I rushed to the door when the doorbell rang. Although I wasn’t expecting anybody, I wasn’t going to hide and ignore it. Maybe it was something I forgot I had ordered, or maybe Jack had ordered something but didn’t tell me. Then again, I did sometimes have random guests. It wasn’t Colton, because he was over here helping me out. Charlie would have texted me and just walked in, and Carter was out visiting family. John really was the only one who would properly ring the doorbell at that specific moment, but he also would have asked me way in advance.

I opened the door to find a woman and two children standing on the other side. She was smiling at me while the two boys peered behind her legs and into the house. The boys looked no older than seven, both sporting straight brown hair while their mother had blonde curly hair framing her face. Still, there were way too many similarities in their facial structure for them not to be related.

“Hi,” the woman, who only seemed a bit older than me, greeted and held out her hand to shake, “I’m Sophia, and these are my two sons Jason and Jack. We just moved in right across the street and thought we’d say hi.”

“Oh, I didn’t even know that house was empty.” I shook her hand and welcomed her despite actually being very busy. This seemed like a break I deserved. “I’m Ireland. Would you guys like to come in? I was just about to make some coffee and I’ve got some really great cupcakes you might like.”

“I mean, if we’re not intruding…”

“No, of course not.” I moved aside to let them in and closed the door. Luckily, the small hall at the door still looked fine, but it had completely slipped my mind that the living room was a mess. There were pieces of paper of different sizes and boxes everywhere, Taco emerging out of one of the boxes that had been ripped open completely. It was all for a good reason, though. “I’m so sorry about the mess. I’m preparing for an exhibition and sorting all the prints that will be for sale.”

“That’s no problem,” Sophia chuckled as her two boys approached Taco and started playing with her, Taco happily giving them the reaction they wanted, “our house is no better at the moment.”

I moved over to the kitchen to get the coffee started, Sophia following slowly behind. “This is actually technically my boyfriend’s house, but I live here with him. His name happens to be Jack as well. He’s gone a lot for work, though, so he isn’t here. I’m actually gone a lot as well, so you really happened to come here at a good time.”

“I know what that’s like.” Sophia nodded while watching me grab two mugs and the box of cupcakes from my mom’s bakery. “My husband’s a foreign service officer. What do you guys do?”

“We both work in the music business,” I told her as I made the first cup of coffee. It wasn’t that I was afraid she would know either of our bands. The chance of that was highly unlikely, but I didn’t need her thinking we were just some millenials with unrealistic dreams.

“So that’s why you have all the music paraphernalia,” she pointed at the platinum record for Dear Maria that was just casually standing on the floor, leaning against the wall next to the stairs.

“Oh, yeah. Now I think about it, this house is a bigger mess than I thought it was…” I frowned and switched the cup underneath the coffee machine, handing her the first cup I made. “We’re redecorating this room upstairs and trying to figure out where to put stuff like this. It’s seems a bit narcissistic to have this up in the living room.”

“Hey, you’ve gotta flaunt your achievements a little,” she shrugged.

“I guess so,” I laughed. “Although, the prints are not for the music, they’re for my own personal photography. My career is a bit confusing and all over the place right now.”

“Do you mind if I take a look?” She asked and gestured in the direction of the piles of paper.

“Go ahead,” I smiled and took my own cup of coffee, bringing the box of cupcakes along with me.

While Sophia started looking at the photographs, some ‘originals’ in frames, and others in varied sizes to sell, I opened the box and offered the cupcakes to her sons. They excitedly took one each before continuing to play with Taco, using a slither of cardboard to wiggle around for her to try and catch. I also gave one to Sophia and decided to look along with her.

She took a bite and moaned in satisfaction. “Oh my god, this is good. Where did you get these?”

“Well, I got these from my mom,” I answered, “but she has a bakery-slash-cafe where she sells them as well. I sometimes work there when I’m at home. I can give you the address if you want.”

“Yeah, I’d love that.”

I managed to find a business card in one of our drawers and gave it to her. Just after she put the card in her pocket, Colton came down the stairs holding a large black frame.

