“I don’t know. Maybe you were nervous at your auditions, or it was bad luck, or maybe it’s just a random, shitty business where talent doesn’t always matter.”

“Maybe I dance better with you.”

Mateo half smiled. “You’ve come alive this summer, Archer, and it’s not only with me. You’ve only gotten better. You’re outdancing me. You will get a job. A big one. It’s inevitable.”

“So could you. You’ve got everything, Mateo. I know it.”

Mateo’s head dropped. Then his shoulders started to shake. He was crying.

Archer climbed onto the rock and slid an arm around Mateo’s shoulders. “What is it?”

It took him a minute to get the words out. Archer waited patiently.

“I’m afraid, Archer,” he finally said. “I’m terrified of trying. What if everyone hates me? What if I … what if I blow it all again?”

“I get it, it’s going to be hard, but … what if I were with you?”

Mateo looked up at him, wet eyes sparkling in the dim light. “You don’t want to do that.”

“Oh, Mateo. I very much do,” Archer insisted, a soft laugh punctuating his words. “You’re Mateo Dixon, don’t you know? I had your face on my wall.”

Mateo laughed, but it was still half sob.

“Even if you don’t want to … be with me, we can just be friends. I will go with you to every audition until you get a part, before I have to go back to Ohio. And let’s be honest, it will probably only be one audition.”

“If I don’t want to be with you?” Mateo repeated.

“Um, we just kissed—a really fucking amazing kiss, by the way—then you said fuck and ran away.”

Mateo shook his head, lips quirking. “Of course I want to be with you. I— Are you sure that you—”

Archer leaned in. “I’m sure.” He pressed his lips to Mateo’s.

They kissed on their rock in the moonlight while the lake glittered below.

“Oh God,” Archer breathed a while later, dizzy from the lack of oxygen, lips tingling. “You’re a good kisser.”

“So are you.” Mateo tilted Archer’s chin toward him for yet another.

“This isn’t a bad idea, is it?” Archer asked him when he could breathe again, over the sound of his pounding heart. “We’re so close to the big show. Are we going to mess anything up?”

Mateo nuzzled Archer’s neck. “I’ve been thinking the same thing. Maybe we should wait until we get back to the city?”

Archer breathed in Mateo’s scent as he brushed his lips along Mateo’s cheek. “That’s probably smart. What’s a few more days?”

Mateo’s hand crept up Archer’s thigh. “We can do it.”

“Okay, that’s the plan.” Archer sighed before they started kissing again.