“She goes back and forth between opening herself up to the experience and then reverting back to ‘How can I do this? This isn’t who I am.’ We get to watch her struggle with that. … You’re going to feel how deep the emotion is and how much they grow to care for each other.”

Now that viewers know Paige is just tortured, rather than crazy — I’ve already forgiven her for attempting to drown Emily in the pool — Lindsey hopes we’ll all be a little more sympathetic to her character.

“[Paige] is totally and completely scared, just like every single person in high school,” Lindsey says. “There’s this underlying fear of not being accepted. This is something that’s been festering, but she didn’t know [that kiss] was going to happen until it happened.

Speaking of the big kiss, Lindsey says it was just as “awkward” as you might expect.

“We decided not to do the kiss during rehearsal and save it for the first take,” she tells us. “I was so nervous that when I went in to kiss her, I totally got the side of her mouth. It was really awkward, and the camera was shooting us from the side, so you could totally see. I didn’t land it very well. It got better after that.”

But Lindsey adds that working alongside Shay made everything a lot easier:

“Shay is literally the nicest person with the biggest heart. [When you join an successful show] you’re walking into someone else’s family. She welcomed me with open arms and made it so much fun.”

Overall, Lindsey says she feels really fortunate to get to play a young gay character on TV at such an important time.

“I really appreciate the opportunity I was given,” she says. “I understand that I’m representing a huge part of society, and I want that to be authentic, even though I have no first-hand experience.”

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