Little Do We Know(28)

I could tell by the way Aaron looked away that she was making him uncomfortable, but Alyssa didn’t seem to clue in. He ignored her and said, “Jack is green, Logan is orange, and Hannah’s red.”

“Why am I red?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I didn’t give it much thought.” He looked away from the monitor. “But you’re definitely red.”

I laughed self-consciously. “What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know,” he said, laughing along as he propped his leg against one of the rungs. “When I’m mixing your music together, your voice is always the loudest. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, it just the…most dominant. I turn it down and turn up the others up to blend in with you.”

I had no idea what to say to that. If anyone was red, it was Alyssa. She was the hot one, the fiery one, the daring one, the fun one. Like Emory. I was the blue one. I’d always been the blue one. The calm, the ocean, the sky, the color of stillness. I was the even-keeled one, the voice of reason, the yin to their yang. The blue one, no question.

When Aaron turned back to the monitor, Alyssa raised her eyebrows and shot me a well-check-you-out look. I played it up, giving her a cocky smirk.

“Okay, back to work.” He tapped his finger against the monitor. “We’re close. All we need to do now is get the whole thing down to one minute—a minute thirty, tops—and it’s just short of two minutes long. So, we’re looking for about thirty seconds to cut.”

He slid me my notebook and a pen, and then he stood and gave his stool to Alyssa. “Hannah, you navigate. Do what we did yesterday, only this time, instead of flagging the good stuff, flag the parts that seem unnecessary. Extra words. Guttural pauses, like ums and likes. Anything that slows things down. Got it?”

“Got it,” I said as I pressed PLAY. I kept my finger on the mouse, ready to pause and rewind.

“I’m going to finish editing the background music.” He put his headphones on and moved over to the mixing board.

Alyssa and I watched the screen. The video began with that same aerial view of the campus, panning slowly, then zooming in on the empty picnic table in the Grove.

She was with me for the first twenty minutes or so, and then I could tell she was getting bored. She kept letting out loud sighs, swiveling around on the stool, and stopping to check her phone. When I got to the end of the recording, I leaned in close to her and whispered, “I’m done. Want to tell Aaron?”

She looked at me, wide-eyed and nodding. She tapped him on his shoulder, and he took his headphones off and draped them around the back of his neck. “We’re ready for you,” she said. She stood up so he could take her stool.

Neither one of us spoke while Aaron methodically worked through the cuts I’d recommended. He showed us how to zoom in to the audio and clip it so it wouldn’t sound choppy, and then how to smooth it back together. He played it from the beginning. Kevin sounded articulate and totally fluid; you couldn’t even tell where Aaron had spliced the video.

When he was done, the whole video clocked in at one minute, thirty seconds exactly. Aaron pressed PLAY and the music swelled as the campus came into view.

I peered over my shoulder. Alyssa was standing behind us with her hands on her hips, eyes glued to the monitor. As we watched, I heard her suck in a breath.

The second it ended, she said. “Whoa. Okay, you guys. That. Was. Amazing.” She shoved her arm between Aaron and me. “See. Legit goose bumps.”

I had goose bumps up and down my arms, too.

“It’s perfect.” I smiled at Aaron.

He smiled back.

I must have been caught up in the moment, because suddenly, I reached over and rested my hand on Aaron’s leg, like I’d known him for years.

As soon as I realized what I’d done, I jerked my hand away. My jaw fell open. I started to say, “I’m sorry,” but nothing came out.

And then I panicked. I looked at Alyssa, but she had already turned away, reaching inside the mini fridge for another Sprite. As she walked back toward us, she popped the top and took a big sip. “Seriously. It’s so good.” She patted Aaron’s shoulder. “Pastor J’s gonna give you a fat raise for that one.”

My heart was racing and my hands were trembling. I could feel sweat beading up on my forehead.

Aaron seemed completely unfazed. “It still needs a few adjustments. A couple of those transitions were clunky, but it’s getting close.”

Alyssa set her soda on the desk and brushed her hands together. “This calls for pizza, don’t you think? Or a late movie?” She pulled her phone from her pocket and checked the time. “Come on, it’s only nine thirty. Let’s get out of here.”

“You go ahead,” he said to her. And then he looked at me and said, “It’s okay. I promise.” I had a feeling he wasn’t talking about our early exit.

“Are you sure?” I asked. I wasn’t talking about that, either.

“Positive.” He pressed his palms together, like he was begging me to believe him. “I’m going to finish up here. I need to get this to your dad tonight.” He pointed at the door with his chin. “I’ll send you the final in a few hours.”

“Okay,” I said. I gathered my stuff and left the sound booth in a daze.