think of something funny so it would be somewhat real, and the only thing that popped into my head at that moment was Nate’s ambling run toward Alicia and me earlier.
“Great smile! Keep it there while we change the background color.” The photographer’s assistant was quick as she changed the background from white, to blue, and then finally to red as the photographer snapped away with each new background.
“Alright, go ahead and change out of that and back into your regular clothes and we’ll do your other pictures. It looks like you wanted blue, red, and the book background?” the assistant asked, looking at my form.
My mind seemed blank with what I chose, so I just nodded as I stood up from the chair and headed to the makeshift dressing room again where I was much quicker getting out of the smock than I was getting into it. Glad that I had chosen a button-up shirt, I carefully lifted the smock up and over my hair and replaced it with my silk shirt. My hair was still intact. I quickly tucked the shirt into my skirt and then pulled the sides out a little. Damn skirt was skin tight and showed every little thing underneath. Checking myself in the mirror to make sure the lines of my shirt couldn’t be seen, I came out of the changing room to a completely different scene. The stool I had sat on earlier was now in front of a little table with a mirror on it, and a fake rose-looking flower was next to the mirror. I raised my eyebrows slightly, not sure what I had signed up for with the props. The assistant saw my hesitancy and led me to the stool, explaining that they wanted me to lean over the mirror and clasp my fingers together with my chin resting on top of my hands. Hoping the picture wouldn't look stupid, I sat down and did as the assistant asked. Once I was in position, she slid the fake flower under my hands. I felt like the picture was a little cliché, but they’re the experts. Right?
“Just a little bit of your curls,” the assistant said, pulling one or two big, lazy curls over my right shoulder. The woman caught sight of my ring. “Wow, that’s a beautiful ring.” She touched it lightly, reminding me that I had it on. I wanted nothing more than to pull my hand away and hide it out of embarrassment. “Did your parents give that to you?”
Feeling that the assistant was totally off base by her asking, I lied and said yes. I realized right then and there that I needed to figure out what I would be comfortable saying about being engaged once school started. That, or I’d chicken out and wear the ring around my neck again.
“OK, let’s see a great smile like before!” the assistant brightly said, stepping away. Instead of Nate’s unfortunate gait, I thought about the first time Jensen had proposed to me, which brought on a truly genuine smile of happiness instead of a huge, laughter-prone smile.
“Great!” the photographer prompted as he snapped away, “A few more scenes and we’re done.”
The assistant came over to remove the little table with the mirror and fake rose and changed the background to the one Jensen, Emery, and Jessica had all sworn by. The new background looked like a real bookcase in an old library with slightly red lighting that created a worn look to the books and the shelves they sat on. Satisfied that I'd made the right choice, I turned back around and proceeded to smile on command once more. When the last flash went off the assistant said to make my way back to where chairs were set up in the hallway. Alicia popped up when she saw me and unzipped her hoodie. I was wondering what she had chosen to wear as her shirt, but didn’t think to ask.
“How was it?” Alicia absently handed her hoodie to Nate, which he took and tossed onto the chair she’d been was sitting on. She wore a white, button-up shirt that looked like crepe paper with black flowers made out of lace. I couldn’t help but think how very classy she would have looked if she had worn a black pencil skirt instead of jeans.
“It went fine. Your family was right, the book background is cool. They did that one last, by the way. Oh,” I added, “and there are props.”
“Props? What kind of props?” Alicia wondered just as they called her name.
“You’ll see,” I teased as she lingered for a slight second and then went into the little room. I sat down by Nate and told him about posing on the mirrored table with the fake rose.
“It sounds stupid, but I’m sure it will look cool." Nate settled back in his chair.
Not wanting to spend any more time talking about the props, I changed the subject. “I did get the first comment on my ring.” I looked down and flipped it around my finger so the diamond faced down and didn’t show.
“Oh, yeah? What did you say?” To my surprise, Nate grabbed my hand and flipped the ring back up so he could get a better look. “I didn’t get to see it the other day," he explained before I was about to pull my hand away. He studied it and let out a low whistle, causing some of the other people to look at us. I pulled my hand away and sat on it.
“As you can probably guess, I’m feeling a little self-conscious,” I whispered harshly. “Nobody gets engaged in high school!”
“So, are you rethinking it?” Nate wondered, tilting his head.
I couldn’t help but catch a slight excitement in his voice. “Of course not, I just need to figure out what to tell people.”
“Well, you better figure it out quick. School starts soon. You might want to just go with the truth and own it, sista’.” It was a line that would have brought on laughter, especially given who was saying it, but he was one-hundred-percent serious. "By the way, you look really good today. I don't think I've seen you wear that skirt before. Looks amazing on you."
I could feel my face flush with embarrassment at his blatant comment. I mumbled a "thank you" and told him that I'd worn it a few times at school before and then changed the subject to what classes he was taking.
About ten minutes later, Alicia emerged and we bid Nate good luck as he walked in to get his photos taken. I couldn’t wait to ask when he was done how they made the guys look like they were wearing tuxes. I’d never thought to ask Jensen.
“You’re right about the books,” Alicia said as he took her seat. “That background looked the best, and as it turned out I didn’t have to do the table with the fake rose thing. I just told them I wasn’t up for it.”
“I never thought to say I didn’t want to do that pose,” I said, biting my lip. Now I was regretting getting that picture because I was sure it would look stupid.
Alicia went on to say that she liked the blue background best, even though the white one probably went better with what she was wearing. When it came to the smock she had the same problem I did and wasn’t sure how much cleavage to show. I had to laugh.
“I pulled it down about as far as it would go,” I said, “and I guess it wasn’t conservative enough because the woman pulled it back up. Not that I would really have to worry about showing too much off,” I added.
“I’m sure you’re enough for my brother,” Alicia joked.
My face turned red. “Alicia!” I whispered loudly, looking at other people around us to see if they had heard what she said.
“Sorry, bad joke. If it makes you feel better, I know mine are enough for James.” She gave me a look and slightly smiled.
Shaking my head at her and raising my eyebrows, I murmured, "Well, I'm no Alyna, but that’s alright."
“Hers are probably fake since her D's are obviously way too big for her body.”
Idly,
