A metro station, probably in Maryland. One of
those upper level outdoor ones. GIA and JUNE
(20’s, Black) sit on a bench, waiting for their
train. Gia has a magazine out, skimming
through it. June clearly has something to say.
JUNE
I signed another petition today.
Gia looks at her, unimpressed.
GIA
What for?
JUNE
What uh, what. For this, this girl who was. She was protesting and they locked her up,
they just took her, said she was like. I dunno breaking windows or some shit, being
violent, lying, basically they were lying about what she did.
GIA
Huh. Alright.
JUNE
Or. Actually. No sorry I’m wrong, it was this other girl, she was.
Flustered, embarrassed, she pulls out her phone,
begins looking through her email.
Shit. I got the email-
GIA
You don’t remember?
JUNE
No I do I do. It was the first one. That girl I was right before.
GIA
Ok.
Quiet. June squirms, uncomfortable.
JUNE
Sorry.
GIA
For what?
JUNE
I just feel like I should say. Sorry.
I’m not really saying it to you. You’re just here I don’t have anyone else to. To say it to.
Except inside my own head, where it kind of echoes around.
(beat)
I didn’t remember.
GIA
Alright.
JUNE
That’s bad.
GIA
I don’t really get why’re you’re telling me this. Like any of this, I don’t really care that you signed a petition-
JUNE
You don’t?
GIA
No.
JUNE
Not. I don’t mean you should care that I signed a petition, I mean. You don’t care that
there are petitions to sign?
GIA
What do you want from me here, June? Like what’re you-
JUNE
I dunno, Gia, I don’t-
She sighs, frustrated with herself.
GIA
Yesterday you mentioned this thing you donated to, some victim’s family to help pay
their rent, and the other day you were talking about emails to send to senators or the police or-
JUNE
Gia-
GIA
And today you’re talking about this petition. You’re asking if I care about this petition?
JUNE
I just-
GIA
You’re not asking me if I care about this petition, you’re not, you’re asking me if I care
about something bigger than a petition or an email or a Go Fund Me, you’re asking if I
care about the sum of all those things. Or about what’s behind them.
JUNE
Maybe.
GIA
That’s really fucking rude.
JUNE
Really-
GIA
Yes.
Quiet. They kind of stare down each other. Gia
wins, June looking away, uncertain.
JUNE
Sorry. Never mind.
GIA
Alright.
Quiet. A train passes by, not theirs.
JUNE
(trying)
How’s classes?
GIA
Fine.
JUNE
I saw that poster you designed. For the BSU, their spoken word night. It was great.
GIA
Thanks.
JUNE
You’re stuff’s always great though, so. Figures.
Awkward. June fumbles for something to say.
Gia is clearly bothered.
Do. Do you think they’ll ask you to speak? At graduation, for your program’s ceremony-
GIA
I dunno. Probably.
JUNE
Probably yeah, yeah. You’re so good, so. Probably.
GIA
You don’t have to try so hard.
JUNE
What?
GIA
I’m not mad.
JUNE
Well.
GIA
I’m not.
JUNE
Well I mean you’re just clenching that magazine pretty tight and you haven’t stopped tapping your foot-
Gia forces herself to stop doing both of those things,
breathing out a frustrated exhale through her nose.
GIA
There. See? Not doing it anymore.
JUNE
I didn’t mean to make you mad.
GIA
Where’s this train? Like seriously where is it-
JUNE
(miserably)
Gia. I really didn’t.
GIA
I’m not mad so stop June, just quit it.
JUNE
I just-
GIA
I said-
JUNE
I just. I don’t really see you. Doing that stuff.
GIA
Ok? And?
JUNE
Forget it, never mind.
GIA
No, what’re you saying?
JUNE
Shit, Gia. I just, I don’t.
She peeks at her. Sucks in a deep breath.
Fine.
She summons up some bravery. Looks her in the eye.
I think it’s really messed up that you can’t spend a minute of your time signing a petition,
or sharing a link, or sending an email. And I think it’s even more messed up that you
don’t seem to care, at all, that, that these things are happening that they exist that these people exist-
GIA
And I think it’s really fucked up that you can’t remember the names of ‘these people.’
June flinches back, stung. She looks away,
shameful. This annoys Gia even more.
Seriously. So don’t come at me with-
JUNE
I’m not coming at you-
GIA
You are-
JUNE
It’s just not that hard, it doesn’t take much it doesn’t cost you anything ok and it, it just-
GIA
What?
JUNE
It worries me! Because, because.
You’re my friend. And.
And you’re. You’re better than me-
GIA
What? No I’m not what the-
JUNE
You are though you are, it’s always been like that, ever since the sixth grade. You’re
always running ahead and I’m chasing after you. Like you’d go catching frogs and I was
too scared to hold one, or you’d jump from the swings and scrape your knee and you’d
laugh while I was crying cause you were bleeding, and and I always had to copy your homework-
GIA
June.
She kind of just mouths some words, stunned.
She doesn’t know what to say.
June. It’s. It’s not like that.
JUNE
It is though!
GIA
You’re great June. You’re amazing. You. I don’t know why-
JUNE
I wasn’t, I wasn’t amazing I don’t think so, not until I met you and. And you taught me how to be brave-
GIA
You taught me too / you taught me to be kind and-
JUNE
No no just, just. You’ve always been. I just want you to be someone who, who worries
about this, about people, about your people. I want you to be someone who, who cares.
GIA
I care.
JUNE
You could show it a little more, is all.
GIA
(defensive again)
Yes, because going onto Instagram and sharing a link someone else put the effort and
time into making is peak activism. I’ll get right on that.
