Drama · 6 min
Paper Walls.
In a half-packed apartment, two former partners try to discuss paperwork and end up carving into the wound they still share.
The roles
MARCO REYES
Late 30s. Runs a small architecture firm. Thought the separation was temporary. Still in the apartment they shared. Tries to stay reasonable and keeps failing.
DIANA COLE
Late 30s. Marketing director at a nonprofit. Moved across the country for a job and filed for divorce from there. Direct, controlled, capable of devastating honesty when cornered.
Paper Walls · Drama side · memorlined.app
(MARCO REYES's apartment. Half-packed boxes along one wall. A kitchen table with two chairs. One chair has a jacket draped over it. The overhead light is too bright. DIANA COLE stands near the door, coat still on, holding a manila envelope.)
DIANA COLE
The mediation paperwork. Ellen said to bring it in person.
MARCO REYES
You could have mailed it.
DIANA COLE
She said in person.
(She sets the envelope on the table. Doesn't sit.)
MARCO REYES
You want water? I think I still have—
DIANA COLE
I'm fine.
MARCO REYES
There's also—
DIANA COLE
I'm fine, Marco.
(He nods. Pulls out a chair. She doesn't take it. He sits instead.)
MARCO REYES
How's the new place?
DIANA COLE
It's good.
MARCO REYES
The neighborhood okay?
DIANA COLE
Why?
MARCO REYES
I don't know. Just asking.
DIANA COLE
The neighborhood's fine.
(A radiator hisses in the corner. Loud.)
MARCO REYES
That thing's been doing that since October. I can't figure out how to—
DIANA COLE
Can we just do this?
MARCO REYES
Yeah. Sure.
(He opens the envelope. Flips through pages.)
MARCO REYES
This is... a lot.
DIANA COLE
It's standard.
MARCO REYES
Paragraph eight is about the apartment.
DIANA COLE
I know.
MARCO REYES
You're asking for the deposit back?
DIANA COLE
I paid the deposit.
MARCO REYES
We paid the deposit. I wrote the check.
DIANA COLE
From the joint account.
MARCO REYES
Which I funded. The first fourteen months, that account was just my—
DIANA COLE
Oh, are we doing math now? You want to do math?
MARCO REYES
I'm reading what it says.
DIANA COLE
Fine. Read it.
(He reads. She takes off her coat. Drapes it over the other chair. Sits.)
MARCO REYES
I don't understand paragraph twelve.
DIANA COLE
Which part?
MARCO REYES
The part where you want the dining table.
DIANA COLE
It was mine before we—
MARCO REYES
It was your mother's. It's been in this apartment for six years.
DIANA COLE
So?
MARCO REYES
So I'm saying it feels like—
DIANA COLE
It was my mother's table, Marco.
MARCO REYES
Fine. Take it.
(Beat.)
DIANA COLE
I'm not trying to take everything.
MARCO REYES
It feels like you are.
DIANA COLE
That's not—
MARCO REYES
The table, the deposit, the—
(He flips the page.)
MARCO REYES
You want the cookbooks?
DIANA COLE
I bought most of them.
MARCO REYES
You bought three. I bought the rest.
DIANA COLE
This is insane. We're fighting about cookbooks.
MARCO REYES
You're right. It's insane. This whole thing is insane.
(He pushes the papers away. Stands. Goes to the counter. Opens a cabinet, closes it. Opens another one.)
DIANA COLE
What are you doing?
MARCO REYES
Looking for a glass. I moved the glasses.
DIANA COLE
They're above the stove.
MARCO REYES
Right.
(He gets a glass. Fills it from the tap. Doesn't drink.)
DIANA COLE
You said you wanted to keep this simple.
MARCO REYES
I did want to keep it simple. You hired Ellen.
DIANA COLE
I needed a lawyer.
MARCO REYES
You needed a specific kind of lawyer. The kind that goes through apartments with a clipboard.
DIANA COLE
She's thorough. That's her job.
MARCO REYES
Her job is to make me feel like I stole something.
DIANA COLE
Nobody said you stole anything.
MARCO REYES
Paragraph eight. The deposit. That's what that says.
DIANA COLE
That's not what it—
MARCO REYES
It says I owe you money for an apartment I'm still living in.
DIANA COLE
It's a separation of assets. It's what happens.
MARCO REYES
What happens. Right.
(The radiator bangs once, then goes quiet.)
MARCO REYES
Was it always going to be like this?
DIANA COLE
Like what?
MARCO REYES
This. Envelopes and paragraphs. Was this the plan when you left?
DIANA COLE
I didn't have a plan.
MARCO REYES
You had a moving truck.
DIANA COLE
I had a job offer.
MARCO REYES
You had a job here.
DIANA COLE
I had your job. I had your friends. I had your city and your apartment and your—
MARCO REYES
My apartment? You picked this apartment. You picked the paint.
DIANA COLE
Because you wouldn't pick anything. You never picked anything. I picked everything and then you got comfortable in it and now you're upset I'm taking it back.
