Henry Townshend is a ghost magnet (room_302) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-04-18 11:17:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, chloe saunders, henry townshend |
Who: Henry Townshend and Chloe Saunders
What: A chance meeting while doing laundry
Where: Their apartment building's laundry room then Chloe's apartment
When: Yesterday
Rating/Warning: PG - Warning: awkward adorableness under the cut (contains links)
Status: Complete!
Laundry day was typically the day that Chloe wore her most ridiculous outfit around her apartment building. It wasn’t that she was running short on clothes, it was more for the fact that it was just easier to wear something she wouldn’t wear anytime soon. Wearing it for just a couple hours made it so she didn’t feel the need to immediately wash it because she wanted to wear it in the next week. It was a weird quirk of hers, but that’s how she ended up wearing patterned leggings and a Smurf shirt down to the laundry room and her hair up in a bit of a messy bun. Yep, she really had no shame and she was so used to looking like this when she was back in college that sometimes she forgot that she lived in an apartment building with actual adults.
Along with her laundry supplies she had brought down a couple of scripts to waste time with. After putting her clothes into the wash she moved to sit down at one of the tables and wait for the buzzer to go off. Thankfully the first script she picked up was pretty mindless and she was more than happy to lose herself in the act of taking notes on it and didn’t even notice when someone else entered the laundry room not too long after she was down there.
Henry had been doing his own laundry for about as long as he could remember. You would think this meant he had some kind of schedule or routinely set aside a day in order to do it. In that you would be mistaken. Henry was the type of individual who usually put laundry off until he almost literally had nothing to wear. Today was one of those days.
He had gotten the neon green running shorts when he was in college. It was during an event for his incoming Freshman class in order to foster some kind of camaraderie among them. Participation had been made compulsory by his dorm’s RA. The first event had been to find and wear the most obnoxious article of clothing you could. Whoever had the most obnoxious article of clothing won the event for his or her dorm. Henry had thought the shorts were fairly obnoxious looking, but that opinion had not been shared by his classmates. It had seemed wasteful to get rid of them afterwards, although Henry only wore them during laundry day. Along with the shorts he was wearing a plain black t-shirt that was about a size and a half too large for him. A Christmas gift from his mother a few years ago. At the time Henry hadn’t the heart to tell her it didn’t fit. So it too was regulated to Laundry Day Attire.
Henry preferred to do his laundry either extremely early in the morning or very late at night, when he was less likely to run into his neighbors. Over the past several months since joining Valarnet, Henry had definitely come more into his own and had become accepting and comfortable with his naturally awkward personality, but he still was not all that great in social situations, particularly situations that required him to speak with people he didn’t know. And laundry could be such a personal thing. Henry’s wardrobe mostly consisted of jeans, khakis, ordinary looking shirts (and one very bright Hawaiian shirt he wore more often than the person who had given it to him had expected). Nothing odd or embarrassing really, but he always felt as though he were being slightly judged by the clothes in his dirty laundry.
He was surprised to find the laundry room wasn’t empty at the hour he’d chosen. He hesitated a moment by the door debating if he should retreat to his apartment and wait another hour for the girl in the leggings to leave. When she did not even look up from the papers she was reading, Henry figured it was safe.
He set his basket down and went about loading one of the washers. When he was finished he reached for the bottle of detergent, and wouldn’t you know it, knocked the damn thing right on the floor with a loud bang.
There was something about reading that Chloe instantly entered into a zone where there was nothing else going on. The script wasn’t great, but it was captivating enough that she was definitely focusing on just that and her pen was dangling from her fingers just slightly as she had been tapping it against the papers earlier. The main thought in her head was that she could write something way better than this, but it seemed almost enough of a fluff piece that some big studio would buy it and drones of people would potentially come out to see it. Yeah, Chloe liked to try and think that she wouldn’t sell out with a script like that, but the story was a lot of fun to tell. The writing just needed some fixing.
The boy entering the room didn’t even register to her and she kept her head looking down at the words in front of her. So when he knocked the bottle of detergent onto the floor that part of her that she had hoped disappeared after watching numerous horror movies made an appearance. If jumping out of your skin could be truly possible then Chloe would have done it. She jolted in her seat as if she had been shocked, a whispered curse and wide blue eyes looked around the room as she tried to figure out what in the world had happened.
Those eyes eventually fell on the boy in the large black shirt and obnoxiously neon running shorts. A crimson blush grew on her cheeks as she realized that he was attractive and she was currently wearing a shirt with Smurfs on it. “Oh my god,” she spoke in a quieter voice than she intended as she lifted a hand up to her chest, “I think you may have cut my lifespan by five years.” Her heart was still thumping like crazy and she tried to steady her breathing so she would calm down from it.
