Script: A Wedding
Word Count: 921
Tony
INT. WEDDING VENUE’S KITCHEN. LISA, ANNA’S maid of honor, has discovered TONY, a mess, has a gun. They are in the middle of arguing.
LISA
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
TONY
(almost laughing)
I told you I’m not actually going to do anything with it Lisa. It’s not even loaded.
Lisa
Give it to me. I wanna see it.
Tony
No, there are people around. (Beat.) And you’re not even gonna give it back either.
Lisa
Tony. Think about what the hell you’re trying to do here. You’re fucking crazy right now. I’ve seen you in some bad places, but I haven’t seen you like this since high school.
Tony
You haven’t seen me since high school.
Lisa
I see you nearly everyday.
Tony
I make your sandwiches nearly everyday.
Lisa
(guilty)
Just give it to me, please Tony.
Tony
I’m not giving you the gun.
Lisa
You’re really freaking me out. Give it to me.
Tony
(Angry)
I’m not gonna fucking do anything! (Beat.)
Lisa, please. There are people around, I can’t just whip it out right - Can we just talk somewhere more private?
Lisa
If you think for a Goddamn second I’m going anywhere alone with you right now then you’re in even worse shape than I thought.
Tony
I already told you I’m not going to sh--
Lisa
(before he can actually say it)
I know, Tony. You say you just wanna scare him. Why do you think you can do this here though? Why do you think you can do this anywhere? Why the fuck do you think you can do this to your best-
Tony
(interrupting)
Don’t call him my best friend, Lisa. I’m not his best man. I’m not a groomsmen. It’s the first fucking time I’ve seen him since high school.
(Tony tries to leave.)
Lisa
(guilty)
Please give it to me and then we’ll go up to my room and we’ll talk. I want to help you deal with this. Please.
Tony thinks for a second, looks around and sneaks the gun into her purse. They exit the kitchen to go up stairs.
INT. LISA’S BEDROOM. Tony and Lisa walk in. Lisa takes the gun out and checks to see if it’s loaded. It’s not.
Lisa
Well I’m glad you weren’t lying. (Beat.) Tony what the fuck were you thinking?
(She puts the gun on the bed.)
Tony
I already told you, but sure let me repeat it. You guys exiled me, and then Johnny goes and pulls this shit? And that’s when he decides he wants to bring me back? It’s a fucking joke!
Lisa
You remember why that happened, Tony? You remember how scared of you Anna was? How violent you’d get? You were blacking out every night. You showed up to graduation higher than the eiffel tower. John invited you because he thought you cleaned up.
Tony
I was eighteen.
Lisa
So were we.
Tony
Well shit only got worse when you left. It wasn’t fucking easy.
Lisa
You know what wasn’t fucking easy? It wasn’t fucking easy pulling the trigger every Friday night and cleaning up your vomit and just hoping you’d survive until morning. It wasn’t easy seeing you fail out of college your first semester because you were always too hungover to go to any exams - something I remember you thought was hilarious texting us about. It wasn’t easy coming home from winter break, wanting to drink in Johnny’s basement like we used to, but not wanting to encourage you. And it really wasn’t easy when you knocked him out when we tried to talk to you. (Beat.) I’m sorry we left you. But there wasn’t much choice.
Tony
(taken back)
Not my fault it affected me different than it affected the rest of you. But anyways. I cleaned up. Without you guys.
Lisa
Did you, Tony? You showed up here with a gun.
Tony
Lisa. Could you imagine how I felt? After how close we all were. After being thrown out, after going through all of my shit alone, after I cleaned myself up, and four years later I get an invitation to this fucking wedding? How long was it after I left that they got together?
(Silence.)
Tony
(Yelling)
How fucking long, Lisa?
Lisa
(quietly)
A month.
Tony
What was that?
Lisa
A month. It was about a month.
Tony
(laughing)
A month! About a fucking month! Losing me really was hard for them. Wow. A month.
A month! About a fucking month! Losing me really was hard for them. Wow. A month.
Lisa
Tony, I’m sorry.
Tony
(still mad)
You still think I’m acting crazy?
Lisa
Tony, it’s not a good situation. I understand why you’re hurt. Showing up with a gun though - loaded or not - is taking it too far. Don’t you see that? Talk to him.
Tony
I was planning on that, I just wanted to shock him first. Make him feel how I felt. Heart completely sunk.
Lisa
God, you may not be drinking anymore, but you’re still completely off your shit.
Tony
Maybe I shouldn’t have been invited then.
Lisa
And maybe you shouldn’t have come. You should leave. I’ll let the happy couple know you weren’t ready to come back.
Lisa goes to the bathroom and shuts the door. Tony stands there for a minute, fuming but crushed. He sees the gun on the bed, grabs it, and leaves quietly. On the other side of the door, he takes out a flask from his coat pocket and takes a swig. He reaches into the other pocket, taking out two bullets and loads the gun.
Dear Victoria,
ReplyDeleteYou totally win first place award for getting this format down cold. You could get a job as a Hollywood script writer tomorrow! Nice work. Additionally, you've created two characters who have a clear history together and a dangerous situation that has the potential to get worse. Any scene that has a gun in it promises a gun going off at some point, so you've raised that expectation. I like too that these two sound like they've known each other for a long time, and that this is a moment in their lives when things are changing. Lisa's monologue is fantastic--I can hear it in my head, which means it would probably sound great when read out loud. I like the repetition you use there--it's a poetic device but it sound authentic coming from her. My only small critique is to not rely on the f-bomb to do your writing for you--not because I oppose profanity but because it's too easy of a choice to show passion or anger, and you're a much better writer than that.