Who: Lee and Josh Where: Winston-Salem, North Carolina When: Night-ish What: After the day at the tattoo studio, Josh and Lee prove they can get along, for once. Rating: PG-13 for language Status: Complete
Josh sat in a chair at a table in the cramped kitchen at Lee's house, his limbs splayed loosely. He was exhausted after what had turned out to be a long and rather nerve wracking day. After accidentally insulting Mr. Conway, he managed to keep out of trouble but he mostly gave Lee's father a wide berth. It was interesting - Josh wanted to photograph the man but he scared him. Now though, he was glad the day was done. After watching the artists at work for awhile, Josh took some test shots before eventually settling down to the actual work and what he'd been able to get was pretty good. Tomorrow, he'd try working with a film camera in addition to digital, he decided.
Lee interrupted his plans by setting a mug of coffee in front of him and he smiled gratefully. A swallow of the strong coffee made him feel better immediately and Josh reached down to pick up his camera case at feet. "You want to see what I took today?"
"Sure." Lee pulled a knee up and rested the flat of her foot on the seat of the chair. A fan in the window sent the scent of coffee swirling through the kitchen, and though the night was warm neither of them seemed to be questioning the wisdom of their hot beverages. Rather, Lee was grateful for it; it was relaxing after spending the day trying to keep Josh from pissing people off or getting in their way, which was much easier said than done. He was like a puppy, all overlarge paws and tail and eagerness. Somehow, though, by the end of the day they'd all managed to find a rhythm, reassuring her that the next day wouldn't be quite as stressful.
Josh pulled out his good camera, turning it on and setting it to view pictures, rather than taking them. "Here," he handed over the camera. "The arrows scroll through. The good stuff is towards the end, everything in the beginning are just test shots." He'd gotten a good selection today; Lee's friend who worked the counter, Mike who let him watching tattooing and was the first to let him photograph the process, people in the lobby. One of the best was nearly last, a girl in her bra, admiring the new tattoo on her rib cage in the mirror. He'd captured both her and her reflection in the shot, even changing lenses to give it a fish eye perspective as if the world was restricted to only herself. "They're not cropped or anything. I want to get a picture of your dad but I think he might hurt me."
Lee scrolled through the pictures, making appreciative noises and pointing out her favorites. The one of the girl with the rib cage tattoo was especially well done; she could see what he'd been trying to tell her dad about, the emotion and meaning of the tattoo experience. "These are really good, Josh," she told him, handing the camera back. "But don't tell me you're scared of Daddy! He ain't never hurt nobody." Lee knew her dad was skeptical of Josh, the wealthy California kid with the nice car and fancy equipment. But they'd just gotten off on the wrong foot was all she could figure. Tomorrow would be better.
Josh shrugged. "He might just glare at me so hard he breaks my lens." He still had a couple of days to build up his nerve, he'd get the picture. "How about I shoot you instead." A press of button switched his camera from view to photograph and he quickly snapped off a couple. "Smile pretty for the camera."
Smile pretty, yeah right. Lee was pretty sure there was no such thing in photographs of her, so she stuck her tongue out at him instead. "Why're you takin' pictures of me? I ain't gettin' a tattoo."
"Don't question me, I'm an artist." He quickly took a picture of Lee with her tongue out, the flash illuminating the kitchen. Grinning, he got to his feet for a new angle. "Oh, extreme closeup, very nice."
Lee laughed and pretended to stick her finger up her nose the next time he pressed the shutter button. "You're gonna erase all these when you're done, right?"
"No way." He wandered around the small kitchen, snapping away. "I think this might be my next project: Habitat of a Country Girl. Sounds pretty good."
"Sounds awful." Lee made faces at him as he attempted to get pictures of her, at one point flexing her bicep in front of her so her tattoo showed and making a growling face at him. "Ain't nothin' interestin' about this habitat, that's for damn sure."
"It's your natural environment," Josh countered as she continued to make faces at him. "Do you have to make a face? I can't take one normal picture?"