Henry’s face and neck was a brilliant shade of crimson and was hot with embarrassment. He quickly bent down to pick up the bottle of detergent. He was just going to throw it back in his laundry basket, skulk out of there and hole up in his apartment until he was absolutely sure the laundry room was empty.
Of course he wasn’t going to get very far. No sooner had he picked up the bottle when the girl said something about taking five years of her life away. Henry took a deep breath and stood up. He looked over his shoulder at the girl. She was cute. Actually, sitting there in that oversized Smurf shirt, she was downright adorable. Somehow that made the entire situation worse.
“Sorry,” he said with a sheepish (and somewhat awkward) smile. “Didn’t mean to scare you. Actually, scared me a little bit too. I didn’t - uh, that is to say, I’m sorry I interrupted your reading.”
As her pulse returned to normal she was able to focus on what was going on and studied the guy standing off to the side who seemed like he just wanted to crawl into a hole and die at the moment. Chloe knew those feelings very well, so she was thankful that it wasn’t her that did something completely embarrassing this time around, but she could be nice and try to soothe him a little bit.
That was the course of act she decided to take as she dropped her hand from her chest and gave him an easy smile. Hopefully he wouldn’t go running away because she honestly couldn’t mind any company in this place because it got a little creepy and lonely when you were down here by yourself. Plus, he was good eye candy and Chloe didn’t know how she had missed running into him during her time in the apartment building, but her roommate would flip out that there was actually an attractive guy in the building.
“Oh no,” Chloe answered breezily as she gestured to the papers next to her, “Don’t worry about that. It’s just work reading anyway, so I am more than happy to be interrupted. Do you need some help with the detergent? I know they bite sometimes.” She was also about to say that she had been scared a lot worse, especially with her nightmare the other night, but that seemed like a little too much sharing during a first exchange.
The girl seemed nice. At least she wasn’t yelling at him for making a racket and bothering her. Henry’s shoulders relaxed and a bit of that crimson color started to leave his face and neck and his shoulders, which had been a little hunched up around his neck relaxed into a much more comfortable position. His smile eased as well into something less sheepish and more genuine.
Work reading? Henry had no idea what the girl did that required her to read during her downtime. Maybe she was a clerk of some kind at one of the offices in town. A law firm maybe? That sounded interesting, but clearly whatever it was the girl was reading wasn’t exciting enough to immediately draw her back.
He glanced at the bottle of detergent in his hand. Did he need help with it? He glanced back at Chloe with her pretty blue eyes and cute Smurf shirt and decided that yes, he did need help with it. “If you don’t mind,” he said. “This one seems to want to cause trouble today.”
There we go. The moment that Henry relaxed Chloe would see a change overcome him and he was much cuter when he didn’t have that expression on his face. And that smile. Why in the world did today have to be the day that she ran into someone cute? She had been here for months and only seen older people, working mothers, and a handful of creepy middle aged men since moving in and she looked like a total scrub.
Well, at least it was better than meeting a guy at the club while dressed to the nines and then revealing she really enjoyed wearing sweatpants the minute she got home. She could only go up from here, right? An easy smile stayed on her face as he decided that he would accept help from her and she may have even blushed a little bit.
Laundry room flirting was a weird science. She moved out of the chair that she had been sitting in and padded over to where he was. She took the bottle of detergent from his hands, fingers lightly brushing against his, and chuckled, “The handle is a little slippery, so I totally get why you dropped it. I’m Chloe, by the way.” Introductions needed to be made if she was going to assist him in handling his clothing and she moved to open up one of the washers in front of him.
Chloe. Even her name was cute. Henry smiled a bit more easily. “Henry,” he introduced himself. With that out of the way he could go about getting to know her a little better, especially since, you know, she was going to be touching his clothes. Oh, god! Was anything in the basket stained with ketchup or pizza sauce? How bad did did his shirts smell of smoke from the porn studio? Neither of those things would give a great first impression. Then again, dropping the bottle of detergent on the floor hadn’t exactly been a stellar way of introducing himself for the first time.
“I haven’t seen you around,” he observed casually - or what he hoped was casual. “Did you move in recently?” Truth was, Chloe could have been living in the apartment building for years and Henry wouldn’t have noticed. He wasn’t exactly the social type. He’d only met his neighbor because of the creepy hole that had appeared in his bathroom wall literally overnight. And Henry was pretty sure Neighbor Dan thought he was crazy.
Neon shorts boy now had a name, which was a good thing because she did not want to go back to her roommate to report she met a boy and she could only refer to him by the article of clothing he was wearing. Henry was a nice name and suited him quite well and it would be really easy to remember. “Hi, Henry,” she said in a tone that was almost shy when coupled with the shy smile she shot his way. Oh god. She was totally embarrassing right now, but there was something about him that made her feel like a dorky teenager again, which was probably actually a good thing.
