Random Rantings of Jordan Drew

April is Script Frenzy month, and I’ll be basing my script on a novel I wrote awhile back.

I made a trailer for it… cuz I’ve nothing better to do until April 1.

Say Anything – teaser

“Ethan, you need to stop the car, man, I’m about to lose it.” Fever of 102. What the hell was I thinking? Who goes skiing with a temperature of 102?

“Come on, baby,” Lexi said, leaning up into his car seat to kiss his cheek. “It’s not much further. You can make it.” She smiled at him.

Her smile was more beautiful than anything he’d ever seen in his life. It was contagious, and he couldn’t help but smile back at his wife, despite the fact that he felt he would die if he didn’t get into bed soon. Oh yeah. That’s what I was thinking. Another rumble in his stomach made him remember that it didn’t matter what he’d thought. If he didn’t get out of this car and its winding up the steep mountain road, there would be nothing he could do to stop himself. “Lex, I’m going to be sick. Come on, Ethan. I’m not kidding.”

Ethan chuckled, pulling the car off to the side of the tiny road. Tyler opened the car door and fell out, collapsing in the snow. Lexi hopped out of the car, rushing to Tyler’s side. “Oh babe, I’m sorry. This was stupid. We should have waited. You aren’t going to have any fun feeling like this.”

“I will if you nurse me back to health.” He mustered up a grin before turning back to the snow and relieving his stomach of anything he’d recently tried putting into it.

Lexi giggled. “Shut up, Tyler.”

He smiled, looking up at her. Ethan and Mila stood behind her, holding on to each other. It would’ve been a nice Christmas card scene if he hadn’t been lying in the snow next to his breakfast. “I’ll be fine. The twists and turns in the road make it an uncomfortable ride. Once we get there, I’ll take a nap and be ready to hit the slopes.”

“You don’t’ ski,” Mila said, patting him on the head.

“So. If I break my leg it would be a damn site better than having the flu… or the death, whatever the hell this is.”

“Why don’t you let Emmy drive you back home?” Ethan asked him, calling Mila by the nickname everyone but Tyler used. “You should go to the doctor, man. You’re making the snow look tan.”

“No. I’ll be fine. We’re half an hour away, dude. Let’s just go.”

Ethan helped Tyler back into the car, and the girls climbed in the back, giggling at some unknown plan they’d probably concocted that included coffee… their plans always included coffee. Tyler rolled the window down and hung his head out as Ethan forced the car to get back out on the road. Half an hour later, they pulled into the driveway of the cabin. Ethan hopped out and ran inside, coming back a few minutes later, putting his gloves back on. “You can’t stay here, Tyler. The heat is out. I called the owner and he said he’d send someone up, but it’s 30 minutes from town, so there’s no telling how long it’ll take for the guy to get here.”

“I’ll be fine.”

Lexi shook her head. “No, you and I are going home. Let me help them get their gear inside. You sit tight.”

“Lex! You look forward to this trip every year. I’m not going to let a little fever get in the way of this.”

“So you did have a fever?” She put her hand on her hip and looked at him.

“Just a little one. So little, it couldn’t be considered a fever, really. It’s more of a fe, actually.”

“Mm hm, and how high was your fe?”

“100,” Tyler sinking into his seat.

“And 2… point 7,” Ethan added.

“You let him come up here with a fever of 102.7 to ski?” Mila asked, popping Ethan on the shoulder.

“He said not to tell anyone,” Ethan said with a shrug.

“And I appreciate you keeping your end of the bargain, there Ethan. I was going to leave that whole ‘two-point-seven’ bit out for the time being.”

“Dude, you can’t stay,” Ethan said.

“I’m not going to ruin this trip for you guys,” Tyler said, wondering how much breakfast could possibly be left in his stomach.

“I’ll call Milo. He can hang out with you back home and I can be back before they close the slopes,” Lexi said.

“Home is two hours away. You won’t make it back in time. Let me take him,” Mila offered. Tyler smiled. Skiing was not one of her favorite things to do, but she and Tyler loved to sit in the lodge next to the fire and read. Ethan and Lexi were the skiers. They would spend all day on the slopes while Mila and Tyler spent most of their time hanging out in the lodge. “You and Ethan can go ahead and get in some skiing and I’ll make up my reading tomorrow.”

“You can’t drive in the snow, Em,” Lexi said. “You can’t see.”

“I have my glasses, we’ll be fine.”

Tyler rolled his eyes. “Good Lord, we’re going to die. Why don’t we just go get something to eat… and maybe some medicine. The guy should here by the time we get back.”

“I have to stay to let him in,” Ethan said. “Unless you prefer the girls to stay and wait on some creepy guy who could potentially be a serial killer hiding in disguise.”

“Of a heating and air dude?” Mila scoffed.

“You never know, Emmy,” Ethan said. “That one guy was a clown.”

“Clowns are evil. Heating and air dudes are saviors. There is a difference,” Lexi chimed in.