She stopped making faces at him long enough to sip her coffee, then pulled both her knees up so she could rest her chin on them. "Don't know what's so excitin' about me bein' normal. I wouldn't make a good subject anyway. Never was good at sittin' still to get my picture taken."
Lee claimed that she wasn't very good at having her picture taken, but sitting still with her knees up like that was the perfect opportunity. Josh stopped messing around then, twisting his lens to adjust the focus and turning the camera to take the picture vertically. Immediately, he reviewed it. "Much better."
"If you say so." Her tone was disinterested, but secretly Lee sort of wanted to see the picture. Josh took good pictures - really good pictures. The kind that made her think wonder if it was possible to actually get a good picture of her. It was her opinion that she looked awkward in pictures, all arms and legs and flaming red hair. Not the kind of thing that made a good photograph. "Maybe tomorrow I'll take you around town; give you some more stuff to get pictures of."
Josh stopped taking pictures, walking next to Lee and leaning in towards her so that their heads were nearly level. "Okay. Here, look."
Lee craned her neck to look at the picture. With her trained artist's eye she could see that it was well composed, but that didn't stop her from disliking how she looked. Her hair was limp, her bra strap was showing, her face looked funny...there were a million things to scrutinize about how she looked. "I look retarded," she said dryly.
Josh rolled his eyes. "You do not look retarded. You look natural, it's nice." Personally, Josh didn't see anything wrong with the picture.
Lee shrugged. "You're the expert." She sipped her coffee again, holding the cup with one hand and brushing her hair out of her face with the other. "How'd you get into photography, anyway?"
Josh frowned down at his camera and gave up taking pictures, packing the camera back into his bag. "Took a class," he answered. It was true but purposefully vague.
"Like in high school? But I thought you were a baseball player." Josh's lack of answer only made Lee want to know more. There seemed to be a lot more to this rich kid than she'd originally imagined.
"So?" Josh didn't see why playing baseball meant he couldn't have taken a photography class. "Everybody had to take a fine art."
That confirmed it for Lee. There was definitely a story in this somewhere. She never had been the type to leave well enough alone, so naturally she kept up the twenty questions. "Oh yeah? So what made you choose photography?"
"It wasn't band." Since when was Lee interested in his life? She always seemed to think of him as the annoying rich kid. "Why do you care?"
"'Cause I'm curious?" Lee offered, taking a drink of her coffee. "I just spent two days with you and we barely know each other. I just thought it might be nice to talk for a bit. 'Sides, I told you about my momma, so you owe me one."
"Never thought you'd be interested - I've just been the rich kid." Josh sighed and went back to his coffee. There was no arguing if Lee was going to bring up her mother. "It was the only thing I was good at because I wanted to be. I was supposed to play baseball. My dad played, got up to Double A but it didn't work out so he went to law school. But I was supposed to make it, that's what my dad had me working for my whole life. I was supposed to take a baseball scholarship someplace like Arizona State and get drafted. I came out here instead. At least I got to pick what I was going to do for the rest of my life." Josh could count on one hand the number of people he'd told that story; a couple close friends and his last girlfriend.
Lee sait in silence, drinking her coffee and mulling over what he'd just told her. It couldn't have been more opposite to how she was raised - independence was never taken for granted; her dad always encouraged her to be her own person and choose for herself what she wanted to get involved in. She couldn't even imagine someone else deciding for her what her life was going to be. "Self-expression," she said softly, remembering the conversation that had brought them together in the first place. "You happy? Not playin' baseball, I mean. Takin' pictures instead."
Josh shrugged. "I love photography and I could do this forever. So I don't play baseball anymore, so what? I just wish everything didn't have to be so hard." Hard of course, was relative here. Compared to most people in the world, Josh had always had it pretty easy. But this had never been any choice for him and it had disrupted his life in ways he hadn't expected.
"Wouldn't be life if it wasn't hard." If there was one thing Lee knew about, it was that. Life certainly hadn't dealt her a fair hand. "But you gotta do what you want, you know? Can't let someone else live your life for you. Bet your dad's pretty pissed at you for goin' to art school, huh?"
