"We'll be right here,"
"Go, get him!"
"Yeah!"
"Go, Simon!"
The loud sound of the television was distinct from the movie Matthew and Carl were watching from their bedroom. They were sitting up on the bed side-by-side—their backs leaned comfortably on the soft headboard, their laps covered in a thick duvet covers, and their attention focused solely on the flat screen television that was hung on the wall.
The general idea of watching romance movies came from Matthew, but the insistence that it should be gay romance came from Carl; as such should help him in embracing and be more comfortable in his role for their upcoming movie.
Love, Simon was their third movie. It was in its final scene where Simon was going to ride the Ferris wheel to wait for his mysterious online lover, and while he waited from the top of the ride, his high school classmates gathered around to wait with him as they cheered him on with shouts of glee and excitement.
When Blue finally revealed himself as the mysterious online lover, he joined Simon on the Ferris wheel, and after the initial shock of Simon and his friends, they kissed passionately as the whole student body cheered them from the ground.
Matthew diverted his attention from television to the musician beside him and watched how he would react at the kissing scene; Carl was smiling genuinely at the scene he was watching as he tossed a popcorn in his mouth from the bucket of popcorn that was separating them.
"Aww, that was cute," the young musician said so casually as the film credits rolled from the TV. He turned to Matthew, smiled at him, and stretched his arms before he put those behind his head, saying, "Do you want to take a break?"
Just as he suggested that, there was a swift knock on the door twice and opened, and it revealed Prince with a copy of a Cosmopolitan magazine on his hand; where on the front page was a full body shot of Matthew, smiling and looking dashing.
"Hey, look what came in the mail," Prince said, dragging out the last word as he flopped onto the bed, while Carl seemed the only one interested in it. He pinched Matthew's calf, frowned at him, saying as he gave the magazine to Carl, "You could look interested about it."
"It's Cosmo—no one reads that anymore or any magazines for that matter," Matthew chortled with his eyebrows raised at his assistant manager.
"Wow," Carl said in amazement, wonderstruck in his eyes as he held the magazine and looked at the pictures on pages Matthew was featured. "Look at you! You look really handsome—just wow."
"He does, doesn't he, Carl?" Prince quipped in with a smirk directed to the actor, who just rolled his eyes and ignored him, but smiled at the musician beside him, saying, "Thanks, Carl."
It has been a full month since Carl moved in, and they have grown comfortably closer as friends. From time to time, their chemistry has incredibly improved, and it showed during their practicing of reading lines or whenever they were trying to reenact a scene from the script—because method acting was the best way to teach Carl, according to Matthew.
One time, during one of their practices, Carl has managed to pull off a few chaste kisses with Matthew without feeling awkward, embarrassed, or shy about it. That was a good thing, because not only it showed confidence in his role, it also showcased how he was portraying his character properly.
No matter how little Carl's improvements were, an improvement was still an improvement, after all.
"Do you want to get kicked out of our room?" Matthew said, his face forming into a scowl as his assistant manager kept nudging his leg, and it was starting to annoy him.
YOU ARE READING
Superstar (boyxboy)
Romance"They were sunshine, I was midnight rain." Written for Open Novella Contest 2024.
