“I think I just met the happiest person in the world!” I say as I literally jump into the cab of my boyfriend’s faded orange 1972 Dodge D100 pick up truck. His ancient truck is so huge, especially next me and my equally small 2 year old 1992 magenta Geo Tracker. I’m so little I have to hook my feet under the dash for support as I hang my entire body out to reach the door handle and yank it shut. Winded, out of breath, “Actually there were four of them, and they were so sweet!” Steve reached over the bench seat and pulled me to him, my butt squeaking on the vinyl, wrapping his arms around me in a bear hug. We kiss, quickly, just a peck, then I pull awkwardly away from him. I’m not comfortable getting physical so soon after an argument and he knows it. Why does he have to push? I slide back away from him. I’m so far away from him I’m almost squishing my small frame into the door. I wish I could phase through the door like a ghost. Still he was nice enough to pick me up from when I got off work at 1am since my car broke down earlier in the day. He puts the truck in gear pulls out of the Dixie Dozen movie theater, starts to drive towards my house. “The xenon projector bulb burnt out and exploded all its dusty toxicity into theater 4 so we had to evacuate the entire theater for the 8:15 showing of Speed. It was 32 mins into the movie and Everyone was so pissed! Except for these two couples. They were on a double date and they all work at Stonybrook Theater across town. So since they work in a theater they were all super understanding.” One of the guys, Thorn, he was...” I trail off realizing that I almost slipped and said that I thought the guy named Thorn was really cute. “...need now Is a couple of mutant turtles who practice Kung-fu or something.” Steve said with a roll of his eyes that I if they made a sound I imagined they would sound like marbles rolling on a tile floor. “Hmmm?” I asked coming out of the embarrassing thoughts of another guy who was not my boyfriend. He hissed, exasperated and I watched the amber light from the dashboard lights distort his face. He looked like a vampire, face all pale and teeth shining like white China dishes. “I was making a joke about the guys name, sounds like he trains Ninja Turtles or something.” “You mean Master Splinter...” “Same thing.” Steve interjected. “No this guy’s name was Thorn and he stood up for me when this asshole started cussing me out. It’s not my fault his movie got interrupted.” Silence. Angry. Jealous. Silence. So I filled it with something I thought would help the situation by mentioning Thorn’s girlfriend, “The girl he was holding hands with was really sweet too, what was her name...? It’s a flower or a tree or something.Lily...no. Rose... JUNIPER! It was Juniper.” Steve snorted laughter. “Stop.” I whined. “The other couple, Dan and C.B. Were nice too! They said if I ever wanted to leave Dixie Dozen and come work with them at Stonybrook, they were sure I would make a better manager than the ones they have now.” Steve grips the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turn white. “Oh that sounds, great, Natalie! Go work with your new boyfriend, master Splinter. Maybe you can convince them let you in their little Ninja club.” We pull into my driveway and he slams the stick shift into neutral and stomps on the clutch. “Good bye, Steve.” I say stiffly. It was that moment that I knew me and Steve were over and I wanted to runaway from here and into the Stonybrook doorway for a manager application.