“I’ve been here about six months or so? I graduated from school last May, so I lived in a different apartment for six months before my roommate and I decided we didn’t like it there and found this place instead,” she explained to him as she set the detergent down on the floor and made a move for his laundry basket, “I haven’t seen you around either, how long have you been here?” Please don’t let him be a weirdo that hides in his apartment with fifteen cats and sits on his computer all day. At least he had a physique that wasn’t possible if he did that. As she awaited his reply she reached into his basket to grab some clothes and throw them into the washing machine.
Henry had a collection of nicknames and Neon Shorts Boy probably was the most normal sounding of them all and he certainly wouldn’t have minded if she had decided to call him that. She was a little shy, it seemed, which actually put Henry even more at ease around her. And he found he really liked that smile, it made him smile as well.
“I’ve only been here about six months, too,” he answered her and gave her another sort of sheepish smile. “I moved in when I left my last apartment because of…” He paused for a moment. He had just met this girl, he had no idea if she was aware of what went on around here. If he started talking about waking up and finding chains on his door trapping him inside his apartment and how Revy had to come and blast him out. That might give her the wrong impression, never mind scare her. That was the last thing Henry wanted to do. “Well, let’s say I didn’t want to renew my lease. I actually like this place better. It has its own laundry room.” He chuckled.
“I graduated a couple of years ago,” he said, shifting the conversation to something a little more...normal. “What did you study?”
When he paused in his explanation about why he left his last apartment it sounded a little ominous. Right now they had strictly been in the rom-com department, but with that they could toe the line into suspense. Luckily he didn’t say that he had kept a dead body in his room or anything like that, so Chloe figured that he was probably safe. Well, at least to sort laundry with because anything else remained to be seen. “Well, it’s a good thing you came down to do your laundry today then,” she commented with a smile as she helped him sort things out.
“I studied film and television production and minored in screenwriting. I really like directing and writing,” she explained to him with a smile. Well, it was more than like because she was fairly obsessed with movies, which sometimes turned into a bad thing in relationships. It also didn’t help that her job kept her fairly busy, so she hadn’t really had time to do much dating. Not that he was suddenly asking her out on a date or anything, but she was secretly hoping for more laundry room rendezvous in the future.
“What about you?”
“Yeah, I guess it is,” Henry agreed with a small smile. Very lucky if he were to be honest here. What could have been a very embarrassing way to meet someone had actually turned out to be pretty good. More laundry room rendezvous of this nature could definitely be arranged.
“That’s really neat.” Ugh. Henry, really? Neat? Of all the compliments he could have given her about her chosen major and the first thing he came up with was “neat”? He felt a bit of that red color return to the back of his neck and quickly added: “Was that what you were reading?” He motioned over his shoulder towards the chair Chloe had been sitting in when he’d arrived. “A screenplay you wrote or are going to direct.”
Having worked at the porn studio, Henry had met a couple of directors, but he was willing to bet they weren’t the same kind of directors Chloe was, or wanted to be for that matter. So, he kept his mouth shut about knowing any kind of directors. He wasn’t ashamed of working at the porn studio, it was actually a really fun job with really fun people, but he wasn’t sure what kind of impression such a job would make.
“I studied photography and journalism in college,” he said. “After I graduated I traveled around the country for a little while doing freelance photography for various magazines.”
Neat really wasn’t that awful of a choice and Chloe honestly didn’t mind it, but she did note his blush. He blushed easily and she was amused by it because it wanted her to explore what else would make him blush. It was a little surprising that she wanted to know these kind of things already, but there was something about him that she wanted to know more about.
“Oh that?” Chloe glanced over her shoulder at the script that lay on the table, completely abandoned as of right now, “I wish. It’s just something for work. I intern over at Warner Brothers and as an intern we get to help read over scripts. It’s not a very good one, kind of a puff piece that a bit misogynistic because the guy is god’s gift to women.” She wrote scripts, but it had been quite a while since she had tried to send one out into the world to be produced by a big company. She had plans to start filming another indie/art film with some people from school soon though.
When he informed her of her major her eyes lit up, “Oh wow! That sounds wonderful. I really enjoyed photography when I was in high school. But it sounds like we’re fairly similar in wanting to view the world through the lense of a camera. Except I want to do live action and you’re more into still life. So, why aren’t you still travelling around?” Chloe would have kept that up as long as she possibly could because that sounded like so much fun.
They had reached the end of the basket and his clothes were sorted into whites and darks. She leaned over to grab the detergent from where she had set it and handed it over to him, “don’t drop it this time.” She gave him a wink as the buzzer for her clothes went off and she moved to switch hers into a dryer.
