"I have to go soon."

"Sucks."

"Yeah, I - no. Never mind."

"What?"

"It's gonna sound stupid."

"You always sound stupid."

"I was just thinking that when I'm gone I sort of... itch. For you."

"What?"

"When you're gone,  I itch for you."

"Is this your way of telling me you have a venereal disease?"

"No! I told you it was stupid."

"I just don't even understand what that's supposed to mean."

"I was thinking about how I have to leave, and how that sucks, and how in movies or songs people always say that their heart aches. Which always seemed like a weird figure of speech to me, like saying I leave and then go into cardiac arrest. But then I was thinking about how I read once that being itchy is the same sensation as pain, it's just much, much smaller. It seems like a better metaphor, like, it hurts, and I don't like it, but I'm not dying, you know?"

"That's actually sweet, you know."

"I know, it just came out wrong."

"So when we're together, that's scratching the itch?"

"I guess. It's not a perfect metaphor. I mean, if you scratch something too hard, it does hurt. Or it gets raw and then it bleeds, or stings, or whatever. And being around you doesn't hurt. Maybe you're more like calamine lotion."

"Calamine lotion for your heart, I like that. Kind of drug store-sexy."

"Good. I'd hoped you might."