Author: Frosy
Beta: burning(.)x(.)impossibly(.)x(.)bright
The Choice
Chapter 5
Friends
I arrived at the gallery later than I was supposed to and I quickly blended into the crowd, and pretended I was there from the beginning when Isabelle spotted me.
"Isn't it boring?" she sighed, "Where were you? I was looking for you for at least half an hour."
"I… was around. I wanted to take my time." I said looking around taking in the room I had before me.
"Well take your time and I will get back at you." She said and took off, murmuring about the task she had to do.
I looked around me. Everyone was dressed in formal clothing and I was glad I had picked my little black dress to wear.
There were a lot of people talking and admiring the exhibits but it was too crowded and it was making my transition from one exhibit to the other hard.
I looked at the pictures and saw wonderful landscapes from all over Europe. There were mostly mountains during the sunrise. The sun was making the mountains colorful and it filled them with life as the morning rose before them.
Most of the pictures I passed were similar as went through them, when I noticed a section at the far end of the room. There were pictures there, but they were a little different.
I couldn't point out the difference, but there was something about them. It was like when you saw a vivid painting. The pictures were talking to me, trying to tell me something about the scene I was watching. Tell me a story. One in particular got stuck with me. It was a picture of an old woman holding her grandchild smiling and playing with him.
The photographer had captured the feeling of this moment that actually made you think you were watching the scene right now.
I looked around me amazed by the photographs. Amazed by the moments that were captured here, alive, breathing through a piece of glass.
"You like them?" A velvet voice sounded from behind me and I turned to see Jace standing there with his bright eyes on me.
"Yeah, they are….." I laughed, "I don't have words. The photographer should take more credit I think." I said as I looked around me. Everyone was occupied by Valentine's photographs, while the real artist was here.
He smiled, "I don't know about that, but thank you."
I opened my mouth to ask him why he was thanking me, for but then it came to me. The name of the photographer was Jace Herondale.
"You're the photographer!" I exclaimed.
"Yes, I am." He said coming closer and the light hit his face making him brighter. He was wearing dark pants and a white shirt making his muscles noticeable and I could see a pair of black markings on his body, tracing his chest and arm.
"I wasn't expecting to find you here." He said to me.
"Well I enjoy good pictures but I came mainly because of my friend Isabelle. She works here and she kind of dragged me to come."
"I have to thank her." He said smiling once more, "So what's your favorite so far?"
I let my mind think of the pictures I had been through. The landscape pictures hadn't really thrilled me but his did and I knew which one.
"That one." I said pointing to the old lady holding a child in her hands.
"That's my favorite too," he said and nodded looking at the picture.
"I thought you didn't have the courage to go after it after all."
"I'm not. It just happened. Valentine was the one to introduce me into this world. He started with this kind of photography before he turned to landscaping, although he tries to get me onto his side, he helped me. This is the toughest you can get yourself into," he shrugged, "Anyway I had a bunch of pictures hanging around and he thought I should bring them here." He eyes travelled through his pictures with a mixture of pride and self-consciousness on his face.
"And I thought celebrities were the toughest with all their attitude and demands."
He grinned, "You're right. They are tough but everything can be fixed with a good computer and even better software."
"Do they…"I half whispered getting closer to him, "use Photoshop?"
"That's the first thing you learn if you want to survive in that area."
"Have you ever…"
"I can't tell you. I have sworn secrecy." He said mocking me and placing a hand over his heart.
"Well there goes my plan for exposing them." I said grinning too.
We kept quiet for the next few minutes looking at the photographs when he cleared his throat.
"Hey, I was thinking, do you want to go to get a cup of coffee?"
I turned to see his face light up as I agreed, not before looking at my watch.
Surely, it was late and a coffee at this time was probably going to keep me up but I wanted to. I wanted to spend more time with him. I couldn't explain it but I felt a certain way when I was with him and I didn't want the feeling to go away.
We ended up walking out in the street towards a small coffee shop not far from the gallery.
It had a few tables and we made our way into the furthest back corner of the coffee shop. From here, you could see the traffic coming in and out of the shop but they couldn't see us. I wouldn't have picked this table but he had already pointed us here before he left to get our coffees.
"Here you go," he said as he gave me my coffee and sat beside me in the booth.
