LIGHTS ON. INT. APARTMENT ROOM - NIGHT

 

FELIPE, 28, enters room on the phone to escape a large party.

 

FELIPE

Yeah, fantastic. Mhmm. I know! Talk to you soon.

 

AURELIA, 29, enters the room. Felipe’s back is turned towards her.

 

FELIPE (CONT’D)

Have a good night.

 

He turns around and makes eye contact with Aurelia. They hold it for longer than the usual.

 

AURELIA

I had to get out of there.

 

FELIPE

I’m the same way with parties.

 

AURELIA

A director that I despise just

showed up. Motherfucker. How dare

he show his face here, I mean

seriously. I am overqualified

for the job and he turns me

down because he finds me “attractive”.

It would make working together

too difficult-

 

FELIPE

Well-

 

AURELIA

Didn’t anyone ever teach him how

to control himself? I don’t go

jumping my colleague’s bones when

I find them attractive.

 

FELIPE

I should-

 

Felipe indicates leaving the room.

 

AURELIA

I’d actually take harassment for

this, that’s how much I want this

documentary.

 

FELIPE

What’s it about?

 

AURELIA

Octopuses.

 

FELIPE

Don’t you mean octopi?

 

AURELIA

No, octopuses. Octopi is correct in

Greek but not scientifically.

 

FELIPE

I did not know that.

 

Aurelia

throws her hands up in despair.

 

AURELIA

I mean, come on! My last director

was an asshole. He made passes

at me the whole time and now this?

Am I supposed to appreciate this

guy’s “thoughtfulness”? Why are

men incapable of controlling

themselves around women?

 

FELIPE

Hey, not all men are like that.

 

AURELIA

Fine. Take their side. Typical.

 

FELIPE

I’m not taking anyone’s side.

They sound like dickheads. I’m just

saying not all men are-

 

AURELIA

Spare me.

 

FELIPE

(puts up hands in surrender)

Fine.

 

AURELIA

Do you have any idea what women

have to go through on a daily

basis? Do you have any clue

as to what it’s like, day in,

day out, dodging inappropriate

passes while trying to do a

good job? And you’re not even

taken seriously?  

 

FELIPE

Sucks.

 

AURELIA

It fucking sucks! It blows!

Let’s come up with more dick

references for the cockup of

how women are treated!

 

FELIPE

I didn’t mean-

 

AURELIA

The sad thing is I’d actually

have more films under my belt

if I’d sucked dick, but I refused.

Every time.  

 

FELIPE

I better get back to the party.

 

AURELIA

God, this world is sad.

 

He goes to the door.

 

AURELIA (CONT’D)

(muttering)

I should pour my beer on him.

Maybe that would make me

unattractive enough.

 

Aurelia freezes in place. Felipe stands rooted to the spot with his hand on the door knob.

 

CUE TRACK 1 - FIRST REWIND

 

Slowly, the two go backwards in motion and rewind their movements. They pick up speed and the scene resets to where the two share eye contact.  

 

AURELIA (CONT’D)

Whoops, sorry-

 

FELIPE

I know you probably don’t care

about this but I just have

to tell someone - well, you should

care, it’s very important for

life on earth.

 

Aurelia raises her eyebrows in disbelief.

 

AURELIA

What should I care about?

 

FELIPE

The quality of our oceans. I just

got a massive grant to fund my

team’s plans for a prototype aquatic

saline filter.

 

AURELIA

(uninterested)

Congratulations. What does it do?

 

FELIPE

It’ll be able to not only collect

fragments of plastic, but the

microscopic ones too. You know microbeads

in facial cleansers?

 

AURELIA

Yeah.

​

FELIPE

It can even strain those out!

 

AURELIA

My cleanser has microbeads.

 

FELIPE

Get rid of it. They’re incredibly

harmful to sea life. They don’t

degrade and tend to get ingested

by innocent sea creatures. To make

matters worse, we end up consuming

these plastics when we eat fish.

Do everyone a favor and never use

it again.

 

AURELIA

Okay, okay. You’ve convinced me.

 

FELIPE

With this grant, we can get started

on the island of trash come November.

This is so big! We’re going

to finally be able to put a dent-

 

AURELIA

Island of trash?

 

She starts to show a genuine interest in him.

 

FELIPE

Oh, due to the ocean’s currents,

all the plastic waste eventually

collects into a dump the size of Texas,

and it keeps growing every day.