“It seems like I’ve just missed something important,” he said as he came to join us, taking a surprised look at Sophia and her kids.

“The new neighbors just came to say hi,” I explained to him. “This is Sophia.”

“Hi,” she greeted and held out her hand again.

Colton shook moved the frame to his left hand and shook hers while introducing himself, “Colton.”

“These are my kids, Jason and Jack,” Sophia finished the introduction as her children didn’t pay attention to us.

“Oh, hey, Jack, like your Jack,” Colton pointed out with a chuckle.

“Yeah,” I laughed and rolled my eyes a little. He was acting like it wasn’t quite a common name. However, to make sure Sophia didn’t get the wrong intentions, I told her, “Colton’s helping me out with sorting all this. He’s pretty good at organisation.”

Colton took this moment to quickly butt in with his original question. “I finished putting this one in it’s frame, where should I put it?”

“Wherever there is space right now,” I sighed, not seeing any real optimal place to put it.

He eventually just rested it against the couch. I offered him a cupcake as well while Sophia went to view the photograph that had just been brought downstairs. It took a while to convince him. He claimed that he really shouldn’t because he had been eating pretty bad lately, but I eventually managed to win him over by letting it know they were his favourite cupcake from the cafe.

“I really like this one,” Sophia announced after having admired the photograph for a while. “Do you have any prints of it as well?”

The photograph was one I had taken one day while on Warped Tour. It was a fucking hot day, yet I surprisingly went out. Honestly, there wasn’t much interesting to photograph, but I just took some photos of the dried cracked mud in the beaming sunlight. One of them actually happened to have an interesting composition with the sky looking very dark yet the sun still glaring, all while the ground took up most of the space.

“I believe they’re still in one of the unopened boxes,” I thought out loud, looking at Colton to see if he knew any more than me. Like I said, Colton was all about the organisation and lists. Afterall, it was his job as a manager.

“I believe so…” Colton proceeded to look at the labels of all said boxes until his eyes landed on a particular once. “This one.”

He ripped open the box to reveal the large prints that resembled the one in the frame almost exactly. The only difference was in the quality of paper and printing. Most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, but the other stuff just looked a little bit better.

“I’ve been looking for something to hang above our bed, I feel like this could be perfect. How much are you selling them for?”

Colton and I shared a look. It was most definitely a bad look. We were astonished, but only for good reasons. Honestly, I did not think I was going to be selling any, especially not today, and definitely not to a new neighbour I was meeting for the first time.

“Umm, well, I definitely wouldn’t sell one to you at full price,” I said. Of course, I wasn’t just going to give one away for free, but I didn’t feel like it was right not to give a discount. I would do the same for anybody else I knew personally, so why not now either?

“Oh, no, that’s not a problem,” she shook her head and pulled out her wallet. “You’ve worked hard on it, there’s a reason why you’ve got set prices.”

“Okay, well, I was going to sell them for thirty dollars, but I would be happy to sell it for 20…”

“Well, would you look at that, I’ve got exact change.” She pulled out the notes and handed me the thirty dollars.

“I can’t take this.” I tried to give her back ten dollars, but she refused it.

She put back her wallet to make her point. “So far you’ve been the most welcoming neighbour we’ve met, it’s the least I can do.”

“Okay…” I still felt a little bad but I put the money in my pocket. “I don’t have anything to package it in right now, but--”

“That’s okay, I live right across the street, I’m sure transporting it will be fine,” she shrugged off.

Colton carefully took out the prints and moved one so she wouldn’t forget to take it home. Not that it would be too much of an effort for her to come back if she did.

For some reason, this was the most satisfied and the happiest I had felt in a while. Of course, somehow being chosen for the exhibition was amazing, but this was a tad more personal. This wasn’t some board of people looking at work and judging it. No, this was just a normal human being appreciating my work enough to want it permanently hanging in her house, in her bedroom of all places. It just felt great that people were actually enjoying and appreciating my work.

Notes

Ireland's getting a taste of the photography life! And she seems to be liking it.