a smile, while she sipped on her Red Bull at the same time, Eliza turned around to leave. "Thanks, yeah, I'll go look." She joked, waving her arm over her head without turning around. But Eliza didn't think she'd be taking any more pictures today; she didn't feel like it.