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Living room/Kitchen area of small apartment.  It is a mess.  Torn newspaper, other paper trash, crushed and ripped cans everywhere. There are a couple trash bags half full of stuff.  Furniture is well worn, damaged and ripped, but have slip covers that are half pulled off, may also be ripped and/or stained…they are meant to cover the ugly furniture, but have been damaged.  Chairs overturned, pictures/books knocked over.  Half eaten fruit, restaurant to-go boxes on floor by kitchen, strewn about.  It is a nice little apartment, but looks like the place has been ransacked, and somebody has started to clean up.
MELANIE is asleep on couch, wearing nice shirt and pajama pants.

There is a knock at the door.  MELANIE stirs, but does not wake up.  More knocking, doorbell.  MELANIE  wakes up, disoriented, looking around at mess, annoyed, and goes for the door.  She looks through the peep hole, jumps back in surprise. 

MELANIE:  (to herself) Crap! (louder) Just a second!

MELANIE runs around the room kicking trash under furniture, shoving it into bags and trying to straighten slipcovers.  Knocking continues, in spurts in spurts and rhythms, playfully. 

MELANIE: (laughing through frustration) Hang on!

She’s done the best she can (which is not much) and opens door.  BOY is standing there, holding a purse, smiling.

BOY:  Took you long enough.  Were you naked or something?  Because you could have let me in…

MELANIE:  (stepping aside to let him in) No….I’m sure you would have loved that, but no…I was…trying to clean up….

BOY:  Well, you’re doing a great job.

MELANIE:  I know, right…I tried to get it done last night but I was so tired…

BOY:  Wait, did I wake you up?  It’s 11:30!  I thought you were going to bed early…”lots to do in the morning” or whatever.  Don’t tell me you had another date that kept you up all night!  (indicating purse) Because I doubt you’d have gotten very far without this!

MELANIE:  No…I was cleaning…

BOY:  Obviously.

MELANIE: No!  I was…it’s just really bad.  My roommate….she…

BOY:  Your roommate did this?

MELANIE:  Yeah….sort of…

BOY:  What, did she throw a party you weren’t aware of? Or is that why you were in such a hurry to get home last night…Didn’t want to miss the festivities?

MELANIE:  No!  Believe me, this was one festivity I could have done without…

BOY:  A real party animal, huh?

(MELANIE laughs nervously)

BOY:  Well, can I give you a hand?  I’m pretty good with a broom and a…(picks up small tree branch) leafblower? 

MELANIE:  No…(taking branch) Really, I’ve got it.  I have a system.

BOY:  A system, huh?  I guess this isn’t your first time at the rodeo! (mimes riding a horse)

(MELANIE tries to laugh, but the joke bothers her)

BOY:  Ouch…the imaginary horse usually gets ‘em every time!

MELANIE:  I’m sorry…it was cute…it’s just….I really need to get all this cleaned up.  I wasn’t expecting this mess and I have a lot of stuff to do later…

BOY:  Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t your roommate make this mess?

MELANIE:  Yes…

BOY:  Well, then shouldn’t your roommate be the one cleaning it up?

MELANIE:  Well…I mean, of course she’ll help…later….but she’s…probably sleeping or something…

BOY:  So wake her up! Tell her to trot her little ass in here and clean up this pigsty!

MELANIE:  I can’t!  She’s not a morning person…trust me…I can’t let her ou…get her….(getting flustered) Look, I just don’t bother her in the morning, ok?  Now I really need to get his cleaned up.  Thank you for bringing me my purse…I can call you later.

BOY:  Come on, now.  I didn’t mean to upset you.  Let me help, ok?  I’ll keep my mouth shut, I promise!  Now where can I start?

(MELANIE hesitates, starts to pick up trash off of ground)

MELANIE:  I don’t even know…you can grab a bag and just start filling it up.

BOY:  Done! 

(They clean in silence for a minute.  BOY is obviously confused by the eclectic variety of trash scattered about.  He appears to want to ask about it, but MELANIE is so engrossed the task that he refrains)
MELANIE:  Oh!  Could you keep the cans separate?  There’s a bin over there in the pantry…well, now it’s out of the pantry…but could you pick all the ones up over there and put any more you find in it?

BOY:  Oooh, recycling.  How very green of you.

MELANIE:  Oh, we don’t recycle them, we keep….

BOY:  Huh?

MELANIE:  Nothing…just keep them separate ok?

(BOY crosses to kitchen to pick up can bin)

BOY:  Holy cow!  I haven’t seen this much aluminum since my beer pyramid days!  What, are you saving up for a pet goat?

(A loud thump and tumbling sound comes from the back of the hallway)

MELANIE:  Oh God!

BOY:  What was that?  A stampede?

MELANIE:  That’s it, you’ve gotta go! 

BOY:  I was kidding!  Do you think she’s ok?

MELANIE:  She’s fine, she probably just fell…

BOY:  Fell from what?  The ceiling fan?