JUNE
Alright I know I’m not. I’m not Angela Davis or anything alright, I know that I’m not freaking uh, freaking Malcolm X-
GIA
You are definitely neither of those people, no-
JUNE
But I’m doing something, alright, I’m doing something and it’s a little but it. It just.
I think about this all the time, Gia, lately it’s always. It’s buzzing around in the back of
my mind. And when I can block it out for a moment I log on and there’s just. It’s
something else something else happened. I can’t just. I can’t just not look or, or think
about it or. Don’t you care?
GIA
Obviously I do. Of course I do. You know that, so it’s really / hurtful that-
JUNE
I do I know I just. It’s just that.
You remember when we went to go protest?
GIA
(annoyed)
Come on-
JUNE
And I. When we got down there. All those people, pushing forward. Or kneeling down
and raising a fist. Or shouting out names and chanting. And then suddenly they were
running, because, because the police were pushing in and, and throwing smoke bombs
and there was this loud cracking noise and for a second I thought they’re shooting, someone got shot-
GIA
I was there I know-
JUNE
And I know you care I’m sorry I do I know because you. You went up there, you were in front, I remember because this one girl tripped running away and you helped her up-
GIA
June-
JUNE
But I. Gia, I didn’t do anything. I just. I stood in the back, away from all that. I just. I just
stood there, and. I took a few steps forward and would just freeze up, this cold would
pour into me and I’d step back. I couldn’t even raise my voice sometimes, I couldn’t even
say their names, I wasn’t loud enough.
I don’t want to. Feel like that again. I was there but. I wasn’t doing anything.
GIA
You did something. You helped me make signs, and, and you handed out water bottles and snacks you had a book bag full of them, of granola bars. And you were there-
JUNE
Not like you, not like everyone else, all those people.
I just. Remember you doing that and it confuses me on why. Why you’re like this now.
Gia clenches her jaw, bothered. She looks away.
It seems like she won’t say anything. June ducks
her head down.
GIA
(sudden)
There are thirty students in my year and only five Black kids. We started out with eight,
but there’s only five of us now. The rest left. I’m lucky if I get a class with one of them.
Last week a white girl said hi to me in the hallway then stuck her hand in my hair, right
away. Like she was petting a dog. Said she liked how it looked, how it felt. Like it was really a compliment. I just smiled and asked her not to do it again. Laughed it off. Pretty much the same thing happened a few days later, this time a stranger, on the train.
JUNE
I didn’t-
GIA
One of my teachers said she’s surprised I’m still there. Smiled at me, laughed,
complimented my work, said I could really go places, that I’m ‘not like the rest.’ My
advisor said I should consider putting some work into doing my hair, put on some
makeup, wear better clothes so that people would take me seriously. Said it was just
‘career advice.’ I laughed it off. Let myself be shit on.
JUNE
Oh.
GIA
That’s just this month.
I just keep thinking. One day. One day, I’ll look back and you’ll be miles behind me. And
then another day I’ll look down and you’ll be rungs below me. And once I get to where I
need to be. I’m pushing the door open. I’m bringing everybody in with me. Hopefully. If
I get shit on now, maybe further down the line, someone else won’t have to.
JUNE
Gia. Gia-
GIA
Sometimes. Sometimes the protest is just existing. That’s. A lot already. Because a lot of
people. Don’t want us here.
JUNE
(watery)
Yeah.
GIA
Please don’t cry.
JUNE
(sniffing)
I’m not.
GIA
You are.
JUNE
(crying)
No I’m not see I’m not-
GIA
You are so embarrassing.
JUNE
I’m sorry Gia-
GIA
It’s fine, jeez, stop already damn.
JUNE
I just-
GIA
I said it’s fine.
(beat)
Send me the next petition you find.
JUNE
Ok.
(beat)
I’ll. I’ll be sure to, to research, first. And. And remember names and, and. Everything.
GIA
Alright, sure. Wipe the snot off your face. You’ve always been such a crybaby.
JUNE
(laughing)
Yeah.
Gia gets a napkin from her bag, hands it to June.
GIA
Here.
June takes it, fixing herself. Gia looks at her,
then back to the platform.
You taught me a lot, too.
JUNE
You’re just saying that.
GIA
I’m not. I’m really not. Had to teach me something today, didn’t you? Back then, too. I
never would’ve though to bring water and snacks there, to the protest. Never.
(beat)
Sometimes I look at you, and I’m like. Her heart’s too big for her. For her body, for her
brain. It’s too big. And I worry because of it. And then sometimes I’m jealous. Because
I’d like to be more like that, like you, and it’s so effortless for you.
JUNE
You’re gonna make me cry again.
GIA
Please don’t. Ran out of tissues.
She looks at the screen for arrivals.
The train’s delayed.
She stands, gathers her things.
Whatever. Let’s just stop by the grocery store then go back to mine. I’ll make dinner.
She starts walking towards the escalator. June
scrambles a bit to catch up, settling into a walk
beside her.
JUNE
Ooooh Gia’s gonna cook! Can we have honey salmon?
GIA
You gotta make the rice.
JUNE
I thought you were cooking?
GIA
It’s gonna be a team effort.
JUNE
Fine. You always burn the rice anyway-
GIA
I like the bottom brown-
Their voices fade and they exit, stage fading to black.
Niara Mae is a playwright, actress and director from the Washington, D.C. area. Most recently, she’s written for Here We Go’s 24 Hour Play Festival, and an upcoming episode on The Language of Us podcast. She’s currently working on her thesis play for her final year at The New School for Drama.