The Photographer (Tyler Hoechlin AU)

VII

(Tomorrow at the café)

"Here's your caramel macchiato." He set it in front of me.

"Thanks." I smiled. He's wearing a black baseball cap and simple black glasses with a plain white tee and blue jeans then just simple black and white converse.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah it's just that Will and I haven't been apart from each other for more than three days since we've been friends. We pretty much moved here together."

"Well you're not alone here." He told me.

"I know, but it felt like he lived with me because he was always over at my place but now I'm gonna be alone at times."

"What if you stayed with me until he comes back."

"Tyler I met you only a little while ago and we've only had this thing for a day pretty much."

"It's one month and I'm seriously cool with it."

"I don't know. You still barely know me."

"Well that's why we are here. Tell me your story."

"I don't really have one."

"Everyone has one. Start from when you were younger."

"Well my full name is actually Rosalina Emilia Donovan. My mother is very Italian while my father is Irish, Italian, German, and English. Please do not call me Emilia or Rosalinda. People have called me Rose which is ok. Still prefer Emily though. I played a lot of sports. Basketball, soccer, track and field, and for a few years I played softball. Never had a lot of friends. I've always been that person that prefers a few very close friends than just having a big group of friends. I graduated high school with an overall 'A-' which surprised me and some of my friends but I was so grateful. My photography teacher wrote an amazing letter of recommendation for me to get into Yale and I got an interview with the Dean at Yale. It was him and the man that was head of the photography department. My photography teacher from my high school came with me. He believed in me a lot. I showed twenty-five of my best photos and wrote a bunch of things to give to them. I was in that office for six hours. Then they finally said they'd let me know in two months. So that was pretty much two weeks before school would start. A month and two days after meeting them I got an email saying I was accepted. I immediately called my photography teacher telling him I got in. Then I worked my ass off at Yale. I did find time to enjoy it though and have fun. When I graduated within two months Will and I came out here and searched for apartments and well, now I'm here searching for as many gigs as I can get."

"Wow, um just a few questions. Where are you from?"

"Michigan." I told him.

"Also, why did you barely talk about your family?"

"We aren't very close. A lot happened when I was younger." I was starting to get a bit depressed.

"If you don't mind me asking but what happened?"

"Well my parents fought a lot. Then when I was eleven and my sister was seventeen, she went through a lot and was fed up with our parents fighting. She committed suicide. We were both fed up, depressed and just overall done hearing our parents but I wouldn't go that far. I did have a thought but it went away quickly because I thought about what my sister and my friends would do without me in their life. High school was extremely rough for me but my outlet was photography. My photography started off dark and depressing but my teacher said they were amazing. He was the only person I opened up to about my troubles. People knew about my sister but didn't talk about it. Since my sister's death I guess you could say that my parents started to push me away and never did much for me. They gave me food and shelter and kept me in school but that's it. Once I went to college I was practically gone from them. I think that's one reason why I moved here. I don't even think my parents cared that I moved. Even if I did go back to Michigan I don't think my parents would care that I was back. So please don't give me a talk saying 'Just try talking to them?' because I've already heard it. So, now you know why I didn't bring up my family." I told him then took a sip of my coffee.