“That’s it!” Scarlett said. He had played a guy who accidentally set himself on fire cooking dinner, and then ended up getting a pizza delivered while he was still smoking slightly. It had been on constantly around Christmas.

“We’re both TV stars,” he said.

Scarlett felt her chin go a little weak, like it was about to drip off her face.

“Let me see that again,” Spencer said.

“What, the roll?”

Spencer nodded. Eric did it again, running and diving onto the ground, rolling three times, clapping feverishly. Spencer watched carefully, cocking his head to the side. Then he set his script down and recreated it perfectly, adding an extra roll.

“That was good,” Eric said. “When I first tried it, they wanted me to do it like this…”

And then it really began—a showdown the likes of which Scarlett had never seen. She was used to Spencer doing this on his own, to entertain her, or whoever was around, or just for his own personal amusement. She wasn’t aware that other people spent their time doing the same things, especially people like Eric.

Spencer started by fake-punching himself in the face, complete with an authentic punching noise and reaction (called the “nap,” Scarlett had been told). He knocked himself completely to the ground. Eric was duly impressed by this, and did the same thing to himself, but in the stomach, throwing himself back very far. Spencer countered by pretending to trip and throwing himself over two separate benches—the second one, backward. Eric couldn’t top that. They exchanged fake blows for a while, comparing the noises they made. Then, there were backflips.

After about an hour, it came down to the issue of who could walk on their hands the longest. In this, Spencer was slightly at a loss. He was fairly strong, but Eric had much bigger, stronger arms. Spencer went a lot of steps quickly before rolling over. Eric was slower, but unquestionably more powerful. He kept going for a full minute after Spencer.

“What did you think?” he asked, as he gracefully let himself down. He was out of breath and his face was deeply red. “Who wins?”

Spencer was back on his hands, trying again.

“You’re good,” she said.

“Yeah, but he’s really good. He’s got skills. Serious skills. He has to show me how to do that fall.”

Spencer wandered off on his hands, mumbling his lines. He disappeared around the statue.

“But you won,” she said. “Definitely. You stayed up longer.”

He smiled that uneven smile.

“I’m going to do that fall,” he said. “You watch. Give me a few days. You’ll be around for a few days, right?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I guess. If you guys need help.”

“We need help,” he said. “And I need a witness.”

Even as it was happening, Scarlett knew she would remember this moment for a long time—this first exchange with Eric, the way he was looking down at her, tousled, slightly sweaty. Perfect.

Spencer reappeared, now on his feet. Then he collapsed on the grass.