Photo Protege

Geo was very particular with details, and for a guy, that was impressive. He laid out a game plan, where we could work side by side at times and separately whenever I was to go on Geo-set-up dates with Matt.

On rare occasions, Geo volunteered to go around and take pictures, himself. I thought at first he had a background in photography. Why else would he be enthusiastic about it, if not to show the school his skill? Then I realized that afternoon he was fond of taking pictures with his high-end phone, storing them like they were his prized possessions.

"Look at this." He showed me a few pictures of Jazz – jogging, practicing hoops, eating (Jazz's way), and just plain laughing. They weren't artistic photos, not rendered in any artistic way, but they were real, and I liked them a lot.

I smiled and turned back to taking pictures of the guys playing chess. "You're in love with her, aren't you?"

Geo let out a quiet laugh. "Is that what this looks like?" He placed his phone back inside his pocket. "You have no idea how much of a sister that kid is to me."

"Why do you have pictures of her?" I demanded. Geo and Jazz spent a great deal of time together. Probably even more time than Jazz and me. Placing them somewhere beyond the platonic was inevitable.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I have pictures of a lot of people on my phone. It helps me get to know them."

I stood from where I was kneeling, thanked the players and headed out of the BRIS main library with Geo. It was almost five in the afternoon and while I had used up four 32-GB compact flash cards in just six hours, I believed I only had less than a hundred good shots for the photo wall. The rest were vanity shots, like the chess pieces and balls and feet, wrinkled foreheads and clenched fists, which I would be able to use should I fall short of emotions.

"Do you mind if we drop by my dorm room?" Geo asked out of nowhere.

Stopping on my tracks, I swallowed hard. No Reagan girl had ever dared enter the Berkeley dorms. I didn't want to be the first one. "Why?"

"I have a few things I want to show you."

"Why there?"

He laughed, pulling me, my feet heavy. "Because my computer's there."

"Get your laptop." I shove his hands away. Why would I need to go to his room? As far as I could remember, he shared his room with Matt.

"Come on!"

On second thought, maybe I should go. Bedrooms revealed a lot about a person. Maybe I'd find a huge part of who Matt was in there. If I was lucky, it would even reveal that part which he had been trying so hard to hide from me.

* * * *

The room was bigger than mine and as expected, it was furnished with the most expensive-looking furniture.

One side had a wall of books, perfectly arranged in a specific order. Right at the corner beside the bed was a study desk with a high-end desktop, a laptop, and still a pile of books. There was no doubt this was Geo's side. It had nerd written all over it.

Geo went straight to his computer and plugged in an external hard drive. "I'm going to show you something. If you want, you can look around while I search for it."

Don't mind if I do.

I didn't have second thoughts crossing the mini-entertainment area at the center of the room to get to Matt's side. I just had to.

"He's not coming, is he?"

Geo laughed, the kind that told me he was expecting me to ask. "No. Feel free to lay in his bed."

"Shut up."

Matt's wall was covered with photographs of his travels. He had been almost everywhere in Luzon – conquering mountains, trekking to waterfalls, taking eco-adventures. That was the kind of guy he was, and perhaps the very reason I was attracted to him. He was the type to triumph over anything, the type to never stop until he got somewhere.

I asked him once if I could come with him, even though I was half-hearted into really doing it, just to test if he'd say yes. I wasn't this adventurous. I would probably love to travel, but something this physically challenging wasn't gonna suit me. He just smiled at me, and so I never asked again.

While I regarded each photo of him carefully, as if trying to burn every scene of his life into my mind, something right at the middle caught me by surprise. It was a photo of me, taking pictures of my brother while he practiced hoops with his basketball team. I remembered this day. Matt and I fought because of our schedules, and it was probably the day we began to slip away from each other.

Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to walk back to Geo's side. That was when I noticed the gigantic world map on the wall right beside their bathroom door. It had white and blue pins on them, and some post-its.

"Which one is yours?" I asked, eyes still on the map.

Geo stepped up beside me. "The blue ones."

Hmmm. I would've thought he owned the white ones because there were less of them. "You've travelled a lot."

"All over the world, yes," he replied. "Matt's very picky when it comes to travel. He wants only those with mountains and jungles."

To that, I remained quiet.

"While I, I love to go everywhere." He went back to his computer, musing over the sets of pictures that appeared on his screen. "See places, learn history, understand culture, appreciate arts, meet people."

"Sounds rich."

"It's fun. Come here. Here's last decade's photo wall. It was done by the Bris Macs. Of course, that wasn't what they called it then, but they did it in three months."

"That's a whole team of photographers. I stand alone in this."

"Hey! You got me, don't you?" Geo feigned offense.

I placed a hand on my hip. "You take photos with me then."

Geo laughed. "Touche. But yeah, okay. Will you teach me the ropes of action photography? How to catch everything on your phone? Because you're not gonna ask me to buy a camera simply for this, are you?"

This time, I laughed. "You do have a very nice phone."

"Thank you. I had to scrap metals just to afford that."

"Please. You had to make one phone call, I presume." I turned and headed for the map again. "It's worth some of your plane tickets combined."

"So are you going to teach me or not?" he asked.

I nodded. There wasn't anything wrong with what he was asking. And I needed the help. Events happened simultaneously and I couldn't be in all of it at once. "Sure."

"Great! Now, check the wall out in detail."

He offered me his seat and I took it, slowly. He waited, standing behind me, leaning as he pointed at different photos. He smelled of musk and sweat combined, scents I should've been used to because of my brother, but with him it was different, and I could barely concentrate.

I pursed my lips just to make sure I didn't give anything away – how my tummy's getting tickled by the minute and how a sudden ache to lean toward him came over me. I couldn't remember the last time I felt like this. Without being physical with a guy, I meant.

"I get it." I stood from the chair, worried that I would laugh by myself and he'd find me weirder than I already was if I did. "Let's go."

"Something wrong?" With narrowed eyes, he looked at me, really confused.

"No. I just…well, time's ticking. I got what I need. Let's go."

"All right. Let me just shut this down."

I sat on the couch and watched Geo from the corner of my eyes, wondering why my heart suddenly thudded against my chest. Admittedly, it wasn't the first time this had happened. There was this one night Matt and I snuck out beyond curfew and went to World Park. It was already dark, silence enveloped the night. He leaned into me and we kissed beneath the starry sky. I couldn't remember for how long we were making out, but when Geo cleared his throat, the spell just disappeared. Like it trailed off with the wind into the cold.

Geo talked to his brother, ignoring me, but I kept him at the corner of my eyes. My heart pounded rebelliously against my chest, and I decided it was only because we were caught beyond the permissible hours. But now, feeling this inside of me, the exact feeling I had back then, I wondered if it meant something else. Because what's even worse, it was louder than when I first had my heart racing for Mattheus.