I move towards her. "Miss Summers, I meant what I said. I'm not trying to convince you. I just want to learn a bit more about theater from my favorite teacher."
"You could start with an acting lesson so I'd buy that story."
She laughs, her eyes are bright. I have her exactly where I want her.
I sit next to Alyssa, my body facing hers. "You don't have to believe me. But you do have to humor me."
"I have to do nothing."
"But you want to."
She folds her arms. "Maybe."
"So what about this desire?"
"Go read SparkNotes."
"But there's no chance SparkNotes will end with you on top of me."
That gets her attention.
She shakes her head, but her voice is low and throaty. "You're shameless."
I press my lips into hers. She kisses back hard, hungry.
"See, you're teaching me so much already," I say.
"Jesus, you aren't going to stop. Are you?"
I shake my head.
"Fine," she says. "Well, it's been a little while since I've looked at A Streetcar Named Desire, but I'll explain it as well as I can. Blanche is obsessed with being the object of desire. She's always flirting with men and taking great delight in dressing provocatively. There's a scene where she comes on to a young man. But she's got this virgin-slash-whore thing going on. When she tries to seduce a proper suitor, she pretends like she's this chaste, honorable woman."
"That sounds like a fascinating character."
She rolls her eyes. "You're so obvious." Her eyes turn to mine. There's no pretense in her expression. "I can't leave you for six months. It's out of the question."
I nod. "I'll respect your decision."
"Uh-huh."
"But I do demand to hear more about this play. It sounds awfully sexy so far."
"It is," she says. "But in a tragic kind of way. Stella, Blanche's sister, is super hot for Stanley. That's Stella's husband. But he's abusive. He beats Stella."
"That sounds awful."
"And he rapes Blanche."
"That's even more awful." No wonder she likes this play. She only likes the most awful, tragic shit.
"It's basically what pushes her over the edge. She ends up in a mental institution," she says.
"So it ends on a positive note?"
"She's completely divorced from reality, lying to herself to get by."
Her eyes light up. She gets so excited talking about this stuff. She'd be in heaven being in this play. I know I promised I wouldn't try and change her mind... Maybe I'm not trying to change her mind. I'm only helping her realize how much she wants it.