Method Acting || Joe Keery

S E V E N

"Can we talk?" I ask him.

"Yeah..." Joe answers, nodding slowly. Unsure of what's coming.

I get up and begin to walk over to the other side of the room. I turn around to see him still standing there.

"Come on!" I say to him, motioning for him to follow me.

He walks over to me, his hands shoved inside his jacket pockets. Once he gets to me he leans against the wall and looks at me.

"What's up?" He says.

"I have been researching techniques. You know, for acting? And I'm trying something with Maya, so that we can convey closeness on screen," I say to him.

"What is it?" Joe asks me.

"Um... Touch actually. Lots of close contact, hugging, that kind of thing. So we come across more comfortable with each other you know?" I say.

"Oh! So like, method acting! That's pretty clever actually," Joe praises me.

I smile, blushing a little.

"Thank you," I say.

"So... You want to do something like that with me?" He asks.

"Kind of. Actually, more like the opposite though," I say.

Joe tilts his head with a confused look on his face.

"Our characters have all this... Tension. Until they get together. I think the best way to translate that is to build on it. By not touching," I explain tentatively.

Joe stands up so that he is no longer leaning against the wall. He takes his hands from his pockets, and looks me in the eyes.

"You want me to stop touching you?" He asks me, his expression hard to read, but I could tell he wasn't pleased.

"Just until our characters get together," I explain.

"What makes you think this would even work? What if it has the opposite affect and our relationship looks flat?" Joe asks.

"That won't happen," I tell him.

"How do you know?" He asks me.

"Put your hands up," I instruct.

"What?" He asks, confused.

"Like this," I say, raising my hands up in front of me, palms flat.

Joe slowly lifts his hands up, facing his palms to me. A look of curiosity in his wide eyes.

With hands up and my palms out, I slowly step closer to him. I stop once I am mere millimetres from touching him. Our body's close, our hands even closer. My shoes almost touching his. That regular heat I've grown accustomed to begins to pulsate between us and my breath gets shallower.

I swallow.

"Do you feel that?" I ask softly.

"No, you're not touching me," Joe says, annoyed.

I sigh.