For this one, you must keep yourself safe by breaking someone's heart.
COLD (any gender, mid-teens to early twenties)
[note... the cold that Iris is feeling comes out partially in her "mmmm"s and stutters]
J-J-Jamie. Can you cover for me? Five minutes. Tell the campers I'll be there in five minutes. I just need to p-p-pull myself together. Maybe you can get the dish tubs started. Assign the campers to their roles. I think Ralf likes to be the one running the clean dishes back into the dining hall. If you can just sss-sss-ssset it up, I'll be in the dish area and you can help Jess out, monitoring the dining area. Sorry Jaime, I'm just not fff-fff-ffeeling very ww-www--
JAIME! NO!
Don't come near me!
It's-- it's-- its... I'm just... okay, I know we're having record heat but I'm-- ha!-- I'm ff-ffreezing. Okay? I know that's weird but-- NO! STAY AWAY!
Something about you makes it worse. If you put your arm around me, if you put a hand on me, it's going to feel like... I don't think I can take it. You make me feel cold! I don't know why it's you.
And it's probably not YOU, Jaime. It-it-it's probably... you know I've got some troubles with m-m-my brain chemistry. Maybe it's a nervous reaction. Maybe something about us kissing last night, okay? But you didn't do anything wrong, I wanted to kiss you but I've started ff-ff-ffeeling cold since then.
So I need you to stay away.
And I don't want to talk about it anymore.
Jaime, it's parent arrival day tomorrow and I don't want to screw this up. I need to be a good counselor tonight. Just to mm-mm-my job. And I can't do that if I'mmmmmmffffffreezing.
I... I LIKE you. You like me? If you really do, just help mmmme be a good counselor tonight. That's why we took this job, right? To serve the campers? To... work well together to do that? Let's work well together and stay a-a-away from each other. J-j-just until tomorrow.
Copyright 2016 by Matt Haynes.
If you would like to use this piece, please credit: "Courtesy of Matt Haynes and The Pulp Stage"