People.

Let me tell you about my best friend.

That to start to a show, that's stupid.

That reminds me of a time when Mark and I were playing hangman once, and I meticulously spaced out all of the blank spaces for that show, and he guessed before he even got one letter.

I was so mad he should have gone on Wheel of Fortune.

Okay, let me try this again.

This is a story about me and my best friend.

Mark.

What are you doing here?

I had a test.

- Melody from work... Please, please.

You go.

You, of all people, might not want to hear the story.

Does it involve girl parts?

No, worse.

So here's the thing.

Last week at work, we found tampons chewed up in a drawer.

That is girl parts, tangentially.

I didnt know, tampons counted, but fair enough.

So, anyways, tampons were chewed up.

There were crumbs of M&Ms everywhere.

Plain or peanut?

- That's not the point.

Peanut.

Eugene has a bowl on his desk.

That's good.

Peanuts better.

You're an idiot.

So right away, we thought we had a mouse.

Oh, I hate mice.

I know, I told you you weren't gonna like this story.

So last night, we set up mousetraps along the windowsill.

You know, the kind with the sticky tape.

And we caught him.

We come in to work this morning.

And there he was, stuck on the sticky tape.

So Melody decided she wanted to set him free outside.

But when she did, his legs stuck to the tape.

The mouse tried to run away, but, you know, with no legs.

So Melody decided she would put him out of his misery with the heel of her stiletto.

That is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard.

But when she stomped down, she rolled and cracked her ankle, and I brought her in here to get it looked at.

I'd say you're a saint, but I know you just don't want to work.

Saints can be lazy.

So why are you here?

I'm just here for some test results.

You had to come in for that.

- Mr.

Covelli?

That's me.

Let's get together this week?

I think I'm to wait for you.

I don't like the way she called your name.

What do you want now?

She had a tone.

It concerns me.

Tone?

She's just like that.

Back in December, I said happy holidays.

And she looked at me like I just shit my pants.

Maybe she's one of those twitchy Christians who thinks there's a war on Christmas.

I'm going to stick around.

Melody can take an Uber.

What's going on?

What happened?

Mark!

I'm here.

Mark.

Pancreatic cancer.

Is that the thing, Patrick Swayze had?

What?

Are you for real?

What?

Did you just reduce my diagnosis to a pop culture reference?

That's all I got.

Hey, you just missed my mom.

I ran into her in the lobby.

She told me she was going to work.

Is she still working?

Its volunteer work.

She's working with PFLAG.

Everyone has a flag now.

Even incontinent old ladies.

It's not a flag.

It's an acronym.

Stands for parents for Gays and Lesbians.

I actually don't know if that spells PFLAG or not.

That's good for your mom.

It's embarrassing, is what it is.

She's more involved in the gay community than I am.

She marches with them in the parade every year.

Last year she went to LA and marched with Belinda Carlisle.

She has a gay son, too.

Belinda Carlisle, the Go-Go?

Wow.

How do you not know this?

I don't know that much about the Go-Go's.

No, no, about my mom.

I'm not that involved.

There's, like, no gay community in the suburbs.

Just the other day, my neighbor couldn't stop talking about the boy hairdresser she had.

I feel like the 21st century showed up, and it's just not come to the South Hills.

I think there's a transgender person at the Starbucks, but to be honest, I'm more wrong about that than I care to admit.

How are we friends?

What's that supposed to mean?

I don't know.

You ever think that if we didn't know each other from, like, the third grade, we'd still be friends?

Like, if we didn't know each other well, how could we be friends if we don't know each other?

Hypothetically.

Like, what do we have in common?

Years of ridiculousness.

The fiasco we lovingly refer to as the prom.

Trips to the lake.

Eating pizza drunk on the curb.

That time we met George Michael.

And you hit on him?

Yeah, yeah, but if we met for the first time, would we still be friends without all the history?

I don't know.

It's weird.

History is what makes a friendship.

Who cares if I live a run of the mill family life and you're the mayor of gay town?

I am not the mayor.

I am a naked civil servant.

Well, thank you for your service.

I brought you some trashy magazines.

See, I don't read trashy magazines.

Can I ask you something?

Of course.

Did you and Davey like your wedding?

You mean that wedding ten years ago?

That wedding?

I know it sounds really selfish, but being the center of attention, it sounds kind of nice to me.

Don't tell me the naked civil servant is thinking about getting married.

God, no.

No, I was thinking about my funeral.

Is that morbid?

What could be morbid about that?

I like thinking about it.

Everyone I love in one room, saying nice things about me.

Caring about me.

Find it comforting.

I get that.

But you know, everyone loves and cares about you now.

And besides, your funeral is decades away.

Ali.

Mark.

If you do, you know, go.

And there is something after.

You give me a sign?

What like peace.

No, no.

Like like like a sign from beyond.

- Peace.

You get it?

I know because you're asking a ghost to haunt you.

I know you want Casper or Poltergeist.

Casper.

But don't come in the middle of the night.

You might wake the kids.

Oh, I'm not worried about that.

I'm worried about catching you and Davy bumping in the night.

Mark, you pervert.

I just said I don't want to see that.

And that was it.

He had a heart attack on the operating table the next day.

I knew the odds.

Up until then, I thought everything would be fine.

Because up until the very end, he was still Mark.

You know?

He never changed.

He was still Mark.

It gave me hope.

My first thought when I heard the news was, what am I going to do without him?

That's not what, Mark would have thought.

If the roles were reversed.

Mark would have thought, Thank you for being with me.

To hold this moment between us forever.

This is the solo.

These are the summer nights that well remember deep into the morning light.

You keep the music up, you sing your favorite songs.

This is a summer.

These are the summer nights.

This is the summer.

These are the summer nights that well remember deep into the morning light.