“Damn it!” Aiden jumped again when Brendan leapt back to his feet, not even bothered by his scratched-up nose. “I wanted to take a photo of that albino squirrel.”
Aiden looked to the tree, where the albino squirrel was nowhere to be found. “Maybe you can find it again?”
“No, there’s only one on campus. It’s considered lucky if you can take a photo of it.” Only then did Brendan slightly take note of his wounded nose by lightly touching it with a hiss. His attention, however, quickly returned to the large camera in his hands. He cuddled it to his chest. “This is okay, so that’s all that matters.”
The jiggle inside Aiden’s throat couldn’t stop. “Pfft.” Tears sprung to Aiden’s eyes. He rested his hands on his knees in a slight attempt to still stand, but the laughter couldn’t stop. Mortified, he tried to rein his voice in, but his mind constantly replayed the squirrel running around him and Brendan’s face changing from frustration to horror to relief to panic and back to relief all in a matter of seconds. “I’m sorry,” he managed to choke out between his tears, wiping them away from his eyes.
“Yeah, yeah, go on. I got too into it. I know. What human thinks they can outrun a squirrel? You don’t need to tell me.”
“Show some respect,”his stepmother’s voice echoed.
Gasping, Aiden snapped his head back up, already forming words of apologies, but instead, Brendan was smiling before bursting into laughter himself. The laughter finally died down, leaving a weightlessness in Aiden that he never experienced. He stepped closer to Brendan. “Are you on the third point as well?”
“I’ve actually been jumping around on the scavenger list.” Brendan inched even closer, showing his camera to Aiden.
This is too close.It was dangerous to let strangers within a certain space, but Aiden stopped himself from stepping back upon seeing the photo reflected in Brendan’s camera. “Wow…” A circle of white mushrooms sprouted from the dark grass, while sunlight angled in through the branches of the tree above, lending a heavenly aura to the entire photo.
“Yeah, that’s my photo for ‘religion.’ It’s like cult worship.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“What photos have you taken?”
Weird angles, shaking hands, and blurred corners flashed before his eyes. Face flushed, Aiden stepped back, immediately dropping his phone back into his pocket. “Not a lot. Just two.”
“Can I see?” Brendan stepped forward.
“They’re really bad.”
“I’m sure they’re not.”
“Compared to yours, they definitely are.”
“Just let me see.” Brendan peered at Aiden. “Please?”
Please…The magical and foreign word compelled him to move without thinking. He pulled his phone back out and opened the gallery photo. The ancient tree was crooked. Worse, the photo was blurry.
“Oh! This isn’t bad.”
“You don’t need to be nice.”
“No, no, I’m serious. Is it amateur? Of course. It’s not bad though. You see how you managed to capture the light?” Brendan shifted into his space again, using his finger to trace the rays. “It’s leading you toward the subject of your photo, so my eyes automatically gravitate toward the trunk first. It’s the trunk you wanted, right?”
He blinked, looking at the photo anew. It wasn’t just the trunk. The markings of people left behind on its old bark from people’s love of circling and hugging the ancient tree caught his eye before anything else in the photo. He breathed in wonder. “Yeah. That’s what I wanted.”
“I told you. It’s not bad.” With that final conclusion, Brendan returned his phone. “What do you think?”
“About what?”
“About the scavenger hunt. You like it?”
“I think so.” A small bird with blue feathers landed in the corner of his eye. He turned around as slowly as possible, snapping a crooked photo of the chirping animal. The feet were cut off, but it still captured its beady eyes looking at Aiden. He smiled. “Yeah, it’s fun. I like how there’s no right answer.”
“That’s what we were going for. And uh…” Brendan paused. “You’re feeling better, right?”
Was he? He still hadn’t found the courage to tell his stepmother that he would accept his position within the Hui family business inside Infinite. His brother was still dead. Yet strangely, for a second, Aiden forgot about them. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “I’m feeling okay right now though.”
Brendan beamed. “That’s good to hear.”
