E: "Hey, Aeryn."
A: "Hi - oh Eli, you look terrible!"
E: "Oh, thanks."
A: "No, I didn't mean that! You look good, er-"
E: "Huh?"
A: "I just mean you look...not very happy. What's happened?"
E: "I have to see my dad on Saturday."
A: "I thought you lived with your mum?"
E: "I do, but sometimes my dad phones and announces he's coming over to see me."
A: "Do you not want to see him then?"
E: "No. He left when I was a kid, but before that he would hit and yell at my mum. I hate him."
A: "Oh, I'm really sorry, Eli."
E: "I have no excuse as to why I can't go and see him either."
A: "He can't make you see him, can't you just say no?"
E: "I don't think he will take no for an answer."
A: "Come over to my house instead."
E: "I don't know if he'd accept that."
A: "Tell him...say that it's really important and that...I'm your, um, girlfriend and you're meeting my family."
E: "My girlfriend?"
A: "You don't have to! It was just a, er, an idea. A bad idea."
E: "No, I think that would work, he's always going on about me 'getting' a girlfriend."
A: "Why the emphasis on 'getting'?"
E: "My dad treats girls like they're objects, like they're a possession that'll just make your life easier."
A: "Your dad is an asshole."
E: "Aeryn!"
A: "Oh, was that too offensive?"
E: "No! I've just never heard you say something bad before. I assumed you were one of those types who would never dare say anything like that. But asshole is a fine description, a bit weak, but we can come up with some more colourful words together."
A: "Knowing you, it'll be very colourful. But why is your dad so desperate for you to find a girlfriend?"
E: "It's 'cause I've...I've never been in a relationship before. My dad sees that as me being not manly enough to get a girlfriend."
A: "You've never been in a relationship?"
E: "...no."
A: "Why not? I bet any girl would love to go out with you!"
E: "But I wouldn't love to go out with just any girl."
A: "I respect you for that. And if it makes you feel any better, I've never been in a relationship either, so, snap!"
E: "I've never heard someone be so happy about that fact."
A: "That's because, as you like to say, I'm strange."
E: "That you are."
