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Liam
I lean down harshly, pressing my lips into my co star. He tastes like watermelon gum and a little bit like lettuce. His eyes flutter shut, tilting his head to the left, allowing me to snake my hands down to his waist. His sage green hair falling just below his eyebrows, making me dizzy with want.
I close my eyes and decide to be bold. My teeth run against his bottom lip, I slightly move my head and-
“Cut!”
Our directors voice breaks my ears, while Henry pulls away and gasps for breath.
“I need more emotion. You guys are best friends, yes?”
Me and Henry turn towards each other simultaneously. His lips look puffy, but besides the blush covering his cheeks, his expression reminds bland, almost bored.
Henry steps forward. ”Yes. That’s probably why you’re only seeing platonic kissing,”. Henry pulls at my shirt sleeve. “This attire is not something we would ever wear!”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, Hen, platonic kissing,” I mutter. “Dumbass.”
Henry isn’t wrong though. This has been the hardest roles we ever have to play. We were supposed to be two gay lovers, who were the comedic relief for the main couple, but instead we seemed like awkward high schoolers.
Which wasn’t too far from the truth. I’ve loved Henry since the day we got cast in our first movie. Our directors immediately saw our combines potential, and we’ve been typecasted as duos ever since.
I guess now we’re having to be a little bit more than a duo. And unfortunately,
I’m not acting.
Henry pushes open the door to the outside seating of the Panda Express while Jingle Bell Rock plays on repeat. “That’s what I’m saying, dude!” Henry begins, turning his towards me, eyes wide as lemons. Well, green lemons. Seriously, who dyes their hair the same color as their eyes? Not saying that Henry couldn’t pull it off…
“You’re saying that the Mrs. Shawarma is homophobic?”
“No,” Henry shakes his head. “I’m saying that he makes his gay character too stereotypical! Not all gay people wear earrings and hot pink.”
I laugh at Henry’s verbiage. “I dunno. I feel like it might be relatable to the target audience.” I contemplate our target audience. “Aren’t people enjoyers of cringey romance?”
Henry shrugs. “I guess so. Just think it’s weird how they chose us to be the funny, gay side couple.”
I cross my arms. “Maybe it’s time to stop acting, Henry,” I stop abruptly and grab his face with my hand.
“Let’s make this official, for real.”
Henry laughs and shoves me off. “Dumbass.”
Is it bad I was happy that I got to kiss Henry, even if I had to pretend I didn’t like it?
“Ugh, it was so gross having to kiss you, of all people…”
I see Henry scowl and pout out of the corner of my eye.
Me and Henry sit and eat our Panda Express. Although Henry is Asian, he doesn’t like anything off the Panda Express menu besides Orange Chicken. His spice tolerance is lower than mine, which says a lot, considering I can’t an entire Taki’s bag without coughing.
We eat and talk and laugh like we always do, but something feels off. Today wasn’t the first time we had to rehearse that kiss, but I know it won’t be our last.
We have a buzzfeed interview tomorrow at 9 o’clock. It’ll probably be tame and a little boring. It’s one of those google cardboard questionnaires.
All the actors get to stay in a hotel nearby the set, all expenses paid by the director. There’s parties and bed and breakfast, so I guess it isn’t so bad.
Me and Henry’s rooms are right by eachother. There’s a lot of… well, interesting characters. There’s an actual gay couple, Zander Wickmen and Luke Peterson, who lost their dream roles to me and Henry.
Then there’s Hailey and Jake, who are supposed to be in love, but apparently Jake is in love with someone named Drew? Or Daisy? Really, I can’t remember.
Finally, there’s some side characters, who we actually get along with pretty well. Except for the directors daughter Zoey. She’s basically if a ‘nepo baby’ and a gold digger had a child. I guess that kinda describes every celebrity relationship.
The only good thing that came out of Zoey, was her best friend, Lia.
Lia was a really talented actor, but she was jealous of Jake’s relationship with that blueberry girl, Hailey.
As you can see, lots of drama going on.
Good thing me and Henry won’t be apart of any drama.
9:00 in the morning. Saturday, December 19th, 2025.
“Hi guys, it’s Henry and Liam,”
“We play Wyatt and Sam in our newest movie, “ ‘Under the Mistletoe’ ”
I hold the large board, full of the most searched questions about our movie.
Henry rips off the first question.
“Alright! This one says, ‘Are Wyatt and Sam in a…’ “ Henry stops and looks at me.
“ ‘Are they in a relationship IRL?’ “
I flush immediately and then try to brush it off, feigning nonchalance.
“Wow, starting off strong,” I begin.
“N-no,” Henry stammers quickly. “We’re straight.”
That is false, but I still agree with him. “Yes! Well, yes, to the straight part, not the dating allegations..!”
Henry clears his throat again and rips off the next question.
“ ‘Do Wyatt and Sam actually kiss in the movie?’ ”
“Um, yeah.” I say awkwardly. “More than once, I think.” Why am I still talking?
Henry wordlessly rips off another. “ ‘Is Wyatt a twink?’ “
I’ve never had to suppress so much laughter in my life.
Simultaneously, we both say different answers. I think you can guess what our individually opinions were.
I choose to tear off the next one.
“ ‘Are Wyatt and Same close in real life?’ “
I grin and nod vigorously. “Me and Henry have been acting together forever.”
Henry adds on to my claim by beaming at the camera, cutely saying, “And even when we’re not on the same set, we hang out at least twice a week.”