Tyler held his hands up in surrender. “Okay, this conversation is giving me a headache. Mila, take me home, but drive slow. Ethan, you wait here for the serial killer heating guy, and Lex, go ski your cute little heart out.”

Lexi nodded and grinned at him. “Sounds like a perfect plan,” she hugged Tyler tightly. “I love you, baby.”

“You’re sure the nursing back to health thing is a bad idea?”

He felt her chuckle against him and he hugged her back, squeezing a little harder than normal. Mila, Ethan, and Lexi emptied the car and took everything from Mila’s bag of books and Lexi’s two suitcases of clothing for the two days they’d planned to spend at the cabin, to Ethan’s little cooler of insulin inside. Lex bounced outside first, carefully hugging Tyler. Thank you, for trying,” she said.

He sighed. “I’m sorry for ruining your weekend, Lex.”

“You didn’t ruin it,” she promised. “Make Em drive slow, and make Milo get you some of the good meds. You’ll sleep all weekend and never know we were even gone.”

He snuggled into her neck, kissing her softly. “I’d rather stay here with you.”

Ethan pulled Mila to him while Tyler and Lexi said their goodbyes. “You be careful. I need you in one piece. I have a surprise for you and it won’t work if you are in a million pieces.”

She lifted her eyebrows and grinned. “What kind of surprise?”

“The kind that includes my wife not accidently driving the car off of a mountain,” he said, pulling her to him. “Love you forever, babe.”

“Love you longer,” she said, kissing him.

Mila grinned and got into the car, buckling her seatbelt and turning around in the driveway. As they passed by Ethan and Lex, she grinned and punched Tyler’s arm, pointing at Lex who was smiling her perfect smile. “We’re having a baby, Tyler!” she called.

He put his hand on Mila’s arm. “Stop,” he told her. He opened the door once again falling out and trying to get up to get to his wife, tripping in the snow. She giggled and ran to him. “That wasn’t the exit I had in mind. She wasn’t supposed to stop the car!” she said. The twinkle in her eyes couldn’t be hidden by the over dramatized pout on her lips and he pulled her to him, kissing her hard.

“My God, Lex! When did you find out?”

She laughed. “Last week. Emmy and I decided to wait to tell you two until tonight, but I didn’t think Em could hold her tongue and I wanted to be the one to tell you.”

“Oh sweet Jesus, what a blessing! Lex, you’ve just made me the happiest man in the world!”

“Well, you can be the happiest man in the world on your way home. I’ll call you tonight, babe.”

“Should you ski?”

“I asked the doctor, he said as long as I’m careful, don’t overexert myself and drink lots of water, I’ll be fine. I’ll get Ethan to go with me, babe. It’s going to be just fine. I promise.”

He kissed her again and Ethan helped him back in the car. He smacked Mila on the arm as they drove away. “You weren’t going to tell me?”

“Nope,” she said. “Not mine to tell, my friend.”

“You punk!”

She laughed and hit him back.

“You just keep both your hands on the wheel, Mila. You can hit me later. Don’t think I won’t throw up on you.”

“So Daddy Tyler, huh?”

“Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Daddy.” He sighed, leaning back into the seat. “God, Mila, a baby! How fuckin’ cool is that?”

“You’ve wanted to be a dad since I can remember, Tyler. I’m happy for you.”

“I suppose you’d like to know what surprise Ethan has cooked up?”

She smiled. “Wait until we get off the mountain. If my reaction is anything like yours was, we really will have a wreck.”

He laughed and then leaned up, feeling another wave of nausea come from his stomach to his throat. He swallowed hard.

“You okay?” she asked him, placing her hand on his forehead. The chill of her fingers felt good on his burning skin.

“No, but I’m happy, and that counts for something, doesn’t it?”

She smiled. “Sure does, cowboy.”

He laughed and closed his eyes, thinking of how she’d been the only one he’d ever told about wanting to be a cowboy when he was a kid. Tyler and Mila met in the seventh grade. The local high school was looking for a principal and his dad fit the qualifications perfectly. It was a little less money than his father was used to making, but it got them out of the big city, so his dad took it and never regretted his decision. They moved from Austin, Texas into a house in the middle of nowhere Florida, and Tyler spent his first week trying to find his way around the tiny town. He’d been accustomed to being able to ride the bus or take a taxi to get him any place he’d wanted. Most people would think a small town was easier to figure out, but when everything was placed so far apart, it was hard to remember where anything was.

He’d been riding his bike looking for the middle school when he saw her… the love of his life. Dark hair, high cheek bones, green eyes and a nice body to boot… well, nice for the seventh grade anyway. She was walking out of the library with huge black sunglasses and an armful of books, and proceeded to trip down the stairs, dropping books along her way down. He brought his bike to a swift halt, hopping off to help her off the ground.

Her eyes brimmed with unshed tears as she looked up at him, embarrassed. “No… you don’t have to… this crap happens to me all the time.”

He smiled, sitting next to her on the stairs. “Me too,” he said.

She smiled back. “Yeah?”

