Joe's Beginning

Joe’s Beginning

As a teen, the way to develop pictures was the drugstore on the machines. You ‘uploaded’ your ‘film’ and then you could look at each picture on the screen, resize, crop, enlarge the good stuff, whatever.

I was working on some I’d taken at the school carnival. I often did pictures for the school paper, an extracurricular activity I could use on college applications. I was clicking through each photo picking out ones the paper might use. Usually popular kids doing, basically anything… I wasn’t in that group… I came to one of a popular jock, Joe Miller, in a very passionate embrace with someone other than his girlfriend, Jen. I didn’t even remember snapping it. I’d had a secret crush on Jen forever, I certainly didn’t want her hurt. Looking at it, I suddenly saw someone in the background. Zooming in, it was Jen watching the scene unfold.

Just then a gaggle of girls walked behind me and one yelled, “Jen! That’s you!” pointing to my screen. I froze. All the girls crowded around, “Wow, you don’t look happy! What were you looking at?” I looked at Jen, I could tell she knew exactly what she was looking at, and I could tell she didn’t want anyone else to know.

“I don’t remember…” she said.

“Hey, Joe, can you zoom out?” asked one of the girls. Jen’s eyes caught mine in panicked desperation.

“Let’s see…” I said, ‘accidently’ pushing the delete button.

Disappointed, the girls moved off, still speculating, Jen mouthing “thank you.” None of them apparently realizing I actually still had the picture.

Jen was my girlfriend for rest of high school. You know, it was a small beginning but a lesson that has served me well for all these years.
Blackmail is much easier than college.