“I want to read you the last think I wrote,” I told the soldier, referring to the Obese Pisces story. “I am 15 in it. It was before I met you.”

He stared.

“I want you to hear it because I haven’t written anything like this for a long time and you haven’t read anything I’ve written in a couple years and I want you to get a hack on how I write these days.”

“P, I get pissed off when I read your writing. You know I get jealous.”

I stared.

“Oh come on. If I wrote you’d get jealous too. If there was a girl sitting in the corner of something I wrote you’d be jealous. You know you would.”

“There are no boys in this story. I didn’t know any boys when I was 15.”

“P, there are boys in all your stories. I’ve read your book.”

I rolled my eyes. “I have not known any men besides you,” I said straight-faced.

“Yeah.”

“Okay, well I won’t be knowing any men besides you now.”

“That’s acceptable,” he said, resigned.

“Okay, well if you want to hear it you can and if not… I just wonder if you are going to ever read anything I write again. Maybe you’re not. I guess it doesn’t matter? In whatever case I started writing like I used to… do you think it matters if you have any idea what I do?”

He didn’t answer but when we got home he had me read the story to him. I stopped at the end of the story part and then told him for the 20th time what I had been trying to convey regarding not marrying him. It resulted in two Italians yelling about Italian things. Happily though.

“This would have played like this, this would have trumped that, this person would have had to stand down.”

“You’d have done this but not this.”

“Yeah, but I’d have done this too and I’d not have done that. I’d have called this person and they would have done this and made sure of that. Once that was done, this would have happened and after that, we’d have been able to marry.”

::rolls eyes:: We were both throwing around names you’d recognize in history.

“I am not sending someone to jail or their grave so that I can marry and have an easy life. Blood all over the town so I can walk down the aisle? I think that is asking a lot. I was not a 17 year old sociopath now was I? If I was, we’d have a very different story to tell but as it turns out I am missing that gene. If I had that gene, I would not be me and you probably wouldn’t love me, ever think of that?!

When it was all said and done, I’d say I moved the Taurus an inch and I consider this an epic accomplishment so I’m really glad I wrote that.