see, and he grabs me. turns me around, after grabbing me, he turns me and says, “hey!” and he’s holding onto me, about my size, and one of his nails is digging into my nipple, holding my chest like he is. he’s got these, like, long nails on one hand…
SUE
he plays guitar, he’s very good…
JOHN
and this hurts and i’m standing there thinking, “this doesn’t need to be happening…” and i turn on him. never spoke to him the whole time, just turned on him and flipped him over onto the ground and started pounding on his head. it’s a surface track so he’s not getting too banged up but i’m hitting him pretty good and sue’s just standing there…waiting.
SUE
i’d never seen this happen before…
JOHN
finally he stops squirming around and i hit him one more time, you know high schoolers, right, you go a bit overboard in a fight, and then i walk over and grab her stuff and give it to her and we take off. scirroco’s still sitting there, people having to jog around it, sun dancing off the hood of the thing as we head home.
SUE
we walked all the way…
JOHN
noticed my reflection in it as we go by. bloody nose, him grabbing at me…
SUE
…i had, like, two huge blisters the next day.
JOHN
and i kissed her, standing there on her porch, still didn’t say anything but we’ve been dating four years since then and never heard back from the other guy after that. (BEAT) i shot baskets with him about a year ago, over at the elementary, and he didn’t seem so mad…
SUE
sometimes we fight, we do, like anybody else, or break up…whatever, john dated someone for a week or so, freshman year, i met this guy in a biology class. didn’t last… (BEAT) we’re getting engaged this summer, we already planned it…
JOHN
point being, it’s our anniversary, right, and we’re hoping for this great time and whatnot, want it all to be special, weekend in the city, girls wanna go shopping in “the village” if there’s time, whatever… (BEAT) we talked about taking the train on the way back, alone, sleeping car…
pause.
…i’m kidding. they don’t even have those…
SUE
mid-terms last week everybody just needed to get away.
JOHN
ends up we do go to my parent’s house on sunday…dad makes me sit down, “you look like a bushman,” first thing out of his mouth—what’s he mean by that?—and he tries to give me a haircut! halfway through my pre-med, he’s still trying to cut my bangs!
SUE
i thought it was kind of funny…i could hear them arguing in the other room. his hair really does look better when it’s long. it does…
JOHN