Snapshots

Chapter 3: Candid

Aiden was used to those funny looks and cow-eyes people made at him, which led to him being curious that Aru Shah was more on the other side.

The 'I know where you live' comment had really been something. Aru Shah was something.

"So..." she said, drawing out the 'o'. "When do we begin?"

"Now."

Aru shrugged. "Fine. Where do you want me?"

Aiden looked around his studio, before pointedly looking at the corner where the lights and camera were set up. He thought she took the hint until she opened her mouth.

"Is there anything in that corner?"

He inhaled, exhaled, inhaled again, taking as much time as possible before he answered her.

"The place with the cameras is where we're clicking the pictures, Shah."

"Obviously, I knew that. I helped everyone win the escape room Mini and Rudy went to last year."

Aiden widened his eyes. "The one Rudy didn't invite me to?"

Aru winced. "Technically, I wasn't invited either. It was just the two of them there and I was going to the park nearby. Mini invited me along."

He laughed. "Yeah, I remember Rudy telling me how annoyed he was about that. Apparently he was going to confess his feelings that day."

Now it was Aru's turn to laugh. "He's been saying that since we were fourteen. Spoiler alert, there's been no confession till date. He still thinks that Mini doesn't like him back."

"When anybody with eyes can see the blush she has whenever he's with her."

Aiden looked at Aru. Maybe they could make this friend thing work. She seemed easy to talk to once she stopped being weird and so artificially tried to look calm.

Kara coughed from the corner of the room, and Aiden blushed.

Exactly how long had Aiden been looking at Aru?

Said girl gave him a weird look from the corner of her eyes, and raised her eyebrows.

He missed the wink when he looked away.

He cleared his throat. Just when he thought he and Aru could be great friends, he did something stupid like staring at her. "Okay then, uh. Let's start?"

He mentally kicked himself, and made a mental note to ask Brynne to hit his head when they were going to meet.

Aru went towards the set-up and sat on the wooden elevation.

Their theme, as Kara and Aiden had discussed, would be closely connected to nature, almost documentary-like, where the backdrop would be the subject, and the person, the model, would add up to the photo without taking away the spotlight.

Aiden explained this to Aru, and she did not have the best reaction.

"So what? I'm just something in the photo that doesn't even have an importance?"

"No. Shah, the backdrop is the main part of the photo, yes, but you're the centre. You'll either make the photo, or break it."

Did Aiden sound weird to just him, or did his voice get shriller because of his internal panic?

Aru scoffed, and Kara gave her a long, long look.

Aiden wondered what was going on between the two sisters. They seemed to be having a mental conversation that didn't involve him, but was most likely about him, if the side glances Aru gave was any hint.

"Uh, are we just going to stand here the whole day?"

Aru and Kara looked away from each other, a resigned look on the former's face.

"Let's begin then."

Aiden nodded, before collecting a bundle of papers. "We're going to take inspiration from these pictures–"

She snatched it out of his hand as soon as he went near the wooden elevation.

"Ain't no way. The people in the photos look cool there. I won't."

"Shah, it doesn't matter how you look, because I'm the one with the camera. I can make anyone look good."

Though the photos would be hard to recreate. The girl in the photos was dead centre, with one knee up and the other leg under the first, her hands loosely hugging her knee while she looked down to the side.

The woman in the pictures was his mom, with her long dark hair styled deliberately messy, her long white dress pooling around her on the grass, while the trees in the background added up to the photo while being the main focus.

Aiden hated using the pictures his father clicked, but those were the best pictures he had with him.

And maybe his mom would give another rare smile when he showed her how he recreated one of her happiest memories.

He snapped out of his thoughts, noticing that Kara was looking at him with a lot of concern and Aru with barely hidden worry.

"Anyway, we're just going to practice some poses here. Just try to imitate my mo–the woman in the picture's poses, and we'll be alright."

Aru nodded, her eyebrows still furrowed.

"Remember." He reminded her. "Natural, not forced. It needs to look casual."

She tucked her knees below her, with one foot popping out from the side.

Her braid fell over her shoulder, and Aiden's instincts made him take his camera and click the photo.

She looked up at him in surprise, and Aiden just shrugged. "It looked too candid to not capture."

Kara looked at him as though there was something on his face.

"Let's try another pose, now, shall we?"

Aiden didn't deny that Aru was a natural. She would have easily been the next uprising model if she was older.

That being said, it wasn't as though nineteen-year-olds weren't models.

His own mom was thrown into the industry at twelve, which made her so pressured that she broke apart.

His father was there then, with soothing words and caresses that were the opposite of what he truly was. He made Malini think he was a safe haven, married her, had a child with her, and then done.

He acted as though it was a rinse-and-repeat kind of thing, moving on to another woman while still married to Malini.

Aiden almost crushed his camera while thinking about everything.

'No.' He thought. 'Focus on Shah.'

And he did.