“It feels like it took us forever to get this right,” I reply. “Get here as fast as you can.”
“Not forever, just a few more hours,” he says. “I’m already on my way.”
49
BETWEEN ME AND YOU
BY BEN LIVINGSTON
(FINAL DRAFT)
INT. BEN’S BEDROOM—DUSK
Ben, our hero, sits on his bed in his small apartment, stunned. Fading light ekes through his window. From his expression, it’s obvious that he just received news that he can’t get over. Then a joyful—the happiest—grin spreads across his face. In one quick instant, he grabs the phone off his bed, lets out a hoot, and runs to the front door, where his suitcase is already packed and ready. He races down the steps to the waiting taxi.
BEN:
How quickly can you get me to the airport?
DRIVER:
Traffic’s not bad. It’s New Year’s Eve. Everyone’s at home getting fancy, ready to party. So twenty minutes, no problem.
Ben checks his watch.
BEN:
Twenty minutes is perfect.
DRIVER:
Gotta be somewhere by midnight?
BEN:
Gotta kiss a girl by midnight.
The driver laughs, guns the gas. We pan out to see the taxi racing down the 405.
50
TATUM
NEW YEAR’S EVE
The sky is bigger than I ever dreamed it could be. That’s what I keep thinking from my chaise, tucked under a blanket on the empty Hawaiian beach as midnight nears. That the world is so immense, and we are so small, and isn’t it a miracle that we find someone to love amidst its expanse? That Ben and I found each other? That we found our way back to each other again?
I check the time on my phone. He’ll be here in time. I know it.
“Hey, Tate, you coming in?” Piper shouts from the open patio door. From behind her, I can hear the pulse of music, the sound of heightened laughter from my family, as they dance and celebrate and wait to ring in the new year, the new chapter.
“Mo-o-o-o-ommmm,” Joey yells beside Piper. “I’m addicted to sparkling apple cider! It’s. The. Best!” He toots a noisemaker in triumph.
“I’ll be in soon, don’t worry,” I call back to them.
“You OK?” Piper says.
“I called him,” I say. “He’s coming.”
