Personal Paparazzo (ft. Les Twins)

Old and New Friends

~3~

200 pictures and 1,000 commands later, from me, we were finally done with the dreaded photo shoot.

As the twins scroll through the pictures, I see a familiar head of black hair.

"Eleni?" I say jumping out of my chair and chasing the familiar figure down.

"Sumiko!" She turns around and sure enough it's Eleni. "I know that voice anywhere!"

We rush to each other and I fall into her familiar embrace. Eleni pulls back and looks at me bemused.

"Oh my gosh! Look at you! You look so grown now!" She says with her hand touching my face.

"That's because I am." I say laughing.

Eleni was a very close family friend. She's known Akeno and I since we were  teenagers going into high school. She is one of the most trusted people in my life. We started to get distant after she had to leave the country to travel or manage or something.

"What are you doing here?" I ask confused but happy.

"I'm working. By the way, have you seen some twins?" She asks looking around. "You can't miss them. They look like giant walking trees."

"Wh-Yeah. They're in there. But wait!" I stop her before she thinks to go to the the "How do you know them?"

"I work with them, Sue. I manage them." As she continues to talk the dots connect. "I left all those years ago to travel with them. Remember?" I look at her feeling stupid.

"Yeah, I guess I just forgot." I say laughing. But it stops.

"You've been working with them all these years?" I ask horrified. "Aren't they... bad?" Eleni laughs.

"I see you've read the blogs too." Elani mumbles rolling her eyes. "I'll explain everything."

••••••
"So, there was a bad misunderstanding between the twins and another photographer. The twins pissed him off so the photographer and his crew decided to spread rumors?" I run my hand down my face.

"Don't forget the fact that it was over a girl." Eleni sighs.

"Isn't it always?" I sigh rolling my eyes.

Eleni humorously laughs and I remember how much I've missed her. "That pretty much sums it up."

We sit in the break room talking about the misunderstanding. I get up to get a bottle of water from the mini fridge.

"I screwed up, Eleni." I take a gulp of the water.

"It's okay. This has happened a few times before. I'm just glad I got to tell you what's up before they actually did something regrettable." 

"We hate that word." One of the twins says poking his head in.

I jump out of my seat, spilling some of my water on the floor.

"I sorry." I believe Larry says. "We need you back in the office, Miko."

"Sure." I say getting up. "I thought I told you to call me--"

"Miko fits you better." Larry says grabbing my hand and pulling me to the office.

We walk in the office, hand in hand. When we get inside of the office, Lau and Akeno suspiciously look up from the computer. I try to get my hand out of Larry's grip but he holds on tighter. We get to the desk and he finally lets go. I start to glare at him but he pushes my curly hair away from my ear and whispers, "You thank me later."

I look up at him, my frown deepening but it lightens when I see what he's looking at. On the screen in the middle of the room, I see one of my favorite pictures from the shoot today. The twins had smiles on their faces as they embrace each other crouching. I only liked the picture because it is one of the few pictures I took that weren't faked.

As I smiled at the picture, feeling proud, my ears catch a few French phrases from the twins. I look over at them to see them looking as if they were trying to solve a puzzle. They were pointing all over the picture while arguing in their native tongue. I look at Akeno to see she's just as confused as I. She probably looks more interested than I. She's always had a thing for foreign men.

The bickering abruptly stops. I look over to the twins and see them smiling at me. Or just one of the twins smiling. That's Larry, of course.

"We like." Laurent says interrupting my thoughts. The corner of his lips quickly lift a little before he looks away. He awkwardly sticks his hands back inside of his back pants pockets; weirdly, I find it... cute.

A smirk forms on my face as I nod my head.

"Non. We love." Larry says coming up to me and hugging me.

"Larry this is weird. We just met today and we're already hugging? No, let me go." I say into his chest.

"Like I say, you thank me later." Larry says poking my sides.

I hate when I'm tickled because I see it as a weakness. Of course when Larry tickled me I caved and a few giggles escaped my mouth. I immediately straightened up my face but a small smile was left.

"A real smile?" Larry asks shocked, poking my face gently.

"Shut up." I demand while pushing him out of my face.

I look around to see Akeno and Elani catching up but what caught my eye was Laurent. He was smiling at me. I raised my eyebrow and his blank facade snapped back on. I smirk and roll my eyes.

"Let's get back to work."