“Cut!” The director’s word signaled the conclusion of yet another commercial. “I think that’s the first time I got my lines right on the first try.” Orange(orange M&M) told me. “It only took me a month.” I realized it had, in fact, been a month since I started acting alongside Orange. More importantly It had been a month since I acted with, or even seen Yellow. That was going to change today. About a week ago Yellow texted me to go out for drinks on Tuesday. I glanced at my watch, it was Tuesday 4:00PM. One hour until we meet. I waved bye to Orange and the rest of the crew, and started driving towards the bar. I was elated to see him again. I had worked with Yellow for years. We got along well, he was the best costar you could ask for. For all the years we worked together though, this would be the first time we hung out outside of work.
I soon arrived at the bar, a sort of run-down place in a neighborhood I’ve never visited. I glanced in my rearview mirror, thankfully my eyes didn’t look tired. I took a deep breath and opened the car door. I’m not a shy person, but the prospect of spending alone time with Yellow outside of work made me a nervous. A good kind of nervous. Yellow is a cool guy, intimidatingly charming even. He had always been kind to me, but I never would have imagined that he would ask me, and only me, out for drinks. To him, this might only be two friends catching up, but to me, this evening was my rare chance to actually get to know him. I stopped rehearsing in my head all of the questions I wanted to ask him and entered the bar.
“Red!” Yellow gestured me over. I walked over to the bar, taking in the sight of Yellow and his warm smile. He stood up from his stool with his arms out. “Long time no see.” Yellow said bringing me in for a hug. I enjoyed his strong embrace, but soon became distracted by the thought that I might be holding on too long. I managed to break the hug without being too awkward and we both sat down on our stools. We ordered drinks and spent about the next two hours catching up. Yellow told me how he had grown tired of acting and just began his career as a director one week ago. I filled him in on the few things that happened since he quit.
“It’s really nice seeing you outside of work. I mean, we’ve known each other for years, but I think this is the first real conversation I’ve had with you.” I finally told Yellow. “I’m glad too.” Yellow replied grinning, “You were always my favorite guy to work with! I always wanted to hang out with you when we weren’t working, but I was just so busy back then.” I was caught off guard, I never thought that Yellow wanted to get to know me outside of work as much as I wanted him to. Our eyes met and Yellow spoke again, “On that note, should we continue hanging out? I can show you the new short film I’ve been working on.” I tried to hide my excitement and replied, “Yes, that sounds great!”
We split the bill and left the bar. I followed in my car behind Yellow for a few miles until we arrived at his house and pulled into the driveway. It was a one story house with a modern style and a small front yard. I got out of my car and followed him in. His living room opened to his dining room and kitchen and he had various film posters hung on his walls. I walked over to, pointed at one of the posters, and said “what’s this?” Yellow walked over and, placing his hand on my shoulder, said “That’s a foreign independent film that I like.” Yellow was so close to me, my heart started to race. He continued, “acting is fun, but it’s movies like this that inspired me to get behind the camera.” Yellow patted me on my shoulder and led me to his couch. We sat and he grabbed his camcorder off of the coffee table. We spent the next half hour watching raw footage of the film he’s working on and some of the behind the scenes set footage.
Yellow shut off the camcorder, turned to me, and spoke “so that’s pretty much my job now, I have more responsibilities and I have to be bossy.” I looked at him in mock disbelief and said, “bossy? I couldn’t imagine you in such a dominant role.” Yellow chuckled and then responded, “you don’t have to imagine, dominance comes natural to me.” The mood changed. Just a few hours ago I was afraid that Yellow only wanted a friendly chat with an old coworker, but here we are, sitting knee to knee, bantering about dominance. The room was silent for what felt like forever. I finally worked up enough courage. “Show me,” I said. Yellow put his hands up and shook his head while he replied, “I may seem confident but I’m too shy to let you see me being dominant.” “What if I couldn’t see you?” I joked.
Yellow stood up and started walking away. I stood up but remained in place. Without saying a word, Yellow walked into his bedroom and closed the door behind him. Standing alone in his living room, I wondered if I said something wrong. Before I could complete that thought, his bedroom door opened. Yellow walked over to me carrying something. He stopped right in front of me and held up a blindfold in both hands. He just smirked at me and gestured down at the blindfold with his eyes. I bent down leaning my head forward and let him put the blindfold on me. I stood back up. In the instant my vision went black, I became more aware of the sounds, or rather, the lack of sounds. I could only hear my own breathing. I became aware of just how fast my heart was beating. I waited, but Yellow said nothing. Was he still standing in front of me? What was he planning on doing?
I stood in an agonizing blackness and silence for what felt like minutes. Then I finally heard movement, Yellow stepped closer to me. I could feel the warmness of his breath on the side of my face and then he spoke, “can I touch you…”
