Frustration -SERIES- [Part 2] Headphones & Reveries [boyxboy]

Chapter Eleven

'Morning,' I said cheerfully, dropping down next to Jackson the following morning in the hotel's restaurant. He had a bowl of Cheerios in front of him, but was focusing more on the open Pages document on his MacBook.

'Hey,' he said absently.

'I have something for you,' I said, sliding the photo I'd taken with his camera yesterday towards him on the table.

'Oh cool,' he said, dragging his attention away from his computer and picking up the polaroid to examine it closely. 'Whoa,' he said after a second. 'This is awesome.'

'Yeah, I really like how it came out,' I said, looking at it over his shoulder. It had framed up really well; Daniel and Philip at Chloe's head and ankles respectively to the left, Jackson and Conor carrying Sally in the middle, and Josh and Tarquin holding Rachel on the right. The sun had caused a slight light leak to fan in from the top right hand corner, and the water and horizon all looked idyllic. 'I also got some pretty cool digital shots of the aftermath if you want to take a look at them. I can edit them to make them look like polaroids if you want to use them..'

'Yeah, great, let me see.'

I pulled out my phone and accessed the photos, showing him.

'Fucking hell, dude,' Jackson said after a minute, grinning. 'These are amazing. You are so good.'

I beamed happily. 'I'll polaroid-ify them tonight. Maybe you could stick them together in like a photo booth-style strip or something, that would be cool.'

'Yeah, that's a really good idea. I'll mention it to my editor.'

'Have you told her about me taking the pictures from now on yet?'

'Yeah, I emailed her this morning. I sent her some of your portfolio work so she could see what you can do. She's pretty happy. She said, "He's a better photographer",' he added, grinning.

'Sweet. So what are you guys up to for today?'

'I think Sally and Rachel are going shopping with Chloe,' he said warily. 'So that's about nine maxed-out credit cards in the pipeline. Josh and I were talking about maybe getting the boat out to Granville Island. It's like the Fisherman's Wharf of Vancouver, I think. You wanna come with us?'

I shook my head. 'Conor and I are going hiking,' I said.

Jackson laughed. 'You? Are going hiking?'

I nodded. 'If I'm gonna start taking this modelling thing seriously then I'm gonna have to start, you know, exercising. Why not start with Beautiful British Columbia?'

'What if you see a bear?'

'I am confident Conor will protect me from any bears,' I joked, as the boy in question finally made his way down from our room and dropped into the seat next to me.

'Oh, for sure,' he confirmed. 'As a model your face is now more valuable than mine. It makes more sense for me to take a mauling than you.'

'See?' I said to Jackson triumphantly.

'Come on, you,' Conor went on, nudging me. 'Let's get going.' I noticed he had a backpack with him, which presumably contained some snacks, bottled water, and sunscreen.

We said goodbye to Jackson and I followed Conor out of the restaurant back towards the lobby.

'So Sarah offered to get us a driver, but I told her we'd make own way. Is that cool with you? It's kind of a trek to even get there; we have to get the train to a boat, then take the boat to a bus, then take that bus for like forty minutes.'