Goth Girl

HE

Stood standing there, as usual. Ain’t she got no other place to be? I mean: look at her! Bloody disgrace: looks like she’s held together with pins & staples where anyone else’d use a sticking plaster. And as for what she seems to think is ‘make-up’ …. isn’t it supposed to be a woman’s “war paint”, something she uses to make herself more attractive to men?


SHE

Wish he’d stop staring. Doesn’t he realise just how frightened it makes me? How much he looks like my old man used to look just before he went out and the door slammed behind him? And how we kids were terrified of what would be handed out – literally – with powerful lefts and rights when he turned up again, broke and in a foul mood. Of course Mam had to get out of there with us when she couldn’t take no more, and there ain’t no-one anywhere who’ll say she was wrong to do it.


HE

She calls it “making a statement”, I suppose: they always have some excuse, have you noticed that? Love to know what sort of a ‘statement’ she thinks she’s making, though: don’t she understand that the only message that’s coming across is: “I’m a lazy slag who doesn’t give a **** about her appearance, and doesn’t care who knows it.”


SHE

And the worst of it is, if he thinks at all he probably thinks I’m some sort of slut, an easy lay, a warm, wet place wandering around on a pair of legs. He should be so lucky! No way he’d ever get his greasy paws on me! I’d kill myself if he ever tried; he’s no better than the slob who used to bang my Mam about, after us kids got too smart to be caught – more ’n likely before that, but we never realised at the time. That’s why I’m so afraid of sending out a ‘signal’ that could be misunderstood: I’d like to meet someone I could trust, but I’m afraid ……


HE

Still, if she – y’know, smartened up a bit, lose some of the hardware round her nose and eyebrows, try a more natural flesh-coloured make-up instead of that godawful death mask black-on-white abortion she uses to frighten people off. Truth to tell, there’s a halfways-decent female trying to fight her way out of the cocoon she’s pulled around herself ….


SHE

Omigod, I think he’s starting  … no, please, I’ve got to be wrong, I’ve done     nothing to encourage him, quite the opposite … there’s that ‘look’ in his eyes, any minute now he’s going to cross the street and say something, I don’t even    want to think what it might be, it won’t be anything nice … though I might want to believe he meant it, he looks somehow as if he could be trusted …. no, I can’t even let myself begin to think like that!


HE

Just let her know how she could be more … approachable, know what I mean? …  if she softens up a bit, smooth over a few rough edges …  she’s not a bad looker, really, when you get close up … nobody’d want to make that “close up and personal”, though: at least, nobody I know !


SHE

What’s this? Is he trying to serenade me or something? That’s so old-fashioned, what’s he think he’s doing: he’s not far off old enough to be my Dad, and that’s one person he definitely wouldn’t want me to compare him with, if he only knew what a miserable bastard that was. Still, I seem to know the words, I must have heard it before …. somehow they seem to fit, he doesn’t appear to be mad or unbalanced. Might be quite a nice person, after all …..


HE

“Don’t say a word, my Virgin Child: just let your inhibitions run wild”

Nobody writes those sort of lyrics any more: you probably weren’t even born when Rod Stewart hit the charts with that number, but he could have been singing about you…..


SHE

Two can play at that game, y’know! How about “Walk away, René?”
I don’t know your name, I don’ wanna know – but a poncey name like René would suit you, it really would!


HE

“Though I've tried before to tell her  Of the feelings I have for her in my heart” 

She could be quite attractive if she’d give herself a chance Still, for now I’ll let Sting say it for me: Why can’t I find my own words for the way I suddenly feel?


SHE

“Once I had a love and it was a gas
Soon found out, it was a Heart of Glass”

Still, he’s not that bad looking ….
If he could just relax, be less uptight, I could maybe relate ….


HE

“She’s ferocious, and she knows just what it takes to make it go
She’s got Betty Davis eyes ……… or are they Come-to-bed eyes?”


SHE

I got chills, they're multiplyin', and I'm losin' control
Cause the power you're supplyin', it's electrifyin'
You better shape up, cause I need a man,
and my heart is set on you
You better shape up, you better understand,
to my heart I must be true
Nothing left, nothing left for me to do


BOTH

You're the one that I want
(you are the one I want), ooh ooh ooh, honey
The one that I want (you are the one I want),
ooh ooh ooh, honey
The one that I want (you are the one I want),
ooh ooh ooh, honey
The one I need (the one I need),
oh yes indeed (yes indeed)