She's up in that tree, where she'll always be,

“Oh, Christ.” Josh groans as he looks across the table to his sobbing cousin.
“What the…come on dude. People are staring over here.” Adrian whispers to Duy before skillfully grabbing his coffee cup with his fingertips to avoid the hot surface of the mug on his palms. He raises the cup to his puckered lips and slurps the drink cautiously while he surveys the diner and patrons. Duy’s eyes are watering , he is Vietnamese so the crease of his eyelids push the tears out quicker. They fall at rhythmic pace, like a metronome slowed to half speed. Tears hit his plate, his hash browns and omelet now salty from the falling tears. As if they were cooked by a recently divorced chef listening to The Cure.
“This is terrible. I’ll never be happy again. How could I be?” Duy’s head hangs as low as his neck will allow it, he holds his fork in one hand and his knife in the other, a napkin is bunched in his shirt collar haphazardly. He sniffles and pants. He is a wreck and the saddest part is that he is trying his very hardest to hold back the real onslaught.
“You’re being a real Debbie downer right about now, let me just say.” Adrians says while he dabs the corners of his mouth in a demure fashion with a napkin and leaning back to rest his head on the booth. ‘A real freaking Buzz kill.’
“Adrian, lay off.” Josh looks at Adrian with shaking his head feigning disdain.
“What? I mean, am I wrong? Look at him he’s crying like a fat girl with no prom date. ‘I’m too fat to fit in my dress mom, I might as well wear a boat tarp’. Adrian sours his face and mocks Duy.
‘You’re a jerk dude.’ Josh spoons soup in his mouth.
“Besides, when Asian people cry it freaks me out, you guys get all red and puffy. Like tomatoes. Giant suicidal tomatoes.” Adrian continues.
“Enough, Adrian. Knock it off or I swear to God I’ll get in the car and leave your ass here.” Josh peers at Adrian from the corner of his eyes, but that all that is needed to surcease Adrian’s maundering. For a few moments the boys are quite, the scrapings and dingings of the kitchen are the only sounds floating around Gina’s 24 hour diner and grill. The boys are in a part of town where everything is open 24 hours, hotels and department stores litter the area, the lights are always on, and prices are never fair. 2 hours earlier Duy dropped his now ex-girlfriend, Paulette, off at the airport. She is going to Arizona for school, Duy and Paulette had been together for only 6 months but Duy never had anything like her in his life. It was the love he’d seen on TV.
Duy finally had someone who’d hold his hand, someone who he could stare at and not creep out. In his car on the way to the airport with Paulette his thoughts ate him up, how lonely he’d be, how he wouldn’t have anyone to watch movies with, or anyone to sit with him when video games got to scary. The crushing realization of his impending loneliness in combination with the fact that Duy had never been a discerning attentive man led to him parking his blue 99’ Acura TL in a area of the lot clearly marked ‘employees only.’ After a somewhat brief but very much complete goodbye to Paulette, and a conniption fit in the bathroom that was cut short by two members of the late night airport staff entering the lavatory to perform perverse sexual acts on each other on the surprisingly well cleaned floor, he returns to the parking lot just in time to see his reliable old car being hoisted up and dragged out by a tow truck. The white of the truck drivers eyes match the white of his teeth and off sets the pulsating orange of his cigarette as he laughs while he drives with Duy’s car in tow, his back bumper scrapping and his ‘opps’ bumper sticker seemly mocking him. He then called his cousin, Joshua to pick him up from the airport. Joshua brought Adrian, long time friend, current roommate, and full time heel. Now they sit in a 2 star diner in the hotel district of Chicago at 2 a.m.
Duy’s barely touched his food, he claims its hard to eat on a brokenheart, Adrian says its even harder to masturbate while heartbroken. No one laughs. Snot drips from Duys nose and before it hits his lip Duy licks it up. Josh says the reason why he isn’t hungry is because he is full off booger. Everyone smiles.
