Shane = Bold
Cleo = Italics
"You ordered me train tickets?"
"Well...yeah but I'm-"
"Under the name of Miss Super-girl?"
"It seemed appropriate at the t-"
"How did you even get my e-mail address?"
"I have...connections."
"Do you have a habit of stalking young girls?"
"Take a chill pill woman. All I did was get your e-mail address, it's not like I-"
"How did you come across my e-mail address in the first place?"
"My reliable source prefers not to be mentioned."
"What did you do, look it up in the e-mail catalog?"
"I don't think such a thing exists."
"Last time I checked people haven't used phone number catalogs for the past century."
"Well...I have a lot of free time."
"To look through phone catalogs?"
"As well as other things...but it's not that bad. It's not like I stalked your social media accounts to find out your name or anything."
"Good."
"Although...if your e-mail starts with 'clquinn' then I'm going to guess that Quinn is your last name."
"Yeah..."
"A-ha! That means that your name starts with cl. What is it, Claire? Clara? Claudine? Clover? Cl-"
"It's Cleopatra, actually, but no one calls me that anymore."
"Why not?"
"When my mum committed suicide some part of me knew that things were never going to be the same. Neither was I."
"But I like the name Cleopatra. It makes you sound like an empowering female. It describes you perfectly."
"I know, I mean, I like it too."
"Then why change it?"
"I didn't change it as such, just shortened it. It was more out of spite than anything else."
"Spite?"
"Yeah. Almost like revenge. My mum loved the name Cleopatra, she'd already planned out what her child's name was going to be by the time she had turned eleven. Or at least that's what she said. I could always see the pride in her eyes as she introduced me to other kids, my name rolling off of her tongue like some kind of omen. She adored the name so when she committed suicide I decided to get my own back."
"That doesn't make any sense. "
"It does, in a weird sort of way. I was angry. At her, for leaving me alone with the one person that terrified me the most. So I shortened my name in the same way that she shortened her life. From that day forward I have been Cleo."
"That...actually kind of makes sense."
"Does it?"
"No, I get it. I mean, she took something away from you when she killed herself so it makes sense for you to try and take something from her."
"Then you'll understand why, on that same day, I picked up the scissors from the kitchen drawer and cut at least half of my hair off."
"You used to have long hair?"
"Yeah, I haven't let it grow past my shoulders since."
"Let me guess, she liked your long hair as much as she liked your long name?"
"That pretty much sums it up."
"Well good for you."
"What?"
"You've found your coping mechanism."
"Coping mechanism?"
"You've found a way to deal with all the trash that life throws at you."
"And what would that be?"
"Getting even."
"I like the sound of that."
"You do?"
"Yeah. It makes me feel like one of those really bad-ass females from one of those action films."
"Speaking of films, I watched Peter Pan last night."
"Oh my gosh, I can't believe I forgot about that. Did you like it? Did you see the Lost Boys?"
"Yeah, I actually really enjoyed it. Even if it did have a really dark theme."
"It's a kids film Lost Boy. It's not supposed to have a dark theme."
"Oh...well in that case I interpreted it really weirdly."
"What do you mean? How did you interpret it?"
"Well...you know how the Lost Boys could never grow up?"
"Yeah..."
"Well, he went to the window to collect the children and whisk them away to never-land, right?"
"...right."
"Just think about never-land for a second. It was exactly like the stories that Wendy had read and played out in their bedroom."
"And your point is?"
"What are the actual odds of the magical place you get whisked off to being the exact thing that you've always dreamed of?"
"How is that a dark theme?"
"I haven't gotten to my main point yet."
"Okay...continue then."
"In my opinion never-land was like heaven."
"Heaven...but that would mean that they were-"
"Dead? Yes. Dead. That's why they could never grow up. That's why the Lost Boys could never grow up, because they were dead."
"But Peter Pan took them to Never-land. They didn't die."
"Didn't they? Think about it a little more. Peter Pan is almost a Grim Reaper like figure."
"But the Grim Reaper collects souls."
"Exactly."
"So you're saying that Peter Pan collected their souls. That would mean that they were already dead because-"
"-they had killed themselves because-"
"-they didn't want to grow up."
"Exactly."
"That...actually isn't a ludicrous idea."
"Isn't it? If it's a kids film then perhaps that wasn't the message at all."
"It could have been. It was a book first. But...I kind of get how you noticed it first time and I didn't."
"You do?"
"Yeah. You can relate to it, the suicidal element I mean."
"I guess I can, can't I?"
"Do you want to grow up?"
"I think I have the opposite problem."
"What do you mean?"
"I was forced to grow up too quickly."