the night i read gita
Illustration by Crystal Bowden
EXT. SUBURBAN ROAD — DEAD OF NIGHT
Four teenagers packed in a car drive down the
backroads of Allegheny County to
take me to a boy’s house.
MITCHELL (TEXT)
if u get a ride here ill take u home after lol
Sounds good enough to me.
We pull into a dirt driveway
off a road empty of
street lamps.
BEST FRIEND
This is kinda shady.
ME
I’ll be fine.
The other three teenagers pull out of the driveway and
leave me alone with Mitchell (who’s older than me and
in a band that’s not that bad,
actually). Crickets chirp and
slice through the awkward silence.
INT. MITCHELL’S ROOM— WHAT TIME IS IT ANYWAY?
The unlikely pair enter his mint green room.
Sharpie doodles are scrawled all over the walls with
quotes from movies like Good Will Hunting and
song lyrics from Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
MITCHELL
Anyone who comes into my room can draw whatever they want on the walls.
I pick up his Sharpie and draw
a halfway decent portrait of
Cole Sprouse with his infamous
“I’m a weirdo” monologue from Riverdale.
Mitchell laughs nervously but
is not impressed. Take a joke, dude.
MITCHELL
Do you listen to Oh Wonder?
I know where this is going. He puts them on and
we start kissing and hooking up and
all that. It’s at this point that I curse
myself for not watching porn,
because that would come in handy
right now.
Mitchell falls asleep shortly after
and I raid his bookshelf.
INT. MITCHELL’S DESK CHAIR— TOO LATE FOR ME TO BE NOT HOME
It is 4 AM.
4
A
M.
I am sitting at
Mitchell’s desk and
reading the Bhagavad Gita
while he sleeps.
BHAGAVAD GITA
You are what you believe in. You
become that which you believe you
can become.
So that’s why I always pick the petal that says
loves me not.
BHAGAVAD GITA
The spirit is beyond destruction. No one
can bring an end to spirit which is
everlasting.
This is
bad news for me.
Trying to extinguish my eternal flame
has been my number one hobby.
I know self-sabotage like Shakespeare knows
tragedy. Like coyotes know to howl.
Like Mitchell knows to sleep when
I really need to go home.
BHAGAVAD GITA
I am time, the destroyer of all; I have come to consume the world.
I have come to consume the world.
It is 6 AM.
6
A
M.
I am sitting at
Mitchell’s desk and
on the verge of tears.
I don’t want to wake up Mitchell
because he’s cooler than me
and I’m mortified.
None of my friends are answering their phones.
My parents are gonna kill me.
Then I get a Snapchat from Dean.
DEAN (SNAPCHAT)
driving around at 6 am >>>
ME (ON THE PHONE)
(whispering)
Dean please come pick me up I’m at a boy’s house I don’t know
what to do please help me
DEAN (ON THE PHONE)
Are you seriously asking me to come pick you up from a hookup
after you rejected me literally last week?
ME (ON THE PHONE)
(whispering, crying)
Yes. Please. I don’t know who else to call.
INT. MITCHELL’S HOUSE — TIME TO GO
I tiptoe
down the stairs
make eye contact
with his dad
grab my shoes
and run out the door.
INT. DEAN’S CAR — TOO EARLY FOR ME NOT TO BE HOME
Dean doesn’t say anything on the
forty minute drive home.
He opens his mouth
a few times
but nothing comes out.
There are no crickets at 6 AM
to slice the silence.
EXT. MY FRONT PORCH — AN HOUR LATER
My mom really ripped me a new one.
The Gita said I am what I believe in.
I believe in God, but
I’m too young to know
anything about that.
If I was God I’d
materialize a cigarette
right now.
MITCHELL (TEXT)
i found ur hair tie in my bed lol
ME (TEXT)
keep it
