Consequence (2) GIRLS (in unison) Hey there, hotstuff. SEBASTIAN (pulls his sunglasses slightly down to look at them with incredulty) Excuse me? GIRL #1 You heard us. SEBASTIAN Unfortunately. Sebastian keeps on walking, ignoring the two girls who turn to stare at him as he walks down the remainder of the stairs. Reaching the bottom, he turns and walks out into the parking lot, a few feet from where Cole dropped him off the day before. The weather is now completely different, Sebastian can see the sun shining from the skylights, and also over in the ground that is not covered by the roof of the parking lot. Walking towards this light, his clad in Birkenstock sandals, he decides to take the sandals off, seeing as the ground is cool. When he reaches the end of the shadow and steps outside, he realizes his mistake. SEBASTIAN Ow! He quickly retreats back into the shadow to put his sandals back on, and then ventures once again out into the sunlight. The camera is a view that is basically Sebastian’s point of view, but we can still see him. Off to Sebastian’s left and about 20 feet in front of him is a pool surrounded by a black, high, wrout iron fence. Inside the fence the pool shimmers calmly, as old ladies do their workout in it, not causing much of a stir in the surface of the water. Beyond the pool, to the left still, is a large gathering house kind of thing, with many grills and areas to sit and eat. Next to the pool and the gathering house is a shuffleboard area. Straight from where Sebastian stands, there is a path leading to the beach, a grassy are on the side of the path with a single palm tree, calmly moving back and forth in the slight, warm, breeze. The path then leads onto a raised wooden ramp type of structure that serves as a bridge to the beach. Sebastian walks towards the beach, the camera following close behind. Immediately to the left of the beginning of the bridge is a set of stairs that leads to a volleyball court. Immediately to the right of the landing on the wooden ramp is a set of shower heads and hoses that one uses to spray one’s feet, legs, sandals, or whatever else one might have covered in sand whilst on the beach. Sebastian walks on, passing a black guy with dredlocks, who will later be identified as Akinshigun. Ahead, at the end of the wooden ramp type of thing, there lies the beach. 50 or 60 feet from this beginning of the beach lies the majesticly green waters of the Emerald Coast. Beyond that are the deep blue waters that make up the Gulf Coast. Sebastian stops for a moment, bringing his sunglasses down to the end of his nose, to admire this sight. The camera rises above Sebastian, but still looks at the same point out in the ocean, but now can see much more of the beach area. The sand is a beautiful color of white. Also at the end of the bridge, there is a large green umbrella that a very tan man resides underneath. Spread out in rows along the beach are green cabanas, and other umbrellas exactly like the one under which the very tan man, Steve, is reclining in a matching green cloth chair. He holds a clipboard, on which he is furiously writing. The camera moves back down, as Sebastian approaches the beach, coming to a cabana, and standing there in wonderment for a moment or two, and then approaching the man that is under the umbrella. The camera has been in the same place it was before, at the point where Sebastian stood on the wooden ramp, but now cuts to a view from the side, getting Sebastian and Steve in it’s sights. Steve looks up. STEVE Can I help you? SEBASTIAN I hope so. I was wondering how one might acquire one of those cabanas over there. Sebastian gestures to his right, where one of the cabanas sits. STEVE Well, my friend, you’ve certainly come to the right man. I can help you with that, seeing as they are my cabanas. It’s ten dollars a week to rent one. Hmm, looks like I only have one open right now, and it is that one right there, right near the wooden ramp you’ve just come down. Damn, you’re white. I assume you’re new here, then? What’s your name? Steve clicks his pen, bringing down the point so that he may write down Sebastian’s name in the slot. SEBASTIAN Sebastian’s my name. And yes, I am new here. Is it really that obvious? STEVE Well, Sebastian, nice