Free Knee Deep by Jolene Perry

I looking forward to this? To kissing him? Or am I that far into the role? I’m not sure. How do I tell? Do I need to know? We’re standing close now; so close I can feel his warmth. I have no idea what my next line is.
    “I think that’s good for today,” Mr. Blackman calls. “No point in finishing this scene without the real Juliet.”
    My body jerks at the sound of Blackman’s voice, but I’m sort of locked into Luke/Romeo’s eyes with no excuse to not look away. Mindy’s here. Watching. I force my eyes away to stare at the floor, but now my head’s almost touching Luke’s chest because he hasn’t moved either. What’s going on with me? It’s just a stupid play, and just Luke.
    I look up just in time to see Mindy blow me a kiss as Paul and his broad shoulders lead her out of the theater. Now I’ll be walking home. Alone. With Luke. Hoping to let the tension go, I take a few more deep breaths. Will it always be like this when I’m onstage with him? Will it just take a moment to shake off Juliet when we finish each day? This is just what acting is. It has to be.
    I step away before turning back to him.
    “Ready?” he asks, offering the normal, relaxed, Luke smile.
    I guess it was all me. All in my head. That’s good. Perfect, actually. But why do I feel like part of me was just let down by the casual way he’s looking me?
    ***
    “I heard a rumor you slept with Aubrey.” I hold my smile in. That should sidetrack my brain from the thoughts of our lips together. Although I might not want to talk about Luke and girls either.
    “Where did you hear that?” His eyes are wide.
    I shrug.
    He shakes his head. “Yeah.”
    “Didn’t you and Cris just break up?” I ask. Luke and I are walking toward Shawn’s backyard hoping he’s home from work with the pizza he promised.
    “Nah.” He shakes his head. “That was like, three weeks ago.”
    “Right.” I smirk. “And within three weeks you had Aubrey in your bed.”
    His eyes widen again and he shakes his head. “It was totally her idea and totally unexpected.”
    I so don’t believe him. “I totally don’t believe you.”
    “No!” He holds his hands up laughing. “I swear!”
    “How…” How long have I been with Shawn and still can’t imagine it?
    “I don’t know if I should tell you.” Now he’s trying to sound all snotty or something, teasing as always.
    “Really?” I cross my arms, and stare at the printed hem of my dress as we walk.
    “You won’t believe me.” His voice is serious again, only not serious because there seems to be some teasing tone in almost everything he says.
    “Try me,” I say.
    He lets out this long breath that says he really, really isn’t happy about talking to me, but again, teasing is all over his face. “I mean, we’ve gone out a few times. So last weekend we went to dinner and then she wanted to go to a movie, so we did that too. And then she asked me if we could hang out at my house cause my mom was out of town with my aunt.” He unlatches the gate into Shawn’s backyard so I can walk through.
    “Are you seriously going to tell me that she seduced you?” I walk backward a few steps to see him better. And why does saying one stupid word— seduced —make me blush?
    “I totally am.” He’s smiling and there’s enough disbelief on his face for me to believe him. “We ended up in my room and she even had condoms in her purse.”
    “You, Luke, are such a whore!” I laugh and flop back onto a lounge chair, which loosens some of the weirdness that’s built up while he talked about Aubrey.
    “Whatever.”
    There’s a long pause. I slide down low, closing my eyes.
    “It kinda freaked me out, you know? I’d only ever been with Cris.” His voice sounds so small.
    What ? He’s being serious. “Are you serious?”
    “ Yes , I’m serious.” His eyes are wide.
    It’s so odd. “You just had that whole ‘Luke the wild guy’ thing, and went through kind of a—”
    “Crazy time, or