leaps of faith and a ton of regret

Chapter One

The sun beamed through the slit of the curtain, blinding Whizzer as he laid sprawled out on his bed, the sheets now looming on his waist due to his squirming throughout the night. Sleep never came easy to him and when he finally slept he was never comfortable. He lifted his hand to rub the sleep from his eyes and move to sit up, taking a minute to blink and look around his room. Photos and paper were still scattered by the bookcase where he dropped his messenger bag the night before and the clock beside him was flashing 4:00 pm, which caused him to mentally curse himself. He pushed himself out of bed moving sluggishly towards his closet to pull together an outfit for the day. He set out black jeans, a grey button up and black brogues on his bed before moving to make coffee and run through the rest of his morning routine.

Once he was dressed he walked over to the his messenger bag and crouched down to lift the scattered photos and notes. Recently, he didn't know what was wrong with him. After he got news that his photos would be on display at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery he was struggling to pull together new work. Everything he shot he was displeased with. Sure he could have gone with using the pictures that got him noticed but it didn't feel right. Those photos were seen already, they were old news. He was finally getting his own gallery, he couldn't go in with half assed work, with work that wasn't perfect. That's why he told Marc Servius, the collector and partner at the gallery, that he could get him a gallery of twenty new pictures in a month. Whizzer would not deny that he was confident he could accomplish this, but that was a week ago. There were now three weeks remaining and he still hadn't managed to take a single photo he believed was worthy of being in a gallery.

The sound of the coffee machine beep broke him out of his thoughts. Whizzer gathered up the mess on the floor along with his bag and stood with a sigh. He tossed his bag over his shoulder and placed the mess back into it. Grabbing both his digital and film camera, he made sure he had extra film just in case, then went over to grab his thermal and twist the lid on. Before moving towards his door he patted himself down making sure he had everything he needed.

Bag: check
Keys: check
Cameras: check
Phone: check
Coffee: check

Once he was positive he had all he needed he grabbed his thermal and headed out the door.
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Marvin squinted as he walked out of the Starbucks and back onto the crowded streets of New York. He stood close to the building not wanting to step out into the crowd of rushing commuters just yet. The interview had gone as expected. He didn't doubt that he would get the job, but he wasn't sure if he wanted it. This is what my parents want for me. The words rang through his mind and he hated himself for it. For a long time he had been putting his parents dreams for him ahead of his own, which is why he stopped acting. His parents didn't believe that the arts were of much importance unless you born with the talent so they never paid for any of the lessons Marvin told them about. It's not like Marvin was bad at preforming, in fact he was questioned his senior year when he didn't audition for the big school musical. His response was that he had too much on his plate preparing for college but in reality he was just tired of his parents not showing up for any shows. After a while he felt like he was letting his parents down so he decided to go through with majoring in accounting in college rather than musical theatre.

Marvin let out a heavy sigh and pushed the thoughts of his parents to the back of his mind. When ever he thought of them he was filled with dread and fear, two things you should not feel when thinking about your parents.

He took a long sip of coffee and swallowed, pushing down the lump that was forming in his throat. He needed to clear his head and relax before he began to revel in any of his many regrets that were formed due to his parents orders.

He took a step back into the crowded sidewalk and fell in step with the rushing commuters. He knew exactly where to go to clear his head.
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To Whizzer's surprise Central Park was calm, well calmer than usual. There weren't as many kids running around or people biking, which was most likely due to that fact that it was nearing 5 o'clock and the sun would be setting in about an hour.

Whizzer walked around aimlessly, snapping photos on his digital camera not wanting to waste any of his film. He took photos of tress and falling leaves, lakes and the ducks flying out of them, each photo taken didn't seem good enough. Frustrated, he decided to move to higher ground. Soon the sun would be setting and if he got to a point high enough he could possibly get a decent picture of the sun disappearing behind the trees.

As he climbed to the tallest hill in the park he checked the battery and film for his cameras once again wanted to be prepared to use either. There was a slight breeze which tossed his hair in front of his face, causing him to push it back and wish for a head band to possibly hold it still. Whizzer took in the view in front of him knowing that this would make for a great scenery shot if he timed and set him self up correctly.

As the sun began to set he placed the viewfinder to his eye and prepared to take a shot when a man walked into view. On instinct Whizzer was going to ask if he could move but something about the other mans posture and overall body language were telling a story of its own. He switched to his film camera and prepared himself for the shot. Something about the orange tint of the sky and the silhouette of the man in front of him fit and he couldn't help but want take pictures of him. He switched back to his digital to get a few pictures but the sound of the shutter release seemed to have caught this mystery mans attention.

Whizzer continued to snap pictures for a second longer as the man turned before looking up to meet the gaze of the mystery man who didn't look please with him yet had red tinting his cheeks.