~laura
Stevie was in love with a girl. People tended to give him odd looks when he said this, because he'd never actually met the girl he was in love with. That he had never met her was not something that bothered Stevie, nor did anyone's odd looks. He contented himself with sighing and smiling gently whenever he saw her around town, admiring the purposeful way she walked and the way her glasses glinted in the sunlight.
One day, Stevie was wandering around town looking for things to take pictures of. He had already snapped several good ones and used up almost the whole roll, and he was just about to go home, develop them, and print them in the darkroom he had made out of his closet (his clothes were hung in front of the door to his bedroom, making a curtain that he had to walk through in order to get inside) when he saw her. She looked as beautiful as ever as she walked out of a music shop, clutching a bag of records. She took Stevie's breath away, and before he could become too shy or too wrapped up in her image, he raised his camera and took her picture. The click of the shutter seemed to echo throughout the street, but the girl didn't notice. She hurried away, leaving Stevie leaning helplessly against a wall clutching his camera.
Stevie lingered there for a while, reliving the moment when he had seen her, recreating each detail, holding his camera as if it was part of the Crown Jewels. Finally, he roused himself off the wall and headed home to develop his precious film, still thinking about the girl. He had just rounded a corner when he bumped into someone. Immediately, Stevie began trying to find a way to make a discreet apology and exit when he realised that he had run into someone quite strange. It was a young man, about the same age as Stevie and just as skinny, although slightly shorter. Despite the friendly, amused grin on the boy's face, Stevie was overcome with shyness and stared at the ground. This is where he noticed the unusual thing: the boy had a fox with him, on a purple leash. Stevie was far too shy to say anything, but the boy noticed his gaze and laughed.
"That's my fox. I call him Oliver. My name's Simon. Sorry I ran into you," he said.
Stevie looked up and smiled at Simon. He shook Simon's hand and introduced himself. He had to switch his camera to the other hand in order to do this, which he did quite carefully. He thought about apologising to Simon, but decided that it would be embarrassingly redundant, as Simon had already apologised. He wondered if there was a polite way to ask why on earth Simon had a fox on a leash in the middle of town.
Luckily, Simon saved the awkward silence by asking, "Are you a photographer?"
Stevie looked down at the camera in his hands and smiled inwardly, remembering the moment he had captured on film. "Sort of," he said, smiling self-deprecatingly.
"What do you take pictures of?" Simon asked.
"Just about anything, really," Stevie replied. He found himself telling Simon about the girl he loved and the photo he had just taken of her. This surprised Stevie, since he did not usually tell complete strangers such personal information. It also surprised Stevie that Simon was not giving him an odd look; rather, it was more of a wise and knowing look. So he was rather taken aback when Simon said, "How d'you know you're in love with her if you've never met her?"
No one had ever asked Stevie this before; in fact, the most commentary he had ever gotten regarding his love was the typical odd look. However, he had justified it to himself so many times that he knew what to say: "How do you know it's not love?"
"Fair enough," Simon said, smiling. "All I'm saying is, there might be something better out there that you don't even know about."
This was something that Stevie had never been told before, much less by a complete stranger. So instead of answering, he asked, "How come you've got a fox on a leash, then?" It was rather confrontational, but Stevie, for some reason, did not care.
