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Logline
A down-to-earth photographer falls for an emotionally detached musician, but must find a way to work through the growing rift between them without losing her sense of self-worth.
Blurb
Olivia Woods is conventional, down-to-earth, and composed. She's the kind of girl that goes out of her way to do the right things for others but forgets about herself. Brandon Collins is unconventional, a creative soul, and prone to eccentricity. He values facts over feelings, and his ability to detach from emotions can sometimes make him lonely.
When the universe pushes them together under unfavorable circumstances, like lovers from the past and secret relationships, they try to stay apart. But their feelings are too strong to ignore, and they become swept up in a love like they've never felt before...until their true colors start to show.
Even after their first kiss, their first touch, the first time they ever laid eyes on each other; were they destined to meet and fall in love, or was their relationship doomed from the start?
First 1,000 Words
"The story of a lonely heart that only wanted to be loved," ~ Stage 1: Naivety, Alexandra Kessler.
(OLIVIA)
Click. I snap a picture of my sister, Ella, with the waves behind her and water splashing against her feet.
The day couldn't be more perfect for a photo shoot at the beach: clear skies with small clouds scattered around, crystal blue water, and bubbling white waves. A light wind blows Ella's short brown hair back, and the Sun shines bright on top of us, giving me the perfect ambiance for the shots.
The best part? Not many people are here today, only a few surfers and couples are scattered around. And, thank God, they're respectful enough to stay out of our frames. I mean, the locals are used to seeing us here.
"Can you change poses? You've been doing the same one for the last five shots," Maia screams to my sister, losing her patience.
The wind is not being very kind to her, blowing her long, platinum-dyed hair all over the place. Surprisingly, it does look good on her, even though her natural hair is black.
"Dude, I'm no model. I've been doing this for a day, so chill," Ella raises her voice back at us. "Can you hurry and take the pictures already? I have places to be, friends to meet." She directs her question to me.
"You do understand we're doing this as a favor, right? We're not charging you because you're my sister, but this is also our job," I say to her while snapping a couple more.
The best photos are the ones taken when you least expect them, all-natural, candid. Or to use as blackmail later.
"We're done here. I took some good ones that could work for your page."
"Or maybe we could stay a little longer..." she glances back subtly. "Don't look now, but a hot guy's coming out from behind us."
Maia and I quickly turn our heads to our left, the wind blowing my long and wavy dark brown hair to the side. Subtlety is not our forte. Ella's right, walking out from the water is a tall, tan-skinned guy carrying his surfboard. He pushes his hair back and, as he lifts his head, notices our stares.
We try to play it cool and act all nonchalant, giving him a slight smile while trying to look away. We obviously fail miserably. But something about him feels familiar, though I can't quite put my finger on it.
Stopping in front of us, he asks. "Hey, you're Olivia and Maia, right? From High School? I'm Sam, by the way, Sam Walker. I'm not sure if you remember me."
I look at Maia, eyes wide open, as that familiar feeling clicks in my head.
"Oh, yeah, how are you? It's been so long, I'm so sorry we didn't keep much contact after graduation," I smile at him.
"Yeah, that's okay. I just didn't know you girls still lived here. I thought you would be long gone by now," he mimics my body language.
"I could say the same thing about you. In my head you were somewhere out there working for some big investment company or something," I nudge his shoulder but he tenses up a little. Touchy subject?
He quickly relaxes and looks down, noticing our cameras. "Aye, I see you stayed with the photography thing. What's with the photoshoot?"
"Her sister's starting her clothing line, and we're helping her with the website's content," Maia answers while pointing to Ella.
"Oh, well congrats kiddo!" he smiles at Ella and she nods her head as a thank you. "So, you work at a studio now? That's pretty cool."
"Well, kind of. We started our own company a year ago, it's called Sunkissed Studio." I take a business card out of my camera case and hand it to him.
"That's awesome, and I hope you do great!" He gives us a charming smile. "Well, I do have to go, but it was great seeing you again girls. And, Ollie, try to stay in touch this time," he winks at me and chuckles. Ollie...
We say goodbye, smiling as he jogs away, and then we gather our equipment. As we're back walking to my car, I turn to Maia.
"Sam has changed a lot, hasn't he? I honestly did not recognize him at all. Good thing that he came up to us then," I furrow my eyebrows and pull my hair behind my ear as the wind blows it.
"But how did he recognize us that easily? I mean, we were kinda friends after all but it's not like we hung out all the time. Guess we haven't changed that much, huh," I chuckle as we reach the car.
"I'm pretty sure he had a crush on you in high school," she nudges my shoulder and wiggles her eyebrows.
"No, I don't think so. He would've confessed or something at some point, right?" I shrug my shoulders.
"Are you girls done gossiping? I have to go and you're making me late," Ella flips her hair as she walks, using a quippy tone. I roll my eyes at her but keep walking.
"You're not famous yet, and you're already a stuck-up. You should be thanking us instead of whining," Maia narrows her eyes at Ella with irritation. How we managed to survive living together without murdering each other is beyond me.
* * *
I carry a tray of what can only be a laughable attempt at homemade cappuccinos and place it on our ceramic coffee table. We take a seat on the sofas, spread out between the two of them but still facing each other. I pull one of our light brown blankets over my flannel pajamas.
If you didn't know us, you would think we were boring: wearing matching pajamas on Friday nights, talking about our week, making our plans for Spring Break. But this is our thing, our sacred tradition—sitting together once a week and talking about everything.
"So, a new guy came to school this week," Ella blurts out with eagerness. "His name is Noah Miller, and I think he transferred from New York or something. And he's so, so nice. We got paired up for Science Lab three days ago, and we got along pretty well."
"Oh, really?? Go on, do tell." Maia perks up her head on her knees.
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