Thursday
Picture 2
Burntcore's Choice: both
Title:
Melanie sighed as she flopped on my bed. “Do you think we’ll ever be as cool as Marlon Brando?” she asked, gazing longingly at my black and white poster of Marlon on my wall.
“Maybe,” I mused. “If you stop being such a goober all the time.”
I smirked at Melanie as her jaw dropped in shock.
“Goober? Who are you calling a goober?” she demanded, throwing a pillow at me.
“Who you callin’ a cootie queen, you lint licker!” I quoted an Orbitz gum commerial as I caught the pillow and tossed it back at her.
Melanie laughed and sighed lustily over Marlon Brando’s picture again.
“They just don’t make them like they used to, do they?”
“Hmm?” I asked, as I dug through the piles of organized chaos on my desk to find a SD card for my camera.
“Men like Marlon. They don’t make them like that anymore. Hollywood just isn’t like it used to be.”
“Aha!” I crowed happily as I branished the sought after SD card. “Found it!”
“Seriously, Linds, what do you think? Do you think Hollywood is different now?”
I sat in my desk chair with a flop and pondered her question. “Of course it is. Half the shit that men like Brando got away with back then couldn’t be done now. Everyone romantisizies how things were back then but was it really that great?”
“If you feel that way about that time, why do yo have a poster of Brando on your wall?”
I laughed, “Cause he’s fucking hot! Duh!”
Melanie joined in my laughter as I swapped out SD cards on my camera. Regardless of how much of a sexist pig Marlon Brando may have been, he was still one of the finest men to ever grace the big screen.
Our laughter died down and I gathered my camera bag and lenses. Melanie said she wanted to come with me on this trip. I next assignment for my photography class was to interpret the phrase “Stillness of Color.” I wasn’t sure just how I was going to do that but we were going out to find just what that would mean.
“You ready?” I ask, as I slide the last of my stuff into my bag.
“Yep,” Melanie said, as she got up from my bed and grabbed her purse. “Where are we going exactly?”
“I have a few ideas where I think I can find something that fits... the lake is one, and possibly the arboretum. We’ll hit the arboretum first as it is closest. After we’re done, you wanna grab a bite?”
Melanie eagerly agreed, “Yes, please. I’ve hardly eaten all day.”
We ran out of my apartment and hopped in my trusty Honda Civic. It had seen better days but it still ran great and got me where I needed to go. The gas mileage couldn’t be beat for a standard combustion engine either.
It didn’t take long before we got to the college’s arboretum. Thankfully, it wasn’t that busy. As we walked around, I took a few photos of interesting things I saw but nothing really stuck out at me. Melanie even tried to help by pointing out a few things she saw that caught her eye, but nothing was working. Nothing was It. We had gotten about halfway through the arboretumwhen I realized that I wasn’t going to find what I wanted there.
“Come on, Melanie. It’s just not working here. Let’s try the lake.”
“Really? There are so many beautiful things here,” she replied, looking around with a smile. Melanie loved the arboretum, which was fitting since she was studying to be a botanist.
“There are,” I agreed. “But not what I need for this assignment.”
The drive to the lake took a little longer. We chatted easily about our plans for later that night. Melanie and I both had dates with guys from our Ethics class, the one class we both had together. This was my first date with Jason but her third with Matt. She was eagerly looking forward to how the third date shenanigans would go.
“You are such a slut,” I teased.
“What? He’s hot!” she retorted.
“Yeah, but still, that doesn’t mean you have to give it up just because it’s the third date.”
“I know that, mom, thanks,” she said sarcastically. “I really like him so we’ll just see where it goes.”
I nodded, knowing that nothing I said would sway my friend from her goal of getting into Matt’s pants. He was a good lucking guy and all but there was more to life than sex. Not much, but there was.
Finally, we pulled up at the look-out point for the lake, which was also blissfully empty. The sun had just set and colors were streaking across the sky.
“Oh my God,” I whispered. “Mel, this is perfect.”
I barely remembered to park the car and shut it off before I was out the door and setting up my tripod. I heard Melanie get out of the car and join me on the bank of the placid lake.
“Wow, that’s amazing, Linds,” Melanie whispered.
I nodded as I attached my camera to the tripod and dug through my bag for the right lens. The colors were deepening as the sun continued it’s trek across to the other side of the world. I only had moments to capture this. With a quiet snick, the lens locked into place and I began setting the aperture settings.
Gazing through the viewfinder, I watched the oranges and the blues of the sky streak against the high, puffy clouds. The placid, calm lake mirrored the image, providing a fantastic backdrop to the dead tree that stood off to the side. Finally finding my moment, I focused on the limbs of the dead tree with the last of the sun streaming behind it in glorious golds that contrasted the blues and oranges of the sunset.
Click.
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