Chapter Text
“Max, I can’t. It’s Tuesday. On Tuesdays, I go to the park to take pictures at 12:30. I leave at 3:30, though, if you want to hang out then.” Nancy Wheeler speaks into her phone as she walks frantically around her New York apartment, looking for everything she needs to go to the park for her usual day of taking pictures to post on her Instagram.
She really enjoyed sharing her photos with her Instagram followers. She’s fairly successful, having around 30k followers. She doesn’t really do it for the follower count, though. She loves to take pictures and share her current muses.
Because of her work schedule, each day Nancy goes to the park at a different time, which she likes because it allows her to get shots of different people living their lives as well as different lighting.
“Okay, Wheeler. 3:30 sounds good. What time do you have work today?” Her best friend Max Mayfield asks her as she finally finds her spare camera battery.
“Had it this morning. I just got back that’s why I’m running around looking for my stuff.” Nancy explains, finally having everything she needs.
“Did you eat anything today?” Max asks.
Nancy groans realizing she didn’t.
“No. I’ll eat my leftovers. Thank you for the reminder.”
“Of course, Nance. I’ll see you later. Stay safe.”
“I will, Max. I will see you at 3:30,” Nancy replies, then hangs up the phone.
She rushes over to her kitchen, heats up her leftovers, and eats some of them. She wasn’t really hungry, but it was already noon, so logic (and Max) told her she needed to eat, so she ate.
Max is one of her brother’s best friends, who ended up enjoying spending more time with Nancy than Mike. Mike isn’t in the city very often either, though, because he is a musician and is touring with his friends. So, Max spends a lot of time with Nancy and her girlfriend El whenever she is not working as a waitress, trying to make enough to put herself through college.
After she finishes her food, Nancy quickly washes her leftover container and rushes out the door to do her daily walk, making sure to put her noise-canceling headphones on before she makes it outside. She holds onto her backpack with a strong grip as she walks down the stairs into the subway. Before she got her headphones, the subway was her worst nightmare. However, she realized she hates walking all the way to the park more, so she asked Max for advice. When Max gave her the idea of headphones, she figured it was worth it to try, and they work great. Plus, she thinks they look cute over her beanie.
On the train, Nancy sits and spends some time posting her photos from yesterday. She only allows herself time on social media when she is on the train to and from the park. She doesn’t love social media, but it’s a good way to show off her photos, so she only goes on it for a little while. Max thought of her username, @wheel_lens, and although Nancy found it incredibly cheesy, she decided to go with it.
She adds her preset to her photos as she observes the people on the subway around her. There aren’t as many people in the car she’s in since she chose one towards the back. There’s a mother and her young son at the front of the car. The mother looks exhausted, and Nancy wonders how long her song has been talking her ear off. To her right, there’s a man reading probably one of the most pretentious-looking books she has ever seen, and she has to resist rolling her eyes when he looks up at her and winks.
When she posts her photo of the day, she captions it.
@wheel_lens: subway thought of the day: the effect of reading crime and punishment on the subway gets negated when you smirk creepily at the girl sitting next to you.
She didn’t totally love it, but she thought it was good enough, so she hit 'post' and then put her phone away as the train stops at her stop. She hears the guy call after her, but she keeps walking. Not interested.
When she gets to the park, she sits down at her favorite spot and pulls her camera out. Taking a deep breath, she watches the people pass her. Same old, same old.
She sits there for about half an hour before someone stands in front of her, and when she looks up, she almost falls off of her bench. The woman standing in front of her is gorgeous.
“Hey there.” Mystery beauty greets her.
Nancy blinks a few times, mouth slightly agape.
Unable to get the word ‘Hello’ out, she simply waves.
Mystery beauty smiles and sits down next to her.
“That’s a serious looking camera you got there. You a photographer for work or for hobby?” She asks.
“Hobby. But I would like it to be work one day.” Nancy suddenly able to find her words when talking about her photos.
Mystery beauty smiles in response and holy shit her smile is amazing.
“You any good?”
Nancy shrugs in response.
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“You got Instagram or something? Maybe I can see for myself?”
“Okay.” Nancy replies, taking out her phone and opening up her profile, showing the woman.
“Oh shit. You are good.”
“You think so?”
“Oh absolutely. Hey, do you have any clients?” She asks.
Nancy’s eyes widen.
“N-No.”
Mystery beauty smiles.
“Tell you what, can you take my photo? My name is Robin, by the way. Robin Buckley.” Robin asks her, holding her hand out to shake.
Nancy hesitantly shakes her hand.
“My name is Nancy. Nancy Wheeler. Are you sure you want me to take your photo?”
Robin smiles again, still scrolling through Nancy’s Instagram before going to the explore page and typing in a username, clicking on the profile, and handing the phone back to Nancy.
“That’s my page. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I know a good photographer when I see one.” She says.
Nancy looks down at her phone and gasps when she sees 1.6 million followers on Robin’s Instagram.
