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“Don’t be sorry,” he grinned “Nothin’ to be sorry for”

I looked at hiot lost in his eyes They were

Probably ten seconds went by before I realized I was staring I broke it off and tried to be all jaunty and witty “So… what do you want? Other than to get into drunk girls’ pants?”

“Do you see irls’ pants?” he asked

“NO,” Shanna shouted from her bed

I’d totally forgotten about her She was lying on her back, eyes closed, otherwise dead to the world

“No,” I adhed, mostly at Shanna’s unexpected reappearance in the conversation

He grinned, too “Okay, then”

“…so what do you want? Out of life”

He looked athow much he should open up to me

Then he started talking

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“The first time I ever knehat I wanted hen I was four years old and I heard the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ ‘Under The Bridge’ for the first ti?”

“Of course”

“I re The way John Frusciante’s fingers just dance over the strings And then Anthony Kiedis co about the hills, and about how Los Angeles loves hioes into the chorus, about how he doesn’t want to ever feel bad again… and then, later in the song, the backup singers co this sweet, plaintive love song, to this dark, disturbed, lost, painful, wail about hi that love… God I didn’t know it at the time – I mean, I was four years old, I couldn’t have explained it – but that song tookI’d never felt before”

I watched his face as he told it He le word He was absolutely transported as he told it…

…and, I have to admit, I was moved by how passionate he was about it

He smiled and continued “My dad was a otme the entire time, and after it was over, he asked ain!’”

I had to laugh He said it exactly the way a four-year-old would say it – full of exuberance and innocence and ‘Right NOW!’ impatience