Play 286: Penny in a Coke Bottle

CHARACTERS
IVAN

IVAN
Why do I always say okay?

(Beat.)

Whenever anyone asks me how I’m doing, I always say okay. Sometimes I stare off when I’m around people, trying to get that perfect look of melancholy in my eyes to see if they notice. Most the time they don’t. Sometimes they do though, and ask me if I’m all right. I always tell them I am. I’m not sure why.

(Beat.)

And I guess I am. To some degree at least. Nothing terrible’s happened to me. Nothing much ever does really.

(Pause.)

I don’t know why I feel like this. It’s nothing specific. I wish it was, it’d give me something to pin it on. It’s nice to have that, gives you somewhere to put the anger and frustration. Better than just having it just sit there.

(Beat.)

It’s this build up. Nothing by itself is the problem, it’s all of it. It’s cumulative, each one feeds of the others. After a while I don’t even remember the individual ones. They’ve all soaked into me so much that I don’t remember what’s causing any of it.

(Pause.)

You know that slight sting you get in your mouth when you drink a soda? That’s all the acid in it does when it’s in your mouth for the couple seconds before you swallow it. But, you leave a rusty penny in it overnight, and when you take it out it shines like new. Strips the rust right off. Bet if you left it in long enough it’d dissolve the whole thing.

(Beat.)

That’s how it goes. Doesn’t matter how mild something is, if you give it enough time to soak in, it might as well be a thousand times stronger.

(Beat.)

I guess nothing terrible has to happen to me. Enough of these little things for long enough had the same effect.

(Beat.)

Sometimes I’m just worried it’ll be like the penny. If I wait too long, maybe it’ll keep eating away at me until there’s nothing left.

(Pause.)

But I guess I’m okay.

(Beat.)

At least that’s what I’d tell you if you asked.

(Blackout.)

Play 285: Now

CHARACTERS
ANDREW, late 20s
ROSE, late 20e

ANDREW
Now.

ROSE
Why?

ANDREW
You have to.

ROSE
But I don’t want to.

ANDREW
It doesn’t matter.

ROSE
You don’t want me to leave either.

ANDREW
That’s why you have to leave now, before I can change my mind.

ROSE
Don’t make me go.

ANDREW
I have to.

ROSE
Please?

ANDREW
You have to.

ROSE
Just let me stay a little longer.

ANDREW
Rose…

ROSE
(Seductively)
You won’t regret it.

ANDREW
Don’t do this.

ROSE
Why not? Afraid you’ll let me stay?

ANDREW
Stop.

ROSE
Afraid you’ll lose your resolve?

ANDREW
Shut up.

ROSE
Make me.

(Beat.)

ANDREW
Just get out.

ROSE
But then you won’t—

ANDREW
Get out.

ROSE
Fine. I’ll leave.

ANDREW
Good.

ROSE
You know you’ll miss me.

ANDREW
Close the door behind you.

ROSE
Okay, okay. Bye.

ANDREW
Bye.

(Beat.)

ANDREW
Rose…

ROSE
What?

(Beat.)

ANDREW
Nothing. (beat.) Bye.

ROSE
Bye.

(Blackout.)

Play 284: Yesterday

CHARACTERS
IAN, early 20s
LIZA, early 20s

IAN
Hey.

LIZA
Oh

(Beat.)

Hey Ian.

(Beat.)

IAN
What’s up?

LIZA
Nothing much.

(Beat.)

You?

IAN
Same.

(Beat.)

LIZA
How’s it going?

IAN
Okay.

(Beat.)

You?

LIZA
Fine.

(Pause.)

IAN
How’re your parents doing?

LIZA
They’re fine.

IAN
That’s good.

(Pause.)

LIZA
Ian…

IAN
What?

LIZA
Yesterday…

IAN
Let’s not talk about it.

LIZA
Are you sure…

IAN
It’s fine.

LIZA
But—

IAN
It’s fine.

(Pause.)

LIZA
So you’ve been good?

IAN
Yeah.

LIZA
That’s good.

IAN
Yeah.

(Blackout.)

Play 283: I’m Not Done

CHARACTERS
DAN, late 20s
EMMA, late 20s

EMMA
You need to stop.

DAN
No. I don’t.

EMMA
Give me the drink.

DAN
I’m not done.

EMMA
I don’t care.

DAN
Hey! I said I’m not done.

EMMA
You are now.

DAN
What the hell is wrong with you?

EMMA
You drink too much.

DAN
No I don’t. If anything not enough.

EMMA
When’s the last day you didn’t have a single drink?

(Pause.)

EMMA
You can’t even remember.

DAN
So what?

EMMA
It’s pretty obvious.

(Beat.)

DAN
I’m not an alcoholic.

(Pause.)

DAN
Can I have my drink back?

EMMA
No.

DAN
Fine.

(Beat.)

I’ll go get another.

EMMA
No you won’t.

DAN
Really? Try and stop me.

(Beat.)

EMMA
Fine. Take it.

DAN
(Smirking)
Thanks.

(Beat.)

EMMA
I don’t even know why I try.

DAN
Oh shut up.

EMMA
You’re an asshole when you drink.

DAN
Yeah? And you’re a bitch when I drink.

(Long pause.)

(She takes his drink.)

DAN
I thought we went over this already.

EMMA
Go ahead and make another. See if I care. I’m going to sleep.

DAN
It’s only ten.

EMMA
You’re already drunk.

(She exits.)

(Beat.)

(Dan shakes his head, and goes to make himself another drink.)

(Blackout.)

Play 282: Hyperscene

CHARACTERS
VINCENT, 17
DAVID, 17

DAVID
What’re you working on?