MARCO REYES
That's not fair.
DIANA COLE
What's not fair about it?
MARCO REYES
I was here. Every day. I cooked. I cleaned. I went to your work things. I listened to—
DIANA COLE
You listened. Great.
MARCO REYES
What does that mean?
DIANA COLE
It means listening isn't— it's not the same as— forget it.
(She stands. Goes to the window.)
MARCO REYES
No, say it.
DIANA COLE
I don't want to.
MARCO REYES
Say it, Diana.
DIANA COLE
You were here and you were listening and I was still completely alone. Is that what you want me to say?
(Silence.)
MARCO REYES
That's a terrible thing to say.
DIANA COLE
I know.
MARCO REYES
I was right here.
DIANA COLE
I know you were.
MARCO REYES
So what was I supposed to— what do I do with that?
DIANA COLE
Nothing. We just didn't work.
MARCO REYES
Don't say that. Don't make it sound like weather.
DIANA COLE
What do you want me to call it?
MARCO REYES
I want you to say you left. Not "it didn't work." You left.
DIANA COLE
Fine. I left.
MARCO REYES
Yeah.
DIANA COLE
I left because staying felt like dying.
(MARCO sets the glass down too hard. Water spills over the edge.)
MARCO REYES
Dying. Being married to me was—
DIANA COLE
That's not what I—
MARCO REYES
You just said it.
DIANA COLE
I said staying. I didn't say you.
MARCO REYES
I was the one here! What else is there?
(He's pacing now.)
DIANA COLE
Marco—
MARCO REYES
No. You moved two thousand miles away. You took half the furniture and you sent me an envelope and you're telling me it felt like—
DIANA COLE
Stop repeating it.
MARCO REYES
Why? It's what you said.
DIANA COLE
I said it once. I shouldn't have. Can we—
MARCO REYES
Can we what? Go back to the cookbooks?
DIANA COLE
Can we stop yelling.
MARCO REYES
I'm not yelling.
DIANA COLE
You are.
(quieter, but not calm)
MARCO REYES
Fine.
(She turns from the window.)
DIANA COLE
I didn't leave because of you. I left because I stopped being a person here. I was just the other half of—
MARCO REYES
Of me.
DIANA COLE
Of this. Everything in this apartment is something I picked and you kept.
MARCO REYES
You could have talked to me.
DIANA COLE
I tried.
MARCO REYES
When?
DIANA COLE
February. After your mother's thing. I said I wasn't happy.
MARCO REYES
That's one sentence.
DIANA COLE
And you gave me one sentence back. "We'll figure it out."
MARCO REYES
We were not even. You didn't—
(He hits the counter with his palm. The glass tips, rolls off, shatters on the floor.)
(Neither of them moves. Water spreads toward Diana's shoes.)
(quietly)
DIANA COLE
I sometimes wish you'd just disappear.
(MARCO stares at her.)
MARCO REYES
What?
DIANA COLE
Not die. Just... not exist. So I wouldn't have to feel this.
(MARCO sits down on the floor, back against the cabinets. In the water and the broken glass.)
DIANA COLE
Marco. There's glass.
MARCO REYES
I know.
DIANA COLE
Get up. You're going to cut yourself.
MARCO REYES
I know there's glass.
(She kneels down. Not close. But at his level.)
(The radiator starts up again.)
DIANA COLE
I don't actually wish that.
MARCO REYES
Yeah.
DIANA COLE
I don't.
MARCO REYES
Okay.
(Long pause.)
DIANA COLE
You're bleeding.
MARCO REYES
Where?
DIANA COLE
Your hand.
(He looks at it. A small cut on the heel of his palm.)
MARCO REYES
It's fine.
DIANA COLE
There's paper towels under the—
MARCO REYES
I know where they are.
(He doesn't move.)
DIANA COLE
We should clean this up.
MARCO REYES
Yeah.
(She stands. Goes to the counter. Pulls the roll. Tears off sheets. Hands him some. Starts picking up the larger pieces of glass.)
MARCO REYES
Be careful.
DIANA COLE
I see it.
(She picks up three pieces. Puts them on the counter.)
DIANA COLE
The rest is too small. You need a broom.
MARCO REYES
It's in the closet.
DIANA COLE
I know where the broom is.
(She gets it. Starts sweeping. He presses the paper towel to his hand and watches her sweep glass in his kitchen.)
DIANA COLE
You should get a new radiator.
MARCO REYES
It's the building's.
DIANA COLE
Then tell them.
MARCO REYES
Yeah.
(She finishes sweeping. Puts the broom back. Picks up her coat.)
DIANA COLE
Look at the paperwork. Call Ellen's office if you have questions.
MARCO REYES
Okay.
DIANA COLE
Not me. Call the office.
MARCO REYES
I got it.
(She puts her coat on. Goes to the door. Stops.)
DIANA COLE
Put a bandaid on that.
(She leaves.)
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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