Chapter 3

He knew Amanda was in the room even before he heard her come in. Her flowery perfume was almost overpowering, especially when she clapped her hands over his eyes. "Guess who, sunshine?"

"The mailman?" He chuckled as Amanda took her hands away with a pout. "Oh, it's you. Guess I'll have to settle."

"Punk." She kissed him on the cheek before sitting down opposite him. Apart from the strong perfume, his girlfriend was dressed impeccably, as always. The turquoise sundress really seemed to go well with her olive skin tone, and he liked the way she did her hair today, cascading down her shoulders in loose dark waves. Ordinarily, she would have made any normal man insanely happy just to be in the same room as her. Scott smiled at the irony.

"You won't believe what happened today." He pushed his copy of the script across the kitchen table towards her, and she craned her neck to get a better look.

"What's this? You got offered a part?" Her eyes glinted with amusement as she glanced up at him. "So what is it now? Four buddies vow to lose their virginity before graduation? Alien cows beam down from Jupiter to invade the world? Four alien cows vow to lose their virginity before invading the world?"

He tossed a cushion at her, laughing. "Y'know, I actually would consider a part in that last one."

"It's original enough." She flipped through the script for a while, frowned, then did a double take at one of the pages. "Babe, I think-"

"Yeah, I know." Scott laid back in his seat. "It's a gay movie. About two gay firemen."

"Oh." She delicately placed the script back in front of him. "So which part are you reading for?"

"They kinda want me to read for Travis. But I may be considered for Paul." He lifted his shoulder in a shrug. "Does it even make a difference?"

"Are you gonna do it?" Amanda seemed to be choosing her words carefully, which kind of made Scott feel a little uncomfortable.

"Dunno, really." His eyes finally met her serious brown ones. "You know why, right?"

"Yeah." She slumped down, letting her chin rest on the table. "Hell, if this ain't ironic."

He sighed. "You're telling me."