Drama · 4 min

Last Call.

At a noisy college bar, one brilliant young man talks faster and faster while the woman across from him decides she has finally heard enough.

Intellectual arroganceemotional clarityrapid-firethe gap between smart and wise

The roles

DREW FELD

Twenty. College sophomore, computer science. Talks like a closing argument. Treats conversation as a sport he's winning. Cannot hear what anyone is actually saying to him because he's too busy constructing the next sentence.

PRIYA KAPOOR

Twenty-one. College junior, pre-med. Clear-eyed, precise, has already made her decision before walking in. Uses fewer words than Drew by a factor of three and every one lands harder.

Last Call · Drama side · memorlined.app

(A college bar. Thursday night. Loud. A TV over the bar plays a game nobody's watching. DREW FELD and PRIYA KAPOOR sit at a small table near the back. Two beers. His is almost empty. Hers is full.)

DREW FELD

I'm just saying, if the department actually cared about research output, they wouldn't put Hendricks on the review board. The guy published one paper in 2019 and it was basically a lit review with—

PRIYA KAPOOR

Drew.

DREW FELD

What?

PRIYA KAPOOR

I didn't come here to talk about your department.

DREW FELD

I know. I was making conversation.

PRIYA KAPOOR

You're stalling.

DREW FELD

I'm not stalling. I was making a point about institutional—

PRIYA KAPOOR

You've been making points for twenty minutes.

(A waitress passes. DREW signals for another beer. PRIYA covers her glass with her hand when the waitress looks at her.)

DREW FELD

You're not drinking.

PRIYA KAPOOR

I have an exam tomorrow.

DREW FELD

Then why'd you come to a bar?

PRIYA KAPOOR

Because you said you wanted to talk.

DREW FELD

And we're talking.

PRIYA KAPOOR

About Hendricks.

DREW FELD

Fine. What do you want to talk about?

PRIYA KAPOOR

I think we should stop seeing each other.

(The TV erupts. Someone scored. A table near the front cheers.)

DREW FELD

Wait, what?

PRIYA KAPOOR

I've been thinking about it.

DREW FELD

For how long?

PRIYA KAPOOR

A couple weeks.

DREW FELD

A couple— and you didn't say anything?

PRIYA KAPOOR

I'm saying it now.

DREW FELD

At a bar. On a Thursday.

PRIYA KAPOOR

When should I say it? You're busy every other—

DREW FELD

I'm not busy, I'm— that's not the point. This feels sudden.

PRIYA KAPOOR

It isn't.

DREW FELD

For me it is.

(The waitress brings his beer. He doesn't touch it.)

DREW FELD

Can you at least tell me what specifically—

PRIYA KAPOOR

You're exhausting.

DREW FELD

Exhausting.

PRIYA KAPOOR

Yeah.

DREW FELD

That's it? I'm exhausting? Everybody's exhausting. That's not a reason to—

PRIYA KAPOOR

Not like you. You're a specific kind of exhausting where every conversation becomes a competition and I always lose because you won't let me finish.

DREW FELD

That's not true. I let you—

PRIYA KAPOOR

You're doing it right now.

(He opens his mouth. Closes it.)

DREW FELD

Okay. Fair.

PRIYA KAPOOR

It's not a debate.

DREW FELD

I know that.

PRIYA KAPOOR

You don't, though. I can see you preparing a rebuttal.

(A group pushes past their table. Someone bumps Drew's chair. He doesn't notice.)

DREW FELD

Look, if this is about the thing with your roommate—

PRIYA KAPOOR

It's not about one thing.

DREW FELD

—because I already explained that. I wasn't trying to be—

PRIYA KAPOOR

Drew. Stop.

DREW FELD

What?

PRIYA KAPOOR

You're doing the thing where you find the specific incident so you can argue it. There's no incident. It's the whole thing.

DREW FELD

The whole thing. So our entire—

PRIYA KAPOOR

Our entire relationship is you talking and me trying to get a word in. I'm tired.

DREW FELD

That's not fair. I ask you questions. Your classes, your family—

PRIYA KAPOOR

You ask and then you answer for me.

DREW FELD

I do not.

PRIYA KAPOOR

Last week I said my organic chem grade was hard to look at. You told me to switch study methods, switch groups, switch section times, and you pulled up a YouTube channel.

DREW FELD

I was trying to help.

PRIYA KAPOOR

I didn't ask for help. I said it was hard.

DREW FELD

So I'm not supposed to—

PRIYA KAPOOR

You're supposed to hear it. Not fix it.

DREW FELD

Right. So I'm bad at listening. That's grounds for—

PRIYA KAPOOR

You're not bad at listening. You don't listen at all. There's a difference.

(He picks at the label on his beer.)

DREW FELD

So that's it? Just... done?

PRIYA KAPOOR

Yeah.

DREW FELD

You don't want to talk more about—

PRIYA KAPOOR

We just did.

DREW FELD

For five minutes.

PRIYA KAPOOR

That's enough.

DREW FELD

That's cold.

PRIYA KAPOOR

It's honest.

(She stands. Picks up her jacket.)

DREW FELD

Priya.

PRIYA KAPOOR

Good luck with the department thing.

DREW FELD

Come on. That's all you're going to—

PRIYA KAPOOR

Good night, Drew.

(She leaves. He sits at the table with two beers in front of him. The game plays on the TV. Someone at the front table laughs at something.)

Print it for class, or open it in the app: every role in this side is playable, and the other side of the scene gets a reader. Cast a voice against your part in the Audition Room, then run it until the lines are yours.

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