Brian Rollins was not in the business of getting to know people. Despite all of what might seem like it in the days that she spent getting to know and opening herself up to Jared Wasti, Brian was not the kind of girl who made friends. Brian had Annie and Bailey, once upon a time, she had had Julian, along with the two or three acquaintances and group partners that she had made in college — this had always been enough. Neither was she the kind to be friendly, nor the kind to attract friendly people. That was the consequence of wearing a frown so frequently on one’s features, she’d learned over the years; that was the consequence of building walls so high that even she could shut herself out of them.
And thus it was of a wonder to Brian why the man sitting beside her thought it right that he could speak to her. Her frowns, as of late, had been scarce, for they were replaced by the smiles that Jared planted on her lips, but nonetheless, Brian did not think herself to be smiling enough so as to invite a stranger into conversation. But the man beside her did speak — and though he spoke, Brian did not even so much as turn to look at him until he was finished. She kept her eyes on the Potomac: it calmed her as it always did, though she seemed to need its remedy less these days.
When she finally did turn to look at the man beside her, however, it all begun to make sense. Well, not as in so much sense that Brian could understand it all — but only so that Brian understood at least a little bit. The stranger beside her was holding a camera, just as she was. People, if anything, liked to look at each other’s similarities, and then went off whatever it was that struck similar. It made sense that he would speak to her based on that similarity, and that the topic he chose was one that related to an assumption that they both knew what they were doing with a camera. Of course, Brian could have been any other random citizen of Alexandria holding a DLSR and pretending that they knew what to do with it, and the man could be wrong about the assumption that she was the right person to talk to about such a topic — but the truth of the matter was that she did know what she was doing with a camera, and that she understood what he was talking about. This, however, did not ease the small frown that had now begun to form on her features.
If anything, the more Brian looked at this stranger next to her, the more her frown grew. There was something vaguely familiar about him. It was like looking at him struck a bell inside her head, but the sound was so faint that she could not tell where exactly it came from. Brian took a few seconds to study the man, to try and pinpoint where exactly she knows him from, before she finally raised an eyebrow at him, and replied, “You’re right. You are just talking shit.”
He wasn’t, really. Brian knew what it was like to receive funny looks from people because she was walking around talking to a camera. There even have been more instances than one when people have come up to her to make sure that she wasn’t filming them. But, of course, though Brian was joking, it didn’t exactly show on her features. “Maybe you’re holding your camera wrong. Or maybe you use a super weird voice when you speak to your camera. Or maybe your face is just weird. Lots of reasons people can look at you funny, but whatever. Glad you’re taking it all in good heart, and using it to boost your confidence. Good on you, bud.”
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