Artwork Interaction Draft 1

Artwork Interaction

“Hi, welcome to Kroger. What can I help you with?”

“Ah yes, I was wondering if you could help me find a specific lunch meat for my children at school.”

“Sure thing. What lunch meat can I help you find?”

“Ants.”

“Ants?”

“Yes… ants.”

“Um, sorry, sir, we don’t carry ants here.”

“Then what does that guy have in his hands?”

The customer pointed to the corner of the store. The employee turned his head to see a small anteater humanoid, wearing a Kroger uniform, crouched on the floor while it whispered to itself, its whole body twitching without rhythm.

“What the hell is that?!”

“I don’t know, but he’s holding a fur bowl filled with ants.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to try any other lunch meat?”

“I already said that I wanted ants.”

“But, sir –“

“Don’t ‘but, sir,’ me. I want ants and I’m getting ants.”

The cashier, aggravated, just ignored the customer and gestured to have another customer

come to the checkout line.

            “Um, excuse me! I am still here. I am not just gonna sit here while you ignore me. You cannot just decline service to me. There has to be a law or something that protects me from discourteous people like you. You know what? I’ll just call your boss, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll get you fired. Then, we’ll see what happens from there.”

            “Keep it moving, buddy!” One customer shouted from the end of the line.

            The infuriating customer was testing the cashier’s patience. His anger saturated his peace but he knew he couldn’t explode. He had two strikes and adding one more would mean he lost his job. So, he held in his vexation and tried to get rid of the customer. “No need to freak out. You want ants? I’ll get you some ants. C’mon, let’s go get you some ants.”

            “Thank you. That wasn’t hard, right?”

            The cashier ignored him while the two began approaching the odd anteater humanoid. The closer the two got to the anteater, the louder it started to hiss. The customer accidentally knocked down a hand-sanitizer bottle that was sitting on one of the cashier’s counter and the anteater looked directly into the eyes of him.

            “Th-This guy works here, right?”

            “Oh, are you scared now? I thought you wanted ants. If you don’t want any ants, no problem. We have a wide variety of other – “

             “No, no, no, I want ants.”

            The cashier approached the anteater, which began to growl and claw the air. The anteater changed its position from crouching to looking like it was going to pounce. When the cashier was about a foot away, the anteater opened its mouth, foaming with saliva, and clutched the fur cup even closer to its body. The cashier reached out to grab the cup and proceeded to talk to the creature as if it was a dog.

            “Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy? You are! Who wants to give me their – “

            “Are you seriously talking to it like it’s a dog?”

            The cashier turned his head to reply to the customer and when he did, the creature lunged forward onto the cashier’s face, spilling the ants everywhere on the floor.

            “The ants!” The customer screamed as he dropped to the ground to try to gather them.

            The cashier struggled to get the anteater off of his face. The anteater used its long snout to bite in the cashier’s ears and eyes until the cashier finally threw it off of him. The cashier looked at the creature on the ground and noticed something off about the creature. There was a tag sticking out of its butt and its fur felt manufactured. The cashier thrusted his hands on the anteater’s face and pulled it off.

            It was his boss.

            “Gerald, what the hell are you doing?!” The cashier screamed as he hopped back from his boss.

            “See, you’re on Undercover Boss. I wanted to see how you would react if we sent in a difficult customer. This was two see if you had learned from your first two strikes.”

            “Why didn’t you just send in a customer who had expired coupons or something?”

            “Oh, that would’ve actually been pretty good. I didn’t think of that. Anyways, you performed well. At least better than I thought you would have. I can’t believe you fought an anteater for a customer!’

            “Well, I didn’t want to get fired.”

            “I could see, Steve.”

            “Sooo.”

            “So, what?”

            “How did I do?”

            “Let’s just say you won’t be getting your third strike today.”