to meet you, I’m Steve. And yes, it really is that obvious. Steve holds his hand out to Sebastian in greeting, Sebastian takes it and shakes it. STEVE Sebastian, huh? Strange, there’s another Sebastian here, goes to college here in Florida. Don’t see him around much. So how long’re you staying here, Sebastian? SEBASTIAN I’ll be here for a year, it’s a long and complicated story, but I’ll be here. Thanks for the cabana. STEVE No problem. Oh, I almost forgot. What room are you in so that I may send the bill to that room? SEBASTIAN 209B. STEVE Gotcha. SEBASTIAN Thanks. Cya around then I suppose. STEVE Yeah, most likely. Sebastian walks away, Steve looking back down at his clipboard and frowning. Sebastian heads towards his cabana, where he promptly lays down and falls asleep, the cabana shading him. The scene fades into one of the same cabana, but it is now midday. Sebastian lies unawakened, and there is a little kid standing at the edge of the cabana, his head cocked to one side, staring at the sleeping form of Sebastian. The kid’s mother comes and tells him to leave. KID’S MOM Timmy, stop staring at that man. Leave him alone. Come now, let’s go find your father. She takes him by the hand and leads him away. The camera view is one of the cabana, from looking at it in such a way that the pool and the volleyball court as well as the condo building can be seen behind it. The ocean is unseen, but can still be heard, as can the sounds of many many tourists on the beach. Sebastian slowly wakes up, and gets up, heading towards the wooden plank and the camera follows. He sees a group of people, including Akinshigun, playing volleyball on the court, a very spirited game, people setting and spiking, others making digs for the ball as best they can. Sebastian wanders down to the sand court, and, seeing a girl standing on the edge, watching, walks over to her. SEBASTIAN Hey GIRL Hello. Who are you? One of Kin’s friends? SEBASTIAN Who? GIRL Kin. The girl rolls her head in gesture to Akinshigun, who is spiking the ball at the moment. SEBASTIAN Him? No, don’t know him. GIRL Then who are you? SEBASTIAN Nobody really, I’m just new here. Name’s Sebastian. You? GIRL My name’s Ali. Nice to meet you, Sebastian. All of a sudden, a yelp of pain is heard from one of the players on the court. He has hit the ball wrong, and hurt his wrist. GUY WHO HURT HIS WRIST FUCKIN’ A! THAT HURT! AKINSHIGUN You alright there, Jeff? JEFF Fuck no man, I ain’t alright. AKINSHIGUN Hey dude, that looked like it hurt and all, but uh...cut out the language for now, eh? There’s a little kid over there on the ramp watchin’ the game. The little kid looks at Jeff with the same expression as he did Sebastian earlier, and starts to sing a small tune to himself, really just saying two words in singsong. LITTLE KID Fuckin’ a, fuckin’ a.... He walks off the wooden ramp, singing the obscenity over and over again. The whole group has watched the scene. JEFF Oops. Sorry man, it’s just that I think I sprained my wrist again. Sorry Kin, but you’re going to have to play one man down. KIN (Aksinshigun) Come on buddy, you can make it. The game was just getting started! JEFF Dude, I sprained my wrist, alright? I’m not gonna be able to play. Akinshigun turns around and faces the rest of the players. KIN Sorry guys, looks like the game is over, on account of what a pussy Jeff is, with his poor little itty bitty wrist. JEFF Yeah yeah yeah, whatever Kin. One of the other players sees Sebastian standing in the corner talking to Ali. PLAYER What about him? Akinshigun whirls around with his dredlocks attempting to catch up, and sees Sebastian as well. Sebastian looks up from the conversation he is having with Ali. Akinshigun points at Sebastian as he says KIN You! You know how to play volleyball? SEBASTIAN Me? KIN (sarcastic at first) No, the other guy that’s standing on the sidelines with a dumb-ass look on his face. Yeah, you. SEBASTIAN You want me to play in your game, in place of that guy? He points to Jeff KIN No shit, sherlock. Yeah, get in here. SEBASTIAN Alright, I’ll do it. KIN What’s your name? SEBASTIAN Sebastian. KIN Well Sebastian, I’m Akinshigun, commonly known as Kin, and that loser over there is Jeff. The girl you are talking to is my