THE SETUP
Gabby is with her boyfriend Vince. They’ve just reconciled after a fight, and are intimate with one another again. She tries to help him understand how she is managing to deal with the death of their friend Bryon, so that maybe she can help him to the same.
“It’s like your first broken heart…”
GABBY
After my mom died, after I got through that, I thought I had it figured out. But deaths, they’re all different.
It’s like your first broken heart, though. You feel like crap, worse than you’ve ever felt before in your life and you don’t know if the pain’s ever going to stop. That’s the scary thing. The thought that you’ll have to live in pain — heartsick — for the rest of your life. But eventually, no matter how much you hang on to it and nurse the hurt, you get over it, in spite of yourself. The pain dulls and you go on with your life and against all reason, you fall in love and set yourself up for the whole thing all over again. And if you’re unlucky and the whole thing goes south — this time you have an advantage. You know you’ll live through it. You did it once before. You’ll live.
(photo: 1996 production by The Early Stage (Minneapolis, MN); Eriq Nelson (seated) as Vincent, Renee Werbowski as Gabby)
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