Adorable Confusion

Chapter 2

He just watches me for a minute; like he's expecting me to cry.

I know I'm going to any second now, but I really can't in front of him.

It'll make him think he has power over me.

Which, unfortunately, he does; since I'm so sensitive and emotional.

But I cannot let that show.

We continue walking down the hall, we're right at the Digital Video room now. I almost forgot what I was even here for.

Niall walks into the classroom to get the materials and props, while I wait outside the door. He also brings Mr. Billeck, the art teacher, so he can unlock the door to the green screen room.

"There's only two of you?" Mr. Billeck asks.

"Yea I'm shooting the main part of the video tomorrow, but she just wanted to be in the first part of it." Niall answers.

"Oh, so you guys know what you're doing?" The teacher asks, just to confirm.

"Yep." Niall responds, holding a cardboard box that has the word "props" written on it in black sharpie.

"Ok, I don't know how comfortable I am with letting just you two in here by yourselves.." He says smiling. He's clearly joking, but this is not the right time to be saying that to me Niall.

My eyes widen, looking over at Niall to see his reaction. Of course, he's blank-faced, and just walks right past the teacher, and into the green screen room with the box of props.

"Are you gonna need a pass to come down tomorrow too, dear?" Mr. Billeck asks me, but before I can respond, Niall's already answering for me with a, "no, she's not".

With that, Mr. Billeck walks out and shuts the door behind him.

I look around the green screen room.

"I've never been in this room before," I see one entire wall covered in green paper, while the other walls are left untouched. There's a large desk in front of the green wall, with four desk chairs that have wheels on them. The rest of the room is left with miscellaneous things such as papers, chairs, boxes, and equipment lying around. "It's cool in here."

"Yea, we have to be careful not to break anything. Those cameras cost $3,000 each; so we're not allowed to touch them." He informs me, looking over at the two big, professional looking cameras that stand behind him.

"Wow." I smile, walking closer to get a better look.

They're the same kind they use for the actual news channels on TV; the ones where the letters scroll on the screen so you don't have to read your lines off a piece of paper.

"So this is where they do the morning announcements.." I half ask, half say; not really directed at anyone, just thinking out loud.

"Yea,"

"So you're gonna be the little sister of the teenager who dies in the car accident," he starts describing what I'm gonna be doing. "This is gonna be like a separate little interview type of thing. I wrote a script, so just memorize it while I set up the camera that we're gonna use."

"Ok." I say simply.

I read what Niall wrote for me to say..

Hi, I'm the victim's sister... It's been hard going through life without my big brother around. He was always looking out for me; unfortunately what he wasn't looking out for, was the truck that hit him from behind. All because he was texting..

"Um," I say.

"What?" He quickly turns over, and looks at me from where he's kneeling with the camera.

"'Hi, I'm the victim's sister..?' Don'tchya think that sounds a little...weird?" I try not to laugh.

"I don't know, I didn't know what else to make her say." He whines.

"People don't talk like this in real life." I say, laughing.

"Well what do you think she should say?" He asks, smiling at me.

"I don't know....maybe give her a name?" I suggest.

"Ok. What should her name be?" Niall asks.

"I don't know...how bout..Tessa?!" I say excitedly.

"Uh, okay." He laughs.

"What? She's the main character in my favorite book." I defend my answer, looking down at the paper.

"Okay, let's just start shooting," he blows it over, turning the camera on and looking up at the digital clock on the wall.

The red numbers read 7:57.

"We only have twenty three minutes of this period left." Niall moves the camera so that it's directly facing me, then when he's all adjusted and ready, just stares at me like some sort of cue that he's ready to begin.

"Okay, should I just start talking now?" I ask, unsure.

"Yea...try to not look at the paper, just at the camera." He says, watching the whole scene from the little camera hole.

"Ok....hi, my name is Tessa Young, and my brother was the teenager who recently passed in a car accident; due to texting and driving. What happened was, he was driving on the highway, when he got a text. He attempted to answer back, but didn't see the truck that smashed him from behind. My brother's death was a tragedy that I hope will be a story to all teens." I say.

I don't know what to do now.

"Is that it?" I ask Niall.

"Yea. I can watch it later." He says, avoiding eye contact with me.

I watch as he turns off the camera and packs it away in its little bag.

I look over at the prop box; filled of tape, sheets of paper, a pencil, and some other random materials.

Why'd he even bring the box if we weren't gonna use anything in it?

"Soo... That's all we have to do?" I ask, trying to fill the silence.

"Yea," He says simply, picking up the camera off the stand and getting up from his kneeling position.

"You wanted to be in my video and this was the only spot I could give you." He says deadly.

I sorta understand why he didn't think it was working with us now.

This is awkward. There's literally nothing to talk about.

Maybe he was right; we aren't good for each other.