CANDI
Yeah, but I told him off this time.
“Ugh, what am I doing?” Dani shook her head and highlighted the last page of her script. “This is terrible. DELETE.”
She pressed the backspace button and the words on the page disappeared. Maybe it wasn’t her place to tell this story after all. Profiting from the death of her friends or disrespecting their memory in any way felt wrong. But it was her story, too. One that she had been holding inside her chest for far too long. Perhaps she could tell it from another angle. She started again.
FADE IN
ON A LAPTOP KEYBOARD
Hands tap at the laptop keyboard, the screen illuminating the face of CANDI BATES, a middle-aged woman. Strong and sure of herself, but weathered by a hard life and her work as a college professor. CANDI stares out the window and sees the figure of a MAN staring back at her.
Suddenly, there’s a KNOCK at her door.
CANDI
(GASP) Who is it?
JENNA, another middle aged college professor, stands in the doorway, smiling.
JENNA
Wow, you’re jumpy today.
“Much better,” Dani said, reading back the words. It felt right to start out the story in the present day instead of when she was a teenager. The past was the past, but there was nothing scary about things that happened. Dani had already seen that movie, and she knew how it ended. It was the things that were yet to happen that she had to fear.
“And so then I said ‘Get lost, asshole!’ And I threw the entire drink in his face!”
It was the following morning, and Dani sat across from Missy at Le Petit Dejeuner, their favorite brunch restaurant. Missy forked a triumphant bite of eggs benedict into her mouth and chewed as Dani twisted her sweat-dampened hair up into a bun. She and Missy had a standing brunch date once a month after their Sunday morning jog on the beach, and Dani was full and utterly exhausted. She had stayed up way too late writing the night before and nearly canceled their brunch date. Plus, she was still very much on edge after her phone call from DetectiveOwens. It might have been a bad move to be out in public, but Dani was determined to keep living her life. Matt had taken so much from her. He wasn’t going to take away bottomless mimosas too.
“Wow. So then what happened?” Dani asked, trying to sound interested.
“The guy got even more angry and the bouncer kicked him out.” Missy’s eyes narrowed as she finished her third mimosa. “What’s up with you today? You’re a million miles away.”
Dani sighed and scratched the back of her neck. “It’s nothing. I’m just dealing with some personal stuff.”
“Spill it,” Missy said, waving down their server. “S’cuse me, sir? Can I get another mimosa?”
“I don’t really want to …”
“Come on. We’re friends! You can tell me.” Missy held her glass up for a refill as a server walked past their table.
The server turned to Dani’s cup, but she waved it away. “No thank you. I’m all set.”
“Only one mimosa,” Missy said, shaking her head. “Something isdefinitelywrong.”
“It’s just … something from my past is kind of coming back to haunt me, and there’s nothing I can really do about it but wait.”
“Oooh, what is it? A scandal?” she asked. “Did you embezzle a bunch of money or something?”
“No.” Dani frowned. “Nothing like that.”
“Well, don’t leave me in suspense. What happened?”
“I’ve only ever talked about this to my therapist and my aunt,” Dani said.
“I’m listening.”
