The GEEKs

36. four wheels, a sematary, and a deluge of love songs

"Maybe you've just never experienced the specific love emotion it's really about, which is entirely not your fault, my young Novak."

"Okay, Mark 'Emotional Maturity' McLaughlin..."

"I mean... No one who wants you could want you more..? Not a decent love song line?"

"It's the thought of him undressing you or you undressing... The thought? Or does he mean the sight because he's literally spying on them..."

"Wow, usually, I think of myself as the resident nerd of the building," Eva squints at us from the table, "but I forget that you two are a different kind of nerd altogether..."

"That means a lot coming from you, Eva!" Mark throws her a grin, pressing his hands to his chest briefly, before looking back at me. "Fine, so you don't like this song—"

"I do too! It's not the best love song though. According to me."

"What about the one by Dylan?" Mark folds his arms over his chest and leans sideways against the fridge door, watching me rinse my coffee cup.

"Hm, the one about a guilty undertaker, a lonesome organ grinder, a dancing child with a Chinese suit, and a bunch of other bizarre characters?" I recite slowly, nodding as I do, trying not to jumble them all together.

"Yes, that one."

"I don't know... Good song though," I say as I dry my hands on the kitchen towel and walk to my room with Mark in tow.

"What about the one by The Beatles?"

"She's So Heavy?" I grab a pair of wool socks and sit down on the edge of my bed to put them on instead of the ones I've been wearing; Mark, in the meantime, proceeds to shuffle around a small cluster of records I have lying on the floor. As usual, he uses his bare toes for the task. Honestly, one of my least favorite things about this dingbat, always with the bare feet...

"Yeah..."

"Eh, it's not even the best Beatles song."

"You're being very difficult. Impossible, really," Mark grumbles but a laugh bursts out of me.

"Me?? I thought we were talking about music? I'm just stating my subjective opinion about love songs, namely...which is to say, the overwhelming majority of all songs..."

"Yes," he inhales sharply, finally stepping away from my records; flinching away, really, "obviously. But I'm talking about it with a literature and cinema graduate, I don't wanna look stupid," he rolls his eyes at me pointedly and I laugh again because...

"I told you I almost dropped out of school," I drop my voice enough to make sure Eva doesn't overhear but not so much that it becomes dramatic, "and yet, you always hyper fixate on me graduating."

"Three time almost-drop out doesn't have quite the same ring to it," Mark mumbles, not very loudly either.

"Anyway, I already told you that Naïve Melody is probably my favorite love song – it's total nonsense which is what's great about it – so I might never agree with you on anything other than. You're putting yourself through a Sisyphean nuisance here."

"Sisyphean nuisance? Typical lit graduate," he throws me his sassiest eye roll, before following me back out into the living room and continuing to talk, but much louder now. "Anyway, I haven't had time to get any food yet..."

"You know the drill," Eva tells him as I quickly step back into my room to grab a jacket and when I re-emerge, Mark's already pulling stuff out of the fridge.

"I was gonna ask, how come you have all those movie tickets?" He doesn't even glance away from the food.

"Someone I know from school works at that movie theatre now... She comes by the thrift shop sometimes and I hook her up with cool t shirts. So I guess the tickets are a thank you for that," I explain with a shrug as I try to decide between bringing a nectarine or an avocado for a snack for later. "That's how I got that pedal from Julian, too." Maybe I'll get a croissant somewhere. I'll definitely get popcorn...