“You ever get it where you’re watching a movie, and everyone looks familiar?”

My friend Bev looks at me from his desk, blankly. “Seen it before?”

“No, not that. One character’s mouth reminds you of someone you’ve seen at school…one of the kid characters looks like maybe, a younger family member somewhere. You get that?”

“No,” he turns back to his homework and hunches forward.

I sigh, and lean my whole torso, upside-down over the edge of Bev’s bed. “It’s like, after you’ve seen so many people, you’ve seen them all. No one’s unique anymore.”

Bev shoots a glance back over to me skeptically. “Nick, the only people you’ve seen are the some thousand that go to our high school. There’s still a lot out there, trust me.”

“Well, how can you know?” I look up, or I suppose down, at my hair falling everywhere, just barely touching the floor. I curl portions of it around my finger. “You can’t have seen anymore people than I have, collectively. What do you know about what’s out there?”

“Don’t be a smart ass,” he responds, scribbling equations. “If you think you’re so smart, go on and do your homework for once.”

“I already said, I don’t have any,” I roll over, trying to heave myself back onto the bed, but end up falling onto the floor anyway.

“Yeah, sure. You know, just because the essay’s not due tomorrow, doesn’t mean you don’t have any homework today.”

I sit cross legged on the floor, and look at Bev. He kind of looks like Johnny Depp, especially in the eyes. Whenever I watch any of Depp’s movies, I can’t help but think of Bev. Sometimes it makes me think that maybe one day, Bev will go psycho on my ass. I can see in Bev’s dusty, tired eyes, there is a hidden ferocity, wanting to get out.

But Bev has to be a nice, perfect adolescent for everyone. I can’t say I can sympathize much; no one has ever really expected much from me.

One day, though, I hope to be the one to unleash that ferocity. I’ll make Bev open up…one of these days.