Wavelength

1

sasha

I text Isabelle with all the caution the stars at the Channel take when we’ve got a secret.

Like someone is looking over my shoulder or hers.

It takes distrust and encrypted apps to keep plans from the Channel and the paparazzi.

Or to hide our sex lives.

Mostly that, I’m told.

For me and Isabelle, it’s just the opposite. Though with the way Isabelle talks about ou.

“relationship”

in interviews, I know it looks like there’s a spark burning between us.

She can laugh at gossipy questions and blush when it’s the perfect time to blush and keep everything PG-3 like the Channel says she must.

Alexander

I need a big favor

A huge favor, actually

Are you alone?

Isabelle

Well

That depends why you’re asking

She’s like this in our messages.

At this point, softly flirty is a state of being for her.

It’s a brand, and Isabelle is nothing if not an expert at marketing herself.

She’s worked ten times as hard as me, clawing her way from background character to lead role to being practically her own manager.

But the Channel wouldn’t like that image, so she has a way of disguising her relentless drive underneath a persona of being relatable and fun and bumbling.

I’ve seen her plan charmingly relatable social blunders, practice tripping while walking onstage and write twenty drafts of an acceptance speech that will seem genuinely shocked.

She’s exactly what the Channel wants her to be.

Exactly what they made her, or what she turned herself into.

Eventually, you can’t tell.

People might feel deceived, but it’s just acting.

In the end, that’s what we signed up for.

Our overlapping fandoms would die to scroll through me and Isabelle’s private conversations.

They’d see backstage.

They’d see before the camera starts rolling.

And they’d be disappointed.

Because the romance is acting too.

Most people don’t want to see us exchange an endless parade of entertaining nonsense.

They don’t want friendly, warm messages interspersed with complaining about talk show appearances.

They’re not interested in the pictures of Isabelle making faces that reveal she isn’t quite as young as the characters she plays.

Isabelle

Ok I’m by myself now

You alright?

If anyone could scroll back, they wouldn’t find a single picture of my face. I’m scared of those.

The helmet I wear in any public setting is iconic now, an instantly identifiable brand, but it also lets me keep my visual anonymity.

As much as putting it on every day is hell, I’ve been able to hold on to that one thing for myself.

I’m not sure if wearing it is in my contract.

That’s not something I’ve ever been shown.

And anyway, Heather Erin, who manages me and my brother, Augustus, has never needed to order me to wear it.

I’ve saved my face from the spotlight in case I ever reached a moment like this.

Alexander

I need to disappear

And I can’t do it by myself

Isabelle

You want me to come with you?

That’s a big move

I feel like it could be a good stunt in a couple years

7 is too young

Later we could disappear, get engaged

Then it’s wedding speculations and I can make headlines just by being seen with a ring

Or without it (gasp)

There’s this too — the professional side.

Between touring with my brother and Isabelle’s shooting schedules, we’re relentlessly busy.

Some of our communication is to make sure we’re keeping our timelines straight when we’re pretending to be in the same place and we’re not.

Our messages are full of candid-seeming videos and pictures of us together with my face out of view.

They’re paired with adoring captions, all pending approval from the other person before becoming public.

Alexander

Why don’t I get a ring?

Isabelle

Your helmet is your famous prop

Don’t be selfish

Alexander

I’m serious though

Isabelle

You can have a ring if you want

Should I propose to you?

It’s the lightly feminist thing to do

We’ve been at this for years. Dream couple, actress and popstar, teenage sweethearts.

We’re the result of an algorithm the Channel ran. Fake lovers planned by marketing teams and pushed together in a meeting that wasn’t a request. I’m lucky it was her.

I was supposed to be in TV shows and movies too. My brother and I were first brought on as Channel actors when I was ten and he was twelve. Heather Erin got ahold of us not long after and transformed us into the pop duo Admirer. She was the one who told us what our job really is.

Heather Erin said.

“You know when you have a good dream and lie in bed for a minute with your eyes closed pretending it’s real? You want to believe in it. It’s easy to sell a dream people want to believe in. You just have to keep it up. You can’t do anything that opens their eyes.”

Alexander

I mean I’m serious I have to disappear

Just me

I have to do it tomorrow night

And I need your help

Isabelle

Why now?