Changing Narrative Perspective Final

Changing Narrative Perspective

I can’t believe I’m stuck alone on the island with this lunatic. One day you’re sitting in your cage eating cheese and then the next you’re getting a needle stabbed into your butt cheek every other day. Wait, do I even have a butt cheek? Anyways, I guess it could be worse. Hell, Steve bit the dust after being injected with too much serum. But now I’m completely alone. He removed all the other rats from my lab room. I’m just afraid he thinks these tests are working.

I’ve been locked in this cage and although it’s only holding me, I’m beginning to feel cramped in here with all my thoughts.

What will he do when he’s done with the tests?

What happens if he’s not satisfied with the results?

I guess the only thing I can do is wait and see but I really want to get out of here. The world outside of these walls must be magnificent. I imagine mountains of aggiano and flowing rivers of nacho cheese. Instead, I’m stuck with this powdery substance that tastes like if cheese had a distant cousin from the hot and humid state of Louisiana who went fishing all day and never bathed. I’m sick of being treated like this.

            I’m finally being let free. And by let free, I mean he’s finally letting me out of my cage. I mean, it’s a start. Maybe he’s just seeing if I could hold my own. Even if he’s not, I think he thinks the treatments are working. I think playing into his aspirations would be in my best interests. He keeps guiding me to go to his library but I don’t know why. It’s not like this guy taught me English or anything. I’m assuming he wants to see if I know how to read so I guess I’ll just flip through a few pages or something so he thinks I’m doing something.

            I escaped! While he wasn’t looking, I ran across the room, grabbed his keys, climbed up a water pipe, and hopped on out the window as I threw his keys into the well outside the lab. The outside world is so amazing. Not exactly the thing I was expecting. Sadly, there aren’t warm pools of cheese scattered around the landscape but there are so many cool things to do. There are these huge poles of wood with grass growing off of them and there’s this endless amount of tan cat litter that wraps around the whole place, which is surrounded a vast amount of water. Sadly, I’ve found out that jumping into the water is a bad idea because there are these huge gray things with razor sharp teeth in there that will chase you onto the land. It is great to be out here though, alone.

            Why is this dummy coming out of the lab with rope? Does he really think he can get those keys? If he tries to lower himself into that well, those extra slices of pizza he ate aren’t going to be working in his favor. This should be entertaining. Watch him go down, down, down. I can hear his rope breaking. I don’t know if I should make him aware of this though. Might as well, I guess. I’ll just start making noise by the tearing.

            Yes, I am here. You see me jumping next to the tear. Do you see the tear? There you go, start coming up, good job. You’d think a scientist wouldn’t need so much time to understand that his life is in danger, but whatever. Time to go explore again!

            It’s been a while since I’ve eaten or drunken anything. The big pool tastes horrible. It’s so salty. None of these plants can stop my hunger either. I did find these delicious little chocolate balls that were scattered on the ground. They were kind of warm, but, hey, chocolate is chocolate.

            I can feel myself growing weaker and weaker. All I can do is lie here as the sun passes by day by day. Thoughts of cheese and water fill my mind, nothing else. Sleeping is the only thing I do to pass the time. I know I should go scavenge for food, but laying here is so comfortable. Why not just close my eyes one last time?

Changing Narrative Perspective Draft 2

I can’t believe I’m stuck alone on the island with this lunatic. One day you’re sitting in your cage eating cheese and then the next you’re getting a needle stabbed into your butt cheek every other day. Wait, do I even have a butt cheek? Anyways, I guess it could be worse. Hell, Steve bit the dust after being injected with too much serum. But now I’m completely alone. He removed all the other rats from my lab room. I’m just afraid he thinks these tests are working.

I’ve been locked in this cage and although it’s only holding me, I’m beginning to feel cramped in here with all my thoughts.

What will he do when he’s done with the tests?

What happens if he’s not satisfied with the results?

I guess the only thing I can do is wait and see but I really want to get out of here. The world outside of these walls must be magnificent. I imagine mountains of aggiano and flowing rivers of nacho cheese. Instead, I’m stuck with this powdery substance that tastes like if cheese had a distant cousin from the hot and humid state of Louisiana who went fishing all day and never bathed. I’m sick of being treated like this.

