Soap

Einbahnstraße II

For more information check chapter 9

"This one looks nice enough, right?"

Frank and I were sitting on the barstools in the kitchen. His laptop was propped up on the island in front of him while a black cable led to the camera he had connected to it.
I didn't know how any of this technology worked so I was pretty surprised when Frank offered to show me the photos he had taken right away.

"No.", Frank simply said.

"Hey!", I huffed, "I know you don't like my face but we've been looking at pictures for what... an hour now? And you've deleted all of them so far."

Frank sighed and turned the laptop a little to the side so I could have a better look at the screen. Still I leaned into Frank, obviously only to get an even better sight.

"For once your face isn't the problem.", Frank said and I bit back a snarky remark.
It was one of the pictures he had taken from the side with my face looking straight into the camera.

"I don't see anything wrong with it."

"Look over here.", he said and pointed to somewhere above my lips.
"You see how your nose throws this shadow on your cupid's bow? It's not really flattering."

I moved forward a bit and followed Frank's finger to the area he had mentioned.
And he was right. The more I looked at the picture the more it looked like I had an unflattering moustache.

"Oh my god, now I see it too!"

Without saying any more Frank deleted the picture and skipped to the next.
This time it was me who sighed.

"How many pictures are there?"

"I took 136 in total. And I think there are about 80 more to go.", Frank answered as if 80 was a normal number of photos.

"Why the fuck did you have to take so many photos?"

"You see how many of them we have to get rid of. This was the bare minimum. I usually take double the amount of pictures. Can you stop complaining now?"

"I'm not complaining."

"You sure are. And now shut up and keep looking. I liked you better when you didn't talk."

I frowned.
"I talk all the time."

Frank's mouth curled into a grin as he slowly moved his head in my direction.
"You didn't with my cock in your mouth."

If Frank had been nice enough to offer me some water, I would have spat it right into his face.
How does he always know just what to say to put me off my stroke?

Just when I was about to choke on the air between us Frank burst into a fit of laughter.
"God, you should have seen your face just now. Hilarious."

I rolled my eyes and gave Frank a little shove.
He didn't fall off the stool like I hoped he would but it made him recover from his laughing fit.

"Ignoring the fact that you're an absolute bore...", Frank said when he was finally done gathering himself again, "let's keep on working."

I wanted to say something. Anything.
I didn't want him to think that he'd hit a nerve with his comment.
Hell, I didn't even know why it affected me the way it did in the first place. He was being his witty self and I should be used to his attitude by now, especially after we undeniably shared a few moments during the shoot.
But I couldn't help but think of what he had mentioned. And that it only happened because he wanted to get to my phone while I was being the lovestruck idiot.

"I can take a joke, idiot.", I said, "But just for the record, I'll never sleep with you ever again. Just saying."

"How terribly sad.", Frank joked sending another arrow to my heart but I got myself to chuckle anyways.

Something about the late hours of the evening seemed to make me emotional for no reason at all.
Or maybe I was the one with the mood swings, not Frank.

"This one is pretty good.", Frank suddenly interrupted my thinking and pointed to the next picture on the screen.
It was another side profile and I tried my best to find anything wrong with it. I wanted to look at least a little professional by giving any kind of criticism but after a few moments of mindless staring I had to give up.
I was good with a pen and paper but I simply had no experience in photography. Every picture looked good to me until Frank pointed out the flaws.

"I still think that a side profile wouldn't be good as an author's picture.", I shrugged in a last afford to say something other than 'it's nice'.

"And I think I told you not yo question me and my work. Who's the internationally known star photographer here, huh?"
He smiled and I couldn't help but smile back.

"Get off your high horse. I didn't say it's bad, did I? What I am saying is that I've never seen an author put a side profile in his book."

"Okay, then picture it. Your comic gets published and you'll hold the very first copy in your hands. And then-...
I said picture it, you have to close your fucking eyes for that, goddamnit."

Just like almost everything today, this was so unlike any experience I had had with Frank so far. This was innocent and, dare I say... fun.
I closed my eyes, still smiling.

"Better.", Frank said, "So you got the copy in your hands."

I put my hands in a position that looked like I was holding a book. I decided to play along.
"I am holding it in my hands."

"Good, Good. And now you flip through it and see your creation in all of its fucking glory. And now comes the very best part. The last page with a photo if you shot by THE Frank Iero. And you look at it and think about how glad you are that you trusted a professional to choose that picture, instead of arguing about it and having him photoshop a nasty pimple right onto your face."

My eyes shot open and I let my hands fall to my side again.
I put on my most horrified expression and playfully said: "You wouldn't dare!"

"I'm not saying I would. I'm saying I could."

"But if you can photoshop a pimple on my face you could have just photoshopped that shadow off it!"

"I didn't become a famous photographer by photoshopping my work, Gerard."
Frank raised an eyebrow like this was obvious.
I had never thought about how he worked. Like I said, I didn't have any experience with that branch of art.
But if Frank was telling the truth and none of his photos were touched up, his skills would have been even more impressive.

"So did you picture it?", he asked

"Yupp"

"And?"

"It's not a side profile kind of comic.", I shrugged and Frank groaned in mock frustration.

"What the fuck does that even mean?", he asked further.

"It means that you should have photoshopped that shadow off my face.", I answered.

Frank turned to the laptop and then back to me.
"You know what?", he said and clicked to the next photo while grinning widely, "Then I hope you got a lot of time on your hands because there are 79 more photos you should have a good long look at."

And even though I was grateful for the distraction from my thoughts, I groaned at the thought of having Frank talk shit for another hour or two.