good friend, Ali. That there Kin points to the other guy on the Kin’s team. KIN That there is Eric, and on the opposite side of the net you’ll see Andrea, Cole, and Ryan. SEBASTIAN (to everyone in general) Hey, what’s up? COLE Hey Sebastian. Did you get that stuff up to your room without much trouble, dude? SEBASTIAN Hey man, you’re Cole, as in like, the guy that helped me out the other day. What’s goin’ on? COLE Nothin’ much. KIN You two know each other? COLE Yeah, I picked him up from the airport yesterday, helped him with his stuff. KIN That’s nice. Now, let’s get on with the game, shall we? Sebastian, you’ll serve. SEBASTIAN Alright, lets see if those skills from my high school team held on. Sebastian serves the ball, a strong overhand serve that is an easy ace for his team. KIN Nice serve Sebastian, let’s keep it up. Sebastian does it again, but it’s returned this time. The volleyball game intensifies and the camera takes it in for a while. There is a montage of a lot of spiking, digging, and setting, and all the players end up covered in sand. After this montage lasts for a few mintues, they all head up the ramp, the sun now starting it’s downward climb towards the horizon. They all head towards the beach, where Kin and Cole begin playing frisbee in the ocean. Ali, Eric, Andrea, and Ryan all spread out on their respective towels. As they all do this, Sebastian sits down crosse-legged in the sand, and watches Kin and Cole play in the ocean. Andrea starts talking to him. The camera is a view from behind the group, getting all of them in, and also keeping Cole and Akinshigun in the background view the whole time. As Andrea begins talking to Sebastian, she is propped up on her elbows, and she too is watching Cole and Kin. She begins talking to him without moving her head at first, but one cannot tell if she moves her eyes or not, because of the sunglasses she is wearing. ANDREA So, Sebastian is it? SEBASTIAN Yeah, that’s the name. ANDREA I see. Well, in case you’ve already forgotten or something like that, I’m Andrea. RYAN (from on his towel, without looking up) Andrea, he KNOWS who you are, you were introduced a few hours ago at the most. ANDREA Hey, no comments from the loser gallery, alright? RYAN Whatever. ANDREA Anyways, so what’s your story, Sebastian? What’re you doing here in Florida, a liitle teenager, all by your lonsesome self? It’s not spring break, and you don’t have any friends with you...so what’s up? You some spoiled rich kid who’s skipping college, like these fags here? RYAN (still without getting up or even glancing in Sebastian and Sierra’s direction) Andrea, will you stop that little diatribe of yours? You always come off stupid when you start it. ANDREA I didn’t hear anybody ask you, so shutup Ryan. RYAN Sebastian, don’t listen to her crap, she’s a spoiled little rich kid too, just like the rest of us, she just likes to pretend she isn’t as conceited as everybody else here is, tries to be all high and mighty all the time. Ignore her constant yammering on about “inequities in our social classes”. She goes on and on and on... ANDREA I’ve told you twice already, shut up! Anyways, Sebastian, what’s your story? What gives, how come you’re here in the middle of summer, I mean, it’s not exactly tourist season. And you certainly don’t sound like any of the southern hicks that live around here. Sebastian has been watching the two fight, trying to get a word in edgewise. He sees his chance, also seeing that it may be short-lived and immediately takes it. SEBASTIAN My story? Well, it’s complicated, and a very long story. You sure you want to hear it? ANDREA Yeah, go ahead. ERIC (from on his towel, without looking up) Yeah, spit it out dude. SEBASTIAN Well, ok. See the thing is that my grandma is totally loaded, like beyond belief, to the gills with money, alright? ERIC Yeah... ALI So.... SEBASTIAN I’m gettin’ there. Anyways, she’s rich beyond belief as I said before. And so she offered to pay the tuition for me to any college anywhere that I want, it doesn’t matter. That includes a car, and room and board, and money for food, and money for clothes, basically, an all-expense-paid trip to college. ERIC Sounds like a good deal. So you’re going to college here? SEBASTIAN No, no, that’s