FRIENDS FOREVER

A short, silent script

By Garrett Gilchrist

INT - CLARISSE'S ROOM - EARLY EVENING

CLARISSE, a young woman 18 years of age, enters her dorm room at Pennsylvania State University, a white plastic bag in her hand. She has long black hair, green eyes, and weighs 240 pounds. She wears sweatpants and is sweating - she has just been jogging. She pants, out of breath, but continues jogging in place in the room. Her roommate is nowhere to be seen. takes a washcloth off a towel rack next to the door, and wipes her sweaty forehead with it, then wiping under her armpits. She tosses the towel on her bed, and then tosses the bag she's carrying on the bed as well. A little Hallmark teddy bear falls out of the bag. It is smiling, and is holding a little round red picture frame, stitched permanently between its little paws. On its head is a baseball cap that reads "FRIENDS 4-EVER." Clarisse looks at the bear, stops jogging, takes a few deep breaths and smiles. She stretches and touches her toes. Finally she plops down on the bed and massages her feet.

After a moment, she almost absentmindedly rummages through the little white bag, emptying it onto the bed. Inside are three paper packets of just-developed photographs, a heart-shaped box of chocolates, a pair of scissors, a half-finished bottle of water, a plastic knife, fork and napkin in a plastic baggie, and a chicken salad wrapped in a foil-and-plastic container. She cracks open the salad and the baggie of utensils, sets the salad on her lap and eats it. Between little bites she takes sips from her bottle of water. After a while she pauses to open up one of the packets of photos. She flips through them -- the first are photos of MARY-JO, a thin, pretty young woman Clarisse's age, and of Mary-Jo and Clarisse hanging out around campus, smiling and having a good time, obviously good friends. Clarisse smiles as she flips through these photos. No one else is in the pictures - Clarisse doesn't have many friends. At the end of the roll are photos of Clarisse and BOBBY, an awkward but somewhat handsome young man with glasses, about 19 years old. He appears unsure of himself, but in all the pictures he is with Clarisse and smiling. Some are hanging out in the dorms, some are of the two (or just Bobby mostly) at a restaurant, and the last three are of Clarisse and Bobby in formal dress, as if at a prom, dancing. You can also see Mary-Jo in one of these photos. The very last photo shows Clarisse and Bobby kissing.

She smiles mistily, and her lip quivers. She selects that very last photo, picks up the picture-frame bear and holds the photo against it. It is about the right size to fit, but not quite. She picks up the pair of scissors and very carefully cuts the edges of the photo so that it is in something like a circular shape. Satisfied, she opens up the picture frame and inserts the photo into it, closing it shut. She picks up the bear and looks at it. Her and Bobby, FRIENDS 4-EVER. She smiles, and places it carefully on top of the heart-shaped box of chocolates.

She returns to eating her salad for a moment, then absentmindedly checks her watch. It is 6:30 PM. She thinks a moment, stands up and walks with the salad to her mini-fridge. She tosses the salad into it. We see the fridge is almost empty except for milk, bottled waters and Diet Cokes. She shuts the fridge tight.

She opens up her closet and we see lots of sweatshirts inside, plus about eight nice dresses. She selects one, a red one, holds it to herself, looks down at her body, and runs into the bathroom.

In the bathroom mirror she looks her herself, holding the red dress to her body. She puckers her lips, trying to look seductive, but then frowns. She pauses a moment, looking at herself. She sighs, and hangs the dress on the outside doorknob.

She shuts the bathroom door, and we hear sounds of a shower running.

INT - CLARISSE'S ROOM - NIGHT

Everything is black, until the door opens slowly, creaking as it does so. We see the silhouette of CLARISSE framed in the doorway. She is holding the bear and the chocolates awkwardly in her right hand. She flicks the light on. We see the bear first -- there is no photo in its picture frame now. And then we see CLARISSE's face. It is done up carefully with makeup - foundation, mascara, lipstick, eyeshadow, rouge ... it's a look we've seen on many women but on Clarisse it looks overdone and wrong, obscuring her natural beauty. Her face looks very, very tired. She staggers into the room and we take note of the red dress she's wearing, a dress two sizes too small for her large body, almost suffocating her without making her look any more attractive. With clunky red high heels on, she is nearly walking sideways. She flops down flat on the bed and closes her eyes for a moment. Her face is blank, showing nothing but serious fatigue.

After a moment her eyes flicker open a little bit and reaches for the wastebasket on the other side of the bed. She drags it with two fingers, dragging it closer, almost under the bed. Barely moving, she picks up one of her packets of photos, opens it and looks at another photo of her and Bobby. She looks at it blankly, as if not knowing what it is. After a moment's pause, she tears it in two, and drops it in the wastepaper basket. The next photo in the packet is of her and Mary-Jo. Her eyes glaze over. She tears it, more angrily this time. The next photo is of her sitting at one side of a table talking, with Mary-Jo and Bobby on the other side of the table, looking at each other. Now she looks angry. She tears that photo, and the next, and the next, and then tosses the entire packet into the trash can. She tosses the other two packets of photos there too, and then tosses the little bear.

The bear lands face-up, and as she looks into the wastebasket the bear seems to look at her, quizzically. She stares at it for a moment, and then picks it gently up out of the trash. FRIENDS 4-EVER. She rubs its stuffed head, and pets it, then hugs it suddenly. Her lip is quivering now, her eyes watering over, and it looks like she is on the verge of tears.

She sits up.

She takes a few deep breaths, calming herself, pats the bear gently on the head and sets it down beside her.

She grabs the box of chocolates, opens it, and begins to eat.