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A Folder of Snapshots

A Folder of Snapshots
A part of “Those Awkward Moments” by Greg Martin

“So how can I make myself even creepier?”

I looked up from the notebook I was trying to study from, to see Brandon standing next to my desk. He was wearing one of his silly grins and had his two hands clasped behind his back.

“I dunno, you did pretty good not that long ago.” I was, of course, referring to his little Valentine’s Day project, where he managed to get my teachers to give me these little gifts. Somehow he did this without my even knowing his name. “Not everyone can be C.S.K.”

His grin got wider and I rolled my eyes. No matter that I knew who he was now, he was still a bit of a creeper.

“I drew these for you,” he said, pulling his arms from behind his back, a red folder in one hand. He dumped the folder on my desk, and then turned around. “Gotta run, I’m supposed to meet Alison in the library to work on a project.”

I picked up the folder, absently muttering, “Later Brandon,” and opened it up. It was a two pocket folder, and in the front of each pocket was a drawing. Almost immediately, I knew that he had done it. “Creeper!” I called out, with a little laugh as he walked through the door.

A couple people looked up, but Jen’s class was already loud enough that there wasn’t much of a disturbance. Seeing nothing interesting, they went back to their normally scheduled programming.

Except Tiffany. My oh-so-wonderful, chocolate-craving, fatass kinda-friend Tiffany.

“Whatcha got?”

I leered over at her. “Brandon drew some pictures of me.”

“Oh?” Already I could see that the interest was fading from her eyes. It was funny, because she was absolutely in love with me, and this new rival that had appeared – and subsequently won – wasn’t of much interest to her.

But I nodded anyways, and pulled one out. It was a drawing of me sitting in the very desk I was currently in. Soft pencil strokes filled the entire page, and I could see a representation of Tiffany to my right, Jen was stationed up by the blackboard, and various other people milling around.

Noticing something on the blackboard, I squinted and was able to read “Where I planned my confession”.

“He’s good.” With her opinion granted, she turned back to her book (which I noticed had a kool-aid stain on the spine) and promptly left me to my gift.

The picture on the left was obviously a quick sketch. It had me walking out of a door, presumably my Spanish class. There was a slight smile on my face, though I looked pretty deep in thought for a quick sketch. At the bottom was a small caption: “When you offered me cherries.”

I smiled at the caption, both for the wording (hehe) and the fact that he had burnt that image into his mind.

The next picture had me sitting at a lunch table, surrounded by faceless nobodies. Everyone but me was shaded darkly, so it looked like I was sitting in a halo of life, with a laugh dancing across my face. Down in the right corner was a kid, even darker than the rest, staring directly at me. A little speech bubble rose up from him saying “The moment I fell in love.”

I grinned and moved to the other side, where there were another 2 sheets of paper to look at. The first one was a watercolor, slightly scrunched up due to the water’s effect on the paper. It had me at my locker, looking angry. I could easily imagine myself cussing at it, and kicking it. There were no others in the hallway around me, so I guessed I was late.

The caption read “You screamed out the combination to the locker, and so I could get in.” I chuckled, realizing that this was a near daily experience.

I pulled the final picture from the folder and couldn’t help but let my smile get even wider. It had the two of us, bundled up and holding hands, walking through the park. A simple pencil sketch, it almost brought tears to my eyes, because knowing that he had drawn it made it all that more special.

I had the original photograph – we had asked someone to take our picture. He had asked to borrow it, and now I knew why. The caption was simple, “Pure.”

I stared at the collection of pictures for rest of the period, and didn’t let my attention waver until the bell rang.

Brandon was, like I expected, waiting outside of the classroom. He was looking at me with a look reminiscent of a puppy looking for approval. I nodded, and his face blossomed into a smile.

“Wanna go get some cherries after school?”

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