Youthful Hearts

 

FADE IN:

EXT: ROAD SIDE – NIGHT

 

Burgis and Coug sit on the side of the road in complete silence. Coug stares ahead into space with a pair of dead eyes, as he cradles a piece of scrap metal in his arms, that we can only presume is from his, now destroyed, car. Burgis, though, is looking down at the ground, twiddling his thumbs, searching for something to say. He goes to say something a few times, but is ultimately left speechless.

 

COUG

What am I going to do?

 

BURGIS

(trying to make Coug feel better)

Oh, it won’t be that bad.

 

COUG

My car just got raped by a train! My dad is going to kill me.

 

 

BURGIS

Just tell him what happened.

 

COUG

What- that I sat in a parking lot all day, left the car on, and when I went over the tracks it broke down, and subsequently got run over by a cargo train?

 

BURGIS

(a beat)

I’m not seeing the problem.

 

COUG

Are you f*****g kidding me?... We should’ve moved the car.

 

BURGIS

Alright, in hindsight, yes, we probably should’ve. But-

 

COUG

You said there were no trains coming!

 

BURGIS

Well, how the f**k was I supposed to know? Like a train rolling through town at this time of night was probable in the first place... What if you tell him that you got stuck between the barriers?

 

COUG

Like that’s so much better.

 

BURGIS

Honestly, I think that he’ll just be relieved that we’re ok. I mean, you have to look at this-

 

COUG

If you say “glass half full” one more time I’m going to punch you in the dick.

 

BURGIS

F**k man, we could’ve died. Imagine if we had left the parking lot 30 seconds later, we’d’ve been hit by a f*****g train. And I, for one, cannot die by being hit by a train against my will.

 

COUG

(sullenly)

Yea.

 

BURGIS

And neither can you for that matter. So if it was between the car getting annihilated by a train, and us going with it, I’m ecstatic that that train just fucked up your car.

 

COUG

Yea.

 

BURGIS

And plus, now you have that story?

 

COUG

What story?

 

BURGIS

You know how before when I told that story about Jesse, in the city, and you said, “Why doesn’t stuff like that happen when I’m around?”

 

COUG

Yea.

 

BURGIS

Well, it just has.

 

COUG

Yea, I guess.

 

BURGIS

No, it definitely has. You waited in a parking lot all day for someone that never showed up. That’s a story in itself. Nothing happened all day, but it was f*****g exciting. Then to top it all off, your car gets obliteraped by a train. I guarantee that has never happened in the history of history.

 

COUG

Yea.

 

BURGIS

Not only did we survive a train crash, we can tell that story, and people will be f*****g interested. In my mind it’s been a good day.

 

COUG

Yea, and that’s all life is anyway. A series of disappointments and “Oh remember that”s... Still doesn’t change the fact that my car is in pieces.

 

BURGIS

(a beat)

So, what do you think Creston’s surprise was?

 

COUG

Don’t know... Hopefully, a new car.

 

BURGIS

Oh s**t, wouldn’t that be f*****g amazing if it was?

 

COUG

It would be. It would’ve made it all worth it.

 

BURGIS

It would’ve made it creepy.

 

COUG

Well, it wouldn’t have been creepy then. It’d only be creepy now.

 

BURGIS

Maybe this was his plan all along.

 

COUG

(unconvinced)

To get us to wreck my car, so he can give me a new one, like a f*****g guardian angel?

 

BURGIS

Stranger things have happened... Remember last June.

 

Coug looks to Burgis. They both look ahead and lean over to glance down the road to see if anyone is coming.

 

COUG

Nothing.

 

BURGIS

Well, it was a long shot anyway.

 

Long pause.

 

COUG

We should go.

 

BURGIS

Yea, let’s go.

 

Neither of them move.

 

BLACK.

 

 

THE END.

Author's Note

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