137 - Family Portrait

*All of my kids went to their prom with a group of friends. Well, those that did go. One was because I think he was fucking them all. Male and female. - Alana*

Shortly after Camille finished with the pictures, the doorbell rang announcing that the boys had arrived. She had the girls go back upstairs and took pictures of their dates as they came down. Again, she had Mandy come down first, this time on her father’s arm, and took pictures of Vin when he first saw her.

Pictures were then taken of the couple on the grand staircase. When they had first moved in, she had taken pictures and sent them to Kilo and Cookie. She had painted him a mental picture of family portraits on a staircase like this for Darkness. In his mind, the staircase in the house would widen towards the base and curve around. This would create a perfect place for a huge Christmas tree.

She might not know much about fashion. And her decorating skills were very limited. But she could set a scene for a picture. Maybe he should just suggest that she decorate each room for a photo shoot.

Moving the couple to the side, Camille had Darkness go upstairs and escort Nickie down to Julio. Darkness put his hand on Mitch’s shoulder and smiled down at him.

“You coming with me?”

His young face lit up with excitement as he looked at his uncle, “Can I?”

“Of course,” he grinned at the youngest of the three siblings. “Come on.”

He walked up the staircase with Mitch by his side. He knew that the boy was nervous because the typically chatty boy was silent.

“What’s on your mind?” Darkness asked quietly as they reached the landing.

“Do I have to take a girl to prom?” he asked softly.

“Well, it’s a little late for that this year,” Darkness pointed out.

“No, I mean when I’m in high school,” Mitch clarified.

Just around the corner of the hallway, by the door to the guest room, Darkness stopped and looked at the boy. Camille had said earlier that he seemed to have grown up over night and now he understood what she was talking about. Just yesterday Mitch looked like a little boy with chubby cheeks and innocence in his eyes.

Right now, standing in the hallway outside the room where his teenaged sister waited for them to escort her down to her own prom date, he looked like a young version of his father. His cheeks weren’t as chubby, but they weren’t quite chiseled yet either. He seemed taller than he had yesterday too.

Or maybe it was just because he was asking grown-up questions that he no longer looked like a child. At thirteen, he walked that fine line between childhood and adolescence. He wavered back and forth between being a kid and a young adult.

“My friends at school all talk about the high school girls and their boobs, and I just… I just don’t get it. But I like the way that the guys on the team with Vin look.”

“And that is fine, Mitch,” Darkness assured him. “And no, you don’t have to take a girl to prom. You can take whoever you want. Or not go at all. But I think we have a few years before we need to start thinking about that.”

He pulled the young teen in for a quick hug, “I promise that we will talk about this more after we walk your sister down to her own prom date.”

“Okay,” he agreed as he stepped back and knocked on the door.

It opened almost immediately and from the tears shimmering in Nicki’s eyes, she had heard their conversation. She smiled her thanks at their uncle. He smiled back and offered his arm to her. Gently, she took his arm and then the one that her brother offered.

Darkness bent and kissed her cheek. On the other side of her, Mitch stood up on toes and kissed her other cheek. They then led her down the hall and to the stairs. Camille stood at the bottom and snapped a few pictures of the trio as they descended. When she was satisfied, she moved and took up a new position for pictures.

“Julio, you can turn around now,” Camille said from the edge of the staircase.

The young man turned around, and a look of absolute awe filled his face. Darkness knew that Camille was capturing everything. The slow smile and the heat that filled the young man’s eyes. When his eyes moved to his wife, he discovered that she was capturing something else also.

Vin was looking at his sister as if he were just realizing that she was becoming a young woman. He slowly looked at his fellow defensive lineman as if deciding that giving his blessing for the date was a wrong decision.

“You look beautiful,” Julio said as he approached her with a black corsage case.

The grin that Camille had told Darkness that his wife had already seen the corsage inside and approved. Julio opened the case and produced a corsage with bright purple orchids and roses so dark they appeared black.

His hands shook as he tried to pin the flowers on Nicki’s dress. His mother swore softly in Spanish as she swatted his hands away and pinned the corsage.

Off to the side, Camille captured it all with a grin on her face. He could already see the wheels turning and knew that she was planning how to edit the pictures.

She ordered everyone around and posed the two couples before snapping more pictures.

Darkness was always amazed at how she could see the end result before the picture was ever taken. She knew where the lighting needed to come from. Where her focus needed to be. She could tell how much dead space there would be. The focus of her picture could be the person in the foreground. Or the one in the background.

And when she took a picture of Julio with his parents and then Mandy and hers, the focus was the lack of parents with Vin and Nicki. But then she pulled out her tripod, had Darkness and Mitch join her with Nicki and Vin for their first official family portrait.

“Alright,” Camille clicked the button on the remote and the light flashed indicating that is was doing the countdown to taking pictures. “On the count of three, we all say ‘condoms.’ One, two, three…”

After the initial shock, everyone was laughing as they all said, “Condoms.”

Even the other two families were laughing. Peggy was standing behind the camera and gave a small gasp.

“Oh, my God, Camille,” she smiled at the family over the camera. “This is a great picture. Donovan, when need to have some family pictures done and Camille is doing them.”

Julio’s mom moved over and looked at the screen on the back of the camera. “Oh, wow. Yeah, that is great. Carlo, we need family pictures too. What do you charge?”

“I, uh, I’ve never actually charged for pictures before,” Camille admitted.

Carlo grinned, “You should start.”