Sweet Creature • larry au ✓

16 : oxygen

Marbles | night twenty five

We need space,
To breathe through the race,
To find a better place
And end separate ways.

This wouldn't do;
It's like dancing with one shoe.
While you endure all the few,
That our love offered you.

•

Tess: Here's your beanie. (hands beanie)

Louis: Thanks. (takes beanie)

Tess: Didn't pick him up today?

Louis: (blunt) No.

Tess: Why?

Louis: You're with me this whole day, and you're asking me why? (cups face with hands)

Tess: I mean– would it hurt him that much to see me boarding your car?

Louis: (sighs) He hates even the thought of you breathing the same air as him.

Tess: Aren't you worried about him? He's all alone.

Louis: I am. (pauses) But I need space.

Tess: Do you think he's gonna be pleased about this?

Louis: He's not dumb, of course not.

Tess: (sighs) Then why are you so selfish?

Louis: You bloody know why. (fumes)

Tess: [silence]

Louis: I need time to breathe on my own. Everything's too complicated.

Tess: (pauses) Then tell him.

Louis: No, (backs up) he'll get confused. I don't want that to happen, I'm trying to change.

Tess: (whispers) You can't change.

Louis: I'm not telling him. Not now.

Tess: If something happens to the man because of your own selfish ways, then you'd be dealing with me! (walks out)

Louis: (cries) I need space.

- - - - - - • - - - - - -

n o t e | what?

s o n g | I Can't Breathe - Bea Miller