Page 39 of Method Acting

I showed him my screen. “People. There’s a pic of you and me taken just now, walking across the courtyard, and into your dorm.”

He ran his hand through his hair. “Really?”

“Fast, huh?”

He didn’t seem too surprised. “I guess it was bound to happen.”

Another comment appeared. Hope Amos knows Chase doesn’t date.

Next comment. He only ever nails and bails.

“Oh, that’s not very nice,” I said. “I do not nail and bail.”

Amos raised an eyebrow. “Sorry?”

I held up my phone like the incriminating evidence it was. “User Aprilshower05 would like to protect your honor, advising you to please be aware that I don’t date anyone, to which LochVanessMonster said no, I only nail and bail.” I held up my pointer finger. “In my defense, I do not nail and bail. Expectations are outlined prior to any nailing and therefore the bailing is more of an anticipated departure.”

Amos snorted. “Right. That’s a nicer way to put it.”

“I thought people liked me,” I said, pouting, genuinely kinda hurt over the nail-and-bail comment. “I’ve never been dishonest to anyone about anything like that. Everyone knew what they were getting into, and they agreed before anything began.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because it matters,” I said. Because it did matter. It mattered to me. “Nice that they wanted to warn you though,” I said, still pouting. “But they make me out to be a bad person just because I don’t want a long-term relationship with every person I meet, and like I’m some kind of manwhore. Which I’m not. It’s not like that.” I finished with a shrug. “I don’t want you to think bad of me.”

“I don’t think bad of you,” he said quietly. “And I don’t care what they think. But for the sake of the performance, now you’re supposed to be serious about being with me.”

“Which is fine. We can make it believable, right?”

He pulled his other shoe on and laughed as he nodded to my phone. “Apparently I’m not the one who needs to be convincing.”

“I’ll be the best boyfriend ever, you’ll see.” I glanced at my phone again, and seeing more comments, I groaned and turned it off. “I don’t want to see what else they say.”

He went to his door so I followed him. “I don’t know what you’re worried about,” he said. “If anyone around here does the nailing, it will be me.”

I was so stunned, I couldn’t speak. So he opened the door and shoved me out of it, laughing.

And there in the hall was Daniel, camera rolling.

Chapter Eight

Amos

I don’t know what made me say it. Maybe so he would stop thinking about what people were saying, and maybe so he would realize that it’s not all about him.

Though, to be fair, they were bad-mouthing him, not me. But maybe it would do the ego of the great Chase Soria some good to know that he is not the perfect pretty boy he thought he was. I mean, he was still a pretty boy.

Though, also to be fair, he was much softer than I’d thought he was. He genuinely cared what people thought of him. He wanted people to like him, and it bothered him when they didn’t.

I, on the other hand, didn’t care what people thought of me.

For the next two hours, Chase sat in the end booth at the coffee shop. He ignored the crowd for the most part, and although he had his textbooks in front of him, I was pretty sure he ignored those too.

I saw him a time or two checking his phone, scowling at whatever he read until he tossed it onto the seat beside him and ignored that as well. He tapped his pen, pouting out the window. So when I had a ten-minute break, I put two iced coffees on the table and sat across from him. “Hey,” I said softly.

“Oh, hey.” He seemed genuinely surprised to see me as though he’d been lost in thought. “What time is it? Are you finished?”

“Nah, just a break. Still got two hours to go.”

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