not it. There was just one single catch to this great deal of hers. See, I’ve had the same girlfriend since freshman year, a girl named Sierra. ALI Cool name. SEBASTIAN Yeah, anyways, my grandma didn’t like the fact that I was a senior and still going out with the girl that I was going out with in freshman year. She said that I needed to “expand my horiizons before I committed to stuff like that. So she said that if I wanted to spend time at college on her dime, then I had to agree to one condition. ANDREA Which was... SEBASTIAN Which was that I had to spend a year away from everything, a year away from Milwaukee. ERIC Hold up. You’re from Milwaukee? SEBASTIAN Yeah, why? ALI So is Kin. You should talk to him about it. SEBASTIAN Yeah, ok. Anyways, so this is where she chose to sent me, hooked me up with a credit card with basically no limit, a condo, I’ve already got a car of my own that is pretty crappy, but I don’t care, it’ll do. In any case, this is the first day of what is going to be a long year away from the love of my life, sweet, sweet Sierra. ERIC Sounds like you got a real good thing goin’ with this girl. That’s cool, sucks though that you have to spend a year from her. No gettin’ laid for you for a year, eh? Sucks to be you! ALI Shut up Eric, you’re a moron. And if you want to be getting laid anytime soon, you’ll stop bugging Sebastian about it. Ali hits Eric with her towel playfully and gives him a “look”, eyebrows raised ERIC Sure, Ali. You couldn’t go a week without it. ALI That’s enough about that subject. Hey, Cole and Kin are done. Kin and Cole both come running up to the spot on the beach where the group is talking. KIN What were you losers all discussing so animatedly? COLE Yeah, clue us in. ANDREA Nothing, just Sebastian’s reason for being here. COLE Which is... SEBASTIAN Long story, I’ll tell you some other time. COLE Whatever. SEBASTIAN But wait, you guys got to hear my story, what gives with all of you being here? KIN I can take that one. I am from a place called Brookefield, a suburb of Milwaukee that you’ve probably never heard of, and I’m a kid with lots of money and little motivation for college. I’d been here once or twice, decided to come down for a month or two, meet up with these guys, and stayed. Andrea is from Texas, though she doesn’t sound like it. Ali is from California, Eric is from Maine, and Ryan from New York. Good old Cole here Slaps Cole on the back KIN is from Washington. So as you can see, we’re a very mixed group. Anyways, guys, I’m heading back up to the room to grab a cold one and take a nap, still sleeping last night off. ERIC Yeah, last night was a rough one. ALI You said you wanted it rough! ERIC I didn’t mean that, you fool! I meant the drinking. He sighs at Ali’s ditziness. ALI Oh. Sebastian tries to stifle a laugh. COLE So Eric, you wanted it hard, eh? Cole laughs at him. ERIC Shutup. I’ll come with you, Kin. I’m pretty wasted too. COLE I would be too after Ali gave it to me rough. Laughs at Eric again. ERIC Shutup Cole, loser. ANDREA Yeah, I’m going up. I need to wash my hair, and that’ll take a while. RYAN I’m stayin’ here, I’m gonna get a little more work done on my tan. ALI I’ll go up with you guys, Eric, we need to discuss some things. Ali gets up, and hits Eric on the arm as she says this last part through gritted teeth. She walks off, Eric trailing after saying ERIC What? What did I do? KIN Let’s go, I’m tired. You coming Sebastian? By the way, what room are you staying in? SEBASTIAN 209B KIN Really? What a coincidence, Cole here is staying in 209A at the moment, though that will probably change by the end of the month. Sebastian gives him a questioned look. COLE I move around a lot, makes it more interesting, never unpack or anything. Sebastian nods. KIN (impatiently) You comin’ or not? SEBASTIAN Yeah, sure, I need to get some sleep, didn’t get much last night, got up early this morning, went to bed late last night talking to Sierra. KIN Good then, let’s go. Sebastian gets up and starts walking towards the wooden ramp with Kin and Cole. When Sebastian is fully up from his position in the sand, the camera cuts to a view of his, Cole’s, and Kin’s backs as they walk away. The next scene is one where Kin is talking to Cole and Sebastian