            I’m finally being let free. And by let free, I mean he’s finally letting me out of my cage. I mean, it’s a start. Maybe he’s just seeing if I could hold my own. Even if he’s not, I think he thinks the treatments are working. I think playing into his aspirations would be in my best interests. He keeps guiding me to go to his library but I don’t know why. It’s not like this guy taught me English or anything. I’m assuming he wants to see if I know how to read so I guess I’ll just flip through a few pages or something so he thinks I’m doing something.

            I escaped! While he wasn’t looking, I ran across the room, climbed up a water pipe, and hopped on out the window. The outside world is so amazing. Not exactly the thing I was expecting. Sadly, there aren’t warm pools of cheese scattered around the landscape but there are so many cool things to do. There are these huge poles of wood with grass growing off of them and there’s this endless amount of tan cat litter that wraps around the whole place, which is surrounded a vast amount of water. Sadly, I’ve found out that jumping into the water is a bad idea because there are these huge gray things in there that will chase you onto the land.

Unfinished...

My Voice - Final

My Voice

            My voice is an easily distracted puppy. He is small, nimble, and pretty fast. At least he thinks he’s fast. He is full of energy. It’s like someone gave him six shots of espresso, a handful of candy, and a Redbull. I’m sure no one would want to be around for the mess he makes that comes after ingesting all of that.

He can spend hours on end running around the backyard in circles all day long like the earth orbiting the sun until he can’t do it anymore because all he sees is swirls of his own tail. Afterwards, he comes inside and drinks way too much water and ends up throwing up all over the floor. He feels bad but he knows how to play your emotions. You want to get mad, but he just gives you those eyes and you can’t do anything but smile and pet him.

He runs into walls when he’s running into the house because he turned his head for a split second while running full speed because the chirping of a bird caught his attention.  He’ll just lay there like he’s dead until you run up to him to see if he’s okay and right when you do, he’ll spring up and begin running again.

Even though he is very energetic, he is clumsy. Sure, if you tell him to fetch a stick from a football field’s length away, he’ll run as fast as he can, but he will most likely trip multiple times onto his face. He is determined though and doesn’t mind falling down a couple times in order to get his stick. He thinks getting to that stick is the only thing he can do to satisfy his you. He sees the stick as the end-all be-all of life at that particular point in time.

            His clumsiness is overshadowed by how lovable he is. He loves to snuggle up with you in the bed. He will sit at the foot of your bed and whine and give you those gosh darned puppy eyes until you feel like you need to put him in bed with you in order to show your affection for him. He knows that his persistence is the key to getting what he wants. He knows his cuteness will overcome your refusal to let him up. You’ll end up waking up in the middle of the night because he’s taking up way too much of the bed and you’re hanging on the edge.

            His most prominent trait is that he is loud and sometimes annoying. Someone at the door? “Bark, bark, bark.” Someone talking outside? “Bark, bark, bark.” Someone closes their car door? “Bark, bark, bark.” He just won’t shut up sometimes. He just keeps barking and barking and no matter how many times you tell him to be quiet, he just keeps doing it. He wants to make sure everyone knows he is the protector of the house, even though you could shut him up with a small treat.

            At the end of the day, my voice is characterized by many things. Some of them may be negative, some of them may be annoying, but he is still young and has many years to learn some new tricks. For now, I can just start with “sit”.

Changing Narrative Perspective

Changing Narrative Perspective

August 30^th

We are alone on the island now, Will and I. He just murdered his associate, Tayloe because he tried to interrupt the experiment. Tayloe tried to poison me but it wasn’t going to work anyway because I could smell the poison miles away. Will overreacted, I believe.

            There was nothing to worry about. He engineered me to be able to hold myself but he keeps me locked up like the animal I once was. For all I know, Tayloe could have been trying to put me out of my misery here.

September 2^nd

He finally has set me loose from my cage. He lets me run about the lab all day long. I’m beginning to feel more person than he thinks I am. I have to find a way out of here but the only way I know he’ll stop the experiments is if I play into his aspirations.

