“Okay. So”—I sat cross-legged and pinned Asher with a serious look—“we need to get into character. I say, in order to do this, we only use the character’s names, not our real names. That would be too weird.”

Asher nodded and rubbed his chin. “Yes. Agreed. And, to indicate we are going into a scene, we say action so we know to be those guys and not ourselves.”

“Yes. That. One hundred percent that.”

“When we need to break character for any reason—”

“We say, end scene then we can go back to being Asher and Atticus. Deal?”

“Shouldn’t it be cut? That’s how it works in the movies.”

“And you’re a famous actor now? I like end scene better.”

Asher rubbed his forehead where a sheen of sweat lingered. “Fine. Whatever. Deal. You know this is way worse for me, right?”

“How?”

“Not only am I fake getting kinky with you, but I’m fake being gay too.”

“Pff.” I waved a dismissive hand. “You’ve been watching me be all gay for twenty-one years. You’ve got this.” Then I snorted as a dawning realization came to me. “Oh my God, you’re the nervous virgin right now, aren’t you?”

Asher paled. “Jesus, I’m not going to fuck you. Stop saying shit like that. We’re just gonna … touch and stuff.”

“We should probably … kiss.” I winced.

“And not make faces while we do it.” Asher pointed at my wrinkled nose.

“Right.”

“Lewis is going to make us do that, isn’t he? The kissing thing.”

“Probably. He seems like exactly that kind of douchebag.”

“Okay. So definitely practice the kissing.” Asher rubbed the back of his neck.

“Breath mints?”

“Yes!” Asher flew from the room and returned a minute later with a small pack of Tic Tacs. He tipped a few into my palm and shook the small bottle over his mouth. We crunched them down.

Asher blew a gust of air into his palm and sniffed. “Good. Better.” Then he scanned his bedroom. “So … h-how do you wanna do this?”

I scanned too—mostly to stall. “Um. Maybe we should start in our underwear. I get the feeling Lewis is gonna make us do that trial shoot with nothing on but our tighty-whities tomorrow.”

“Underwear?”

“Yeah. That guy hates us and is gonna do all he can to make us uncomfortable. Underwear. Kissing. I don’t know what else, but those two things will be guaranteed.”

Asher drummed his fingers on his thigh. “You’re right. Okay. Underwear.” He eyed me and looked away.

Knowing this was my grand idea, I stripped off my clothes first, kicking them into a pile by the wall. No big deal. We’d been like this with each other before. “Okay, come on, Ender, show me that buff body of yours.”

Asher balked, and his eyes widened. “A-are we starting?”

“I thought so.”