Theme Week Three: Dialogue and Setting

                I woke up early to snow falling in large clumps outside the double glass doors in my room. The sky was blue and the sun was shining, highlighting the tall mountains in the distance, their peaks covered in thick blankets snow. Though the glass I saw my neighbor, Rhett cleaning up the fire pit in a pair of khaki pants and a tattered tee shirt; I could faintly hear him singing the Friends theme song  as he worked.

                Stretched out luxuriously in my bed, I grabbed the remote and flipped the TV on. Seeing that it was only seven in the morning, I groaned and willed myself to fall back asleep. “This time change is messing with me,” I muttered as I covered my face with a pillow. I had only been in Colorado for a few weeks; I woke up early and was exhausted and ready for bed by eight every night.

I was about to doze off when I heard my roommate Meaghan’s voice call out to her boyfriend, Jason. “Jay….will you get me a glass of water?” It was silent for a minute or so until Meaghan impatiently said, “Jason! Did you hear me? I need a glass of water!”

                “Jesus Christ, Meaghan. I’m GETTIING it. Wait a minute.” The faucet turned on and ran while Jason waited for the lukewarm water to become cold.

                “What the hell? How long does it take you to get a glass of water, Jason? You are literally the slowest person I’ve ever met in my life.”

                I could hear Jason pad back to their room and waited for the explosion. “There’s no ice,” Meaghan complained.

                “God. Nothing I do is good enough for you. I could get you a glass of water with ice in thirty seconds and you’d complain it was too cold. What do you want from me, Meg? This is getting really old.”

                “Jason. It’s not like you EVER do anything for me on your own. I have to ask you. What I want is for someone to wake up and think, ‘Maybe Meaghan’s thirsty. I think I’ll get her something to drink.’”

                “You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m not a fucking mind reader. You’re crazy. You’re crazy. I can’t do this anymore,” he said. “Nothing I do is ever enough…”

                Meaghan’s voice quivered and in a high-pitched voice she said, “You don’t want to be with me anymore?” I could picture her tired brown eyes watering with tears, her lips trembling as she tried to maintain composure.

                “I never said that,” Jason replied; he knew he was walking on thin ice. “I said I can’t be treated like this anymore. You’ve got to try to be more appreciative of the things I do for you. All you do is focus on the things I do wrong and never the things I do right.”

                “Oh. I’m sorry,” she said, her tone cold and emotionless. “So I assume this rule goes both ways. Because I’m pretty sure you never say thank you to me when I do things for you. I feel like you take advantage of me all the time but I’m not sitting here complaining. You’re selfish, everything’s always about you.”

                “You’ve got to be kidding, Meg. I ALWAYS thank you for what you do. I’m getting out of here. This is crazy. You’re crazy!”

                I got out of my bed and wrapped myself in a blue, fleece blanket. Sliding my feet into a pair of slippers, I opened the glass door and wandered outside into the snow. Through the glass, I could barely hear the frantic voices of my roommates. “Morning, Rhett,” I said. “How’s it going?”

                “Good! What’s going on with you today?” he asked.

                “Not much. Work later. Tried to sleep in but that’s not happening with World War Three going on inside.”

                “They’re fighting again?” he asked sympathetically. “I thought I heard something but was hoping it was too early. For your sake…”

                “I know, right? Hey, at least it’s a beautiful day. I still can’t get over how it snows when it’s sunny and that it’s WARM out here in January."

                He looked down into the valley of lush trees and rocky crevices; at the mountains, purple under the bright sun. “You never really get used to it. It blows my mind every time I look around me.”

                “How can anybody be unhappy here?”  I wondered out loud, thinking about Meaghan and Jason. “It’s too beautiful.”