“Are you like famous or something?” Nancy asks, suddenly looking around and noticing some people looking over at them.
Robin laughs.
“Or something. Come on, follow my lead.” She offers, taking Nancy’s hand and running down the trail.
Nancy almost trips trying to swing her backpack over her shoulder, holding onto her camera for dear life.
“Where are we going?” She asks.
Robin looks behind them, sees the coast is clear, then pulls Nancy behind a few trees. Nancy peeks around, sees that the coast is clear, then turns back to Robin.
“What the fuck was that?” She asks, starting to laugh.
Robin laughs as well, scratching the back of her neck.
“This is gonna sound cheesy, I’m aware. But I kind of forgot who I was for a second when I saw you. I wasn’t a model, wasn’t famous, I was just Robin. Then I got a cruel reminder. Those people? Probably took pictures of us, and I’m really sorry if pictures of you show up on Twitter or Instagram.” Robin starts to ramble.
Nancy’s cheeks heat up as Robin speaks. Everything about what’s happening right now is going against her routine, but her adrenaline is so high she doesn’t think she’ll be upset about it until later.
“You think they’re gonna post pictures of you and me? Why?” She asks.
Robin sits down on the ground, shrugs her shoulders, and pats the spot next to her for Nancy to sit as well, which she does.
“They like to speculate. Always trying to see my secret girlfriend. Even when I’m single like I am now. And they’re just nosey. Some locals know I enjoy coming here so they’ll show up just to see what I’m doing. I don’t know. Sounds pretty boring to me, what about you?” She explains.
Nancy shrugs.
“Sounds pretty boring. Do you still want me to take your picture?” She asks.
Robin smiles and nods.
“Of course. Go for it, Wheeler. Do you want me to pose?”
Nancy shrugs again.
“Just do whatever feels natural.” She replies, starting to snap photos.
Once she’s done, Robin helps her up.
“So, I don’t know how to get these to you because I need to put them on my computer before putting them on my phone,” Nancy explains.
Robin smirks.
“Are you asking for my phone number?” She asks.
“Uhm, I think so.”
Robin laughs and takes Nancy’s phone, putting her number in, then sending herself a text.
“Alright. I got yours and you got mine. Now, how did you get here?” She asks.
“The subway.”
Robin shakes her head.
“Let me take you home. It’s the least I can do for possibly spreading your face all over the internet.” She offers.
Nancy agrees and Robin leads her to her parked car. As they walk, Nancy learns that Robin’s main job is modeling, but she loves to play music as well. Nancy tells her about how her brother is touring with his band and that she spends her days working at an office and hopes to make money on her photos one day.
When they get to the park entrance, a few paparazzi are there, and the flashing lights immediately bother Nancy. She’s used to being behind the flash, not in front of it. She covers her eyes, freezing. Robin ends up wrapping her arm around Nancy and leads her away from the cameras. Nancy vaguely hears the paparazzi ask who she is, but Robin ignores them and walks Nancy to her car. Once inside, Nancy takes a breath.
“Sorry”
“That’s okay. Are you alright?” Robin asks.
Nancy nods.
“I-I’m autistic. The lights and the yelling started to…hurt. It’s a lot.” She explains, pressing her headphones closer to her ears.
“Oh okay, that explains the headphones. Noise-cancelling I assume?” Robin asks.
Nancy nods.
“They’re mainly for the subway. But luckily, I forgot to take them off today.”
Robin nods.
“But you’re alright now?”
“I’m alright now.”
“Okay good. I’m sorry to put you through that. Where do you live? I’ll drive you home.”
Nancy tells her and Robin starts to drive.
“I’m not the best driver but luckily you don’t live too far, so just bear with me,” Robin replies.
Nancy notices how it’s true, Robin is not a good driver. But it was really sweet that she offered to drive her, so Nancy decides to ignore that.
When Robin pulls in front of Nancy’s building, they both sit for a few moments.
“Thank you for the ride. I’ll send you the photos when I’m done editing them.” Nancy smiles politely.
Robin nods.
“Sounds good. I’ll see you around, Wheeler.” She replies.
Nancy gets out of the car and walks into her building. Max is sitting in the lobby waiting for her.
“Are you okay? It’s 4.” She asks.
Nancy nods.
“I had a very weird time at the park. Do you mind if I edit some photos while we talk?” She replies as they walk up the stairs to her floor and into her apartment.
“Go for it. I’ll just hang out while you do it.”
Nancy takes some time editing the photos and sends them to her phone before sending them to Robin. She closes her computer and walks over to the kitchen to get a glass of water.
“Nancy?”
“Mhm?”
“You want to explain to me why your phone is blowing up?” Max asks.
Nancy looks at her phone and sees over two hundred notifications from Instagram. Scrolling down to the bottom, she sees that she was tagged in a post.
@buckley: got to work with the coolest photographer today. thanks for running from paparazzi with me @wheel_lens