AGAINST THE RULES

Chapter 3

SNORE!
The snore was so loud it woke Bright up.
He shoots up from the bean bag, arms flailing.
Immediately, he notices three startled set men and realizes the colossal snore came from his own mouth.

He hears a soft chuckle and sees Win near the snack table. Their eyes meet and Win immediately looks away and tries to look passive. Bright stands up. Great. Another blooper for the behind the scenes reel.

What time was it? Where was his watch? Did he have a watch? Where was their manager? Where was everybody?

"Sleep well?" Win asks.
'Why was Win talking to him?' , Bright thinks. 'They'll catch this on film.'

Tense and confused and still sleepy, Bright only nods. Win suddenly understands the caginess of his co-star and starts to walk away. But he turns around one last time to say "they're in the conference room discussing tomorrow's shot list." Win takes another bag of chips and walks out the door, leaving Bright all alone.

Alone. He was alone. There were no more cameras. No one catching his words and actions on film. He was all worked up for nothing.

He could have talked to Win, after all. When was the last time he did that? When was the last time they were allowed?

He shakes his head.

Why does it matter? He's too exhausted for small talk anyway. And what could he even say?

What do you say to someone who you are contractually obligated to ignore? What do you say when all this back breaking work can be undone by eye contact lasting a second too long, caught by some grainy camera, shared on some corner of the worldwide web?

The irritation creeps back in. He'd rather talk to his cat than Win.

He feels antsier now. Every cell in his body wants to leave this studio. Every cell in his body would like to be in the dark solitude of his room. He walks towards his van, maybe the doors were left unlocked. Maybe he could just hide inside.

Bright is holding two iced americanos when he walks into the management office. Tucked inside his vest are a couple of donuts. He had time to swing by the drive thru today. He had sleep, he had a long hot shower, and aside from this meeting he had nothing else to do today. He smiles.

He enters the room and walks over to Win. He hands Win a coffee and a donut. Win looks up surprised and says thank you. Bright beams, his smile getting wider. He sits down and takes a huge bite of his donut, his mind filling up with the possibilities of the day.

Maybe he could go boxing today. Or maybe he could just wrap himself in a duvet and pretend he's a burrito. Or he could bust out Mario Kart. Maybe Win would like to play a round?

He's about to ask when their manager , Mr. Saetang walks in with the head of the network, Mr. Lewis. They say a brisk good morning to the two stars and begin flashing charts and graphs on the screen behind them.

They start with a waterfall of praises, supported by metrics and numbers and statistics. Then they introduced "the future."

A future only possible it seems if Bright played Mario Kart alone.