The next time Petey woke up, it was to an empty bed. Sunshine was sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed, bare feet shoved under the edge of the blanket that was halfway off of the mattress. The package had been ripped open and a handful of pictures were spread out in a haphazard semicircle around him. More were still neatly stacked in the box
As Petey crawled to the end of the bed Sunshine tilted his head back, flashing an upside down smile at his lover. Petey kissed him briefly and then propped himself up on his elbows, resting his head on Sunshine's shoulder.
"Football pictures?" He studied the picture in Sunshine's hand. It was a large, black and white print. The official team photo. Someone had gone back with a red pen, writing the names of the players in small precise letters on their jerseys, or beside their heads. The notes in the margins of the photo made it obvious that a member of a yearbook staff had once used it.
"Where did you manage to get this?" All of the uniforms were so clean, blindingly white. All of the players looked sharp. Petey grimaced. He remembered Boone ordering them to get their hair cut. They had to wear ties that day. Even Sunshine wore a tie. Coach had had to threaten to staple it to his throat though. Petey leaned over Sunshine to trace his finger over the face of the Sunshine in the photograph. A lock of long blonde hair had fallen into his eyes and his mouth quirked up into a slight smile. Sunshine had managed to weasel himself out of a haircut that time.
"Jenny sent them. You remember her. She was one of the photographers for the school newspaper."
A face flashed into Petey's mind. A small heart shaped face, framed in curly brown hair, glasses perched on the edge of her nose. She took pictures of everything.
"She called recently, asking if we wanted any pictures. She said she was spring cleaning and needed to get rid of a few of them." Sunshine waved his hand at the pile, "and these are just the ones we're in!"
"We're in all of these?" Petey knew how much Sunshine regretted the loss of the one photo album they had managed to scrape together. There hadn't been many photos in it. Their last road trip, their first apartment. The Jones family reunion. It had been lost in their last move, tucked away in a box full of records.
Sunshine put down the team photo and picked up the one lying closest to him, passing it up to Petey. "Yep."
Petey grabbed a pillow from the floor and made himself more comfortable, taking the picture. "Well it's a good thing we didn't have any plans for the day."