What We Hate Most (Part II)

Second part of my one act play. Please enjoy. Rated PG13 for adult language.

                             GRACE

                      (Laying on couch)

God, Logan, for once would you think about someone other than yourself?  I’ve had a rough time lately.

 

                            LOGAN

I am thinking about other people.  I don’t want to put Jason through your bullshit.  Why are you even here?

 

                            GRACE
I told you, I have s**t to do here.  Besides, that kid seems happier to see me than you.

 

                            LOGAN

That’s because he doesn’t know you like I do.  Give him a week; he’ll hate you.

 

                            GRACE

You don’t know that.

 

                            LOGAN

Yeah, I do!  Every time you talk to me, you insult me.

 

                            GRACE

                      (Rising)

You wanted me to stay at a f*****g hotel!  You can’t even stand me!

 

                            LOGAN

If you didn’t pick a fight all the time, I might be able to stand you!

 

                            GRACE

Well, if you weren’t such a freak!

 

                            LOGAN

At least I can get a boyfriend!

 

                             GRACE

F**k you!

 

                            LOGAN

                      (Exiting SL)

Just get out of my life!

 

                      (LOGAN slams the door. GRACE sinks back into the couch and lowers her head.  JASON enters SR.)

 

                             JASON

Hey Logan, do you have any mon-

                      (Seeing GRACE)

Where’s Logan?

 

                            GRACE

In his room.

 

                             JASON

                      (Sits with GRACE)

Are you alright?

 

                            GRACE

Just leave me alone.

 

                             JASON

Oh.  You two must have been fighting.  Logan gets the same way after he’s been in a fight.  I guess I won’t be getting a pizza, huh?

 

                            GRACE

I’m not hungry anyway.

 

                             JASON

I’ll bet you’re tired too.

 

                            GRACE

A little.

 

                             JASON

Yeah, you’re just like Logan.  He’ll get in an argument and, the minute he starts losing control, he’ll just storm off and lock himself up for an hour or two.  He won’t talk to nobody, won’t eat or drink anything.  He just stares at the ceiling for a while.

                      (Pause)

Then he comes to his senses again, opens the door, tells me he’s sorry, and eats up half a box of spaghetti.  Sometimes he has ice cream, too.  Do you like ice cream?

 

                            GRACE

Yeah.  ‘Specially chocolate peanut butter.

 

                             JASON

You know, I think we got some of that.  I’ll go get you some.

                      (Rising)

It’s funny, really.  Before you got here, I was just going off of what I heard over the phone and the stories he’s told me.  But meeting you in person here, well, I gotta tell you: you’re nothing like me at all.

 

                            GRACE

What?

 

                             JASON

See, Logan’s telling me all this about how crazy and energetic you get when you’re having fun.  Like I think he said you played softball?

 

                            GRACE

Soccer.

 

                             JASON

Oh, yeah.  Anyway, he’d be all, “And when they picked her for the team, she got all ‘whoo!’ and I was like, ‘calm the f**k down!’ She was so excited.”  So I got thinking that you were kinda more like me.  Logan, though, he doesn’t get excited.  He’s happy, at best.  But now I’m thinking you weren’t really excited.  You were just happy and have an easier time showing it than Logan does.  But you’re more alike than you think.

 

                            GRACE

You really think that, don’t you?

 

                             JASON

No, I know it.  You know, when you’re not around, he really talks you up.

 

                            GRACE

What?

 

                             JASON

Oh yeah!  He’ll go on and on about the time that football guy was picking on him in middle school.  Followed him home, I think?  Well, he told me that you threatened to kick the guy where he would never forget.  Then he said, “and that guy scampered on home like a bear in a thong.”

 

                            GRACE

Did he really say “bear in a thong?”

 

                             JASON

Eh, might have been “with a wedgie.”  I don’t really remember.

                      (Handing GRACE a bowl)

Here you go.

 

                            GRACE

Yeah, Mom always said that too.  That the reason we hate each other is because we’re so damned similar.  But he got babied at home.  I always had to grow up or walk away, and he got indulged.  He didn’t ever get grounded, either.  Every time we’d butt heads, they’d just send us different ways for a while and tell me to let it go.

 

                             JASON

So you were never really in trouble either, then?

 

                            GRACE

Well, no.  They never really needed to ground me, not from anything that really meant something.

 

                             JASON

So you’re really just mad that your parents held you two to different standards.

 

                            GRACE

Duh.  If we’re so exactly the same, shouldn’t we be treated the same way?  I mean, what’s the difference between us that I always got the short end of the stick?

 

                             JASON

I’m no shrink - actually, I hate them �" but I don’t think they did treat you any different.

 

                            GRACE

How do you figure?

 

                             JASON

Well, I’m assuming that they told you to let it go after you two were apart.

                      (GRACE nods.)

I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that they did the same thing to Logan.  And, yeah, you two are really alike, but you’re not identical.  Like, in high school, what were you dealing with?

 

                            GRACE

Well, I wanted good grades to get into law school.  And I had a job to help support the family.

 

                             JASON

How about your friends?

 

                            GRACE

I, uh, didn’t really have any.  I had this reputation for beating people up when they got on my bad side.  And I didn’t really date either.  You know, I didn’t even have a social life in high school.

 

                             JASON

So you worked your a*s off.  Okay, well, Logan was busy with his own problems.  I mean, high school is like, a turning point in your life.  He was trying to figure out why boys were so much more attractive than girls, why it wasn’t “right” to like guys, what he wanted to do after graduation… Like, how long have you known you were going to be a lawyer?

 

                            GRACE

Oh, god, 7^th grade.  We read that Mockingbird book, and I wanted to be a lawyer ever since.

 

                             JASON

Logan didn’t have that direction.  He knows he wants to work with art, but he doesn’t know how.  He keeps going back and forth between animation, publication, photography… He’s still struggling to figure himself out.

 

                            GRACE

It’s not that hard.  You find what you love to do and figure out how to earn money doing it.

 

                             JASON

But it is that hard.  Do you enjoy law school all the time?

 

                            GRACE

Well, maybe 90%.

 

                             JASON

Exactly.  Logan doesn’t have anything like that.  He’s got… hobbies.  The only thing that I’ve seen him stick to for more than a year was class in general.

 

                            GRACE

And you.

 

                             JASON

What?

 

                            GRACE

Don’t shortchange yourself, Jay.  You guys have been together for what, two-n-a-half years?

 

                             JASON

Y-yeah, I guess you’re right.

                      (Shakes his head)

But my point is, you two aren’t identical.  You’re similar, but different.  You see what I’m saying?

 

                            GRACE

I think so.  We’re kinda the same people in different bodies.  Like, we’ve got the same attitude problem, but different outlooks on it?

 

                             JASON

Yeah, sure, let’s go with that.

Author's Note

You won't offend me with anything you say. Well, unless you tell me to suck on an ice-dong. That might offend me...