metulji - jan peteh

Photos

Hitting the ground floor, the elevator opened again, where Kris waited to greet us, clapping Jan  on the shoulder and giving me a short hug. I was high on life - the adrenaline that caused my heart to thump heavily now made my head pound with excitement. The praise we were receiving seemed endless; even Kris was now congratulating us on how well we had done, having heard the buzz radiating from Gregor.

'Cvjeticánin has done it again. And those two - just wow.' He'd said to one of the cameras; they were filming some moments for part of a new series. Once the cameras cut and were wheeled away from him, he continued. 'I'm almost glad that girl left.' I wasn't too sure who that was directed to, whether it was to me, Bojan, or just the crew in general, but it still made me smile.

Noticing my good mood, Jan had put his arm around me, resting his hand on the curve of my waist. I rested into him, my head sinking into his jacket, soaking up the moment, since I knew it was probably the only opportunity I would get to do something like this. Sure, I was exhausted, but I still made sure to accept every good word with deep thanks.

I remember looking at Bojan, who was evidently full of pride, looking so at peace that I couldn't bring myself to speak to him. He was probably off in his own world anyway, so attempting to talk to him would have had no impact. I had realised that it was probably a huge break for him to not have to play leader in this shoot, and just get to have fun and joke around with his friends.

'Where did we put those photos?' Jan asked me, snapping me out of my daydream. Collecting myself quickly, I cleared my throat and looked around the lobby, searching for the table we had been sat at prior to the filming session. 'Over there.' I stated, finally recognising the one area where the chairs were not neatly situated around the table, rather completely askew, just where we had left them. It was strange to think that less than two hours ago, we had been sat there, nobody knowing what awaited us.

Kris led the way; almost running, like he wanted to be the first to view the results. He charged in front of me and Jan, who were just walking casually due to our lack of energy, and snatched the photos before we could look.

'Don't kill me.' he held his hands up in mock surrender, invoking a laugh from Jan and a slightly more nervous one from me. The pair seemed casual, but, being an overthinker, I immediately started to spiral about what Kris was about to show us. I was smart enough to sense that the 2 photos that we had taken before weren't the cause of his sudden defensive attitude.

Seeing my expression, he quickly changed his focus to showing us the photographs, starting with the one of the group. I already knew what this one would look like - I had taken it - so I didn't fixate on it too much. Next was the photo of me and Jan. He looked particularly radiant in this - a genuine expression that was sunkissed with gentle joy sweeped his face as he looked over to me. His hands, which folded into a heart, just covered the lacy part of my top, in a clear attempt to protect me from anyone looking at us; knowing that the outline of my cleavage would have been enough to attract an unwelcome audience.

'You look beautiful.' Jan exclaimed, not moving his gaze away from the photo, taking it away from Kris to get a better look. Yet, when he did, I noticed that the brunette's hands were not empty - there were still three more photos. Exactly as suspected.

'I take it you had fun with my camera.' I joked, gesturing at the prints he was holding. I assumed that he'd taken some photos with the group to remember, and didn't want me to be annoyed with him for using my film, which I wasn't at all. I'd rather them enjoy their time together; it wasn't like the camera was expensive, either.

'We definitely did.' At that, I heard the other boys making their way over to us, chatting in Slovenian, shoving and imitating each other. 'Which one do you like best?'