Page 27 of Method Acting

He seemed genuinely happy to hear this. He shot forward, sitting now with his feet on the floor. “Okay. So what are your limits?”

“People. In general.”

He snorted. “Like a social battery?”

“Exactly. You get buzzed hanging out in crowded places. I get drained by it.”

“Okay, fair enough. That’s easy. When you’ve had enough, we leave.”

“We leave? Are you expecting me to go places with you?”

“Well, yeah. As part of the show. There’s gonna be social settings.”

I groaned, because I hadn’t really thought of that. “Yeah, okay. Fair enough.”

“And the touching,” he hedged. “Is holding hands okay? Hugging?”

I grimaced. “God. If you have to, I suppose.”

“Kissing?”

“In public?” I wasn’t one bit sorry for the face I made. “I can’t think of one reason where it’s necessary to suck face in public.”

He snorted. “Because the love you feel for someone is greater than your opinions of others... Hey, I thought you didn’t care what other people thought?”

“I don’t.”

“But you do, clearly.”

“Some things are supposed to be private.”

“Well, I think we’re expected to kiss at some point.” He shrugged. “And who knows, maybe we can ask if our kissing scenes are done in private. I’m sure if we tell Deirdre it’s a hard limit, she’ll be okay with it. They’re still working on script adaptations anyway, so we can tell her tomorrow.”

Goddammit.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” I said, feeling the need to explain myself. I wasn’t sure why. “It’s just acting, I get that. And the real script adaptations won’t start until filming does. It’s a reality show. The script writers and scene guides need to adapt and change shit on a daily basis because there will be factors out of our control. We’re working with the general public, with the students and faculty. And they’re not in on it. They don’t have scene guides or anything. This is pure method acting, ad-libbing, and rolling with it.” I shrugged again. “So, if there’s kissing... if the scene calls for it, and if it feels right, then we can do that.”

“So tomorrow if we have to practice kissing, you’ll be okay with it? I don’t want you to do anything you won’t be comfortable with.”

“I’ll be fine,” I replied, aiming for a nonchalance I didn’t feel. “As long as you brush your teeth beforehand.”

He laughed. “Same. Oh, you’re not allergic to peanuts or anything, right?”

“No.”

“Good. Because I love me a good PB&J sandwich.”

I rolled my eyes but did concede a smile.

“Okay, let’s start with this,” he said, scooting back on the bed, sitting against the wall with his legs outstretched, feet over the edge. He patted the bed next to him and held out his hand.

“You want to hold my hand?” I asked, sidling up next to him.

“Might as well start now.”

I resisted sighing but I did whack my hand into his. He chuckled, then maneuvered our palms and threaded our fingers until he was comfortable.

“See, this isn’t so bad,” he said, keeping his eyes on the computer screen.

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