MIKE Are you going to help me? ANDY...

MIKE Are you going to help me?

ANDY No.

MIKE Andy.

Andy looks at him. Then looks away.

MIKE (cont'd) What?

ANDY Nothing. (beat) You remembered.

MIKE Of course I did.

ANDY I kind of can’t believe I’m actually here with you.

MIKE I’m just a guy, Andy. If you wanted, I could sign something for you.

ANDY Really?

Mike pulls out a Sharpie.

MIKE Whadya got?

Andy dumps out the contents of her bag, a vast assortment of girly stuff.

ANDY Oh, um... I don’t have anything.

MIKE Some girls, they want me to sign their, uh, chestal area.

ANDY Right!

She hikes the neck of her shirt aside. He puts a hand on her waist. She holds her breath as he signs with a flourish.

MIKE You’ve got some pen. On your...

He reaches toward her. She pulls back.

ANDY It’s not pen. I got stabbed in the face with a pencil in third grade. It’s lodged. It’s horrible. And it’s blue. I have lead in my face and it looks like someone poked me with a marker. Stop looking at it.

MIKE No kidding?

ANDY I hate it.

Mike looks closer.

MIKE It’s adorable.

Andy blushes nine shades of red.

ANDY I-- My shirt! I should’ve-- I could’ve kept the shirt.

MIKE Hold it taut. Hold still.

Andy holds the shirt, while he signs, forearm resting across her chest. He caps the pen and tucks it into her front pocket.

ANDY I was looking forward to hearing you play.

MIKE And I want to play. The night’s not over.

ANDY I’m not going back in there.

MIKE What are you so afraid of?

ANDY I’m not afraid.

MIKE Who’s in there?

ANDY I drove down from New Haven with the sisters.

MIKE Nuns?

ANDY God no. Sorority. Girls from school. And these guys.

MIKE Boyfriends?

ANDY No. Just some guys from SUNY that helped us with our IDs.

MIKE Well, that seems like an awful lot of work to spend the night in an alley.

ANDY That wasn’t the plan. All of your songs, they have this thing, where I listen and I can’t be sitting, I have to move. Then I need to keep moving. Propulsion.

MIKE Live it’s even better. It drives from lower.

Mike is looking at her blue spot.

ANDY What are you looking at?

MIKE You.

ANDY Quit it.

MIKE Your eyes all lit up with that angry sparkle. Amber used to look at me like that a lot.

She looks up at him. His eyes are locked on hers. She takes a breath and kisses him. He kisses her right back.

MIKE (cont'd) Tonight’s a big night for me. After the set, do you want to do something?

ANDY Like what?

MIKE Well, I have these unreleased cuts I can play for you, my place isn’t far, and--

ANDY Really? I’d like that.

He kisses her again.

MIKE I just have to play first.

ANDY Right.

MIKE It’s a big night for me.

They kiss again. Deeply.

ANDY What happened to your braces?

MIKE Right. “I don’t wear braces. Mikey wears braces.” Whaddya say we continue this inside, yeah?

ANDY What? I don’t... You don’t wear braces?

MIKE No, I--. That’s the line. Goonies. Where the name comes from, right? You didn’t know that?

ANDY On the cover, you were- I’ve never seen it.

She leans in for a kiss.

MIKE You’ve never seen The Goonies.

ANDY Before my time, I guess.

She kisses his neck.

MIKE I feel old. How old are you?

ANDY Seventeen.

He places her at arm’s length.

MIKE What? You’re what?

ANDY I’m seventeen.

MIKE But you’ll be eighteen next week, or in three days, or tomorrow?

ANDY Well, almost seventeen.

MIKE Sh#t. No no no No. Sh#t. You’re 16. Aw ffu-aaagh! You’re a groupie!

ANDY I am not.

MIKE You did this on purpose! You said you were with your sorority sisters.

ANDY Yes. Yeah. They’re from my school.

MIKE Friggin' high school. Since when do they have sororities in high school?

ANDY Well, there’s just the one. I guess it’s not a real sorority, they just call themselves that I guess.

MIKE Why are 16 year olds hanging out with guys from SUNY?

ANDY I told you. They got us IDs. I said that.

MIKE I thought to drink. Not to get in.

ANDY Well, to drink too. And get cigarettes.

MIKE Oh my god. I’m going to hell.

ANDY Why?

MIKE I’m going to jail, and then to hell.

ANDY For what?

MIKE For touching you and kissing you and being alone in an alley with you and propositioning you! (re: her chest) Wipe that off!

ANDY No! What do you mean propositioning me?

MIKE What do you mean, what do I mean? With the kissing, and the flirting, and “I’ve got some old tapes at my place”, you know, to listen to while we get drunk and have sex. Aw fuaaaagggh-dammit!

Mikey Wears Braces was developed with The CRY HAVOC Company.

For information on licensing, please email [email protected]