Free Never Enough by Denise Jaden

my nerve and picked up the canister. Every twenty seconds, I rotated the can, glad to have something to do.
    “So, you and Claire . . .” Marcus’s deep voice surprised me, sounding louder than normal in the small space. “You love each other? You hate each other? What?”
    I let out a breathy laugh. “Yeah. Pretty much. We’re sisters,” I said, as if that should explain everything. But by the silence that followed, I wondered if it did. “It can be hard sometimes.”
    “I always wanted an older brother,” he said. I wondered if that meant he had a younger brother. Or maybe he was an only child. Before I could ask, he leaned past me, so his chest practically touched my arm, and angled the timer so he could see it. He pulled away slowly, then focused on his pile of papers with the directions. The guy was hard to read. One second I felt like he was trying to get closer, the next like I was invading his space. I thought girls were supposed to be the complicated ones, though I admit, hanging out with Marcus was a lot more fun than hanging out with Shayleen had ever been. Marcus and I talked about more than just crushes and fashion. We weren’t afraid to try new things like this together.
    When the time was up, I popped open the drainage spout and dumped it down the sink with some running water.
    Did we do it right? I looked at Marcus, but his eyes stayed on the instructions. I poured in my tray of stop bath solution.
    Few things can kill a romantic moment—or what might have been a romantic moment—like a bad smell. This one smelled like vinegar.
    After emptying that solution thirty seconds later, I ran plenty of cold water to try to get rid of the fumes. Then I poured in the final solution and shook gently, trying not to create bubbles.
    “Who knows if it’ll work or if it’ll turn out like little black blobs of nothingness?” I babbled, not knowing if I was nervous about seeing the pictures or about being alone with Marcus, or both. “First time for everything, right?”
    Marcus didn’t respond, and his silence made me feel the need to talk some more.
    “I think it’ll work, but even if it doesn’t, we can try again. It’s not the end of the world. It’s not like this cost us anything, and my mom brought home another multipack of film for me the other day so I can try again.” Even though my confidence was waning by the second, I was still glad to have this new hobby, and I wanted so badly for it to be something I was good at—maybe even good at the first time.
    Finally the timer dinged. I drained the solution and took the negatives out, running them under some lukewarm water.
    They felt slimy in my hands. In the dim light, I couldsee that there were actual shapes on each little square. They may not have been perfect, but I’d actually done it properly. We’d done it properly. A grin spread across my face. Marcus grinned back at me.
    After hanging the negatives on a string, I put the solutions away while Marcus rinsed the containers. “I think that’s it for today,” I said. “They’ll take a few hours to dry.”
    Marcus followed me out of the small room, and it wasn’t until we were back in the light of day that he looked at me and uttered his first word in what seemed like forever.
    “Coffee?”

CHAPTER ELEVEN
     
    The next day in the darkroom was full of experimentation. I took out the enlarger—an overhead projector on steroids—and attempted to make prints. Marcus had all sorts of suggestions for adjusting temperatures and distances, but didn’t talk about anything else. Today he stood farther away, and it looked uncomfortable being squished up against the far wall like that. We weren’t going to be “accidentally” brushing against each other today.
    I clipped prints to our drying line, trying not to take his distance personally, and had completely forgotten about the picture of Claire and Josh kissing until Marcus handed it to me.
    I sucked in a breath, then opened my mouth to