“Maddie!” Cassie waved her hand in the air, trying to get my attention. “Helloooo. Earth to Maddie.”
“Sorry,” I said with an embarrassed laugh. I raised the camera and snapped a couple of shots.
Cassie jumped up from the steps to take a look at the pictures I had taken. “Cute!” she squealed with a satisfied smile. Logan got up from the steps and ambled towards us, but didn’t seem interested in looking at the pictures. Cassie shoved the camera in his hands.
“Now take a picture of me and Maddie.”
I groaned, but followed her obligingly to the steps. Cassie had gotten the camera this past summer, and she had been obnoxious with her propensity to capture every moment of her life on film. I humored her good-naturedly, despite hating to have my picture taken.
Cassie threw her arm around my shoulders and we leaned into each other. “Smile!” she commanded through her own smile. “These are the pictures we’re going to look back at when we’re old and wrinkly. We’re not going to be hot forever, so the least you can do is smile so we have proof that we were once young and pretty.”
I laughed at her statement. It was typical Cassie to read so much more into a photo than just the capture of an image. I heard the shutter go off and frowned at Logan.
“I wasn’t ready,” I protested.
“It’s a good picture,” Logan reassured me. Cassie leapt off the steps to take a look and I followed behind her at a slower pace.
“I love it,” she exclaimed. She looked up at Logan coyly. “You got my best side.”
“Every side is your best side,” he commented with a laugh and a quick kiss. I averted my eyes and grabbed the camera. I was surprised that Logan was right. It was a good picture. Cassie was gazing straight into the camera and looked beautiful, as always, but he had caught me off guard. Usually, I looked too somber in pictures—hence Cassie’s instruction for me to smile. My dislike of having my picture taken seemed to translate into the actual image, despite my half-hearted attempts to smile.
But in this picture, I wasn’t aware of the camera. I was laughing and my green eyes seemed to dominate the photo. I looked relaxed and happy and much prettier than I imagined myself to be. Sure, I knew I was by no means an ogre, but in this picture I was a more beautiful and happier version of myself.
“Maybe you should change your major to photography,” I joked to Logan as I handed the camera back to Cassie. “You must have some magical skills to make me look halfway decent in a photo.”
“Shut it,” Cassie said with a poke in my ribs. “You’d be gorgeous in every picture if you just smiled in them.”
Logan shrugged. “Some people just translate better in photographs.” He gave me a slight smile. “And some people are too vibrant to be captured in a static image. There’s more to you than just a smile.”
Cassie smacked him on the arm, but she was laughing. “Keep your charm in your pants, Romeo. Maddie isn’t swayed by glib words. You’ll have to win over my best friend another way.”
He allowed himself to be dragged away towards the cafeteria, our original destination before we had been waylaid by Cassie’s insistence on taking a picture. I followed behind them, unsettled by his statement. I didn’t like the flicker of awareness his words had created. I shook my head, warning myself to not read too much into them. I had easily transitioned Logan from a crush to Cassie’s boyfriend. I needed to keep it that way.
Cassie turned her head to look at me and stopped walking. “Come on, slowpoke!”
When I had caught up to them, she linked my arm around her free one to make sure I didn’t fall behind. I told myself that my reaction to Logan’s words was a momentary lapse in judgment, nothing more.
“Madison.”
I jumped at the sound of my name, breaking out of my reverie. I turned to face Logan, who stood at the doorway watching me.
“I didn’t mean to take so long,” I said quickly, grabbing the lighter on her desk that I had noticed earlier. “Let’s go.”
Logan ignored me as he looked around Cassie’s bedroom. He took a tentative step in, as if he was reluctant to enter this eerie shrine.
“Not a thing out of place,” he commented softly. He walked over to me and glanced at the pictures tacked up on the corkboard. He had a slight smile on his face as he looked at the dozens of photos documenting Cassie’s short life. His gaze settled on the picture he had taken of me and Cassie on the steps of the student center, right next to the picture of him and Cassie.
“I remember this,” he said quietly. “It was the first time I realized how beautiful you were.”
“Stop,” I said, my voice trembling. “Not today. Especially not here.”
Logan’s face darkened, and his usual, easy countenance
disappeared. “Then when? Where?”
“Never,” I said emphatically, trying to get a rein on my emotions that were veering out of control. “There’s no reason to ever revisit the past.”
“We were young,” Logan said, ignoring my plea. “We never meant to hurt Cassie.” He gently but firmly grasped my arm when I turned away from him. “Maddie, we were just kids trying to figure out our feelings.”