“You know what’s the worst’ Duy slings his head back and looks directly at the ceiling fan above them that spins like a wounded animal runs, ‘ the worst part is that the last time we made love was in the car. I mean, how striped of intimacy is that? I could of done better. There’s tons of hotels around, I could of gotten us a room. ” Residual tears roll down Duy face and neck in no hurry as if they were taking the scenic route.
“Plus the room wouldn’t of been that expensive, I mean how much money can 5 minutes cost?” Adrian says while he stabs at the thin sliver of steak on his place and snickering self-servingly.
“We could have showered together, enjoyed a room that was souly ours for our last night together. And I settled for cowgirl in a cramped back seat. I’m such a screw up.” Duy sighs in a tone so bleak the deaf could hear.
“Duy, man you’re breaking my heart. Relax man, she’ll be back by this time next year. And it’ll be like you guys never missed a beat man. You just gotta be strong dude, be strong and..’ Josh is interrupted by the waitress.

“More Coffee boys? Oh my, whats the matter baby?” The heavy set women places a tender hand on Duy’s shoulder. He looks up at her, all red faced and puffy.
“The only girl. The girl I’ve ever met, in my whole life who didn’t mind holding my hand in public is on a plane to the dessert and for my last night with her, I humped her like a high school kid after homecoming in my car in the Midway airport parking lot. How insensitive? I am scum.” Duy eyes are glazed.
“Wait you fucked her in your car? The one that just got towed? Dude, that truck driver was probably watching. Maybe even jacked off. That’s fucked.” Adrian looks at Duy with disgusting oozing off his squared, brown face. The waitress’s concern turns to discomfort and she refills everyone’s coffee cup before disappearing.
“You can’t let this drag you down Duy. Cousin, remember when you lost your Pokemon cards at summer camp and you cried for like, a week straight?” Joshua asks Duy, who nods. “Yeah it sucked, you worked real hard to build an awesome deck. Put in the time to master it, learn every card. Most importantly you respected the cards while you had them.”
“Then I lost them, I got careless. It was my fault I forgot to get them before I got on the bus, they probably got stolen, then played with by some kid who didn’t nearly appreciate them as much as me. If only I would held on to them If only..” Duy says before heavly sobbing into the palm of his hands.
“This is the gayest….” Adrian shakes his head and eats his steak.
“If only what Duy? If you hadn’t of lost them then what? You’d still play with them now? You’d be a 21 year old pokemon card player?” Josh says before continuing with “I believe there is a force, a force of nature that moves things in our life for our well being. You lost those cards so you didn’t go around getting the ass kicked by Zach Zagorsk everyday of freshman year. Besides do you remember what happened the next month? Digimon came out, and you fell in love with them. A different type of love, but it still made you happy right? ”
“Yeah, but I still thought about all the cards I lost. My Charizard and Sychter and my Mew.”
“And that’s perfect. You were supposed to, you still remember those cards names which is..”
“Fucking gay” Adrian says almost desperately.
“WHICH, is amazing. It shows you care, that no matter how long its been. They still hold a place in your heart. But Digimon helped you get over Pokemon and when Digimon was gone it was Monster Rancher that satisfied your need for cute little Japanese monsters that killed each other.”
“But I never, liked them as much as I like Pokemon.”
“Because Pokemon were your first love, it will never be as fanatical as the first love. Or as sexy as the second, but don’t you still watch Monster Rancher.”
“I’ve got the whole series on DVD.”
“Exactly.”
The waitress shuffles nervously over to the table and places the check down before abruptly turning around and heading toward back toward the kitchen.
“She liked to walk barefoot, In the grass. She didn’t care about bugs or nothing. She climbed trees too. Better than I ever could. She never wore bright clothes, colorful but never bright. I loved her scent.”
“She’ll be back.” Adrian says, not making eye contact.
“What if it isn’t the same?”
“Then you’ll find Digimon.” Josh says grabbing the check.