Henry stared at her surprised. “Warner Brothers? really?” How often did you meet someone who actually worked for Warner Brothers?! Even in California, it wasn’t an everyday thing. It was pretty amazing and Henry had to make a conscious effort to not completely geek out over it. “That’s awesome!” Ok, so maybe he was geeking out just a little bit. But who wouldn’t? She got to read scripts for Warner Brothers! That was cool, even if the scripts weren’t always fantastic. She still got to read for her job, not to mention that it was a job in her field of study. Not everyone was fortunate to do that in the art world. Henry always considered himself lucky he was able to support himself with his photography. Granted, after moving to California, he’d had to work at the Picture Palace, which had threatened to suck his soul out through his camera, but still…
“It’s too bad the script isn’t all that riveting,” he said as he poured some detergent into the cap to add to the wash. “But maybe with a couple of re-writes? Reel in that God’s Gift to Women Syndrome a little bit and make the protagonist a more likable character? Are you allowed to make suggestions like that?”
He poured in the detergent, closed the washer’s lid and set the cycle. Then he turned and leaned against the machine so he could talk to Chloe as she changed over her loads. “Traveling around wasn’t bad. But it can get kind of expensive. As a freelancer photographer my travel expenses weren’t always paid. Besides, it’s not exactly steady work. When I had a job, it was great, but I always had to think one or two jobs ahead. Sometimes it’d be a couple of months between jobs and that was always a little scary. Besides, I did a lot of...traveling as a kid, and I guess after a while I kind of wanted to settle somewhere, you know? My old college advisor suggested coming to California, so I did.”
“Yes, really,” came a rumbly reply as she chuckled, “It’s honestly a lot of grunt work, but it’s a step into the industry and that’s really all I care about. It’s a good company to work for and I’m enjoying what I’m learning, which is quite a bit. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get hired on full time somewhere once this internship is over even if it isn’t Warner Brothers. Or else I’ll start pimping myself out with movies and screenplays, but I still have to pay the bills.” It was all well and good to try and get your foot in the door as an actual director, but she didn’t want to do it without any any income coming in. Her reel was getting there, but she still had a few more projects to in hopes that it would start to impress.
“We can make suggestions, but they don’t always listen to us. There’s usually a couple of us reading the same scripts and we have a session where we discuss it. It’s also an internship thing - sometimes I think they just enjoy giving us the reject scripts,” that part had to be true, but Chloe was more than willing to put in the work to make a script better if she was allowed.
The washers were louder than the dryers, so she took Henry’s wrist in her hand and pulled him over towards where the table and chairs were. But instead of sitting on a chair she hopped on top of a dryer that wasn’t running and swung her legs lightly. “I’m sorry to hear that. I mean, it makes complete sense if you’re freelance. Kind of disappointing in the long run, but maybe it could potentially turn into something if you send out your portfolio to companies? But settling down makes sense,” although she had to admit that he didn’t seem old enough to be hit with that wave to settle down somewhere, but to each their own, “So, what are you doing here for a job then? And I’m not keeping you from anyone in your apartment, am I?” Oh yeah, she was fishing to see if he was dating anyone - she couldn’t help it.
“Even if it is an internship, it’ll still look good on a resume,” Henry pointed out. “I mean it's Warner Brothers. That can’t be an easy internship to get. And even if they are giving you the reject scripts to read and discuss,” he shrugged, “”it’s still good experience right? Besides, it sounds kind of fun to read scripts and discuss them.” He looked at her a little sheepishly. “Though, I guess I’m not the one reading them, so...for all I know it can get pretty boring.”
Henry let her take him by the wrist and lead him away from the noisy appliances. A goofy kind of grin was pulling at the corners of his mouth, he could feel it. Part of him just wanted to give into that goofy grin, another part of him didn’t want Chloe to think he was a dork. Then again, she was wearing a Smurf shirt, so maybe a little dorkiness on his part was ok.
He leaned against the dryer next to her. “I still do freelance work,” he said. “I just don’t do the travel anymore. People offer me a job and usually I take it. Nothing fancy. Weddings, family portraits, promo shots for clubs and businesses, headshots for aspiring actors, you know that kind of thing. I try to work on my portfolio as much as possible. Plus, I really enjoy going around town and just...taking pictures. It was something I was meant to do.” He turned and leaned his back against the washer. “Eventually I’d like to open my own studio, most of the money I make doing freelance photography I’m putting towards that. I have a day job at a...small….independent studio. Mostly I put together stills for promo posters and DVD covers, and whatever else they need me to do.”
He raised his brows at her when she asked him if she was keeping him away from anyone in his apartment. He hoped she didn’t think he went around entertaining people in a pair of neon green shorts. He laughed lightly. “No, I live alone.”
