A Full Can of Crazy (scene 20)

Dean's waiting outside the front of his house as I pull up in Mum's car. He pulls open the door and gets in before I've had a chance to stop properly.

'Jeez you're keen.' He doesn't say anything and I feel stupid for saying what I just said.

'Where to?' He shrugs. He's acting weird. He sniffs.

'Are you alright?'

'Not really. My dad's home from the army.'

'That's good.'

'Nah it's not. He's an asshole, talks to me, Mum and my little sister like shit, ordering us around, yelling; things are kind of tense whenever he comes back you know.'

I nod in reckoning, but with no dad on the scene, I don't know.

'Do you want to get something to eat?' He says.

'Sure, I could eat. What do you feel like?'

'Burger or something?'

I drive to Mcdonalds.

Parked up sipping a strawberry thick shake whilst Dean mauls into a big serve of salty chips, I bring up the T word.

'I went to see Tara earlier.'

'Oh yeah, what did she say.' He avoids my gaze.

'She was looking at a bunch of old photos. She's the best I've ever seen her so far.'

'Did she tell you what she did?'

'Yeah,' I say.

'She got her Dad to break up with me. How pathetic is that.'

I look around the car park at a group of kids goofing around near the play centre of Mcdonalds.

'It's pretty brutal, but understandable considering.'

'So how we feel doesn't matter because she's a victim, or so we believe, she's allowed to treat us like shit.' Bits of spit fly out of Dean's mouth.

'What do you mean? She's pretty much lost her memory. Can you imagine what that would be like?'

Dean's body heaves as his breath fogs up the window.

'It would be like you walking over to those kids right there and breaking up with one of them; you don't know them.' Dean's pushing Mum's car door open.

'Where are you going?' I shout as he slams the door closed. I watch out of the window as he walks over to the group of kids. What the hell is he doing? He stops in front of them. I can't see Dean's face, but it's obvious he's talking to them because they're all staring at him. One of the boys draped around one of the girls is looking angrily from his girlfriend to Dean. The girlfriend looks at Dean bizzarely. She's screaming at her boyfriend who's suddenly punching Dean to the floor. I dash out of the car and over to where this boy is fighting Dean.

'Get off him.' I shout. 'His girlfriend just dumped him. She's lost her memory. Get off him.'

'Keep this fucking looney away from me and my girl or else I'll smash his face in all over again.' The gang walk off. I hold onto bloody Dean. He spits grit and laughs.

'What the hell are you doing? You're insane!'

'Just doing what you said. And you're right, it was weird. Still though, her dad? Why did she have to get her dad to break up with me?' Listening to his voice break, I bite might lip in anticipation of tears; he truly is in bits.

'Come on,' I say standing up and offering out my hand to pull him up. He takes it and stands next to me. I survey the damage he's just endured and we share a look. Not a sexual look, but a funny look and then we laugh. And laugh. And laugh like we did at the park all over again. Get real Reilly. My life right now feels so fucked up, but if I can't laugh about it, I'm gonna cry instead.

#BestFriendsExBoyfriend #Fight #Drama #Crazy