This messed up fking dream

Smile for the camera

Jay tilted his head to try and see what was happening in Sam's mind. Her face was a deep red and she was visibly somewhere else in her mind. She quickly shook her head as to get rid of some unwanted thoughts and smiled.

"Anyways, how's your food?"

"Hmm?" Jay tried to quickly swallow what he was munching on to reply. "It's good. How about you?" He looked down on her plate. It was still full, maybe two or three fries had been eaten. He frowned concerned.

"Ah don't worry, I'm just not that hungry right now" she said as she took another single fry and put it gently in her mouth as if it was the most delicate food ever.

Jay sighed and kept eating. He wasn't one to judge someone's food habits. After all, his diet was based on ramen noodles, microwaved lasagna and sometimes his mom's food when he got up on time.

Sam let her gaze wander around the restaurant for a bit. Jay looked at her curious. She noticed a photo booth next to the toilets. It was like a jolt of electricity had run through her. Her eyes opened wide and her mouth turned to an excited smile. Her leg started shaking up and down rapidly. The boy in front of her quickly turned around to see the reason for this reaction.

"Oh, I guess they put it back" he added calmly.

"Put it back?" She asked.

"Yeah... Some years back they took it out because it was full of graffiti and empty bottles. And also some not so empty condoms." He stopped eating before saying the last sentence to make a disgusted face.

"Ew... Why would anyone ruin that box of happy memories?" She rested her head on her hand and stared at the pink metallic box with faded hearts painted on it.

"Ahah, happy memories..." He chuckled. She looked at him surprised. "My best memory there is when me and Ri-" He stopped himself before he could finish. Sam just kept looking. He coughed a bit and continued. "Me and Rick, a friend you don't know, came to watch a movie completely blind and then took some photos."

Jay recalled the day with great fondness. The first time they had dared to smoke in public. Rich had the joints ready and Jay was looking left and right to see if anyone was around. They were hiding behind a few cars in the parking lot, afraid of getting caught. Rich tried really hard to appear relaxed but he too was shaking as he grabbed the lighter. With ten minutes to spare before the movie started, they inhaled as fast as possible so they could still grab a snack before entering the cinema. Luckily, once they arrived at the cinema and entered the right room, no one, besides a couple kissing at the back, was there to appreciate their sweet sent of fresh weed.

After one hour and a half of laughing their asses off to corny jokes and cheesy one liners, they left. The moment they stepped out of the dark room, they saw a guard. A guard that probably couldn't care less about what two teens were doing or smoking in their spare time. Either way, Jay and Rich ran, terrified and paranoid, out to the cinema and hid in the photo booth. The photos that come out of there, only they got to see. Both made sure to keep them a secret from anyone for as long as they had some kind of shame.

Jay laughed with a slight blush on his cheeks, trying to forget the embarrassing times. Sam blinked her eyes curious to know the full story. Jay however, wasn't about to expose himself like that.

"It's nothing, don't worry"

"Oh c'mon, I want to know!" She smiled brightly.

"Trust, something's are better left in the past" He shook his head disapproving of his past actions.

Her smile dropped. Even if it was just a silly story, she still felt left out. Her urge to fill in the silence was stronger than that sadness though.

"So, Rick?"

"Yeah, he's a friend. My best friend, I guess" Jay avoided Sam's eyes. He didn't feel right lying to her but at this point what else could he do.

"Rich and Rick. That's cute. What's he like?"

"An asshole." He spat those words with resentment. Sam looked in shock. He noticed and brushed it off. "Oh, I'm kidding, kinda. He is one of the only people to put up with me though so for that cheers."

"I don't think it's hard to 'put up' with you. I'd argue that you actually make for a lovely company." She laughed quietly. Jay smiled, not expecting the compliment. He was used to making self-deprecating jokes, but he was not used to having someone fight them back.

"But you put up with anything if it's... Well... Me" He thought for a bit before correcting 'Rich' for 'me'.

"That's because you're you! And you are just the kindest, most amazing person in the world!"She spoke as if it was an obvious truth. Jay couldn't tell if she was joking or not but he didn't want to risk finding out.

"Do you want to go take a photo?" He suggested after seeing that she kept eyeballing the photo booth.

She just nodded with a big smile and got up from the table. She walked happily while he followed her with his usual tired posture.

She stood in front of the booth and lookee to Jay, then to the box, then to Jay, then to the box, as in disbelief of it being there. He raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth pretending to be shocked. She jumped inside and disappeared behind the dirty red curtain serving as a door.

Jay stepped in after. He looked at the energetic girl setting up a timer on the scratched and dirty screen in front of her. He closed the curtain and stood next to her. The height difference was enough for Jay to have to lean down to fit in the frame. As the timer counted down from 5, Sam fixed her hair quickly and blinked to get her eyes nice and shiny. Jay couldn't control himself and let out a wheeze at her combination of movements.

And the first picture was taken. Jay laughing with his eyes closed and holding his stomach while Sam looked at him confused with one hand Still holding her hair.

"Oh no! I wasn't ready!" She frowned. The timer started again.

"Ah sorry, do you want to do some sort of pose?" Jay asked quickly as the numbers on the screen decreased.

"Huh- just do something cute-"

And the second photo was taken. Sam making peace signs with her hands while Jay awkwardly gave a thumbs up to the camera and smiled.

"Oof, that was bad" He relaxed his face after the forced smile. The timer started again for one last time.

Sam sighed and looked down. "Let's just retake them"

Jay was not about to let Sam waste another five euros in that damn machine for three poor quality photos. He put his arm around her shoulders, pulled her close until their cheeks touched and smiled brightly with a slight blush in his cheeks.

And the final picture was taken. Sam was burning red with her eyes wide open and her mouth half open.

They left the dirty box and Jay waited for the photos to get printed. Sam just stood next to him with her left hand on the cheek that had touched Jay's and smiled.

"Ah, here they are" He grabbed the thin long paper strap with the photos and chuckled. "They look awesome!"