Exposure • Tamber

Chapter 3: (Not) Getting Along

Amber stood by herself in the dark room watching as the chemicals lifted the photo from the paper. Seemingly like magic, a picture started to form, starting like a blotch of ink, bleeding across the page, slowly revealing lines and shapes.

It was her favorite part of the whole process. Watching something appear from nothing. An idea of what was supposed to appear, but you could never really be sure until the solution did its job and bled the picture to life.

Amber loved being surprised by the unexpected. She also loved when the vision she had as she took the photo appeared exactly like she had imagined it would.

She let her photos dry on the line hung across the room as she swirled the chemical mixture mindlessly.

'With her attitude it's a surprise she hasn't gotten in more trouble with teachers already. She so has it coming.'

Why had it bothered her so much? It was true. Probably. It's not like Amber had made any effort to be anything other than her usual grumpy self around Tara.  Plus, why did she even care what Tara thought? She didn't even like Tara. She was cheerful and bubbly and always had way too much energy.

She shook her head and went through the motions of collecting her photos and sliding them into the plastic pages of her folder gently, ready to show her professor.  She had tried to take the criticism she had received from Prof Weathers and put more emotion into her photos. She hoped they would live up to expectation this time.

—

"What's the emotion you're trying to express here?" Weathers questioned, gesturing to the photo sitting on the open page in front of them.

Amber stared down at the page silently.

Weathers sighed, "This is a fantastic photo. The framing, line of focus, everything is perfect."

Amber smiled. Finally she hadn't fucked it up.

"But it's boring." Weathers continued.

Not again...

"Make me feel something, Amber." Her voice was encouraging, not degrading.

Something Amber was grateful for.

"Make it impossible for me to look away." She gripped Amber's shoulder gently. "You have to feel something before I will."

Amber left the classroom not angry, but disappointed. She had really thought she had done better this time.

Amber was lost in her own thoughts, hands gripping her backpack straps tightly, her head down as she watched her feet make their way down the hall. She didn't notice the blonde chasing her down the hallway until a hand was gripping her arm.

"Headed to the library?" Lily said with a flirty smile.

Amber nodded, instantly remembering Tara's words that had been stuck in her head all day for some reason.

"Yeah." She said flatly as she let her arm slip from Lily's grip and kept walking.

—

After her little talk with Anika about Amber, Tara decided she should probably take her advice before running off to complain to her professor. She was an adult after all. Maybe she had to act like it, even if she really didn't want to. So she made her way to the library to meet Amber for their usual Thursday tutoring session, ready to lay down some rules.

Tara rounded the corner and dropped her head low as she brought a hand up to cover her eyes, "I swear, If I open my eyes and someone is attached to your face I'm gonna start spritzing you both like... cats." Her hand lowered mid sentence to find Amber sitting alone on the couch.