SHIPS IN THE NIGHT # 8

…continued on from SHIPS IN THE NIGHT # 7

BLUE, from behind, in semi-profile, lowering the mobile, looking into space out the window. MATT waits a moment, walks around to the driver’s door, opens it, drops into the seat. BLUE is miserable; his voice flat.

BLUE  How’d it go?

MATT  Great.

BLUE  Surprised? 

MATT nods.

BLUE  Tracy said she’ll meet you at Gluttons with your mobile in 15, 20 mins and (A BEAT) asked if you could drive me home… 

MATT nods but his mind is elsewhere.

35 INT. CAB. CITY STREET. NIGHT

MATT drives, caught up in his own distress. BLUE, also caught up in his own distress, is uncharacteristically quiet.

MATT I was bullshitting you back then Blue. It wasn’t great at all. It sucked. (A BEAT) To the max! (A BEAT) Fully!

BLUE manages a smile.

BLUE Life, ay!

MATT Life. (a beat) That Tracy you were talking to back there?

BLUE (nods) Ya reckon I talk too much?

MATT (laughs) I reckon Tracy’d give you a run for your money in the talking department.

BLUE  Yeah, but she’d come fucking last in the listening department, if ya know what I mean!

MATT Not a great listener?

BLUE  A bit self-absorbed, ay! 

MATT  Self absorbed?

BLUE  Can’t see things from my point of view…maybe doesn’t want to, so doesn’t want to hear it…know what I mean? (A BEAT) I mean I love Trace and everything, don’t get me wrong…more than anything including myself…which is not hard because I’m kinda fucked…but…

MATT You were asking me before about you and Trace and love…

BLUE  (shrugs) My problems are my problems, ay.

MATT Yeah, but you wanted to tell me…

BLUE Ya got three hours?

MATT Give me the twitter version.

BLUE  Boy meets girl. Love. Boy betrays girl. Hate. Boy’s heart broken.

MATT (laughs) ‘What’s love got to do with it,’ ay!

BLUE  Like…if a boy and girl love each other…take a right here…

BLUE indicates ‘right’. MATT turns.

BLUE  …it’s normal to have sex, right?

MATT If they’re both old enough.

BLUE   So me wanting to have sex with Tracy doesn’t make me a sex maniac, right.

MATT Depends how often.

BLUE  Just once. I mean, more than once would be good but once would be a start, ay?

MATT You and Tracy haven’t had sex!?

BLUE shakes his head. MATT is astounded.

BLUE Says she wants to wait till she finds…’True Love’

MATT You’re kidding!?

BLUE Uh huh, says she doesn’t want to be like other girls – you know, giving blow jobs to boys at 13.

MATT  Wow! So you betrayed her by having sex with someone else? 

BLUE If you count porn, I s’pose…but not with a real person. But we argued about that too. I mean, is wanking a sort of betrayal?

MATT (laughs) Don’t think so, Blue. So, you think it’s true? That Tracy’s a…virgin?

BLUE Yeah! (A BEAT) She always tells the truth…which can be a bit hard when she tells the truth about you…I mean, me.

MATT  What kind of ‘truth’?

BLUE That I’m just a fucking lowlife drug-dealing wanker…(A BEAT) but I wouldn’t be such a wanker if…you know…if we could make love…I’d just love to make love with Trace. Not fuck her, know what I mean? …because I love her. It’s not just lust like she says but…fuck…I don’t really know for sure if there’s a difference between love and lust?  

BLUE looks at MATT, hoping for an answer. MATT shakes his head, smiles, looks at BLUE.

BLUE Is there?

MATT You got a dad? (BLUE NODS) Need to talk to him about this kind of stuff?

BLUE He’s not real communicative, dad, when it comes to personal stuff…He’s not interested. Doesn’t care. 

MATT Maybe he cares but he just doesn’t know how to show it.

BLUE If he cared, he’d at least listen to me, wouldn’t he?

MATT is at a loss how to respond to this. BLUE looks at him.

BLUE Wouldn’t he?

MATT  So that’s what you and Tracy were arguing about at the taxi rank? Sex?

BLUE She tell you we had an argument? 

MATT Nah, saw you two arguing before GBH turned up. (A BEAT) Not a close friend of yours, I take it.

BLUE Kind of a business associate.

MATT Furniture removalist?

BLUE Nah…used to deal a few drugs, see. Nothing big. Just weed and eccies. Bitta coke. But I gave up for Tracy. Well, she kinda made it a condition…Anyhow, I promised her I wouldn’t deal any more…and she agreed to give it another go…our relationship…and I took her to this awesome restaurant tonight… fucking expensive…and gave her a ring… same as this one…(INDICATES RING) you know, ‘soul-mates-forever’ rings and everything and everything was fucking awesome and then…then she went schizo on me, stormed out and got into your fucking taxi…(A BEAT) Spent all of the money I made from this deal I done with GBH and she just ups and…

MATT Drug deal?