I catch Henry’s gaze for a split second before he tears off the last google search.
“ ‘What is the age rating for Under the Mistletoe?’ “
“Well,” I begin. “It’s PG 14, due to some scenes of kissing and adult jokes.”
“The main couple, Lynn and Adam, played by Hailey and Jake, have multiple steamy scenes, but nothing not suitable for a teenager!”
Something in me possesses me to say,
“Yeah, well, you and me have some pretty hot scenes too,” I grin and lean back in my chair, crossing my hands behind my head.
Henry’s eyes widen slightly, but he has enough media training to not look caught off guard.
“It’s okay, Liam, baby,” Henry says overly sweetly. “I know you wanted more kissing scenes, but alas, this is not our movie, it’s Hailey’s!”
I can’t trust myself to speak, so I roll my eyes and say goodbye to our viewers. Hopefully, no strangers on the internet makes anymore ship edits of us.
At the hotel, people are crowded in the halls, all frantically getting ready for the Christmas premiere party.
Lia runs into me and I flip around and catch her by her wrists.
“Woah, slow down,” I advise. “What’s going on?”
She runs her fingers through her dark black hair. “It’s Zander and Luke.”
“Umm?” I ask. “What’s up with them?”
She freezes and starts whispering. “Haven’t you heard?” She says.
“They’ve gotten into a huge fight!”
Henry
Luke Peterson is crying into my hand sewn jacket, saying his boyfriend’s name every two seconds.
“Shh, Luke, you guys will make up….”
He wipes his eyes and looks up at me.
“Really? You think so?”
I don’t even know what happened. But, what am I supposed to do, say no?
“Yeah, dude!” I heroically exclaim. “You guys will be back together in no time.”
I can already smell alchohal on Luke’s breath, so it isn’t a total surprise when he says,
“Why haven’t you and Liam gotten together yet?”
“What? No-I… We aren’t like you and Zander.”
The true answer, is because I’m scared. I don’t want to have to like guys. I wish I could just love Lia, but I’ve never even felt satisfied with anyone. Until I met Liam.
He’s so perfect. Have you seen him? The way he holds himself with confidence makes me want him, more and more.
It’s not that I don’t know he likes me. I’m not stupid. I just wish he didn’t. I really wish he didn’t, because now I have everything I want at my fingertips, but no way to grab ahold of it.
“Take a shower, Luke,” I murmur as I stand up. “Apologize to him, and you two will be fine. Trust me.”
Luke nods and I take that as my sign to leave. It didn’t really matter what I said to him since he’s to drunk to remember it in the morning.
I just hope Liam avoids me for the rest of the day.
Liam
I’ve been looking for Henry for the past hour. Everyone I’ve asked says he’s been running around.
I think he’s running away.
Finally, I spot him at the wine table.
“Henry! There you are.” I slide into the stool next to him and ruffle his green waves.
He looks at me, his gaze unfocused, almost blurry.
“Hi, Liam.”
I frown. “Dude, are you seriously drunk? At a Christmas party?”
He giggles and drinks more of his wine. “Nah. Just thinking.”
I decide to let the subject drop. We sit in silence until he says, “Liam, can I talk to you? Outside?”
Fuck, fuck, fuck. What do I do? Something must’ve happened.
“Lead the way, Sir”
We walk towards an empty room. I notice Henry’s jacket is stained with…Water? Tears? Alchohal?
Who knows. But the rest of his outfit is flawless. His fitted black pants with a ruffled white sleeve shirt. His green zip up doesn’t match, but it’s kinda his ‘iconic’ look.
My outfit is black on black, because, you never leave your first scene phase… Sometimes I even wear eyeliner, sue me.
We finally get to the empty room and Henry slams the door behind us.
“Hen? What’s-“
I’m cut off by his lips grazing mine for a short second until he pulls away.
“S-sorry? Fuck, sorry Liam, I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I swear I didn’t mean too,” He genuinely looks disgusted.
I lean in to kiss him back, but he pushes me away.
“Henry?”
He shakes his head, over and over again.
“I’m not gay, Liam.”
“I never said you were.”
He laughs without enthusiasm.
“It’s not hard to figure out that you think I’ll actually like you back one day.”
I freeze.
“…what?”
Henry’s widen before he closes them completely. He just shakes his head and says, “I don’t like you, I’m not gay.”
This isn’t a surprise. He won’t like me back. Ever. No matter how many staged kisses or parts we act, he’ll always see me as a friend.
Why did I ever think we could be something more? Was I that delusional? I imaged every hint, every sign, until he had to tell me otherwise.
He must hate me. I can’t believe I would do this to my best friend. He knows I’m in love with him. He’ll never love me back, we’ll never be the same again.
I tangle out of his grasp and walk towards the door. He doesn’t stop me.
Epilogue
Henry
I marry Lia. She’s nice, but not my type. After years of marriage I’ve fallen into the same easy routine of pretending I love her.
Liam, on the other hand, he’s more famous than me.
I don’t think he ever fell into love again. We refused to act together, the press was furiously trying to figure out why, but no one had any answers.
Our dynamic duo just stopped. Me and Lia act together sometimes,with Luke and Zander. They made up in the end.
Liam and I didn’t.
Sometimes, most times, I envy them. They’re everything me and Liam could have been.
It’s been years now, though. We’re adults. It’s too late for us.
Maybe in another universe, we could’ve loved each other.
Or, maybe in another universe, we could’ve simply never loved each other at all.