Shutter Speed

Day 1

"As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen." –A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

Day 1

I knew that first day when I ran into Ellie was going to change everything. I was in Maryland for a concert that weekend and had plans to meet up with my twin brother, Kaiden. Kaiden had landed his first movie role and it was filming in a few locations throughout the state. One in particular was close enough to the venue I was scheduled to play at that he agreed to get breakfast with me before he had to be on set. It had worked out that his call time was later, and looking back I know every moment leading up to that day only reinforced my belief that everything happens for a reason.

After saying goodbye to Kaiden and seeing his ride pull away, I decided to explore a little. I didn't think it would be a big deal. I didn't think anyone was going to care. Honestly, I didn't think at all because I figured I meant so little to the world. I was wrong.

While walking down the streets for a few minutes, more and more people began whispering as I walked by and tailing me as I window-shopped. The general population doesn't tend to be subtle. Thanks to that day, I'm now hyperaware of my surroundings and what people do in my presence. I love my fans from the bottom of my heart, but some of my favorite moments are the ones where I'm in a room surrounded by people and only the ones I care about are paying attention.

After feeling people following me that day I waited awhile wondering if anyone was actually going to approach me. After several blocks of a crowd staring, but not speaking to me, I decided to make a break for it. Although I was unfamiliar with the small downtown area, I figured anywhere I could run to would be better than drowning in a crowd of strangers. I spotted a creek and followed the sidewalk running alongside it thinking that a creek had to lead out of downtown somewhere.

I don't know what it was, but something told me to stop. Something pulled me into the direction of the large library building across from an arts center. Somehow all signs pointed me towards a specific direction. I will never regret following those signs. At the time I thought that I would logically be able to hide in the library since it seemed large enough to get lost in and it's a universal rule that your volume can't go above a whisper.

There were a few people that managed to follow me into the library, but I wove in and out of bookshelves in order to lose them. I poked my head around a corner of one bookshelf in the back of the library's second floor and scoped the area for the people who were following me.

"Why are you hiding?" A voice startled me to the point that my body stiffened in response and as I turned to see who had spoken, I managed to accidentally knock an armful of books onto the ground.

Without looking at the owner of the voice, I dove to the ground to fix my mistake and apologized profusely. The chuckle that I heard following my behavior caused my heart to skip, but at the time I assumed it was my anxiety getting the best of me in an embarrassing situation. I was lost in my own world even after noticing the person squat down beside me to assist in picking up the pile of books. I continued apologizing up until the moment our eyes connected. In that light they were a golden kind of hazel I had never seen before. I don't think I could ever forget them now.

I was able to speak, but my mouth all of a sudden felt full of cotton and my throat felt as rough as sandpaper. Her smile instantly pulled me in and I wasn't sure if she had said anything besides reassuring me that everything was fine even after I knocked everything out of her arms. "I'm sorry," I apologized again and winced at the realization that I had apologized more than an excessive amount.

"You know, you're starting to convince me that you're an android that just escaped captivity." Her half-smile was crooked and caused one side of her mouth to have a more obvious dimple on the side her lips turned upward, and her red hair fell in waves past her shoulders.