Ella and Shan are slouching on a living room settee after a long night out. It’s 3AM. They are both a little bit drunk, and exhausted. Shan is resting her head in Ella’s lap and she is half asleep. Ella is staring into space, picking at her mascara. They are silent. This can last up to one minute.

ELLA

I miss being a kid. D’you remember us? Our world was so limited. So fucking small. I would do anything to trade the problems I had then with my problems now. (pause) Wouldn’t you?

(Shan stirs but says nothing)

Jesus, we used to have so much fun as well. Back then it was just a matter of hanging on in class for long enough before they would let us out in the playground and we would release all of our energy there, all at once. Remember? We never used to run out of things to invent. We would act out all of these elaborate stories. We were creative little buggers.

(Laughs to herself)

Oh and remember when you brought in your diary once? We’d just decided that we were best friends, and in our eight-year-old worlds that meant that we’d earned the right to read each other’s diaries. We had the type of friendship that came as a homogenous blob package deal. I don’t think we even noticed that we were different people back then. It just felt like you were an extension of me. Like there was nothing we could hide from one another because ultimately we were one and the same.

(Pause)

Anyway, you showed me your diary. It was full of gossip about people at school. Pretty standard stuff: the boys you had crushes on, the girls you had fallen out with, who held who’s hand in the corridor… God, I miss it all.

(Pause) Ella looks at Shan, trying to assess how asleep she is.

Shan, I have to tell you something though. I feel like a terrible friend. But I just feel that if I could be honest with you about everything, it would just be like when we were eight again and we had no secrets. (sighs) You remember the fluffy pen you lost? The purple one? You were so upset about it… You brought it to school with the diary. When you showed it to me, I was so jealous. You always got better Christmas presents than me. I thought it was because your parents loved you more than mine did. It was so pretty, I really wanted it. I went looking for it in your bag when you weren’t there and I wanted to keep it forever without you noticing. But when you couldn’t find it and started sobbing I felt so bad and I felt like it was burning a hole of shame through my pocket.
Remember when I miraculously found it on the floor in the playground? I’m so sorry Shan, I was just such a coward. I’ve felt terrible about this ever since. I think about it all the time. At least now we can be true friends again eh? No more secrets. (pause) Come on idiot, let’s get you to bed.