"Tell that to my dad." Josh ran his fingers through his hair. "He's pretty much going to hold this against me for the rest of my life." Lee might have had it rough, but at least her dad liked her.
Lee shook her head. "Nah. No matter how bad you fuck up, your parents'll always love you. Learned that from my daddy - and I screwed up a lot in my life." She set her coffee cup on the table and wrapped her arms around her knees. "Daddy and I weren't always like we are now. Took a long time for that to happen. I did a lot of stuff after Momma died - ran away from home, got in fights at school...and I said all sorts of things to him. Blamed him for everything bad thing that had ever happened to me. We both had it real rough for a spell, but in the end it turned out okay. You and your dad'll be fine, too. Just gotta give it time."
Josh had a sudden urge to touch her but he didn't know how and his hands remained on the table. "You don't know my dad. He has to win all the time at everything. I came out here instead of playing baseball, so he's got to punish me so he can feel like he's won. All we do is fight when I'm home; he says I'm just ungrateful. I'm pretty much up to my ears in debt because he wouldn't pay for school. Said he didn't see the point in paying for something I could have got for free and he's not spending his money so I can take pictures at people's weddings. That's just how it is."
"So you do more than just take pictures of weddins," Lee said. "Show your dad that you're good at more than just swingin' a bat. And who gives a fuck what your dad says? He's only winnin' if you let him. You do something good with your photography after you graduate, you're the one who's won. You gotta be who you are, not who your dad wants you to be. And he if doesn't get it, tell him to go fuck himself." She laughed.
Josh laughed, grinning across the table at Lee. "Can I air mail you to California and you can tell him for me?"
Lee smiled back at him, feeling like some kind of tension had been broken between them. They were talking like friends now, which was pretty nice. "Ain't gonna fit in one of those little boxes. I ain't never been on an airplane before neither. But I could write you a script so you can tell him yourself."
"We'll just get you a big box." Josh illustrated with his hands the size of the box. "I'll pack you some snacks and everything. And then you'll have been on a plane, you have to go on a plane. It's the best way to travel."
"I'll stick to solid ground, thanks," Lee said, shaking her head. "Four wheels and a road'll do me just fine."
"Couple more days and you'll have more road; a whole 12-hours of it." Josh shook his head. That was a lot of driving. "Speaking of, I'm going to crash. I'll see you tomorrow." Josh smiled again and got up to head into the living room. He peeled his shirt off and tossed it with his stuff, hoping that he'd get a better night's sleep today than he had yesterday.
Lee nodded and watched him go, musing over their conversation. There was a lot more to the rich kid than she'd previously thought, and it was interesting. What wasn't so interesting, though, was the half-empty coffee mug still sitting on the table across from her. You can take the kid out of Southern California...she thought, sighing. "Hey! OC!" she yelled, clearly not caring if he'd fallen asleep yet or not. "I ain't your momma and I ain't your maid! Get in here and clean your shit up!"
It wasn't possible to fall asleep that fast, not on that lumpy pull-out bed but that didn't mean Josh wanted to get up. Besides, he hadn't even made a mess. Grumbling, he stood back up. "Fine." He shuffled into the kitchen, picked up his mug - hardly worth making a fuss about, he thought - and dumped the contents down the sink. "Better?"
Lee barely registered his attitude; not that it mattered to her anyway. Rich kid had a lot to learn about being a guest in someone else's house. "That thing's not going to put itself in the dishwasher," she pointed out. "Neither am I. Ain't my mess to clean up."
Josh did as he was told and put the glass in the top shelf of the dishwasher. Silently, he raised his eyebrows at Lee as if to ask if there was anything else.
Lee looked over at him, and almost immediately looked away again. For some inexplicable reason, a slight blush colored her cheeks. He'd put his mug in the dishwasher, sure - and he'd done it shirtless. And boy, did he look good doing it. Rich kid was built, that was for damn sure. But for some reason, something about seeing him half-naked felt awkward. It was unexpectedly weird, and she stared down into her coffee cup. "Thanks. I'll see ya in the mornin'."
Josh shrugged, scratched his head and yawned before he shuffled back to bed. "Night."