I think I have the perfect plan to get him to believe in my capability. His library is chalk full of informational content. If I pretend to have interest in his books, maybe he’ll think of me as a self-learning being and he’ll stop.

September 8^th

The library scam didn’t work at all. He locked me back in my cage for the past couple days and I don’t know why. He’s also removed the rest of the lab rats from the room entirely. I’m pretty sure he believes I will share my knowledge with the rest of them. However, I’m not worried about them anyway. I just want to get out of here, now.

September 9^th

He’s letting me out of the cage for the morning. I’m not sure if I’ve gained his trust yet but this is my only chance to escape. I just have to wait until the time is right.

            I did it! I’m finally free. When Will turned around, I jumped onto the door knob, removed the key from it, and then jumped onto the ledge of the window and escaped. I disposed of the key in the well near the lab just to get back at him for everything he’s done. I know he keeps valuable papers in that room and now he won’t be able to get to them.

September 10^th

This dunce who calls himself a scientist almost killed himself. I should have let it happen but I decided to be the bigger man. Isn’t that sad? The mouse being a bigger man than the man? It’s just funny to me. I went ahead and got the key myself and slipped it back into the lab. I hope he finds it some day because I know he and I can live our lives separately and fully. Here’s to life!

September 11^th

My Voice - Draft 2

My Voice

            My voice is an easily distracted puppy. He is small, nimble, and pretty fast. At least he thinks he’s fast. He is full of energy. It’s like someone gave him six shots of espresso, a handful of candy, and a Redbull. I’m sure no one would want to be around for the mess he makes that comes after ingesting all of that.

He can spend hours on end running around the backyard in circles all day long like the earth orbiting the sun until he can’t do it anymore because all he sees is swirls of his own tail. Afterwards, he comes inside and drinks way too much water and ends up throwing up all over the floor. He feels bad but he knows how to play your emotions. You want to get mad, but he just gives you those eyes and you can’t do anything but smile and pet him.

He runs into walls when he’s running into the house because he turned his head for a split second while running full speed because the chirping of a bird caught his attention.  He’ll just lay there like he’s dead until you run up to him to see if he’s okay and right when you do, he’ll spring up and begin running again.

His energy is a bittersweet trait. Even though he is very energetic, he is clumsy. Sure, if you tell him to fetch a stick from a football field’s length away, he’ll run as fast as he can, but he will most likely trip multiple times onto his face. However, he is determined and doesn’t mind falling down a couple times in order to get his stick. He thinks getting to that stick is the only thing he can do to satisfy his you. He sees the stick as the end-all be-all of life at that particular point in time.

            His clumsiness is overshadowed by how lovable he is. He loves to snuggle up with you in the bed. He will sit at the foot of your bed and whine and give you those gosh darned puppy eyes until you feel like you need to put him in bed with you in order to show your affection for him. He knows that his persistence is the key to getting what he wants. He knows his cuteness will overcome your refusal to let him up. You’ll end up waking up in the middle of the night because he’s taking up way too much of the bed and you’re hanging on the edge.

            His most prominent trait is that he is loud and sometimes annoying. Someone at the door? “Bark, bark, bark.” Someone talking outside? “Bark, bark, bark.” Someone closes their car door? “Bark, bark, bark.” He just won’t shut up sometimes. He just keeps barking and barking and no matter how many times you tell him to be quiet, he just keeps doing it. He wants to make sure everyone knows he is the protector of the house, even though you could shut him up with a small treat.

            At the end of the day, my voice is many things. Some of them may be negative, some of them may be annoying, but it is still young and has many years to learn some new tricks. For now, I can just start with “sit”.

Barney

https://nbc-class-a-2010-2013.wikispaces.com/file/view/BARNEY.pdf

Why did you choose this story?
- I find it interesting and funny. I think there is some back story and inner thoughts of the rat I can work with.

Whose POV?
- I will use the Barney's point of view because he performs many actions but since he's a rat, he cannot speak of how he feels. Using his point of view will allow the reader to know what he is thinking about everything that is happening around him.

