INT.—DEX’S BEDROOM
Show that Dex is asleep in bed. Show his room. Show all the filthy dishes. Show his pile of unopened homework books. Show the stains on the sheets. Show how when he sleeps, his arms are thrown back above his head so that every morning when he wakes up, his arms feel unattached. Zoom in on his knee.
Show Dex half waking.
DEX
Not now. Stop it before it starts, Dex.
DEX
Fuck this.
Show Dex getting up and opening his laptop. Show Dex clicking on a small icon. Show the movie starting. It’s an old home movie that someone has uploaded and dumped into the computer. The film is jittery, like old home-movie films are. The vhs tape had obviously started to degrade.
Show Dex watching the movie.
The camera is being held at ground level. Whoever is holding it is under a bed. It is Dex’s parents’ bed. Let the viewer listen to the sound of kid breathing.
Show the shadows and dust under the bed.
DAD
You bitch. I can’t believe you did that.
MOM
I didn’t do it!
DAD
I don’t believe you. And I have proof.
MOM
You had me followed? You are such a piece of shit. I hate you.
DAD
I…
The sound of a kid crying. Show Dad leaning over the bed and the camera being dragged.
MOM
He’s not filming this, is he? Dex, are you
filming this? What are you doing under our
bed? Honey, it’s not what you think. Tell him.
DAD
It’s not what you think. Now go to bed.
DEX
But…
DAD
BED. NOW.
Show how the movie stops and show Dex, now, hitting Delete. Show Dex going through the movies one by one. Delete, delete, delete. Delete, delete, delete.
Show Dex sleeping in his bed. Show how this was just a dream.
Show how Dad is on the phone with Mom, downstairs. Show him laughing. Show the brown birds hopping up and down on the kitchen floor. The laughing birds.
Show that.
Play a song that’s hopeful. Show Dex smiling in his sleep.
CUT TO:
INT.—A GIRL’S BEDROOM
Show Tanis’s bedroom. Tanis is lying on her bed, crying. Show that she is on the phone and Kate is on the other end. Understanding, giant-hearted Kate.
KATE
Dex Pratt is not worth this, sweetie. He really isn’t. He’s a jerk.
TANIS
(sniveling)
I know. I think I love him though.
KATE
(sighing)
You don’t love him. He’s an asshole. I’ve got to go; T’s beeping in.
TANIS
Tell him Dex is an asshole.
KATE
I’m pretty sure he already knows that.
Show Tanis falling asleep. Pan her walls with all their numbers, codes that unlock everything or nothing. Show how she has drawn lines down all the models’ faces and attached sticky notes of calculations.
Show her face. Draw numbers on there. The numbers are wrong. Show how the numbers are wrong.
Show Dex, now fully awake, writing the first email that he’s written in forever. His hands feel funny on the keyboard. Show him flexing his fingers, like he’s doing something that doesn’t quite fit. Show how he’s going to write something perfect and make it up to Tanis, make everything okay.
Show how instead, he googles Olivia. Show how she doesn’t exist. No Facebook. No MySpace. No Twitter. No images. No news.
Nothing.
Show him googling Olivia’s dad.
Show how he doesn’t exist either.
Show Dex dragging his entire video collection to the trash.
Show Dex dragging one video back out again and then completely deleting the rest.
Show that Dex is still asleep.
Show that he isn’t.
Show that he is making this up.
Then show that it is real.
CUT TO:
INT.—KITCHEN TABLE
Show Dad and his dollhouse, Glob asleep at his feet. Dad is whistling. Zoom in close on what looks like crumbs on the table. Show that the crumbs are really tiny brown birds. Show them shrinking away to nothing.
DEX
I could write the music.
FERAL
I’ll play with you, man. We were great together.
DEX
Yeah, we coulda been contenders.
Show how Feral isn’t there.
Pan the camera slowly around each room. Show how everyone is asleep. Dex. Tanis. Dad. Mom.
Show how Olivia is not asleep. Show her sitting upright in a bed. Staring into space. Fading in and out of focus.