BLUE Yeah but…

MATT Hang on…you just said you’d given up dealing!

BLUE Yeah, yesterday. GBH was my last job. Sold him some coke…but it’s all fucked up and now I don’t have the cash to pay him back unless…

MATT Slow down a sec, Blue. Why do you have to pay GBH back?

BLUE Because, you know, it’s the right thing to do if you sell someone bad shit. I didn’t mean to but…like, I trusted the guy I bought it from when he said it was top qual and didn’t do a product test like I usually do and passed it on to GBH and he didn’t do a product test either until tonight – the same fucking night I’m wining and dining Tracy…

MATT So, the same night you and Tracy are celebrating the fact that you’ve given up drug dealing she discovers that you’ve paid for the dinner with the proceeds of drug dealing?

BLUE No, I told her I earnt it with a proper job I just started with a mate – which I started today, so it’s not exactly a lie, ay?

MATT Furniture removalist?

BLUE (nods) But GBH wants his money back…like tonight.

MATT Right! So…so what were you and Tracy arguing about?

BLUE I don’t know. Out of the blue…’scuse the pun, she went wierd on me…really fucking weird.  

MATT For no reason?

BLUE Obviously for some fucking reason! I just don’t know what!

MATT Did you ask her?

BLUE Yeah and she said, “You should be able to figure it out.” So I asked her to give me a clue and she got really upset and…fuck…I don’t know…!

MATT There must have been something that triggered it off.

BLUE Yeah, I was telling her what an aggressive cunt my dad was…though I didn’t say ‘cunt’…it’s one word she hates…and I said to her “You’re lucky not to have a dad.” Which is what she’s said heaps of times so…then she went all…you know, moody…and teary and I asked her what was wrong and she said I should be able to figure it out without asking and I said “I’m not fucking psycho” and she said, “Psychic, ya fuckwit. Not psycho” and next thing she’s on her feet and heading for the door just as the creamy bruly is arriving…or whatever the fuck it’s called.

MATT Crème brûlée

BLUE Yeah, but maybe she was lying about her dad…maybe even a fucked up dad like mine is better than no dad…?

MATT What do you know about Tracy’s dad?

BLUE Nothing, except she’s never met him and kept telling me she never wanted to…until…fuck! Something happened yesterday but she didn’t want talk about it. Something big. But when I asked her what she just clammed up. I don’t know! Explain women to me!

MATT (laughs) I’m not the best person to ask I’m afraid Blue. (A BEAT) So, what are you going to do about your GBH problem?

BLUE Thing is, I promised Trace I would never deal drugs again and, well, a promise is a promise, ay? (MATT NODS) But I also promised GBH I’d never sell him bad shit. (MATT NODS) So, if I keep my promise to Tracy I get the shit beaten out of me by GBH, but the only way I can pay GBH back is if I break my promise to Trace and do another deal. What should I do?

MATT Shit, Blue, I don’t know.

BLUE If I was Juliet…what would you advise me to do? 

MATT She wouldn’t be dealing drugs.

BLUE Yeah, but if she had to make a choice between…you know…a rock and a heart place…?

MATT Hard place. (BLUE NODS) Are you serious about not dealing drugs any more? (BLUE NODS). Then I suppose one more deal is not going to hurt…but just one, Blue…so GBH doesn’t…you know…

BLUE So it’s OK to lie to Trace about it?

MATT No, That’s not what I’m saying. You just don’t need to tell her.

BLUE Take a left here.

MATT turns left.

BLUE But what’s the difference between ‘not telling’ and lying? (A BEAT) What if she asks?

MATT Then I guess you have to lie. If you don’t want GBH to beat you up.

BLUE Yeah, that’s what I thought.

MATT So you’ve already decided? To do another deal?

BLUE No, I wouldn’t do it if you’d said ‘no’.

MATT shakes his head. A thought occurs to him.

MATT I am driving you home, right?

BLUE Yeah. 

MATT Yeah?

BLUE Just got to make a little detour. See a mate of mine, Gary. Won’t take a sec.

MATT To do a drug deal?

BLUE It won’t really be a ‘deal’, know what I mean. It’ll be more me borrowing some drugs and giving them to GBH…

MATT Jesus, Blue!

The mobile in MATT’S pocket rings. He takes it out, thinks of taking the call, looks in his rear-vision mirror, decides against it, hands the mobile to BLUE.

TRACY’S VOICE Matt?

…to be continued…