My Voice

My Voice

            My voice is an easily distracted puppy. He is small, nimble, and pretty fast. At least he thinks he’s fast. He is full of energy. It’s like someone gave him six shots of espresso, a handful of candy, and a Redbull. I’m sure no one would want to be around for the mess he makes that comes after ingesting all of that.

He can spend hours on end running around the backyard in circles all day long like the earth orbiting the sun until he can’t do it anymore because all he sees is swirls of his own tail. Afterwards, he comes inside and drinks way too much water and ends up throwing up all over the floor. You want to get mad, but he just gives you those eyes and you can’t do anything but smile and pet him.

He runs into walls when he’s running into the house because he turned his head for a split second while running full speed because the chirping of a bird caught his attention. He’ll just lay there like he’s dead until you run up to him to see if he’s okay and right when you do, he’ll spring up and begin running again.

His energy is a bittersweet trait. Even though he is very energetic, he is clumsy. Sure, if you tell him to fetch a stick from a football field’s length away, he’ll run as fast as he can, but he will most likely trip multiple times onto his face. However, he is determined and doesn’t mind falling down a couple times in order to get his stick.

            His clumsiness is overshadowed by how lovable he is. He loves to snuggle up with you in the bed. He will sit at the foot of your bed and whine and give you those gosh darned puppy eyes until you feel like you need to put him in bed with you in order to show your affection for him. You’ll end up waking up in the middle of the night because he’s taking up way too much of the bed and you’re hanging on the edge.

            His most prominent trait is that he is loud and sometimes annoying. Someone at the door? Bark, bark, bark. Someone talking outside? Bark, bark, bark. Someone closes their car door? Bark, bark, bark. He just won’t shut up sometimes. He just keeps barking and barking and no matter how many times you tell him to be quiet, he just keeps doing it. You’ve even received complaints from your neighbors about how loud he is.

            At the end of the day, my voice is many things. Some of them may be negative, some of them may be annoying, but it is still young and has many years to learn some new tricks. For now, I can just start with “sit”.

Voice Exercise

1.      

1. “I really hate walking in these heels,” Elsa thought to herself as she stumbled about the park, “I should have just worn these around the house just to break them in. I feel like I’m about to fall with a slight nudge from the breeze. Just take it one step at a time. Left. Right. Left. Right. Le-AHH!”

Elsa fell down onto the concrete into a pool of melted ice cream on the park floor. She immediately looked around, hoping no one would notice her mishap. She turned and made direct eye contact with a grinning young man who was sitting on a bench no more than twenty-feet away from her.  He got up and rushed over to help her from the ground. The two converse for a little while she was tomato red until the young man asked, "Hey, what's your number?"

2.      

2. The park sits peacefully in silence. The only noise comes from the rustle of the leave, the whooshing of the breeze, and the chirps of the birds. Until, a loud scream fills the area. A young man looks over to his left to see a young lady on the ground, hurrying to get up. He rushes over to help her. Blood rushes to her face from embarrassment as he helps her up. The two converse and he asks for her number.

3.      

3. “Well, look at her. Isn’t she a pretty lookin’ piece of pie? I should go talk to her.

And how do you plan on doing that? A girl like that wouldn’t give you the time of day,” He argued with himself, “No she’s not! I deserve something like that.

Well, then go talk to her!

I will! I just need an ice breaker.”

“Le-AHH!” the young lady screamed as she fell to the ground.

“Go, go, go! This is your chance,” the young man to the girl.

“Are you okay?” He says as he helps her up, “You didn’t hurt yourself did you?”

“Um, of c-course not. I’m fine,” she nervously responded.

“Looks like you got yourself all dirty. I hate to see some beautiful heels like that get dirty, what a shame it is.”

“Well, what can y-you do. Thanks for helping me up but I’m sure you’re plenty busy and you probably want to get back to what you were doing,” she said as she was slightly turned herself as if she was about to walk off.

“No, wait! I’d like to get to know you sometime, how about you give me your number.”

