Food, Cats, and Being Lazy

Chapter Twelve

Vincent was an aspiring photographer. I knew he took photography at school and that’s what he wanted to do with his life. So my parents hired him to do our family portrait. My mom dressed me up like a child again and we had to stand around in front of the fireplace and Vincent so he could snap pictures of us. I was standing beside my mom fiddling with the crappy green doll dress she’d made me wear. She even forced me to put a bow in my hair so people wouldn’t mistake me “for a boy.”

“Piper, smile,” she was saying. I groaned and looked at the camera Vincent had set up on a tripod. It was a really nice camera. He even had one of those little hand held button thingies. I forced a smile and he looked over the camera at me.

“That’s your fake smile,” he said. “Don’t close your mouth.”

“I have to keep my mouth shut or my braces will show,” I told him.

“So? Let them show. Your parents want a picture with you as you are right now during this time in your life. Not a picture of you with your mouth closed and a fake smile.” I sighed.

“They don’t know the difference.”

“Piper, just smile. Just take the picture, Vincent,” my mother instructed, but he was still staring at me.

“Did Paige ever show you the photos of me when I had braces?” he asked. My eyebrows rose.

“You had braces?” I inquired. He nodded and picked at the side of his camera.

“I had the world’s worst overbite. Not to mention I broke my two front teeth out before they were ready to come out so they were like ten times the size of my other teeth. It was bad.” I grimaced.

“Don’t grimace,” my mother snapped. “Now you’re making her grimace.” He smiled.

“Can we hurry this along?” my dad asked as he checked his watch. “I have a meeting in a half hour.”

“Remember last Christmas when your cat puked on the carpet and your sister was coming down the stairs barefoot and stepped right in it?” Vincent asked me. I laughed as I thought about that beautiful moment. “Gotcha,” he said, clicking the button.

“Vincent!” Paige shouted. He laughed.

“I’m trying to make her smile. It worked, didn’t it?”

“Did you have to talk about cat vomit? You got her smiling, but the rest of us have horrified looks on our faces.” He shrugged.

“I caught you before you figured out what I was saying. Here. Look.” My mom left our arrangement to go look through the pictures he’d taken. She was nodding to herself and he watched, eagerly waiting for her final verdict. My mother was very critical.

“He’s right,” she said. “He got us before we realized what he was saying. I really like this one, Vincent. I think this is the one I want to be printed. And Piper, honey, you do look better with your teeth showing.” Vincent shot me a “Told you” smile. His teeth were too perfect. I should have realized they weren’t naturally that way.

“Did you really have braces?” I asked him. He nodded.

“I had them for three years,” he told me.

“Wow. That’s a long time for braces.”

“Told you I had the world’s worst overbite. I also had really terrible acne up until your sister forced me to use her night cream.” He was still going through the photos and not focusing on me.

“It’s true,” Paige said as she picked at the ends of her perfect gold hair. “He still gets it sometimes, but it’s not nearly as bad.”

“Wow. You’re almost—normal,” I said. He finally looked up at me.

“Of course I’m normal. What did you think I was?” he asked. I shrugged.

“I don’t know. Perfect.” He blinked as if he didn’t understand what I was saying. “Like Paige, I mean.” He blinked again.

“Paige isn’t perfect.” He went back to his camera.

“What’s that supposed to me?” she asked.

“It means you’re human. Live with it.” I smiled to myself. I knew I liked him for a reason.