DANA is a mess, trying to clean a heap o...

DANA is a mess, trying to clean a heap of partially burnt coupons off of the table. They are damp, and there's a red burn mark on DANA's face. The front door opens and shuts.

NEBULA Mom? Mom! What's that smell? Is everything okay?

DANA Shhh#t. Yeah, Honey, everything's fine, I took care of it. I just had an accident in here. I was…

NEBULA and ALEX enter.

DANA I was clipping coupons and-

NEBULA Is that my lighter?

DANA What?

NEBULA That's my lighter.

DANA Well, maybe you should get used to sharing your things.

[NEBULA Alex, go to your room.

ALEX No fire?

NEBULA Not yet. Go to your room.

ALEX exits.]

NEBULA Hitting the olive oil kind of hard again, aren't you, Mom?

DANA When were you going to tell me?

NEBULA I'm getting it aborted.

DANA How could you do this?

NEBULA Oh, a lecture? Is that going to solve this? Do lectures kill babies? Or maybe, like, if I had a lecture I wouldn't like f#$king so much?

DANA Look at me, Nebula! LOOK! Is this what you want to be? Is this what you want? Finding your daughter's positive pregnancy test, getting drunk on some bottom shelf brandy you hide in an olive oil bottle, like you're f#$king fooling anybody? Then burning your face on a f#$king coupon fire you set with your cigarette when you passed out? Is this what you want? Because this right here? This is the highlight, darling. Getting an abortion at 17? That was me. And oh, I didn't give a red hot f#$k about it either. But you don't have to get here. You don't have to get to this point, Nebula. All I can do is look back and hate who I was and the sh#t I did to myself, the sh#t I let everyone do to me. But you don't have to look back and hate yourself. I'm right here. Hate me if it'll get you to stop. I will make you hate me, if it'll get you to stop this.

NEBULA Do you hate me, then? Is that what this is? You see me repeating all the gross shit you did, and all you see is a reflection? You think this sh#t is your fault?

DANA No! I told you! I told you over and over, I hid nothing from you! I told you all the sickening sh#t that I did, so I can save you from it, but that's right where you're headed-

NEBULA You're wrong! No, you're wrong, I'm smarter than you were, Mom. You might know what would've been best for you back in your f#$k-up days, but it's not what's better for me. I don’t even know what that would be. What did you pass onto me? How to appease your pimp and make weapons out of anything within reach? This? Has nothing to do with your sh#t parenting.

DANA What did you say?

NEBULA I'm my own f#$king person! I have my own identity, I'm making my own choices because this is who I am! I'm not some sh#t replicate of your body, reliving your stupid life, and I am no longer, like, impressionable or whatever. Do you know what that means? No matter how hard you try, Mom, I'm nothing like you!

DANA holds up the pregnancy test.

DANA Bullsh#t you're not.

NEBULA F#£k you!

DANA I've given everything to you!

NEBULA Yup, here this is.

DANA All I have, all I am, you sh#t on it and throw it back in my face!

NEBULA Get it through your retarded head! This has nothing to do with you! I would be getting the same abortion next week in the same clinic with or without you as my mother. You dropped me out of your tattered rash of a vagina, and ever since then, I have been completely my own person.

DANA How could you say that? I f#$king raised you! Nebula, how can you f#$king say that when I… I…

NEBULA Ugh, f#$k it, turn it into your thing, it's what you do. Christ, you're selfish.

DANA Listen to me! Fine! You're your own person! You're a worthless, loveless, stupid f#$k-up slut, and that has nothing to do with me. YOU f#$ked up your own life! YOU are f#$king up my life! And I thank God you're killing that little cockroach before he can endure the inhumane, hellish torture of having you as a mother!

NEBULA It's the least I can do. I wish you would have done the same for me or, God, at least for Alex.

DANA and NEBULA reel emotionally for a beat.

DANA I want you gone by the weekend.

NEBULA I'm going now. Put some ice on your face, you look like a crack whore.

DANA What about Alex? Your blood?

NEBULA Yeah, I'd lay off the olive oil if I were you.

DANA Nebula.

NEBULA turns to exit forever.

DANA Nebula!

NEBULA Stop saying my stupid name!

NEBULA exits.

DANA Wait! Please Nebula! NEBULA!

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