Hog caught my eye again. This time, he didn't look away.
Later, he found me in the parking lot.
I'd slipped out during Desrosiers' third retelling of the bar fight—the version where he'd apparently fought off six guys instead of two—claiming I needed air. The cold hit my face like pushing a reset button. I leaned against the brick wall near the dumpsters and tried to convince my nervous system that everything was fine.
The door opened and closed.
Footsteps. Heavy. Deliberate.
"You're hiding."
Hog appeared beside me, wrapped in flannel.
"I'm not hiding. I'm communing with nature."
"You're standing next to a dumpster."
"Nature takes many forms."
We stood in silence for a moment. The cold crept through my jacket, numbing my ears and turning my breath into small clouds that dissolved before they reached the streetlight.
"How's the documentary thing going?" Hog asked.
It was a casual question in a serious tone.
"Good." I kept my voice light. "Great, actually. Adrian's been—I mean, it's going well. The filming. All of it."
"Mmm."
"He keeps getting extensions to stay longer. Said the footage is worth it."
"The footage."
Hog was quiet. That meant he would choose his next words carefully.
"Can I tell you something?" he said.
"Is it about yarn? If it's about yarn, I'm not sure I'm emotionally prepared—"
"It's not about yarn."
I shut up.
As he turned toward me, his face was half-lit by the streetlight, all shadow and beard and those steady eyes that saw more than they should.
"The camera," he said slowly, "shows what the person holding it wants to show."
I blinked.
"Doesn't matter what's real or what happened. What ends up on screen is whatever the person behind it decides matters." He paused. "Make sure you know what he's pointing it at."
"Adrian's not—" I started.
"I'm not saying he's anything. I'm saying a camera's not neutral. Neither is the person using it. And you're—" He paused. "You give people everything, Pickle. You put it all out there hoping they'll catch it."
"That's a very poetic way of saying I have no filter."
"It's a way of saying it's easy to hurt you."