“Oh I know. I’m excited about the experience that I’ll gain. It was pretty hard to get - this place can be cutthroat around here. And I really don’t mind reading the reject scripts, but don’t worry, it’s not completely boring. Only a couple scripts have put me to sleep, but I can usually make it through them all,” Chloe assured him with an easy smile. He seemed concerned for her and she couldn’t help but blush a little bit. She really did like her internship and didn’t want to seem ungrateful at all, but she was really itching to move up into the world, but it would take time. Gotta pay your dues.
Dorky would be more than welcome. She glanced over at him over her shoulder and noticed that smile itching to get out. It just made him more endearing and she really wanted to get to see the inner Henry. She felt fairly open in how she was presenting herself since she was currently flirting with a cute boy while wearing her stupidest shirt in her closet. But he hadn’t stopped speaking to her because of it, so it seemed like things were going well so far.
She listened intently to him and a happy smile appeared on her face. He had such a great spirit about him and she really liked how he seemed to light up when he spoke about doing photography. “Sounds like you’re really enjoying what you’re doing. I think your wanderlust has moved onto just wandering around the city. This place is endlessly fascinating and you can find so many great things that you had no idea existed until you turn the wrong corner. Are you close to getting your own studio? Not to knock your day job or anything, but you seem to light up a little more when you talk about that possibly happening.” Her cheeks turned rosy when she said that and she bashfully brushed some hair behind her ear. She was reading him quite a bit and she felt a little silly voice her opinions about him, but she couldn’t help it.
The raise of the eyebrows totally indicated that he was onto her and her blush only deepened to a crimson. A laugh escaped as she playfully swing her foot over and brushed against his thigh, “Well, perfect. That means I can come over sometime and see your portfolio, if you don’t mind that is.”
Henry liked Chloe’s smile a lot. It lit up her eyes and her face. And when she blushed it was absolutely charming. They’d literally only just met, but Henry already felt very comfortable with Chloe and he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d felt that way with someone he didn’t know. He didn’t feel nervous or afraid he was going to say or do something stupid. Would it stop him from saying something stupid? No, probably not, but it didn’t seem to matter. Chloe seemed like the type of person who wasn’t going to judge him simply because he didn’t always know what to say. That made talking with her incredibly easy. Henry was usually no good at talking with strangers.
“I hadn’t thought about it, but I guess you’re right,” he said with a slight shrug of his shoulders. “Even settled here I can’t help but still wander around. Just on a smaller scale. And I have a home to go back to, which is nice.”
It was Henry’s turn to again blush a little bit when Chloe mentioned how he lit up when he talk about getting his own studio. It had been his dream since high school. It was a lofty dream and required a lot of preparation and work to not only get the space, but be established as a photographer so that he’d be able to support himself with it. He had a ways to go yet, but everyday, every job got him closer. “I’m getting there,” he said. “I have to save the money to get the space and build up my reputation more. I’m working on it. I’ve been getting a lot of jobs lately, so that’s really been helpful.”
His smile faltered a little bit when she said she wanted to come over and see his portfolio. Henry wanted to invite her to his apartment. He wanted to show her his portfolio and he wanted to sit with her and talk more. Get to know her better. But he couldn’t let her in his apartment. Not with that damn hole to the Other World in his goddamn bathroom. How the hell would he explain that to her? And even if he found a way, would she even believe him? And what if, god forbid, the hole activated again and beckoned Chloe inside.
After the fog from Silent Hill had overtaken Orange County, Henry had sworn that he would never let that happen again. That he would guard that hole and make sure no one made the same mistake he did. Even if that meant staying in his apartment forever. It had been an easy oath to make at the time, he hadn’t expected to meet anyone like Chloe.
“My apartment is a bit of a mess,” he said. Oh, god, he didn’t want to lie to her! This was not how he wanted their relationship to start. But what else could he say that wouldn’t make him sound like a psycho? “I would like to show you my portfolio though and...maybe...get to know you better...you know...talk somewhere that isn’t the laundry room?” He hoped that didn’t sound creepy. He was nervous again. He wanted her to say yes so badly. Maybe once they got to know each other, he could kind of...ease her into the strangeness that was his life.
There was so something so easy about talking to Henry. She felt so at ease around him and she was enjoying their conversation so far. He seemed to be fairly similar to her and they would probably get along really well. There as a burning desire to see his portfolio because that really was the gateway into someone’s soul. You could tell a lot by that sort of thing and everyone had their own special way of viewing the world. If things progressed with Henry she would be tempted to show him a few of the student films she had made.
“I believe you’ll get your studio,” she praised with a smile and she did believe in him. It seemed a little silly to reassure him of something when they just met, but she knew that he had the drive. There was a look about him that spoke volumes about how passionate he was. It made her wonder if he was passionate about other things as well.