VINCENT
Math.

DAVID
Cool.

(Beat.)

What class are you in?

VINCENT
Non-Euclidean Geometry.

DAVID
That sounds pretty insane.

VINCENT
Let’s put it this way, here’s the last answer I came up with: We could hypothesize that we’re living on the hypersurface of a Klein hyperbottle in five-dimensional space.

(Beat.)

DAVID
You just made that up.

VINCENT
I didn’t.

DAVID
So that all actually makes sense?

VINCENT
Yeah.

DAVID
But that’s not the actual answer, is it?

VINCENT
It is.

DAVID
You sure?

VINCENT
Yeah, I’m pretty sure.

(Beat.)

DAVID
A five dimensional hyperbottle—

VINCENT
The hypersurface of a Klein hyperbottle in five-dimensional space.

(Beat.)

DAVID
You’re seriously not fucking with me?

VINCENT
Not at all.

(Beat.)

(David laughs.)

DAVID
What’s the answer to the next question?

VINCENT
Honestly?

DAVID
Is it even more insane?

VINCENT
I have no idea what the answer is.

DAVID
Oh.

(Beat.)

VINCENT
If I did, I’m sure it would be though.

DAVID
I’ll take your word for it.

(Blackout.)

Play 281: Love

CHARACTERS
VINCENT, 17
MICHELLE, 17

VINCENT
What should I write?

MICHELLE
I don’t know.

VINCENT
Just give me an idea.

MICHELLE
Love.

(Beat.)

VINCENT
Love?

MICHELLE
Yeah, what’s wrong with that?

VINCENT
I don’t do love well.

MICHELLE
You could try.

VINCENT
I have. It doesn’t end up too well. (beat.) Most the time it comes out tacky as hell.

MICHELLE
So try again.

VINCENT
I don’t really want to.

MICHELLE
Why not?

VINCENT
Well they say write what you know.

MICHELLE
So?

VINCENT
I don’t know love.

MICHELLE
I’m sure you do.

VINCENT
I don’t.

MICHELLE
Come on, you can’t sit there and tell me you’ve never been in love.

VINCENT
I’ve never been in love.

MICHELLE
What about your family, or people you care about?

VINCENT
That’s different. I mean love love.

(Beat.)

MICHELLE
Just because you don’t know it doesn’t mean you can’t write it.

VINCENT
It does in this case.

MICHELLE
I’m sure you’re not giving yourself enough credit.

VINCENT
Whatever.

(Pause.)

VINCENT
I must say, I’m kind of skeptical of love.

MICHELLE
Really?

VINCENT
Yeah. I mean, I’d like to believe in it. That I could get lost in someone else and become this better version of myself. And happy. (beat.) But it doesn’t work like that. You know? Happiness comes from within, that’s what I’ve learned. And people don’t change, not really. At least not for just one person.

MICHELLE
You’re just skeptical because you’ve never been in love.

VINCENT
Maybe.

(Beat.)

But what does love even mean?

MICHELLE
I think it’s pretty obvious.

VINCENT
I mean really though.

MICHELLE
You’ll know it when you see it.

VINCENT
That doesn’t make sense to me. It’s completely subjective, so how could you objectively know what it is? How could you say to yourself, yeah, this is love, and be sure?

(Beat.)

MICHELLE
You just know.

VINCENT
See, I don’t buy that.

MICHELLE
Why?

VINCENT
It’s an abstract concept. It’s this thing that everyone wants, but no one really knows what it means. How can you be sure of something like that?

MICHELLE
I don’t know.

VINCENT
Exactly.

(Pause.)

MICHELLE
So you don’t believe in love?

VINCENT
That’s not what I said.

MICHELLE
What were you saying then?

VINCENT
All I said is I’m skeptical. (beat.) just sounds too good to be true.

MICHELLE
Doesn’t mean it isn’t.

VINCENT
I never said it wasn’t.

(Beat.)

I do wonder what it’d be like though. (beat.) if it’s real of course.

MICHELLE
(Sarcastically)
Of course.

(Beat.)

VINCENT
Maybe I’d be too wary of it for it to actually be real for me.

MICHELLE
I don’t think it works like that.

VINCENT
Why not?

(Beat.)

MICHELLE
I don’t know.

(Long pause.)

VINCENT
Any other ideas?

MICHELLE
You’re not going to do love?

VINCENT
Write what you know.

(Blackout.)

Play 280: I Have to Go to Class

CHARACTERS
ADAM, 17
NICOLE, 17

(They walk towards each other in a hallway.)

ADAM
Hey.

(She walks past him without saying anything.)

ADAM
(Muttering.)
Fuck you too.

(She turns around.)

NICOLE
What?

ADAM
What?

NICOLE
What did you say?

ADAM
I didn’t say anything.

NICOLE
You muttered something.

ADAM
No I didn’t.

NICOLE
You did. I heard you.

ADAM
I just said hi.

NICOLE
It didn’t sound like hi.

ADAM
If you heard it so clearly then why are you asking?

NICOLE
Why are you getting so hostile?

ADAM
Hostile?

(He laughs.)

NICOLE
What?

ADAM
You want to hear why I’m hostile? Because you say I’m one of your best friends and then you don’t even look at me when you walk by. I say hi and you act as if it never happened. You want to hear what I said? Fuck you too. That’s what I said.

(Long pause.)

NICOLE
(Stunned.)
I have to go to class.

(He smiles.)

ADAM
I bet you do.

(She opens her mouth as if to talk, but says nothing.)

ADAM
See you later.

(He exits.)

(Pause.)

(She exits.)

(Blackout.)