Tingles and Everything

FADE IN

INT. WEDDING CEREMONY. DAY.
Different shoots of Marie and David getting married. Cheyenne coming down the aisle followed by Marie and her father. David smiling with James by his side. Marie giving her flowers to Cheyenne. The priest starting the ceremony. James smiling has he looks at his best friend. Marie's mother crying. Cheyenne rolling her eyes but trying to keep a fake smile. David putting the ring on Marie's finger. Marie putting the ring on David's finger. The both of them kissing.

INT. WEDDING RECEPTION. DAY.
Marie and David are cutting the cake. In the back of the room, we see Cheyenne, the maid of honour, alone with a glass of wine. The best men, James comes over to her table.

JAMES
Do you mind if I sit here?

CHEYENNE
(Uninterested)
It's a free country.

James sits down.

JAMES
I'm the best men.

Cheyenne looks at him uninterested.

CHEYENNE
Yeah, I kinda figured when you were standing beside the groom at the ceremony.

JAMES
Of course.

Silence.

JAMES(CONT'D)
Well you know what they said about the best men and the maid of honor.

CHEYENNE
No, not really.

JAMES
Well they say...'Click Click'.

CHEYENNE
'Click Click' what?

JAMES
(uncomfortable)
You know...'Click Click'.

Cheyenne doesn't get it.

JAMES (CONT'D)
Forget it.

CHEYENNE
Don't worry, I will.

There's a silence.

CHEYENNE
(sarcastic)
Nice speech by the way.

JAMES
Thank you.

CHEYENNE
I was being sarcastic.

JAMES
Oh!

There's a silence. James looks over at Marie and David who are feeding each other cake.

JAMES (CONT'D)
They make a lovely couple don't you think?

Cheyenne turns to him, horrified.

CHEYENNE
From what planet are you from? (pause) These two just made the biggest mistake of their lives.

JAMES
What?

CHEYENNE
Everybody knows that marriage is the recipe for unhappiness.

JAMES
Well I may sound old fashion but I thought people got married to be happy, to spend the rest of their lives together.

CHEYENNE
Oh please! Lets face it, these days nobody lives happily ever after.

JAMES
Some people do.

CHEYENNE
Yeah, unhappy people who put on a front so nobody can see how horrible their life really is.

JAMES
Well what a lovely lovely lady you are.

CHEYENNE
Thank you.

JAMES
I was being sarcastic.

CHEYENNE
I know.

There's another silence. James looks at Marie and David who are dancing.

JAMES
Come on, you can't tell me that you don't see the love between those two.

CHEYENNE
Love? They're not in love. She's pregnant and he's doing 'the right thing'.

JAMES
Do you even know him?

CHEYENNE
I can't say that I do.

JAMES
There.

CHEYENNE
Can you blame me? She only met him 6 months ago. She got pregnant on the third date. When was I suppose to get to know him? When they were picking out china or maybe when she was visiting her gynaecologist?

JAMES
You should have a little more faith in people.

CHEYENNE
Oh I have faith in people, I just don't have faith in love.

JAMES
Why not?

CHEYENNE
Because...because love...love sucks, love stinks, love...

JAMES
Love hurts, love scars, love wounds and mars. Take a lot of pain, take a lot of pain.

James fakes playing the violin.

CHEYENNE
Shut up!

JAMES
Love is like a cloud, it holds a lot of rain. Love hurts Ooooh Ooooh Ooooh love hurts.

Cheyenne puts her hand over his mouth.

CHEYENNE
I said shut up, I'm serious.

JAMES
Come on, don't you think you're being a little over dramatic?

CHEYENNE
No I'm not. Love is just a bunch of chemical reactions in your brain. After a while it disappears and what are you left with? A loveless marriage, 3 kids and no sex.

JAMES
You can't be serious.

James points to Marie and David who are still dancing.

JAMES (CONT'D)
Look at them. Can't you see the sparkles in their eyes? Can't you see that there's a connection between the two of them? They don't even have to speak to understand one another.

Cheyenne looks at Marie and David.

CHEYENNE
She's thinking about all the gifts they received and he's thinking how great it is not having to worry about whether or not he's gonna get laid. It's their wedding night, sex is included.

James shakes his head.

JAMES
No, that's not it. She's thinking of how empty and meaningless her life was before she met him. How grateful she is that he was the one to stop that day, when her car broke down in the middle of nowhere. How destiny timed it perfectly for them to meet.

Cheyenne listens to him not buying it.

JAMES (CONT'D)
He's thinking of how beautiful she looks and how lucky he is that she would even considered spending time with him, let alone spend the rest of her life beside him.

Cheyenne starts to laugh.

CHEYENNE
Oh my god, don't tell me you're one of those fool who actually think he's been in love before.

JAMES
No, I don't think it, I know it. (smiles) It was only for a brief moment but it was love.

CHEYENNE
I'll be the judge of that. Lets hear it.

James looks at her as if she was crazy.

JAMES
Oh I'm not telling you. No matter what I say, you're just gonna end up laughing at me.

CHEYENNE
Humor me. Please!

James hesitates for a few seconds. Finishes his glass of wine before saying anything.

JAMES
Alright. (pause) It was the summer I turned 16. My parents decided to send me to camp.

FLASHBACK

EXT. SUMMER CAMP. DAY
There's buses everywhere. Campers are coming out and running around. A few counselor are trying to keep things in order but it's not really working. A 16 years old, James comes out of the bus looking rather discouraged.

