Page 7 of Method Acting

“Well...” I grimaced. “Just how good are you at acting?”

“It’s not me I’m worried about. How are you going to stop flirting with everyone? You have a wandering eye and a smile that?—”

He stopped mid-sentence.

“I have a smile that what?”

He rolled his eyes. “You know damn well,” he mumbled. “You totally play it up. All-American boy next door, pretty blue eyes, Colgate smile, and a killer dimple. You know exactly what you’re doing when you aim that at people.”

I laughed because what the fuck?

I leaned in close and fluttered my eyelashes. “You think I have pretty eyes?”

He scoffed, seemingly unaffected. “It won’t work on me. I’m immune.”

My grin was for naught because he wasn’t looking at me. “Immune to what?”

“To the bullshit.”

“Ouch. My smile and pretty eyes aren’t bullshit.”

“You use them to get what you want.”

“That’s not fair. You use your spiky James Dean vibe to keep people away.”

That made him look at me. “Spiky James Dean?”

I chuckled. “Yes. You use it so people avoid you. So you don’t get asked to do group projects or go to parties.”

He conceded a shrug. “Because it works.”

“How is that any different from what I do?”

He stared at me, his dark eyes scrutinizing. Anyone else might have looked away and apologized, but I wasn’t falling for it.

“Okay, that’s fair,” he mumbled.

I laughed, victorious. “We’re not that dissimilar.”

That made him scoff. “Pray tell, how the fuck did you come to that conclusion?”

I was still smiling. “You’ll see.”

He rolled his eyes and sighed. “We’re supposed to be getting to know each other.”

“We are.”

“Like background information.”

“Us or our characters?”

He opened his folder. “For the sake of simplification, it says we should just use our own family’s background. Makes sense, I guess. What about you? How’s your family stack up?”

“I have a younger sister. She’s nine. Pretty sure she wasn’t planned, but now she’s the princess of the family. If you think I’m spoiled, you ain’t seen nothing. My folks are still married, living their best lives in Palm Springs. What about you?”

“I’m from Phoenix. My parents split when I was five. It was amicable, I guess. They both remarried, both still kinda talk. I have two older brothers. One’s an electrician, one’s an accountant. And then there’s me.”

The way he said that last part didn’t sound too happy. “Do your folks not agree with you majoring in acting in college?”

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