"I need to remain objective," Jesus said with a straight face.
"What?" Nick looked befuddled.
"That's what the judge's clerk said, when he called me. I 'need to remain objective'. He said it was just an 'FYI', from the judge."
"What do you mean? Like, professional or something?"
"Yep. I need to remain objective and professional. Those are the rules."
"Seriously? You're really gonna do that?"
"I just wanna try it and see if I can. Challenge accepted."
"Okay. Good luck with that. I'm not gonna make it easy for you," Nick admitted.
Jesus kept a straight face.
"I see you've started," Nick acknowledged.
"So, Nick...I mean, 'Mr. Stratos', how do you feel, today?" Jesus asked in character.
"I'm feeling...excitable. Kinda hyper today. I'm feeling like you're looking cute. Your hair looks nice, and you smell good."
Jesus started to blush, but stayed in Character. "Mr. Stratos, tell me how you spend your time."
"Well, first I shower, brush my teeth, and all that stuff. Then, I wait for my friend Jesus to show up. After that, he kinda leads the way."
"Mr. Stratos, do you really think it's healthy to rely so heavily on the presence of your friend...Jesus, is it? He sounds like a handsome young man."
"Yeah, he's really hot, but I can't even hug him without him freaking out."
"Do you think that maybe this 'Jesus' fellow doesn't like you back?"
"Oh, he totally has the hots for me."
"And how can you be so sure, Mr. Stratos?"
"Well, between me and you, I gave him a hug in the pool yesterday and he totally got a boner."
Jesus blushed again. "Do you think that perhaps the erection could have been involuntary, due to excessive body contact?"
"Well, I didn't get one, and I was feeling the same contact that he was, so I'm not so sure about that."
"Nick Stratos, it's beginning to sound like you intentionally made contact with Mr. Adams-Foster's penis, is that correct?"
Nick pretended to look around, then put his mouth by Jesus' ear to whisper. "I just wanted to see if I could feel the size of it."
Jesus cleared his throat and felt a nervous sweat coming. He was beginning to find it difficult to stay in character. "Were you successful?"
"Yep. Dude's totally packing."
Jesus no longer had the courage to continue whatever weird game they were playing. "Okay, that's enough role-playing for one day." He looked away from Nick and exhaled.
"Why?" Nick laughed. "I was having fun."
"That's sure as hell different from the kind of fun we used to have."
"Like what? Speeding in my car? Pretty sure this is safer anyway."
"Man, we used to have fun, didn't we?" Jesus reminisced.
"Yeah, we did." Nick seemed to be picturing the things they used to do together. "I was a bad influence on you."
"Nah, man. You were fun...'til you started dating Mariana. Then it seemed like she was all you cared about. I guess that's what people do."
"I never wanted to be that friend that ditched his buds for a girl. I was stupid for doing that, but I didn't even realize that I was doing it, which really just makes it even more sad."
Jesus just looked away and didn't say anything, which made Nick feel like he needed to do something drastic.
"Hey, since I can't leave the house anyway, why don't you keep my car for now?"
"What? Don't be ridiculous, dude."
"No, I'm serious. I mean, why not, right? It isn't like you haven't driven it before, and it's not serving me any purpose right now."
"No way. My moms would never go for that, and I'm not sure I'd wanna be responsible for someone else's car anyway."
"Well, I'd give it to you, but my dad would probably kill me, and-"
"Whoa, whoa. You'd give me your car? That's too much; I'd never take it anyway."
Nick blushed. "Oh...sorry. Guess I was just feeling bad for being such a shitty friend all that time."
"There's always the future, right?" Jesus smiled.