JAMES (V.O)
Can you imagine how humiliating that was. I was too young to be a counsellor and too old to be a camper but since my birthday is in late July, they accepted me anyway. I'll never forget that first day.

A kid that couldn't of been more than 7 years old. Bumps into James, making him drop his back pack.

JAMES (V.O)
I got off the bus and...there she was.

James turns and see the girl. Everything goes in slow motion. The girl is smiling,
James is speechless.

JAMES (V.O)
God she was beautiful. My heart just skipped a beat when I laid eyes on her. (pause) Of course, she turned out to be a counsellor.

James is standing in line with a bunch of kids with the girl in front wearing a counsellor's outfit and giving them instruction.

JAMES (V.O)
To her I was just a dump kid she had to take care of for the summer. But there was this one night.

EXT. CAMPFIRE. DAY
James is sitting by the camp fire with everybody else. He's clearly not enjoying himself as the others are. James is walking alone. He hears something, walks up to the lake and sees something. We see the girl naked in the lake and James who's hiding behind a tree. James and the girl are looking at each other. James is terrified. The girl smiles.

INT. WEDDING RECEPTION. PRESENT DAY
James is smiling and Cheyenne is listening.

JAMES
She smiled at me. We never talked about that night but that doesn't matter because that moment, that instant that I saw her smile...it was the most pure and innocent experience of my life...It was love.

There's a silence.

CHEYENNE
Oh come on, that wasn't love. That was your 16 years old hormones raging. That's what it was. You were seeing a naked girl...probably for the first time and the rest is sex ed.

JAMES
True. There was something physical about my attraction to her but...it was more than that. It was...tingles and everything.

CHEYENNE
Whatever.

There's a silence. They look around, everybody is clearly having fun except them.

JAMES
...So it's your turn now.

CHEYENNE
My turn for what?

JAMES
You're story. What made you not believe in love.

Cheyenne doesn't say anything.

JAMES (CONT'D)
Let me guess. Girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets a broken heart and vows never to love again.

CHEYENNE
That's not how it was.

JAMES
Then how was it?

CHEYENNE
None of your business.

JAMES
Come on, it's in the rules.

CHEYENNE
What rules?

JAMES
I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours. Kinda like I'll show you mine if you show me yours.

CHEYENNE
I'm not showing you anything.

JAMES
Then tell me.

Cheyenne takes a moment to think about it. She takes a deep breath.

CHEYENNE
It was my freshman year in college.

INT.LITTLE CAFE.DAY
Cheyenne is listen to some music with her friends.

CHEYENNE (V.O)
We used to hang out at this little cafe near the campus. It was right after I had taken my English lit mid term. We had decided to go there to blow off some steam, that's when he walked into my life.

The guy comes in. Cheyenne looks at him and smiles, the guy just looks at her for a moment. He takes out pen and paper and starts to draw her.

CHEYENNE (V.O)
He was one of those artistic, mysterious kinda guy. We hit it off right away. It was pure passion.
Cheyenne and the guy are making out in the cafe.

INT. ART GALLERY. DAY.
Cheyenne and the guy are standing in front of a painting. He's explaining something to her.

CHEYENNE (V.O)
He was so intelligent. Everything he said and did was just brilliant. Back then I could spend hours in an art gallery listening to him describing how a little tiny blue spot in a painting was a metaphor for our society. Of course, I never really understood how he saw all that in one blue spot but he had a way of making it sound so real. (pause) He had the most wonderful hands.

JAMES (V.O)
Wooo, too much information.

INT. STUDIO. DAY
Cheyenne is posing for the guy who's painting her.

CHEYENNE (V.O)
No, it's nothing sexual. He had one of the most amazing brush technics I've seen. I use to pose for him almost everyday. Those were the most sensual experiences of my life. I remember how I used to look in his eyes while he was painting. I could see it in his eyes just how beautiful I was too him. He loved beauty. (pause) But turns out beauty isn't something that lasts for him. He got bored of me, painting and drawing the same thing over and over was too much for him.

INT. WEDDING RECEPTION. PRESENT DAY.
Cheyenne is looking at her glass of wine and James is listening to every word she's saying.

CHEYENNE (CONT'D)
So he moved on, he found another subject and I never heard from him again.

There's a silence

JAMES
(sarcastic)
So the beast is capable of loving.

CHEYENNE
(smiling)
I wasn't in love, I was in lust. It was all hormonal.

JAMES
Not buying it.

A slow song starts.

JAMES (CONT'D)
Oh I love that song.

CHEYENNE
You're worst than a woman, you know that.

James just smiles at her, he gets up.

JAMES
Would you by any chance give me the pleasure of dancing with me?

CHEYENNE
You're joking, right?

JAMES
I promise I'll be a gentleman.

CHEYENNE
I don't do dancing.

JAMES
Humor me. Please!

Cheyenne thinks about it for a second, then smiles and gets up. They go to the dance floor. He puts his arms around her and they start to dance. At first Cheyenne finds it awkward but little by little she starts to feel comfortable and smiles. Pretty soon they are having fun. Then there's a moment when everything seems to stop. They both stop to smile and look in each other's eyes. The music stops and they get back to reality. James starts to walk away but he turns around to her.

JAMES
I hope you felt that.

He starts to walk again. Cheyenne is left alone on the dance floor. Tingles and everything. She looks around at all the happy couple, she looks away and wonder, maybe love does exist.

THE END