AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ben
This kid was giving me a run for my money.
Professor Hughes had been right. Cory was eager. Ambitious.
But I had to admit, it was weird how he looked at me. With admiration, with respect, and with a little bit of awe.
The truth was, he was freaking me the fuck out, and I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to deal with it.
I was playing the part of teacher and I’d even dug out the khaki pants Ellie had given me for my birthday six years ago. It was my pathetic attempt to put some kind of distance between us, considering I was supposed to be his mentor, but the reality of our situation only moved us further apart the more we interacted.
I was failing. Big-time.
It had been a week since he’d started. I didn’t feel comfortable yet sending Cory on set by himself, and with my hectic schedule I didn’t have time to accompany him. I felt awful knowing that he was probably itching to get behind the camera, just like I was. So I had promised him we’d spend the last part of today filming.
With the intention of creating a fake set, I’d brought three cameras into my office. I let Cory set them up while I went in search of subjects. To my dismay, the only props I could find were blow-up dolls. I brought them into the office, setting them down on the couch, a blond female doll straddling a brunette.
When I turned, Cory looked at me with a shy smile, his face red and splotchy with nervousness. He worked the focus and fiddled with the settings, pointing each camera at the couch, one on each end and one dead center. Exactly what I would have done.
When he was happy with his setup, I checked his shot. “Zoom.” I urged. “Closer.” I stood back, taking in the scene. “I don’t like a lot of periphery. It has its time and place, but not for sex. Not for any romantic moment, really. You want to capture the closeness. You want to make sure you have your camera aimed and centered on the couple.”
“You mean the live space?”
I froze. Case in point. Failing. Big. Time. “The what?”
“The buffer space around your focus.” When I didn’t react, he continued, “Like the safe space that doesn’t end up in the final cut, but where the boom can safely sit for instance.”
“Right. The couple is your live space.” I nodded, doing my best to pretend I knew exactly what he was talking about. I was going to have to Google the shit out of directing before I showed up for work on Monday. “Right now, we’re just at the start of the scene. There’s only kissing going on. Focus on their faces.”
Cory’s face flushed at my comment.
“You wanted to intern in porn, kid, you’re going to have to get used to sex.”
He let out a heavy breath. “It’s hard to get used to something when you’ve never done it.”
I stepped back, crossing my arms over my chest. “You’ve never had sex?”
He shook his head, eyes lowering to the floor.
“Hey, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Listen, I wish I had waited. My first time was…not normal.” That was the most PC way of explaining it.
Cory stared at me, his eyes alight with excitement, but I remained silent. “Hey, come on. You can’t drop a bomb like ‘not normal’ and leave me hanging.”
I let out a steady breath and returned to the camera on the left side, biding my time. This kid blushed at the sight of a blow-up doll. How the hell was he going to react to my first sexual experience?
“Let’s just say it involved two women and another guy—and looking back, I wish it had been different.”
“Your first time was an orgy?”
I laughed. “I told you it wasn’t normal.”
“You’re like the Yoda of sex.” He walked closer and in a strained, cartoony voice he said, “Teach me, you must.”
I laughed. He may like Tarantino, but at least he knew his classic science fiction. “I’m supposed to teach you about film, not about sex.”
“One in the same.” He shrugged. “At least here it is.”
“Tou—”
