Page 66 of Protecting Hailey

In the middle of the night, Christian laid down next to me and pulled me close to his chest. My heart beat loudly and it echoed the earlier tune in my head. He was right. What happened today wouldn’t stop me, it would only make me stronger.

***

The next day when I plugged in my electric guitar into the amp inside Tessa’s studio, she narrowed her eyes. “What are you doing, Hailey?” She chewed her gum loudly as she crossed her arms.

“I want you to listen to something I worked on last night. You need to keep an open mind about this.”

“My mind is as open as a 24/7 food joint.”

I shook my head and laughed at her analogy. I checked the distortion on the amp and lowered it. I didn’t want to freak Tessa out too much.

I strummed down on the guitar and nodded as I played the introduction. Sticking my chin closer to the microphone, I belted out the lyrics. I sang and played louder than I usually did, but it felt damn good.

I held the last note with my pick and raised the guitar handle in pure rock ‘n ‘roll fashion.

Inhaling a deep breath, I looked up at Tessa in the booth. Her face was blank, completely void of any emotion.

Uh oh.

“What do you think?”

“Ah, it’s different.”

“Yes. I know. But did you like it?”

Tessa crossed her arms and stared at the control in front of her.

“Tess—”

She held up her hand, and I stopped talking. She was in a zone. I recognized that look.

She turned some knobs and after a few minutes, she said, “Try it again, except I want you to remove the distortion and raise the key one semitone higher.”

“All right.” I adjusted the amp and sang the song again. While I played, Tessa worked on the controls.

When I finished the song the second time, Tessa nodded her head and waved for me to come back inside the control room. “I want you to hear this.”

I crossed my arms and listened. Tessa intertwined softer synth pads with my electric guitar, giving the song a more pop feeling. “I like it,” I said.

She smiled. “Me, too.”

Switching on a dial, she added, “Try it again, but hold your notes a little longer. I think it will work better.”

I trusted Tessa, and I trusted the song. “Yeah, I think that will work nicely.”

Tessa and I fine-tuned the melody and the lyrics until we were both grinning by the end. “That’s it, girl. That’s the one.”

I inhaled and let all my frustrations and fears go. It felt good doing something with those emotions, something that made me feel stronger.

While I was packing up my guitar, Sam and Ingrid walked into the room. “Hailey, how are you doing? We heard what happened last night.”

“You did? Who told you?”

“Your mother, of course. She’s very worried about you. Is there anything we can do?”

“Should we post about it on social?” asked Ingrid.

“No,” I snapped. “I don’t want to post about it on social. Why would I do that?”

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