MELANIE:  (pushing BOY  towards the door) I told you she wasn’t a morning person.  Sometimes she’s a little disoriented…especially after a rough night…and when I’m not here…

BOY:  You’re starting to make me think she’s a little too codependent…

MELANIE:  (leading him to door)Look, seriously, you’ve gotta go, I don’t want to freak her out, and this will just be a lot easier with you not here!  I don’t want to be rude, but I just need to get all this done and make sure she’s ok, and…(ad lib)

(as MELANIE is pushing BOY to door, AJA enters, disheveled, half dressed, disoriented.  She has a pretty heavy duty collar around her neck, and is holding a hefty leash/rope in her hand which is tied to her, and is rubbing her neck and wrist, which have visible rope burns.  She is also pretty bruised up)

AJA:  What the hell, Melanie?  Did you have to use so many ropes this time?

(BOY and MELANIE freeze at door, in shock)

MELANIE:  AJA! 
BOY: Um….

MELANIE:  I’ll call you! (shoves boy out the door and slams it.  Leans back against the door in exasperation and slides down to ground) Oh, Aja…

AJA:  What?  (AJA is completely oblivious to the mess around her…or maybe she is just used to it.  She plops down on the couch, notices a half eaten sandwich on the floor, picks it up, smells it, takes a bite.)

MELANIE:  Aja!

AJA:  WHAT?!

MELANIE:  It’s daytime, ok?  Do you have to eat off of the floor like that?

AJA:  It’s fine! I made it last night…

MELANIE:  That is disgusting.  You probably drooled all over it…

AJA:  Well, it is my drool…

MELANIE:  No.  It’s not.  Not really.

AJA:  Yes.  It is.  Really.

MELANIE:  Whatever. (She gets up to resume cleaning, reluctantly) You know, it might be nice if you helped me out here.

AJA:  You know, it might be nice if you let me out of my shackles!

MELANIE:  Shackles?  SHACKLES?  Are you kidding me right now?  Those are hardly shackles…and you seemed to get out of your room just fine, so I’m sure you can figure out a few ropes.

AJA:  Fine. (She goes to the kitchen to get a knife to cut her ropes off.  She is struggling to do it with one hand, and cuts her hand.)  OW!

MELANIE:  What did you do?

AJA:  Ow…dammit…

MELANIE:  (goes over to Aja) What the hell did you do?  Oh my god…(grabs a towel off the counter)  Here…come sit down.

(She guides Aja over to couch, applying pressure to her hand with the towel.)

MELANIE:  Sit down…lay back…hold your hand up…above your heart!  I’ll get some gauze…(disappears into hallway, muttering) Jeez I really don’t need this right now…

AJA:  (hears her and mumbles in reply)  Like this is exactly what I need….
MELANIE:  Are you holding your hand up?

AJA:  (She is)  NO!

MELANIE:  (reentering)  Funny.

AJA:  I try.

MELANIE:  (Examines Aja’s hand, starts to wrap it up)  Thank god it’s not that bad…why didn’t you just get some damn scissors?  You always have to do things the hard way…

AJA:  Well it is a pretty thick rope.  Where did you even get this? 

MELANIE:  It’s called a hardware store. 

AJA:  Haha.  But seriously, you’ve never used these big of ropes before.

MELANIE:  I was hoping I wouldn’t have to.  I got them a long time ago…in the beginning…I wasn’t sure what exactly we would need.  I tried to use them at first, but they were just so big…they didn’t seem very humane…and I didn’t want to hurt you…

AJA:  So I guess humanity went out the window last night…

MELANIE:  You were out of control!  By the time I realized what time it was while I was out last night, I knew it was too late, and I freaked out and had to cut everything short.  When I got in, you had already trashed the place.  Usually I’m here when it starts, so I can keep you pretty calm, and it’s easier to tie you up.  You must have been pretty freaked out without me here.  Either that or you were just taking advantage of the freedom.

AJA:  You know me…

MELANIE:  I had to wrestle you, Aja.  In a skirt.

AJA:  Hot.

(Melanie stares blankly at Aja)

AJA:  What?

MELANIE:  Nothing…(she sighs and goes back to cleaning.)












(AJA goes back to her sandwich as MELANIE cleans.  AJA picks up random cans and cups to see if they have anything left in them, sniffing them, and taking sips.  MELANIE is obviously disgusted, but refrains from commenting.  The rope is still tied to AJA’s arm, so she goes to the kitchen to get a pair of scissors.  She makes sure that MELANIE sees her using them.  She gets the rope off.

AJA:  Look what you did to me!

MELANIE:  (looks over, exasperated, because she already knows how bad it is and is trying not to care) What I did to you…

AJA:  It hurts, Melanie! 

MELANIE:  Well, what do you want me to do about it, Aja? 

AJA:  (childlike) Fix it…

MELANIE:  (laughs) You’re impossible…sit down… (she exits into hallway to get ointment for Aja’s burns)


******************************************All I have so far...TO BE CONTINUED! :o)*************************************