He was fairly easy to read and she could sense that perhaps the messy apartment was a bit of a lie, but then he quickly followed up with him wanting to still show her his stuff. Well, that boded well and she couldn’t help but give him an easy smile. He was beginning to get nervous again and it was really sweet. “Well….I could text my roommate and she would leave the apartment for a while if you wanted to do that instead,” she didn’t want to part ways with him anytime soon. The laundry room was romantic and all, but they would be far more comfortable in her room or else she would offer to go out to coffee once their respective loads were completely finished.
She really really hoped that she wasn’t reading Henry completely wrong. She crossed her legs because crossing your fingers in front of someone was a little silly. He was sweet and she wanted to spend more time with him. It wouldn’t hurt if they moved on from his portfolio during their time together, but she wasn’t going to push for anything like that. It was most important to just spend time with him and getting to know him. Hopefully this wasn’t just the detergent in the air messing with their minds.
Hearing her say she believed he would get his studio brought a smile to Henry’s face. His parents didn’t even believe in his dream (that is if they could be bothered to remember), so it made Henry feel exceptionally good to hear Chloe said that he’d get what he wanted. It made him want to go out there and work even harder towards his dream.
He was about to tell Chloe he didn’t mind if her roommate as at the apartment. He wasn’t shy about showing his work. He couldn’t be shy about showing his photos and expect to continue to get jobs and make a reputation for himself. Then he realized what she meant. She wanted to spend time with him. Alone. Uninterrupted. His heart started to beat a little faster.
It certainly wasn’t the detergent in the air that made Henry’s smile grow. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, of course! That’d be great.” He glanced at the washer and dryer. “You know it’ll be a while before our clothes are ready. I could show you my portfolio now. That is if you want to see it now.”
Watching the evolution of emotions on his face and when he finally realized what she was implying was one of the greatest things she had seen in a long time. Her smile grew when his did and she hopped off the dryer to go check on where their respective timers were at, “How about I set a timer and we can make sure to come down here to grab things. And as for your portfolio, I would love to see it.”
Well, that and a lot more. She pulled her phone out of her back pocket and fired off a text to her roommate to see if she could borrow the apartment for a couple hours. It basically read ‘911 - hot guy - can I have apt for couple hrs? I owe you pizza and cake’ and she knew she could totally buy her roommate off with that. You weren’t friends with someone through most of college without learning what things were their achilles heel.
It didn’t take long for the beep of her phone to sound and she quickly checked to see. It was basically her roommate asking for all the gossip after agreeing. Chloe fired off one more text before look over at Henry with another bright smile, “We are in business. Let me grab my script and keys and we can head up there.” She secretly prayed that the things were picked up around her place as she made her way over to the table and grabbed her script and keyring before turning back to him and held her hand out to him. Oh it was the gateway to so many things and she wondered briefly if he was having second thoughts about how quickly this was moving and really hoped he wasn’t.
Second thoughts? No way! Since the beginning of the year (well, the end of last year if you really wanted to get down to it), Henry’d had a string of atrocious luck. It appeared as though things may be starting to go his way. Henry really liked Chloe and he wanted the chance to talk with her, get to know her and maybe get to know her a little bit more if things continued to go well.
He waited patiently while Chloe texted her roommate and asked for Alone Time in the apartment. His heart beat a little faster still when he heard her phone beep. Would the roommate be willing to sacrifice her space for a little bit? Would she be cool with Chloe bringing a guy home? All fears were put to rest when Chloe smiled so brightly at him. He grinned back at her happily and took her offered hand.
They made it up to her apartment without incident and Chloe was enjoying how easily her hand fit into his. She had shaken a lot of hands in her life and she had to say that his ranked high on her list especially since it wasn’t clammy or sweaty. Okay, she really needed to stop thinking about this. The last thing she wanted to do was over-think things and possibly muck it all up. She waited patiently outside of his apartment while he had grabbed his portfolio, which gave her roommate enough time to grab some stuff and head out of there.
Upon opening his door Henry would find a typical young adult apartment living room. There were posters on one wall and next to that wall was a large bookshelf full of movies and a handful of books. Her roommate hadn’t majored in film in college, but they had shared a love for movies. The two couches were large and incredibly plush with a coffee table made of milk crates and a large piece of glass. Things were actually picked up for once and she moved to set her things down on the coffee table. The kitchen was behind the living room and painted a sunny yellow and down the hallway from there was the bathroom and their bedrooms.
“Welcome to my place,” she gestured him to take in the room as she shut the door behind him, “We can sit where ever you want.” She was curious to if he could choose the loveseat couch or the full length couch. Once he made a move she followed along behind him, “Did you want anything? I can grab drinks if you’re thirsty or grab something for a snack if you’re hungry.”
