SAM and RILEY sit at a table in a cracker barrel, located off a run-down highway in the middle of nowhere. They haven’t seen each other in seven years. Riley has just picked Sam up from rehab. They sit in a long, awkward silence. Sam compulsively twists the wrapper of a paper straw.

PUNCH IN ON SAM’S HANDS TWISTING THE WRAPPER

SAM

I’m not a drug addict. 

TWO SHOT

RILEY

I didn’t say you were.

SAM

But you were thinking it. That was like, a whole game in there. Guessing what people were in for. 

RILEY

(Laughing) “In for?” It wasn’t prison. 

Beat.

RILEY (CONT’D)

… Have you been to prison?

SAM

No, I haven’t fucking been to prison, Riley. What kind of a question is that?

RILEY

How should I fucking know? We’re strangers now, Sam. Why did you even call me? You disappear off the face of the earth and I don’t see you for like, a decade, and now I’m picking you up from rehab in the middle of nowhere? Jesus, you didn’t even smoke weed when I knew you. 

Sam throws down the mangled straw wrapper.

SAM

I told you it wasn’t drugs. 

RILEY

So what was it?

SAM

Christ. I forgot how fucking nosy you are. It’s none of your goddamn business!

The restaurant goes quiet at the outburst. Riley leans forward. 

RILEY

(Quietly) If it’s none of my business, then why the fuck am I the person you called?

Beat. Sam picks up Riley’s straw wrapper, starts twisting.

SAM

There was an … altercation during my intake. I was freaking out and … anyway my phone got busted. 

(Beat.) Yours is the only number I remember. 

Beat. Riley leans back. Taking this in.

RILEY

You don’t remember your own mother’s number?

SAM

She got a new one recently, okay? What am I, the fucking rain man? You know I’m not good with numbers. 

RILEY

Hey– I have a job, okay? I have responsibilities. I have a life. I just dropped everything to drive four hours and pick you up from the fucking cuckoo’s nest, so the least you can do is be fucking civil to me–

SAM

I tried to set myself on fire. 

Beat.

RILEY

What?

SAM

That’s why I was in there. I poured gasoline over myself and … yeah. So. 

Riley starts rubbing their neck, a self-soothing tick. 

RILEY

Fuck. Sam–

SAM

Don’t– 

RILEY

Was it the … the skin thing? The bugs?  

SAM

(Rolling their eyes) I never called it “the bugs.”

RILEY

Jesus– okay, the “crawly feeling.”

Sam chews their lips, won’t meet Riley’s eyes. They’re still twisting Riley’s straw wrapper.

SAM

Partly … but also not. I don’t know, I just … I felt like I was burning from the inside out– but I knew, you know, logically, that I wasn’t. It got to the point that I just … I wanted the feeling to be real. Because if it’s real then it can end. But my mind can just keep going, you know?

Long beat. Riley picks up the wad of paper Sam has abandoned, starts unfurling it gently.

RILEY

Are you back on your medication now?

SAM

They won’t let you leave unless you start it. 

RILEY

And are you going to stay on it?

SAM

(With a sad smile) We’re not there anymore, Riley. 

RILEY

Right. Of course. You’re entitled to my time, but I’m no longer allowed to care about your well-being, is that it? 

SAM

You didn’t have to come– 

RILEY

And you didn’t have to call. 411 still exists. 

SAM

So?

 RILEY

So, why’d you call me, Sam?

SAM

(Rhetorically) Why did you come? 

Long beat. Riley leans back. 

RILEY

So what do you really want? 

PUNCH IN ON SAM’S HANDS GOING STILL AROUND THE WRAPPER

SAM

I don’t know. I want to be someone else. I want my life to stop. Or at least, my life as it is now … 

(Calming, with clarity) I want to wake up and be eight years old again.

RILEY

Doesn’t everyone?

SAM

Do they? Or is that just us?

Riley smiles.  

RILEY

But do you think that would actually change things? That we …

(Stopping themself) That anything could have happened differently? 

Long beat. The two stare at each other.

SAM

I don’t know. 

RILEY

Me either. 

(Riley collects themself) But actually, I meant what do you want, like, from the menu …

Sam flusters.

SAM

Oh, fuck. Right. Uh … probably hashbrown casserole. 

RILEY

Oh, yeah, that shits delicious. 

SAM

It’s like potatoes and crack. 

RILEY

(Jokingly) You would know.

They’re both smiling now. 

SAM

I didn’t fucking do drugs.