Burnouts

Bad Decisions for Good Reasons

Scene 1: E Broadway

Danny Cole

"Here you go," Kat hands me a bowl of Cheerios.

"Cereal for dinner? That's a first," I say sarcastically.

"Do you ever stop complaining?" She teases.

"Do you ever wear clothes?"

"This is my apartment," Kat smirks and sits next to me on the couch with her feet up.

"Yeah, and you're cool for letting me hang around."

"I know," she says arrogantly.

"I'll buy you some more Cheerios."

"No need, they were Amanda's."

"Don't tell her I was here then," I say slyly.

"You can still pay me back though."

I chuckle and tilt my head at her, "Yeah? What do you want?"

"Well, for one, you've got to come to our New Year's Eve party on Tuesday."

"Deal," I nod.

"And, you have to take me out and buy me a real dinner sometime."

"...I don't know about that," my mind hesitates at the thought.

"Why not?"

"Because of Val."

"I want a burger, not your dick," she says with a cool smile.

"I'm not sure she'd believe that," I admit. "She's really jealous sometimes."

"Does she have a reason to be?"

"I don't think I've ever given her one, but she does this thing where she'll randomly pick a fight with me about something stupid and suddenly we're arguing about other girls."

Kat nods in understanding, "my mom did that to my dad a lot before he left."

"Your dad left?" I say in surprise...not that this isn't a common thing, but I didn't know that about her.

"Yeah, when I was 8. He was supposed to pick me up from soccer practice after school, but he never showed up. I haven't seen him since."

"Shit..."

"It's not a big deal now, I'm over it. I know it's supposed to be this scarring thing but— I'll let Mandy have the daddy issues." I laugh and turn away from her. "What?" She asks, but I shake my head and continue to smile. "Tell me— what's so funny?" Kat playfully kicks me.

"You one hundred percent have daddy issues too."

She gasps and stares at me in shock before laughing, "No I don't, asshole!"

"I've never been more sure about someone, trust me." I say and start listing with my fingers, "You're fucking nuts, you never keep a guy for longer than a month, and I bet you have a lot of sex. Those are the main signs."

"What're you a shrink?" She raises an eyebrow at me.

"You're just mad that I'm right."

Kat scoffs, "it's not like you're any better, Danny."

"I'm not," I agree with a sly expression, "I'm so much fucking worse."

"Can't argue with that," she purses her lips at me. "But I'm not going to tell you to waste money crying to some dude with a degree who doesn't get it."

"I know," I chuckle, "that's why I like talking to you."

"Oh, yeah?

I nod, "you get it."