Henry had his portfolio tucked under his arm, a compilation of the best of his life’s work, what he showed off to prospective clients and a girl he really wanted to impress, but he momentarily forgot all about it when he stepped into her apartment. The lay out was a little similar to his a couple of stories above, minus the second bedroom. He looked around at the posters and the bookshelf full of movies. He smiled, he shouldn’t have thought any different than to find a vast collection of movies belonging to someone who had majored in film. He wondered what movies Chloe liked and if they’d have a chance to watch them together.
“Thank you,” he smiled at her. “I like your coffee table. Very artsy.” He made his way over to the love seat. He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Uhm, a drink would be great, thank you.”
The coffee table compliment made her chuckle, “Aw thanks. It was mainly because we were broke when we first graduated college, but we also thought it looked artsy, so we haven’t upgraded to a real table yet.” She watched him settle into the love seat as she wandered into the kitchen and studied the inside of her fridge for a moment, unsure if what to bring to him. She realized she was taking too much time and just grabbed a couple wine coolers and some bottles of water. Might as well offer options on a first date.
After padding back into the living room she set the drinks down, grabbing a wine cooler for herself, and moving to sit beside him. She tucked her legs underneath herself as she snuggled up against him, her side brushing against his, as she reached up to tuck some hair behind her ear, “Alright, wow me with your work.” There was a happy smile on her face when she said it and she hoped that he didn’t feel pressure from that comment because she would be wowed no matter what.
Henry looked at the bottle of water and the wine cooler she had set on the table for him for a moment. He wondered if drinking in her apartment would have been appropriate or if it would have been making assumptions. However, when Chloe helped herself to her own wine cooler, Henry figured, why not? And helped himself to the remaining one.
His heart beat a little faster still when Chloe snuggled up next to him. It was a happy kind of excitement he felt growing in his chest and spreading out over him. Any amount of pressure he may have felt by showing her the best he had to offer simply vanished with her at his side like that. Henry couldn’t help the smile as it spread across his face. He put an arm around her comfortably and opened his portfolio.
The portfolio itself contained several different examples of his work. There were wedding pictures - of a certain Cinderella’s wedding that had taken place last October, no less - family portraits and professional head shots of the actors at the porn studio. There were several scenes as well, of the beach and the pier, of the crater in the park, of palm trees with their bright green fronds spread out over a brilliant blue sky. Henry took pictures of anything that struck him as interesting or spoke to him.
Sitting this close to him was making her skin tingle and she could feel the goosebumps on her skin when he accepted her and put an arm around her. She bit her bottom lip just a little as blue eyes peeked out under dark lashes to study him and then flicked back down to the portfolio between the two of them. Hands took the book and shifted it slightly so it would open between them and rest on their legs and she studied the photos critically. She knew a lot of people that considered themselves versed in photography and cinematography and when you looked at their work it just wasn’t there - that spark.
Henry had that spark. She could tell in the way he framed the photos and made the ones with subjects look so natural. They didn’t seem overly posed and you could tell a lot by the expression on their face. The wedding ones spoke volumes because the excitement and happiness was almost tangible through the picture. When she flipped the page and took in the scenery photos she gasped ever so softly. “Wow,” it was spoken in a whisper as if to almost preserve the magic in the air.
How in the hell did he not have a studio by now? How had he not been snatched up by Real Housewives of the OC to take their pictures all the time. Fingers ghosted over the photos, afraid to touch them and ruin them, and she turned her face towards his with a smile parting her lips, “They’re beautiful, Henry. You are incredibly talented.” Eyes flicked to his lips before flicking back up to his and she decided in that instant to seize the moment and leaned in to kiss him.
Henry was proud of his work and he was very pleased that Chloe liked his portfolio. Photography was his passion, his life and it made him very happy that someone like Chloe would be impressed with what he’d done.
“Thank you…” he trailed when he saw her eyes flicker down and then up again. He was sure she could either hear his heart or feel it, they were so close and it was beating so fast, but he didn’t care. He was really enjoying how close she was to him, how she felt snuggled up against him, warm and comfortable.
There was a kind of connection between them that Henry couldn’t quite explain and had never felt before. Sure, he had liked girls before, he’d had his fair share of crushes and a couple of relationships here and there, but he had never felt anything quite like this. It just felt right.
So when Chloe leaned in to kiss him he didn’t question it and didn’t pull back in surprise. He leaned in a little closer himself. He gave in to the kiss and reveled in how good it felt, how smooth her lips felt against his. A kind of joy bubbled up from within and Henry didn’t want the moment to end. When they parted he started at her, not in shock (well, ok, maybe a little shock, but she did just kiss him out of the blue), but with happy surprise. “Wow,” he murmured with a soft smile. “You must have really liked the pictures. I’ve never gotten a reaction that before.”
Fate had a funny way of bringing people to each other. It was almost as if fate decided that the “monster boy” and the “ghost girl” would possibly need each other some day in the future. Chloe hadn’t realized that Henry was the boy on the network that she had spoken to a few days ago. But she had felt the kindred spirit inside of him when he began to speak about photography - they were both creative souls that shared a similar passion. There was a definitely je ne sais quoi about Henry and Chloe really liked him.