"Thanks," I mumbled and got hold of my cup. I took a sip of it and the hot liquid warmed my body.
"I didn't know you liked photography," He said with a surprised look, "I mean for someone working in a cubical."
"Yeah, it's my guilty pleasure." I said mocking him. "But yes, I like it. Only when the emotion is captured. That's when you know that the pictures are good."
"You speak like you're in the business, a hobby of your's perhaps?"
"No, but it's like drawing don't you think?" he nodded. "I mean if a painter can capture the emotion of the moment, or into a drawing it wouldn't be difficult to do the same with photography." I said and looked away from his gaze. I took another sip of my coffee.
"You draw." He said as a matter of fact.
I nodded. "It's nothing really, just what I do in my freetime."
He smiled, "I would like to see some of your work."
"I don't think so. I mean I haven't shown my work to my friends." Not to mention Alec. Drawing was always so private to me. What was a diary to others, to me was drawing.
"Then let me know you. I want to know you and then maybe you will let me." He said smiling and I couldn't help not smiling back.
I thought of what he said. I wanted Jace to know me better and even like me if possible, but there was a thing called Alec and I wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do. I wouldn't be dating him of course but he didn't seem to me as friend material either.
"Look," I said taking a serious tone, "it's good that we met and all but my life is complicated and I'm not looking for…"
"Me either. I'm not asking to marry you. I don't even believe in marriage, but I'm sure we can be friends." He said with a question in his voice.
I smiled, "Friends it is."
The sun came in the room, making me groan and cover myself more. I hated waking up early, especially during the weekend. I searched for Alec next to me but I didn't find him. I had forgotten that now he worked on Saturdays to impress his boss. That worked fine with me though, I would have a whole day for myself to do anything I want. Writing the invitations weren't something I would call anything I wanted to do, because if it was up to me I wouldn't do them at all.
But then, I had Simon. I smiled. He and Isabelle would help me and I would spend some time with my best friend. I never admitted that in front of Isabelle but it was true. He would be the one I would go running to when I needed help and guidance. I have known him since we were babies, back then when we lived with our parents. We were next door neighbors. Of course, I have known Isabelle too from that time, but I only got to see her at school so I was occupied mostly by him.
I got up slowly swearing myself for running into the open door. I had a tendency of clumsiness in the morning so left open doors didn't help. I showered and got my things ready for when I would go to Simon's place. I could have told them to meet me here but I wanted to get out.
I got my bowl of cereal and sat down to eat. Next to me, I saw my phone vibrating. I took a close look at it and saw a text from Jace. With no intention of my own, a smile crept on my lips. I pushed it away.
Good morning friend! What about meeting me at the park for another coffee? Let's see… around 3? And if you're lucky you can see me in action…
JH
See him in action? What did that mean? I wasn't sure if I wanted to go but the park was close to Simon so…
I checked the time. Only 11 o'clock. Plenty of time till 3…if I decided I wanted to meet Jace and much more time till I get to Simon. I sighed and got up. I would write some invitations to kill some time.
I opened the box with invitations and saw the huge pile of cards. There were 200. I wasn't looking forward to writing 200 invitations but I made a deal with Alec last night. He would write half of them since most of the people coming were his family.
I slowly wrote the names with small round letters. I made sure I had the names correct, I didn't want some strangers to end up at the wedding, not that I would know everyone. I still hadn't meet Alec's parents yet, but that was because they weren't living in New York. Alec told me that we would spend maybe a week or two with them before the wedding.
I wrote a few more names but I got tired and left the rest for Simon to finish. I walked to the spare room. I don't know why, but I felt an urge to touch the piano again. I slowly ran my fingers on the keys, careful not to hit any notes as that you would result in something bad.
I had stopped playing it two years ago, when my parents died. But lately I found myself longing to press a key. It didn't matter which one but I wanted to hear that sound that used to make me happy.
I sat down and closed my eyes. I remembered all the times I used to play as a child, my parents proud listening to me giving my recitals and I smiled.
I looked at the time again and saw that it was 12, time to make some lunch and reply to Jace.
I would go to the park. Somehow, this longing for playing the piano had begun when I first met him. When I first met him something changed inside of me and not only I wanted to know him better but I wanted to do things I hadn't done in a long time. So I texted him that I would meet him at 3.