“I’d love to. My number is 123-456-7890. Give me a call, the name’s Elsa.”

“Nice to meet ya, Elsa, the name’s Michael. Keep an eye on your line.”

4.    

  4. Elsa walks through the park worried that she will fall because of the new heels she’s wearing. They’re still not broken in and she stumbles here and there. After walking for a few minutes, she falls down into a puddle of ice cream. A young man, Michael, sees the event play out and rushes to her for help. He helps her up and the two talk for a little bit. Michael likes Elsa and asks for her number in hopes of seeing her again.

5.      5. He unwinds from his day by sitting in the park so he can listen to the trees rustle, the wind blow, and the birds chirp. He notices a girl. He finds the girl to be the most beautiful girl in the world because of her astounding golden hair, her deep dark brown eyes, and her sense of style. He notices her slight stumbling. He watches her walk down the sidewalk until she slips falls into a pool of melted ice cream that had been laying there for probably four hours. He rushes over to help her. He grabs her arm to help her up and he is in awe of her beauty, noticing even the freckles on her face. He is astounded by her attractiveness. He is truly love struck and feels the urge to give her his number deep within his stomach as it overcomes his sense of being. He gives her his number.

The Red Wire (Script)

I left blanks for the time because I’m not sure what pace is best for you, feel free to insert your own times as you go.

Tips: You could use some head phones for ear piece and you can indicate the general speaking by Crab putting his finger on his ear.

The timer on the bomb could be a phone taped to a box facing the audience that ticks down in real time.

The Red Wire (Script)

 (The general comes in through Crab’s ear piece)

General: Crab, get that bomb defused before we send in reinforcements. We don’t need another accident like we had yesterday.

Crab: Copy that, sir, moving in.

(Crab approaches a bomb about the size of three text books, gets down on his knees, and begins to open the back panel of the bomb. The timer on the bomb reads ____________ at this point. Crab begins talking to himself in a sort of panicked tone.)

Crab: (Takes deep breaths) Okay, don’t freak out. Don’t freak out. You’ve got this. It’s just a classic defuse, just like the simulations you’ve practiced at home. No big deal. Just don’t mess up. Everyone is counting on you.

(Crab gets the back panel open and continues talking to himself in a relaxed tone now in hoped of calming himself down.)

Crab: Ooookie dokie, let me just take this back panel off. Heeeere we go. Now, let me just find the red wire that’s next to the blue wire and we’re just all dandy. I will have saved the day and I can finally go home. Wait, what the hell?! (Crab shifts into a frantic tone and his speech speeds up.) Why are there only red wires (Four of them)? What. No. I’ve never seen a bomb like this before. Wait, maybe there are blue and green wires and I’m just temporarily color blind? That has to be it, I can’t do this. I have to tell the general. (Crab presses his earpiece) Sir, I’ve been temporarily color blinded, it’s probably by some toxic gas that has been pumped into this room. They know we’re here. (Crab picks up his equipment and begins to walk out of the building) I’m probably surrounded by snipers and being targeted as we speak.

General: Crab, if you don’t get back in there, you’re putting at hundreds of lives at stake. Now if you can’t do this, I can send another EOD in.

Crab: (Stumbles over his words) N-no no no no no no, don’t do that. I-I got this, false alarm, I’m not colorblind. I-I was just kidding.

Crab: Well, let’s think of how I can choose a wire. (Crab begins walking in circles) Umm… yes of course! Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, Catch a tiger by the toe. If he hollers, let him go, Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. (Crab points to a wire). Well, I guess this is the one I have to cut. (Crab approaches the wire with his wire cutters).

General: (Screaming) Crab, you left your damn mic on! I know you’re not about to defuse a bomb using eeny, meeny, miny, moe, right, Crab? If you blow up that damn bomb, civilians could die, get it together maggot!

Crab: Of course not, sir, but I’m gonna have to take my ear piece off because I’m busy um doing laundry, bye! (Crab slides his ear piece away from him). Geez, that guy just doesn’t give me a break. I mean I’ve been a certified EOD for two weeks now, give me some credit. (The timer now reads ___________) Well, I’m gonna have to choose some wire or I’m gonna run out of time. Well… (Crab grabs the wire originally chosen from eeny, meeny, miny, moe and puts his wire cutter up to it) … here goes nothing.