outside of their rooms. They begin discussing their plans for the evening. KIN Yeah, Sebastian, tonight we’ll be at this club called “The Lounge”. I’ll leave directions for you with the desk. So come by around 9 tonight, alright, and we’ll meet you there? SEBASTIAN Sounds good to me. KIN Alright then. I’ll see you two later. Cole, 8’o’clock and don’t be late, eh? COLE Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. KIN Good. Peace out, buds. SEBASTIAN Cya. COLE Later. The two men open their doors in time with each other, and close them at the exact same moment as well. The scene fades out. The scene now coming into focus is Sebastian, clad in a bright blue, long sleeved shirt that stands out from everyone else, and simple, black, pants. He is wearing his glasses, something that doesn’t usually happen, and is driving down the road in Kin’s BMW. He pulls up to a nightclub, glances at his watch, the camera cutting to a view of the watch face, the audience clearly able to see that it is indeed nine o’clock. Sebastian walks quickly into the nightclub, holding up a card that Kin gave him to show the bouncer that he need not wait in line. The scene cuts to a view of the inside of the nightclub, the club is constructed that there is a lowered floor in the middle obviously for dancing, where many couples bounce and grind to the lively beat, outside of this, on a raised area around the dance floor, is a square with tables where people may sit. There are also balconies high above Sebastian’s head, and the DJ booth is directly in front of Sebastian, up near the extremely high ceiling. There is also a stage that looks as though it is jutting out of the wall, set halfway up to the ceiling, far off the ground, and far out of the wall. It is surrounded by the speakers that are now pulsing out the music that everyone dances to. Sebastian heads towards the bar. BARTENDER Something I can get you? SEBASTIAN Just some water for the moment, thanks. BARTENDER Water? Really? SEBASTIAN Yeah, really. BARTENDER You’re the first person who’s ever ordered water... The bartender walks off to get Sebastian his water, muttering to himself about the nerve one must have to come into a nightclub and order water, of all things. As he does this, Sebastian turns around, facing the nightclub, looking for Akinshigun and the others. He thinks that he see’s Ryan, but loses sight of the man as quickly as he saw him. The bartender comes back with his water. BARTENDER (sarcastically) Here’s your water. SEBASTIAN (gives the bartender a “very funny” kind of look) Thanks. Sebastian turns around once again and once again begins to scan the crowd for his friends. As he does this, the song ends and the music stops playing. A voice, assumed to be the DJ’s, comes on. DJ Well, ladies and gentleman, we have quite a treat for us here tonight. You are about to be entertained by one of the best up and coming bands in the world. Give it up for Passé! Lights turn around and around finally focusing on the stage set halfway up the wall. The figures standing there that before were dark are now starting to become lighter, but the light remains yet to be dim, because the song starts out slowly. The voice seems oddly familiar. It is singing a cover of a Dave Matthews Band song. VOICE (Ryan’s) (singing the lyrics to the song Dancing Nancies) Could I have been a parking lot attendant Could I have been your little brother The lyrics continue until they begin to get faster, and you hear the other instruments begin to play. The song builds and continues for a few minutes. Sebastian stands up to try and get a better view, when all the lights get real bright on the band, and he realizes that they are his new friends that are playing up there. Eric approaches him. ERIC Sebastian! SEBASTIAN Hey. Wow, they’re really good. I had no idea that’s why they invited me here tonight. ERIC Yeah, the band is really good. Normally, I’d be up there too, but tonight I had the job of finding you and bringing you up there. You play an instrument? SEBASTIAN Not really… ERIC Not really? How can you not really play an instrument? SEBASTIAN Well, I play guitar, but I can only play a few songs that I’ve taken the time to laboriously memorize.
Copyright © 2000 Henry L. Bean |