( continued from here ) @caswcllâ
âfilm, television and the theatre has had the most epic confessions of love. it is a tell tale of an amazing actor if you can nail a stellar romantic admission.â miss jenn was practically beaming. âyour assignment today is to improv a fake confession of love to another person. more specifically, someone you pull from that hat.â
âthis is so dumb!â ej called out to miss jenn, crossing his arms as an added sign of disapproval. he wasnât the only one, the class murmuring about the exercise she had just assigned. he was suspicious about this lesson to begin with, as it began with a video montage of famous confessions of love from the fault in our stars, friends, wicked, casablanca, beauty and the beast, hell â even star wars was included. it was evident where the lesson was headed, and though ej had no problem assuming a character, he was more upset that they had to choose names from a hat. it was as if the fates had it out for him, because of course he pulled the slip reading âricky bowenâ, probably the one person he really did not want to do this exercise with.
now, ricky and him were⊠friends. from taking him out for ice cream, ricky attending his water polo games, to texting each other everyday â they were basically the very definition of the word. there was just one problem. ejâs stomach did funny things whenever he was around the curly-haired boy. he still didnât necessarily understand why. he was over their feud, nor was he ever annoyed at the other⊠could it be jealousy? there was no way. nini was a friend, but no longer someone he liked in that way. not being able to understand his feelings frustrated ej to no end, because he genuinely enjoyed spending time with the other.
they were the final pair and after what seemed like a lifetime, it was finally their turn. with a heavy sigh, ej made his way to center stage, glancing quickly at ricky opposite him. âhonestly, letâs just get this over with.â he looked down at the slip in his hand, and couldnât help but smile reading the name again. he took another deep breath as he looked up, locking onto rickyâs eyes before taking a step toward him.
âyâknow thereâs just something about you that makes my heart do flips in my chest. maybe itâs the way you smile at me when youâre happy, or maybe the way you seem to genuinely care about my games, even though i know you have no idea whatâs going on. maybe itâs your voice when youâre singing and humming randomly in my car, or maybe itâs in your laugh when youâre actually laughing at my cheesy jokes.â ej paused, a smile tugging on his lips ever so slightly before falling. âor maybe itâs that i hate to see you sad, and even though you never tell me, i can feel it. maybe itâs the way i want to protect you from the world, and shield you from ever feeling hopeless again. maybe i donât want you to ever feel alone, and maybe i want to be the one to make sure that that feeling lasts forever.â ej took another step towards ricky, closing the gap between them, as he placed one hand on rickyâs neck, gazing fondly at the other. âmaybe i love you. wait â actually, thatâs probably the only thing i know, ricky. i love you.â
the moment held on, maybe much too long for a drama assignment, but it wasnât even a couple seconds till their fellow drama club members were atop their feet praising ej for his scene. even miss jenn had a look of shock. ejâs hand dropped to his side, a sheepish smile now painting his face, tints of pink coming through his cheeks. âhey, sorry.â he whispered to the other, before walking back to his seat.
maybe ej sort of understood his feelings now. and maybe he wasnât acting at all.
The thing was: Ricky had been through a lot of weird theatre exercises during the past couple of months. He wasnât even sure what half of them were for, but this one? Well it made sense in its own kind of way. Not that he understood why they had to come up with their own love confessions. Wouldnât it have made more sense to play out scenes from movies? Like Titanic, or something? Or maybe Miss Jenn wanted them to be authentic, but how could they be authentic if they werenât really in love?
Honestly, this whole thing was giving him a bit of a headache, and it wasnât helping that EJ had somehow managed to pull him from that godforsaken hat. Surely, they had gotten along pretty well over the last couple of days, and Ricky had to admit that he enjoyed seeing EJâs games and going for ice cream afterwards, but still.Â
âRight.â He managed, positioning himself opposite the other boy. He had no idea what EJ was going to come up with, but Ricky was sort of glad that it wasnât him who had to do the talking. Ricky wasnât exactly good at talking about his own feelings, and without having a script he wouldnât even call himself a particularly good actor.
So he left that to EJ, who started talking. For a moment all Ricky focused on were the words coming from the other boyâs lips. EJ was a great actor, but there was just something about the way he spoke that made Rickyâs heart beat against his ribcage harder than it was supposed to. Those were all things they had actually done, and he knew what EJ was saying wasnât real, but it was getting harder and harder to remind himself of that.Â
It was all an act, but then why were those things he wanted to hear? It made his head spin to the point that EJâs hand on his neck was almost too much. He took in a shaky breath, and was only pulled from his trance when everyone started clapping their hands in appreciation.
âUh...yeah...no. Itâs cool.â he eventually managed as they went back to their seats. Miss Jenn was talking, but Ricky wasnât really listening. âThat was...great. I mean...yeah.â At some point class hand ended, and he had managed to grab his things. Turning to look at EJ the eventually managed a coherent sentence. âOkay, but I do know what goes on at your games. I did some reading,âÂ
Because that was the only thing he could say without embarrassing himself.