(He cuts the wire with his eyes squinted tightly shut. After a few seconds of silence, Crab opens his eyes and jumps up from the ground in excitement)

Crab: I didn’t blow us up! Hell yeah! (Crab runs over to his ear piece and puts it back in his ear)

Sir, I saved everyone! Can you believe it!

General: Good job, Crab. Recent Intel tells us there is another bomb we need you to defuse. We will transport you to that location ASAP.

Crab: Oh.

On the topic of toppings (final)

On the Topic of Toppings

On the Topic of Toppings

“Hey, Tony,

Are you almost done with the computer?

I really need it.”

“No,

I already said I would be working on this all night,

Jim, don’t you listen.”

“Alright, dude           

Chill.

Are you hungry?”

“Yeah,

I haven’t eaten all day.”

“Hey,

Do you want to order some pizza?”

“Pizza sounds amazing. I am starving.”

“Okay, let me go ahead and order.

What do you want on the pizza?”

“Pepperoni,”

Tony said dismissively as he looked up from his computer.

“Pepperoni?”

Jim questioned.

“Pepperoni...,”

Tony replied, looking up at Jim,

With a confused face.

“We always get pepperoni,

Tony.”

“Duh,

because pepperoni is tasty,”

Tony replied,

Slightly irritated.

“Well,

I like sausage more on my pizza and

We never get anything other than pepperoni on our pizza.”

“So?

What does that have to do with anything?”

“We always get what you want,

Never what I want,”

Jim replied with an upset face.

“Okay

And? It is just pizza, Jim, chill.”

“It’s not just the pizza,

Tony.

Everything.”

“That is not even true,

Don’t lie.

You get what you want too

All the time”

“See,

But it is true Jim.

It’s been like this.

We always do what you want to do.

We always eat what you want to eat.

We always go where you want to go.

We never do what I want to do.

We never eat what I want to eat.

We never go where I want to go.”

Tony stands up and

Closes his laptop forcefully.

“Dude,

What are you even saying,

That’s crazy?

I always make sure we get an even chance at doing what we want to do.”

“Like what?

Give me some examples,

Please. I would love to hear some of these said times.”

“Well,

You remember that time we went to the waterpark with Stephanie and Lucy.”

“Yeah,

That was what

You

Wanted to do with them.

I

Wanted to go to Six Flags,

But ‘nooo Hurricane Harbor is more fun,’

So

What do we do?

We go to Hurricane Harbor

Because that’s what

You

Wanted to do.”

“Jim, all we were doing was trying to order pizza.

Why did this spiral out of control like this?

You didn’t have to over exaggerate the situation.”

“I’m not over exaggerating the situation,

I am just stating the facts.”

“How come you haven’t said anything before?”

“Because

I’ve always been afraid to.

You may not realize it,

But you’re very suppressive.”

“Suppressive?

Shut up,

You don't know what you're talking about.

Just order the pizza.”

Tony opens up the laptop again and starts working.

Jim walks up to Tony’s desk and shuts the laptop,

“See,

This is exactly what I'm talking about.

You're shutting me down

When I'm finally trying to express how I'm feeling.”

“Okay, then.

Tell me about it.

I want to know how you feel,”

Tony said sarcastically, grinning.

“Honestly,

If you don’t want to cooperate,

We don’t have to talk about it.

I know we have been roommates for two years,

But I’ll move out.

I’m tired of you being like this.”

“You don’t have to move out, Jim.

I guess I can be a little too much

At times

But that’s just how I am.

If you want to move out,

No one is stopping you.”

If you don’t care if I’m here or not,

I can leave

You can get your own damn pizza from now on.”

Jim goes into his room to gather his things.

After he is packed, he comes back into the living room.

“And

I’ll be taking my laptop too.”

Jim walks out the door.