"Leave me the fuck alone!" Mike shouted. "I've had enough of you and all this, I don't ever want to see you again!"
"That's good," I said.
We were sitting outside James's house, waiting for the others who were still inside. I didn't know what they were doing, but what mattered was that I could spend this short time with Mike. I don't know what I'd do without him. It's with him that I feel the safest, the most wanted. With James, Ryan, Joshua, and Malachai, I never felt that.
"You can try it, Jeremy, you'll feel much better, I promise you."
Mike decided to play the actor and teach me emotional roles. How to bring pain to the surface and how to become believable in expression.
"I don't think it's for me," I said.
"Why do you say that?"
"I've never been interested in acting."
"If you don't try, you'll never know if it's not for you," he insisted.
"I… I don't know how to show emotions… on the outside." I smiled, thinking he would drop it, but he didn't. He kept going. He wanted it so badly, maybe because he'd never heard me scream before.
"Come on."
His hand moved close to my face. Inside, I felt a fire spreading down to my feet.
The corners of his lips lifted. Although Mike usually didn't show his teeth when he smiled, this time he did.
"Just this one time."
"Mike, don't you think it's weird to scream almost in the middle of the street, with other people around?" Mike raised an eyebrow.
"Who cares."
"Aren't you afraid they'll look at us funny?" I asked.
"People will always look at you funny, no matter what you do, so why should I hold back?"
I nodded.
"Yeah… I'm afraid they'll talk about me," I said, rubbing the back of my head.
"In that case, fuck them. Let them talk, let them never stop," he grabbed my hand and pulled me up. "Who knows, maybe that's our power."
"That gossiping about us?"
"Yes, that we are the ones they gossip about."
Mike let out a tiger's roar. I immediately blushed with embarrassment.
"And how is that supposed to help with acting?"
"It's the first stage, you have to warm up. Now you," he pushed me, and let out another roar.
I rolled my eyes and did the same as him.
A group of five or so people walked past us, giving us crooked looks, but Mike immediately turned my head so I wouldn't look back at them.
"ROAR!" we both screamed. "ROAR, ROAR, ROAR!"
I laughed out loud.
So did he.
"What the fuck are you meowing about out there, pussies!" Joshua's voice ripped out from James's house door.
Immediately, we snapped back into our normal poses and everyday selves.
"Roar," Mike repeated, but this time in a whisper.
When we all gathered, we walked away from James's house and disappeared behind a tall wall.