from prom. He imported it into the project, and looked through it for a while. In the center of the frame was the leader of the fans, Vanessa Watson, but Michelle was also in the frame, and Charlie watched her jumping up and down, swinging pom-poms and smiling.

Soon he was already looking through the records of the previous season's football matches in search of shots with the fans. Every time he saw Michel, he cut out this part of the video and imported it into the project. What is he going to do with all this? He did not know. But those moments when the camera turned to her now seemed to him precious finds, and he wanted to find them as much as possible.

“I never knew,” he thought, looking at the recording in which, for some forgotten reason, he decided to take a close-up shot of Michel when she danced to the orchestra, “I shot her and didn’t even know who she was.”

Daryl appeared every time an hourly tour led him to this part of the school building. Charlie explained that he was bringing together several football videos, and Daryl did not ask questions. The football team appeared on the screen in most clips, only it was not the part of the record that interested Charlie.

“You have to go home, Charlie,” Daryl finally told him when it was past midnight, “you've been here all day.”

All day - and no sign of Michel. Charlie felt defeated when he entered the dark parking lot. Her words said last Saturday echoed in his head. She said that it would never happen again, and she really had that in mind.

At school, Charlie continued to walk past Michelle in silence, pretending that he did not know her secrets and that he was not familiar with her. He watched her whenever he could, trying to find out with whom she was spending time — perhaps with a guy he didn't know. He experienced jealousy several times, being sure that the guy who was talking to her was her boyfriend. But his subtle inquiries about her relationship did not yield clear results. If she really had a boyfriend, he was not widely known to her classmates.

On Saturdays he spent long hours at school, and now he spent all his time on mixing frames with Michel. He did not have a clear idea of ​​what he was creating, and he knew that all this does not make sense - except that now he looks like a pursuer, obsessed with a pretty cheerleader. He told himself that this would allow him to end it all. He will put all his feelings in the video, and then save it to a USB flash drive and throw it into the box. Or throw in the trash. Thus, he symbolically releases her, and moves on.

Despite the efforts and energy that he put into the project, Charlie did not want Daryl to find him while working on this video. It was not difficult to unnoticeably install one of the small cameras with wireless video transmission at the window and output the signal in a small window in the corner of the screen. He could follow the movement through the camera, and it gave him a few minutes when Daryl appeared. Enough to hide the project he was working on and replace it with editing a football match.

“You’ve been spending a lot of time on this computer lately,” Daryl said. - Your eyes do not get tired of constantly looking at this screen?

“I am compiling a selection of my editing,” said Charlie, “I want to have something good I can send to the film school.”

- Indeed? - Daryl was impressed. - Let me see what you got.

- When will it be ready, okay? Some videos are still being edited.

- Of course of course. When it's ready, Daryl nodded and went back to the detour.

The project turned into a fifteen-minute video with music dedicated to Michel.Charlie compiled each piece of footage from Michelle, who was able to find, and put four years into the video collage that Michelle spent at Pine Hills School. Sometimes he imagined how he presented her with this video for prom. Just brought something together, he would say. - Memories of all those years that you spent in this school.

All but one forgotten Saturday.

Then he realized that he could never give this video to her or show it to someone. All this video with her, shot from a distant camera, mixed together with love songs, playing against the background ... it was like the result of the work of an anxious pursuer. No, when the video is finished, it should hide it away and forget about it. Or even destroy.

Daryl sometimes came with two Pepsi from a machine gun. Charlie wasn't sure how, but he suspected that the guard had a way of getting soda for free. They opened the drink and talked until Daryl finished drinking Pepsi. From the moment Charlie mentioned film school, it has become the guard's favorite topic.

“Now is the best time to live,” Daryl said, leaning back in his chair. - Previously, you had to wait for someone who would give you a chance. But nowadays, if you have talent, you can collect your creativity for cheap, put it on the Internet, so that everyone can see ... all of a sudden, bang - you are rich, famous, work with the best.

“It happens,” agreed Charlie. - You have a good script, collect some of your friends. Shoot something for film festivals.

- Exactly! For sure! Nowadays it happens all the time! That's all you have to do, man. You learn everything you can in film school, but you don’t get into the system, right? You do not need to pay. Not in our day. Put your work into your own thing, do something special ... you will achieve your goal very quickly, ”Daryl put his Pepsi to his mouth and found that it was over. He threw the bottle in the trash. - Well, I have to do a couple of laps. I will still come.

“Bye,” Charlie heard the steps of the guard leaving the video workshop. He counted to ten and opened a window in a corner of the screen to follow Daryl down the hall. As soon as Daryl went out of sight of the camera, Charlie opened his project about Michelle.

He knew that he would have about forty minutes before Daryl returned to this part of the building. Forty minutes to devote to editing. Charlie opened the video of last year’s dance performance. Michelle danced hip-hop, and he had very good shots with her.

Suddenly he noticed movement in a window in a corner of the screen. He looked there, but now there was only an empty corridor. Is Daryl already back? Maybe the guard forgot something? Charlie quickly closed the editing window and opened a football match video. He began to create a clip with a touchdown and pretended to focus on it, expecting to hear the approaching sound of the guard's shoes on the linoleum.

“Charlie ...” whispers behind him, his name almost exhaled. Charlie looked over his shoulder. His eyes widened.

Michelle stood two meters behind, her arms pressed to her legs. She was completely naked.

Charlie looked at her, deprived of speechlessness:

- Michel! - finally he was able to say, - Have you lost your mind?

“Hello, Charlie ...” She smiled, biting her lower lip. She took a step towards him.

- Daryl is here! Security guard! He is here today! - Charlie quickly turned around and opened the window on the screen, which shows the corridor. Fortunately, it was empty. - He was here! Here is his Pepsi in the bin!

“I know,” Michelle came closer. - I saw him when he walked. I was peeking around the corner. He did not see me. He went to the audience.

Charlie could smell her perfume, that familiar scent. She was standing so close that he could reach out and touch her if he wanted.

- You were naked on the street? - his voice sounded as if someone had squeezed his throat.

She nodded her head.

- Not for long. You left the rear window of the car ajar. So I took off my clothes and pushed it into the crack. Now she is in your back seat. ”She shrugged.“ Your car is locked. ”So after that, I stayed naked.

She trembled, her hands stroking her bare legs.

Charlie shook his head in amazement. Maybe she really ... Read more →