WRITTEN
BY
Roger Newcomb
STARRING
(in order of appearance)
Anne Sayre as Barbara Whitman
Na’Vell
J. Lee as Damien Givens
Angela Mazziotta
as
Jason Nishimoto-Thompson
as Cyrus Connor
Brandon Delaurentiis
as Ian Levin
Stephen Seidel as Dante Ramos
Nick Sullivan as Paul Ramos
DAMIEN
is working behind the bar when BARBARA stomps up.
BARBARA
Damien,
we need to talk. Now.
DAMIEN
Barbara, hi. Is everything
alright? Is it Paul?
BARBARA
No,
it’s not Paul. Things are perfect. At least they would be if your psycho ex
would leave me alone.
DAMIEN
What
psycho ex? Felicia?
BARBARA
She’s
trying to blackmail me again, Damien. I need
you to put a stop to it.
DAMIEN
Again? I thought you were going
to tell her to get lost the last time.
BARBARA
Damien,
I paid that witch twenty thousand dollars a few months ago to keep quiet, and
now she’s back for more.
DAMIEN
You
gave Felicia money? Are you nuts? How did you come up with twenty thousand
dollars anyway?
BARBARA
I
told Paul my long, lost brother needed it,
DAMIEN
What
do you want me to do, Barbara?
BARBARA
Talk to her. Do whatever you have to do
to keep her quiet.
DAMIEN
She’s
not going to listen to me.
BARBARA
Damien,
I know I don’t deserve any kindness from you the way I abruptly ended things,
but I’m begging you here. Help me
out. And it’s not just for me, I know you don’t want Dante to know the truth either.
Don’t
want Dante to know the truth about what?
What are you two talking about?
BARBARA
Uh,
about a surprise I’m working on for Paul.
It’s so top secret I’m not even going to tell you.
You
can’t tell me, but you can tell Damien?
DAMIEN
I’m
helping Barbara out with the surprise.
At least I’ll try to.
BARBARA
Thanks,
Damien. You’re the best. Now, I’ve gotta
run.
Bye.
Barbara
hurries out.
That
was odd.
CYRUS
and IAN are talking at the nurse’s station.
CYRUS
Any
luck on finding something out about your father?
IAN
Well,
between talking with Caroline Hart and Paul Ramos I learned quite a bit.
CYRUS
Paul
Ramos (ray-mos).
That guy has been in here several times trying to see Dan. But Dr. Givens never lets him in.
IAN
They
are guarding my father like he was
CYRUS
Ian,
I don’t want to offend you, but from the little I know about Dan, it seems he
has some violence in his past.
IAN
Yeah,
Caroline told me about that. He’s been
on a lot of different medications and some haven’t worked for him.
CYRUS
What
are you going to do if someone finds out that you’re Dan’s son? You’ll probably lose the internship.
IAN
I
don’t know. I thought I would be able to
see him by now. My Mom thinks I’m
working on campus. If she ever finds out
I’m working at the
CYRUS
Well,
I won’t tell anyone. You can trust me.
IAN
Thanks. You’re a real good guy, Cyrus.
CYRUS
Thank
you. You’re one of the few people here
that doesn’t treat me like a total freak.
IAN
I
hate labels, and I don’t like it when people put labels on me, so I’m not going
to do it to you.
CYRUS
I
appreciate it.
IAN
But
can I ask you something?
CYRUS
Sure.
IAN
On
New Year’s Eve, when we were watching the ball drop on TV, I kinda got the feeling…
CYRUS
Look,
Ian. I didn’t mean to make you
uncomfortable. I don’t want to deceive
you in any way so I might as well just come out and say this. I’m gay.
If you don’t want to be friends with me now, I’ll understand.
IAN
No,
Cyrus. It’s not that. It’s just that we’ve gone to the movies
together, spent New Year’s together, and have lunch or dinner together every
time we work the same shift. If we’re
dating or something, I just wanted to know.
CYRUS
(laughs)
Dating? You think we’re dating?
IAN
Well… it kind of seems
that way. Is that such a scary
proposition?
CYRUS
No,
no. Not at all. I just kept envisioning you telling me to get
lost when I told you I was gay. I never
expected this reaction.
IAN
Like
I said, I don’t like to put labels on people.
I guess some would call me bi-sexual.
I don’t know what I am. But I
think you’re cute and we have fun together, and that’s all that matters, right?
CYRUS
Yeah. I guess it is.
DANTE
has just arrived to see PAUL after receiving a voice mail message asking him to
stop by.
DANTE
I’m
here, Dad. And I know I don’t have to
ask you what this is all about.
PAUL
It’s
that time, Dante. You have to make a
choice. Either enroll at
DANTE
Dad,
would you really cut me off if I didn’t?
PAUL
You
bet your trust fund I would. Now you’ve
have plenty of time to think about this, Dante.
What are you going to do?
DANTE
I
guess there’s really only one option for me then. Where’s my office?
PAUL
Ah,
so you’re choosing L&R over school.
Not the choice I expected you to make.
DANTE
I
can’t go back to hitting the books, Dad.
I wasn’t learning anything there anyway.
Just tell me where I’ll be working.
And can I have a window office?
PAUL
I’m
afraid that won’t be possible, son. We
don’t have any windows in the mail room.
DANTE
Mail
room! You can’t be serious.
PAUL
Oh,
I’m very serious. You’ll start in the
mail room and if you show some potential you’ll have the opportunity to move up
quickly.
DANTE
Dad,
you can’t do that. What will people
think?
PAUL
That
my son isn’t afraid of a little hard work?
The sky’s the limit for you, Dante, but I’m not handing you this on a
silver platter. You’re going to have to
earn it.