“No, not really. I don’t know why I said that,” he said. “I’m Tyler.”

“Mila,” she said sticking out her free hand. “People call me Em… or Emmy, though.”

“Why?”

“Em, like the letter? I guess Mila was too long and then for some reason, Emmy became sort of a pet name. Nobody ever calls me Mila.”

He reached around him picking up books and handing them to her. “Well, I like Mila. It’s a pretty name, so if you don’t mind, how about I call you that?”

She smiled, nodding at him. “I always did like it better.”

He helped her with the rest of her books and then asked if the town had a Dairy Queen. “I’ll buy you a banana split.”

Her face went red again. “You don’t have to do that… why… would you anyway?”

“Because I’m celebrating my first friend in this town,” he said, placing an arm over her shoulder. “You and I are going to be best friends forever, Mila. I can feel it.”

And they were. Here it was, God only knew how many years had passed, and he couldn’t imagine sharing this moment with anyone else. He was going to be a Dad. He grinned and looked at his best friend. “How weird is this, Mila?”

Mila shook her head. “Not weird at all. You deserve this, Tyler, and you’re going to make a great Dad.”

He sighed. “Yeah. Life can’t get any more perfect than this, can it?” He smiled, closing his eyes again and crossing his arms over his chest. “Love you, Mila.”

“Love you too, Tyler. Congratulations… Daddy.”

He smiled bigger and drifted off to sleep, content in his thoughts.

He started shaking and it took him a minute to recognize it wasn’t him, but someone shaking him. “Dude, get up!”

Tyler opened his eyes to Milo standing over him. “Get out of my face, Milo,” he said.

“You’re going to be late, man.”

Tyler pushed him away, throwing his legs over the side of the tiny bed and pushing himself into a sitting position. Milo and Mila had been friends since kindergarten. They’d been grouped together their entire lives because of the similarity of their names, often being called Em1 and Em2…that’s what their softball jerseys said anyway. Milo had a way with Mila nobody else seemed to have. He could reach her even in her darkest moments, and she allowed it, never fighting him, and the patience he had with her was endearing. Her own twin brother, Sterling, who believed the sun rose and fell on Mila, couldn’t handle her the way Milo did. If Tyler were being honest, he’d admit Milo had saved his life too… but what did honesty get you? Tyler took Milo’s coffee from him, drinking it and rubbing his head with his free hand, trying to wake up. “Damn,” he muttered. “What time is it?”

“8:30.”

His eyes shot open and he looked around for a clock. “Are you kidding me?” He pushed passed Milo, grabbing a pair of jeans from the floor and putting them on. “Is she ready?”

Milo took the coffee mug and handed him a button up, white shirt on a hanger. “She’s gone.”

He put his arm through the freshly pressed shirt sleeve. “Again?”

“Yeah. She was out on the balcony until about 4:00 this morning and I fell asleep on the couch.”

Tyler rubbed his eyes, buttoning the shirt with one hand. His sunglasses were on her desk, and he stepped closer to retrieve them. TWO DIE IN FIRE CAUSED BY GAS LEAK. The article heading hung from the mirror, stuffed into the crack between the glass and its casing. He gingerly touched the picture of his wife’s face, smiling back at him with that killer smile. She’s not smiling anymore. She’ll never smile again.

Milo slapped his shoulder. “Come on, man. We need to go.”

He reluctantly followed Milo through the little loft apartment. “What about Mila?”

Milo shrugged. “I guess we cross our fingers.”

“You’re joking. Milo, where is she? You were supposed to watch her.”

“Tyler, you’ve got to give her some space, man.”

“Last time she had space, she slit her wrists open.”

Milo nodded, opening the door for Tyler. “Yep.”

Tyler stopped midstride in the doorway. “Yep? That’s all you have to say?”

“What do you want me to say? Last time you were left alone, I found you passed out in the garage with the car running and the door closed. Which of you am I supposed to watch, Tyler?”

Tyler’s eyes immediately went to the floor and he took a step outside into the hallway. “Yeah,” he whispered.

“Yeah,” Milo said, putting an arm around Tyler and leading him through the hall to the elevator. “Do you want me to hire somebody?” he asked.

Tyler shook his head. “She’ll be okay. I’m sorry, man. I’m just worried. I’ll keep a better eye on her.”

“You have to sleep too, Tyler. We can’t go on like this. Sterling suggested we look into getting another roommate. Perhaps one with a nursing degree.”

“The loft isn’t big enough for anyone else.”

“If you moved your shit into her room it would be.”

Tyler stopped, turning to face Milo. “No. It isn’t like that – she’s my best friend, you know that. I don’t dream when I’m with her… I’m doing much better, though. I didn’t even have a nightmare last night… actually, I had a nice dream… I think tonight is going to be the night. I’m doing a lot better, Milo. Don’t get her a nurse. I’ll take care of her, just like I promised.”

“And who will take care of you when you lose it again?” Milo asked him, walking on, leaving Tyler to his thoughts. God, I miss you, Lex.

.