∞ Friday ∞
The pitter-patter of rain drops kept me company on the way to 6102 Grail Place. It was on the outskirts of Los Angeles, near the beach but not too close. I parked in the driveway of a massive office building and quickly ran up to the front doors, tearing them open.
Names of every individual using the quarters were plastered on a bulletin board next to an elevator. I scanned for Jared's name but didn't find it.
"Oh no. . ." I gasp, pulling out the napkin with the address. I glance it over and study the address, attempting to calm myself down.
I look up at the address on the wall and match the two to make sure I was at the right place; I was. Dread starts to set in as I fidgit with the paper.
"It's fine we'll just, um. I mean its only like 5:50. We'll. Just..." I mutter, pacing around, trying to think of my next move.
"Can I help you?"
I turned around to see a man a little older than me taking off his jacket. He had a scruffy little beard, dark brown eyes, and short brown hair.
"Um yeah. I'm looking for someone. Jared Le-"
"Oh! You're Dawson! Like Jared's Dawson!" the man said stepping towards me with a big smile.
I laughed a bit, "Jared and I aren't together! Just friends."
The man smiles, "Of course. I'm Shannon, Jared's brother."
I raise my eyebrows and grin, "It's nice to finally meet you. Jared talked about you a lot in Haiti."
"I don't blame him. I'm pretty great." Shannon smirks walking towards the elevator. He pushes the button to go up and motions for me to follow him, "So what's brought you here today?"
I pull out the napkin and hand it over, "You're brother told me to meet him here. Call time is 6. sharp. No explaination, just do it."
Shannon laughs and looks down at the address, "Sounds like him."
We laugh together before the elevator stops and allows us to exit on the 3rd floor. I followed Shannon to the end of the hallway where he opened the door. There were tables with stacks of pictures, and in the middle was Jared.
"Hey!" he says, popping up and walking towards us.
"What time did you get here?" Shannon asks, walking towards a coffee maker settled in the corner.
"I didn't leave. Slept on the couch." He points to the black couch with bed sheets scattered around it. "Hey Dawson!" Jared walks over to me and hands me a stack of pictures.
"What's this?" I ask, pulling a few off the top.
Jared settles back down into his little picture-nest, "Were going through all the photos I took and sorting out the bad, fuzzy ones."
"None of them are bad, some a fuzzy and give them to Jared to decide if theyre bad." Shannon said, walking over and handing me a cup of coffee.
I thank him and hold the pictures to my chest before sitting on the couch. Shannon joins me not to long after and so does Jared, but he stays on the floor.
After about 10 minutes, Shannon holds up a picture and bursts out in laughter. I look over at Jared with knitted eyebrows and he greats me with confused eyes.
"What?" Jared asks, reaching for the picture.
As soon as he looked, he too burst out in laughter. I reached for the picture to find out it was of Gavin, covered in mudd. The children were throwing leaves and worms on him.
I crack up, falling back into the couch. Gavin didn't seem to realize the photo was being taken, and if he did he would be devastated his ego was tarnished.
Jared takes the photo and walks over to the table. Shannon and I, still recovering from our fits, wipe tears away and try to find what he's doing.
Jared comes back with a frame big enough to fit the photo. He nestles it into the frame and sets it on the coffee table across from us.
"What a douche he was." I saw, folding my arms and looking at the picture.
Jared nods, "Especially to you."
I pout my bottom lip, "Yeah what the fuck? I did nothing to him."
"Maybe he hasn't gotten some in a while." Jared says.
Shannon holds back a laugh as I look wide eyed at Jared.
"Just saying." Jared said.
We laugh it off and go back to sorting photos. We share the funny ones and discard the blurry ones. The stack we were gathering was a good size, so we decided to stop for lunch.
"So whats on the menu?" Shannon asks.
Jared shrugs and looks at me, "Any ideas Dawson?"
I shake my head, "Not really. There was a little restaurant down the road a little. Maybe 5 minutes."
Jared nods and standa up, "Lets go."
He walks over to the door and grabs his shoes as Shannon gathers the coffee cups and puts them in the sink. I join them by the door and head down stairs.
As we approach the car Jared bellows, "Shotgun!"
