Fading : SEQUEL to HOLIDAY LANES

Two

When I got to the trap house, I wasn't surprised that no one was awake yet. I left my bag by the front door and made my way up to Sam's room. I smiled at the sight of him asleep. I closed the door quietly, not wanting to wake him up, and went back downstairs. I sat in the living room and just aimlessly scrolled through my phone until someone woke up.

To my surprise, Jake was the first one awake. Jake was a friend of Sam and Colby that moved in when Elton decided to move out.

"Hey Vee, how long have you been here?"

"Two hours," I laughed.

"You could have woken us up," Jake laughed as he sat next to me on the couch.

"Nah, I figured I'd let everyone sleep."

Jake went to make himself some breakfast and I waited for more people to wake up. I kept thinking about my assignment from Emily. Something edgy. I think the most edgy person I know is the emo god himself, Colby Brock. But how can I make Colby look high fashion edgy? Currently in high fashion, you see a lot of androgynous styles and models, but I don't want to put Colby in something a little feminine. I like the way he already is edgy.

"Mars!" Aaron greeted me excitedly as he plopped down onto the couch next to me.

"Hey Aaron," I laughed, "how's the gorgeous Tori?"

"Perfect as always," Aaron smiled, "tell me about Emily Soto."

"She's a hard ass. She will completely tear apart every photo I take, no matter how good it is. Last week my assignment was to take photos of architecture and she critiqued my photos because they were 'done before', but how creative can a person get when photographing architecture?" I ranted, "she's extraordinary and all kinds of incredible but she is kicking my ass."

"Well you can't always be the famous Venus DeMarco that Elton brought to light, Mars. You have the skills and the brains to do whatever you want and be crazy successful. Don't be so stubborn," Aaron laughed.

I bit the inside of my lip, trying to figure out what to say back to Aaron. I didn't feel like I was being stubborn, I just wanted a shot to really show Emily what I could do. But what if this is my shot to show her?

"Aaron, you just gave me an amazing idea."

I grabbed my camera bag and jogged up the stairs and into Colby's room. I jumped onto Colby's bed, making sure to wake him up and get him out of bed.

"Get off of me," Colby groaned with a laugh before he pushed me to the floor.

"Get up, get dressed, I need you to model for me," I instructed as I opened his closet to find the clothes I had in mind for the location I wanted to shoot in.

"You're should at least take me to dinner first Vee, then you can wake me up by sitting on top of me whenever you want," Colby smirked as I threw the clothes at him.

"Shut up and get dressed," I laughed, sitting on the couch in his room.

I quickly typed a text to Sam, letting him know that I was here and where I'm going with Colby and that I'd see him in a few hours when he was finally awake.

"Let's go," Colby huffed after he was dressed.

Once we were downstairs and in my car, I began driving towards the abandoned location I had in mind. I stopped on the way to quickly get some breakfast for Colby so he wouldn't complain about me making him do this shoot.

I found a discreet place to park, being completely unsure of how patrolled the building was. I've been here once before, I shot some photos of Mike here over the summer, but this time I want to go inside the building. It's an old abandoned airport, which seems pretty ideal for some edgy photos.

"I swear of you get me arrested, I will never talk to you again," Colby threatened as he looked at the building sitting before us.

"Oh please, we both know you do a good enough job of that on your own," I laughed as I walked towards the airport with my camera bag on my shoulder.

I found a broken window and moved carefully lifted myself up, trying to avoid the broken glass. I jumped down onto the dirty floor of the airport and stepped out of the way for Colby to follow my lead.

"We should take you with us exploring, you might be better at this than we are," Colby smirked as he jumped down in front of me.

"Might be?" I scoffed, "I guarantee that I am."

"College has made you so cocky," Colby laughed as we walked.

"Shut up, you know I'm joking."

"I know, so is this shoot for a class?" Colby asked as we walked.

"It's for my independent study. My assignment is to shoot something high fashion that's edgy," I explained as I searched carefully for the perfect place to take some photos.

"So why have me model instead of Sam?"

"Sam is not edgy," I laughed, "but you are."

"Fair point."

I found a long bench in the middle of an empty room. We stood there for hours that felt like seconds to me, taking photo after photo. I had gone through every lens I brought and had Colby pose in certain ways, while I just prayed I was getting at least one shot that would impress Emily. Aaron was right, not that I ever thought I was the best, but I was going to work my ass off until I had something for Emily that she would love.

"Are we done now?" Colby laughed as he jumped down from a sketchy ledge that I asked him to get on.

"Yes, we can be done," I smiled, "thank you for modeling."

"As long as there's at least one picture in there that you can let me post on Instagram, I will anytime."

We made our way back out to my car carefully and drove back to the trap house. It was after three in the afternoon and I still hadn't heard from Sam, which is weird. He normally would've at least texted me.

When we pulled into the driveway of the trap house, Sam's car was gone. Where the hell did he go?

I followed Colby into the house and went to sit in the living room. It's weird not hearing from Sam, and I don't like it.

Me: Hey, where are you?

I found myself starring at my phone, hoping to get a reply from him. If Sam is going to ignore me then I might as well go back to my dorm. I waited for a text from Sam, but one never came. I never left my spot in the living room, for hours, and got nothing. He didn't come home and he didn't answer me. What did I do?

Sighing, with a heavy heart, I gathered my belongings and left the trap house. I didn't bother saying goodbye to everyone, they knew I was waiting for Sam and they knew how much it was hurting me to not know why he was keeping me in the dark. If I said goodbye to anyone before I left, I would've cried.

Once my bags were in my back seat, I left the trap house. I don't want to drive all the way back to campus, and I'm not going to stay here. There's only one other place I'd ever go.

I drove in the direction of his house, not bothering to call first. I just wanted to be at home, with my family.

When I got to his house, I walked up to the front door and knocked lightly. Within seconds Elton was opening the front door. He looked at me confused but said nothing.

"What happened?" Elton asked as he watched the tears begin to form in my eyes.

"I don't know what I did," I cried as Elton pulled me into a hug.