Page 32 of Method Acting

I was beginning to like him.

When I’d left his room last night—after we’d sat on his bed, holding hands and watching Rick and Morty—I walked home, telling myself it wasn’t real.

Because it wasn’t real. It was acting. It was all preparation for this semester’s production in our final year.

Just like the kiss.

It wasn’t real.

It wasn’t me, and it wasn’t Amos. It was our characters. It was Dominic and Elijah. They kissed, not us, and that’s what I told myself for the rest of the day and well into the night.

I told myself it was no big deal. I told myself not to read into it.

So I’d been a little competitive. That was nothing new. He’d been brazen enough to kiss me first when I had been suddenly overcome with nerves and apprehension, so if he could be aloof and removed, then so could I.

Except now, I couldn’t stop thinking about him, about that damn kiss. About how he’d felt against me, about how he’d reacted. How he’d tasted.

How he’d blushed and been all shy afterwards.

It’d pleased me to know that it had affected him as much as it had affected me. And the great part was—or maybe it was the torturous part—now we had to keep doing it until we made it look natural.

“Why are you so quiet?” Tater asked. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything is great. Why do you ask?”

“Because you’ve been quiet. And you’ve got your thinking face on.”

“That’s not his thinking face,” Jimmy said. “That’s his caught-feelings face.”

I gave him the stink eye. “Oh, fuck off.”

He just laughed. “A bit like that time when you thought you caught feelings for Georgia before you talked yourself out of it. But this is worse. You’ve caught bigger feelings this time.”

I leveled him a not-impressed glare.

Tater blinked in surprise. “Holy shit. For real?”

Jimmy’s grin widened. “And if I were a betting man—which I totally am, by the way—so five bucks says it’s a certain someone who doesn’t like you... What did he call you? Generic?”

I sighed so loud it was a borderline groan.

“Oh my god. Like, for real?” Tater was grinning now too.

“No, not for real. And he apologized for the generic comment.” Kind of. Not really, but whatever. “And he does like me.”

“You’re not denying it,” Jimmy said, putting his hand out. “You owe me five bucks.”

“You can suck my dick,” I said, batting his hand away.

“No thanks.” Jimmy sized me up, serious now. “Honestly though? Are you good? Ain’t like you to get bent outta shape over someone.”

So typical of Jimmy. Joked until he could see it was time to be serious. Like now. And it wasn’t like the whole drama production was some big secret. We were allowed to tell people. Maybe telling them would help.

I began with another sigh. “So this production for drama is a thing for a few weeks. It’s a focus on method acting.”

“Okay,” Jimmy hedged.

“What’s method acting?” Tater asked.

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