It was new and heady and she knew her face had turned about fifty shades of read at his comment especially when he had that shocked look upon his face for a moment. Her eyes were wide and she couldn’t believe that she had actually kissed and even more so that he had kissed back! He had tasted sweet and a current had ran down her spine when they had kissed and it almost felt akin to sunshine on her face. She wanted more of it and she had to resist the urge to reach up and touch her still tingling lips.
“I really did. I almost want to hire you as a cinematographer sometime for one of my films,” Chloe admitted. She really liked how he viewed things in his photos and she was incredibly curious to see if that could translate to film. Slender fingers slid over towards his fingers and she placed her hand on top of his and she really hoped that the goofy smile she felt on the inside hadn’t translated on her face, “Do you...want to stay over for a while? I mean, my roomie will be back in a while, but you can stay for dinner and we could watch a movie and talk.” And hopefully kiss some more. Nothing else had to happen, but she didn’t want Henry to leave her just yet and she could feel herself turning into a teenager that would talk to a boy until all hours of the night.
Fate hadn’t been especially nice to Henry through his life. His parents divorce and being shuttled back and forth across the country like some kind of prize with the result being an awkward teenager who had grown into an awkward man who, generally speaking, was not particularly good around people. Then he’d moved to the OC where he’d worked his ass off for the Picture Palace, a job which had let him use his skills as a photographer, but had been a pretty crappy job all things considered. Since joining the network he’d been turned into a demon horse, unleashed Silent HIll on Orange County, been kidnapped and had his soul stolen. There were the dreams of course. Henry, the Monster Boy, dreamed of strange surreal places and monsters every other night, bumbling along as if he were being lead by the nose for some purpose he couldn’t even fathom.
He had met some good people though, made long lasting friends for the first time in his life. People he could count on no matter what and meant the world to him. And now here was Chloe, someone Henry felt a strong connection to, a kind of kinship he couldn’t explain, but didn’t need to. He wanted to spend time with her, find out if the connection he felt to her she felt as well and figure it out together the two of them.
Chloe looked so pretty when she blushed like that. Henry couldn’t help but smile. He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt this happy, this good. He reached over and brushed a bit of her hair out of her face gently.
“I haven’t done a lot of cinematography work,” he said, “but if you want, I would love to give it a try for one of your films.” It would be something new for him to try. He knew how to take direction from other people when he was hired for a job, and he also knew when it was appropriate to take creative license. If he could help her in anyway with her films, he would be delighted. Plus, it gave him the chance to work with her on something creative. The two of them together.
If Chloe had a doofy smile on her face, it was mirrored by the same doofy smile on Henry’s, and he honestly didn’t care how doofy he may have looked. He didn’t want to leave any more than Chloe wanted him to go. He could have stayed there all night sitting on her loveseat, holding her hand like some young kid smitten for the first time. And Henry was smitten.
“I can stay,” he said. “I’d love to watch a movie and talk some more. I..I’d really like to get to know you more, Chloe.” And if talking lead to more kissing, he would be more than ok with that.
Becoming a necromancer was something Chloe was going to have to face moving forward, but for the moment she had absolutely no idea about her future in the dreams. There was whispering, but she didn’t think that things actually happened in this world no matter what the crazy people on the network thought. She was going to need someone to be there and to support her as she tried to wrap her head around it and Henry could potentially be that some one. None of this was in her mind, but if she had any inkling she would want Henry to be that person because he managed to stay sane in the face of danger.
When Henry reached over to brush that hair out of her face her smile only widened and she gave him a nod, “I do want you to try. I’ve got a couple of things I might be working on soon, but we could start with something simple just to see how you like doing it.” She would not be slave driver and she wanted to make sure that he enjoyed the work before committing to a larger project. It would also be important for finding out more about him and how the two of them clicked when it came to creative endeavors.
Smitten. It was the perfect word for this. It had been a long time since Chloe felt like this about a boy so quickly. Probably since she was an itty bitty teenager and she started to crush on the pitcher for the boy’s baseball team in middle school. But at least this felt like it had substance to it and she wanted nothing more than to stay cuddled up to Henry for the next week and learning every little thing about it. She wanted to open up his soul and find out all the things that made him tick. And tonight was the perfect night to start that.
So, when he answered that he would stick around her expression beamed. Who knew that doing laundry today would lead to this path, but she was going to embrace the situation. “You can definitely do that,” she reassured him with that bright smile still on her face as she leaned in to kiss him once again. Oh yes, there was going to be a lot more kissing tonight and they would probably get around to watching a movie and talking once her roommate came home and acts of PDA would be met with teasing.