 

AURELIA

That’s horrible. Why haven’t I heard

about this before?

 

FELIPE

Because it’s in international waters.

Nobody wants to claim responsibility

for it. Anyone that’s ever littered

is guilty, especially cigarette butts.

I cannot stress how awful they are-

 

AURELIA

I’m glad you’re doing something then.

 

A warm pause.

 

FELIPE

I’ve wanted to do something since

I was fourteen on my first dive

with octopi. Now, it’s happening.

 

AURELIA

Octopuses.

 

FELIPE

What?

 

JAMIE, Felipe’s friend, enters the room.

 

JAMIE

There you are, man. I see you’ve

met Aurelia.

 

FELIPE

Not officially. Can I get you a

drink?

 

AURELIA

I’d like that very much.

 

JAMIE

Joy kicked out that shitty director

by the way.

 

AURELIA

Thank god.

​

Aurelia sniffs the air.

​

AURELIA (CONT’D)

I smell Mexican food.

​

JAMIE

That’s us. We had some before this.

Jamie leaves the room first. As Felipe

and Aurelia are about to exit, they

freeze.

 

CUE TRACK 2 - SECOND REWIND

 

The two move backwards until their first eye contact.

 

FELIPE

Hey, didn’t see you there.

 

AURELIA

Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt

your call. I can go-

 

FELIPE

Not at all. The name’s Felipe.

 

He goes over to shake her hand.

 

AURELIA

(handshaking)

Aurelia. I’ve never seen you

here and I usually know everyone.

 

FELIPE

I’m friends with Jamie. Not exactly

my crowd.

 

AURELIA

What do you do?

 

FELIPE

I’m an environmental engineer.

 

AURELIA

Oh, so really not your crowd.

 

FELIPE

What do you do?

 

AURELIA

I’m a cinematographer.

 

FELIPE

Wow, that’s so cool. What have you done?

​

AURELIA

I recently finished filming a documentary

on the blue whale’s ten foot appendage.

 

Awkward pause.

 

FELIPE

I can’t tell if you’re pulling my

leg with the length or the topic.

 

AURELIA

Both are true but don’t worry,

the documentary doesn’t focus

solely on their dicks. It’s about

whale courtship and reproduction.

 

FELIPE

Sounds interesting. What’s it called?

 

AURELIA

Big Blue Balls.

 

FELIPE

(laughing)

Now I know you’re fucking with me.

 

AURELIA

Just a tad.

 

Aurelia playfully hits his shoulder.

 

AURELIA (CONT’D)

It was such an adventure! We spent

six months out at sea following

their migration patterns. I’ve

never seen so many blues in my entire

life! It’d never crossed my mind

to live on a boat but now,

all I want to do is do it

all over again.

 

FELIPE

(flirtatiously)

That sounds amazing! I’m actually

working on an oceanic filter at

the moment that’ll hopefully reduce

plastic waste. If you’re interested

and all goes well, maybe you could

do a documentary on it - help spread

the word.

 

Felipe uncomfortably rubs his stomach. 

 

AURELIA

I think I’ll have to get to know

you better before that happens.

 

FELIPE

That can be arranged.

 

Felipe bends over slightly, trying to hide the odd behavior. Aurelia looks confused for a moment but continues flirting. 

 

AURELIA

(coyly)

So what does your thing do exactly?

 

FELIPE

It’s capable of many things.

Hard, challenging things-

 

Felipe accidentally lets out one huge FART. Aurelia bursts out laughing.

 

FELIPE (CONT’D)

(mortified)

I am so sorry. I had Mexican-

 

She is still laughing. Felipe gets more and more awkward as he waits for her to stop.

 

AURELIA

Oh my god, that sounded just like

these long balloons I used to play

with as a kid! My best friend and I

were obsessed.

 

Aurelia loses herself. Tears stream down her face.

 

AURELIA (CONT’D)

I forgot about them.

 

FELIPE

I’m glad this is amusing for you.

 

She quiets down and they hold eye contact again.

 

AURELIA

Can I kiss you?

 

FELIPE

After I just let one rip?

 

She bursts into giggles. Felipe laughs awkwardly along. Aurelia pulls him in and kisses him. She pulls back and they happily look at each other. The two freeze.

 

CUE TRACK 3 - FINAL REWIND

 

Their kiss goes backwards and they reverse back to their initial eye contact.

​

 

*Excerpt Finish

 

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