Writing for genre

While in film school, I simply exhausted every writing class that I could. I didn't start school with the intention of being a writer. Actually, I wanted to do anything BUT write. I wanted to direct, produce, set design, and maybe the occasional voice over acting. I wanted nothing to do with the writing aspect. Now, I knew that I could write. I knew that I had a wee bit of talent, coming from a mother who wrote often, and a brother who was going to be a writer, so I had it in me. I didn't realize it was a thing that I could use until probably my third or fourth year of school. The writing classes were really easy for me. They were fun, and I usually received A grades. It wasn't until a "Writing for Genre" class that I had a bit of a struggle.
See, I can write horror. That's about it. All things weird, demented, and awful I can wrap my head around. Having to write a synopsis for a "rom-com" almost made me want to die. Most people say that they only right what they know. Since I've been described as "creepy" by my sister basically my whole life, that is what I know. Romantic, no. Comedy, especially not.
I had the hardest time getting anything down on paper for this assignment. All of these ideas had already been done, one way or another.
Our assignment was to pitch two ideas, and then the professor would pick his choice and you would write a treatment from there. I wrote two ideas. They were both mediocre, in my opinion. According to my professor, my final product was "original, down to earth, and marketable."
Single by Divorce, showed me that even if I don't think I can write anything else, someone is going to challenge me to do so. This being one of the hardest assignments I had come by, was also the most rewarding. Knowing that I can indeed write something out of the box for me, when necessary.
Although, I think I'll stick to horror.
Please enjoy:

            Single By Divorce

Act One:

           

Jason Curtis is sitting at the Los Angeles airport, waiting outside for a cab. He looks at his cell phone, going to the call list. His last phone call was from “dad”. The cab pulls up to him, and he walks to jump in. Before he can make it to the cab, a young woman runs up and jumps into the cab. Jason runs up to the door, but before he could say anything the cab took off. He only saw the back of the girls’ head. He flags down another cab, gets in, and makes his way to his apartment. He takes his two bags up the stairs to his “bachelor pad.” He opens the door and is greeted with his widescreen TV, his massive DVD collection, and his fridge full of beer.  He walks over to the fireplace, where on the edge sits pictures of his family. He throws his bags down, and pulls the picture from the frame, and sets it on the coffee table. He walks over to the kitchen and grabs the trashcan. He starts throwing bottles, the empty condom boxes, and random lingerie into the trashcan. He gets to the coffee table and picks up the photo of his family. He stares at it for a minute, rips it in half, and throws it into the trashcan. The side with his father sank to the bottom, while the side with him and his mother stayed on top.

         Jason wakes up the next morning, jet lagged and in need of some extreme caffeine.  He slowly crawls out of bed, and opens his shades. He grabs a pair of jeans and a button up shirt, his basic work clothes. He runs to the bathroom to check his hair, and then runs over to the kitchen to grab a package of pop tarts, which he throws into his backpack, and heads out the door. As soon as he walked out of the door, he slipped his ear buds in and began jamming to Motley Crue. He took the elevator down to the first floor, and exited out of the apartment building, walking to the parking garage right next door. He gets into his Nissan Xterra and makes his way to the office. He pulls into his assigned parking spot, turns off his car and sits for a minute thinking to him self. This is the first time in two months he has seen his office, his friends, and more importantly his father. He hesitantly gets out of his car, and shuffles his way into the building; the front desk girl, Claire, greets him. He proceeds down the hallway and to the left, to his corner office. He gives waves to his coworkers along the way, and then shuts himself into his office, seeing the picture of his family on his desk.  He is interrupted in his sulking by his best friend Kyle, who waltzes into his office like he owns the place. He makes Jason get up, and gives him a friendly hug and welcomes him back to the working world. Jason and Kyle had talked while Jason was on his vacation, and Kyle was well informed of Jason’s parents’ recent divorce. In his attempts to cheer up Jason, Kyle decides to indulge in his “conquests”. In the midst of his graphics, Jason stops Kyle in mid sentence. “No dating. I’m done dating. My parents get divorces, I don’t date.” Jason proudly announces. Kyle glances over at Jason with a confused look. He then tries to talk him out of it, saying his parents are not him, and he doesn’t have to make that mistake. Jason’s mind was made up. Kyle looked at his watch, and noticed it was five to ten, and they had a meeting at ten. Kyle started out the door, and Jason wasn’t moving. He stated he would rather die in that chair then go sit in a room with his father. Kyle went over to Jason and began to pull him out of the chair. The two struggled, when Jason got quiet. “Doomed, we’re all doomed.” A female voice echoed. He stood up, and peeked outside of his office door. “Friday the 13^th Kyle, some girl out there quoted Friday the 13^th, my favorite movie of all time.” Kyle laughed, and looked out the door with Jason. The girl had long dark hair. He recognized that hair. It was the hair that stole his cab the night before.

Act Two:

         By Jason getting out of the chair, Kyle drags him out of his office, down to the boardroom; they pass by the mysterious dark haired girl. Kyle points out that her name is Baylin, and she started working there right after Jason left for his trip. The boardroom is right next door to Logan Curtis’ office, Jason’s father. Jason tries to slip by undetected, but Logan sees him and comes out of his office, to greet his son with a hug, Jason falls back, and heads into the boardroom. He finds his seat, and Kyle joins him at the end up the table. The others start to file in the room, and Jason sits in his chair quietly. Baylin, who is making her way into the room, brings him to attention. She sits directly across from him, and smiles as she sits down. Logan walks in, and begins the meeting by welcoming his son back into the office, and gets down to business. Jason zones out. He is brought back into reality when Logan introduces Baylin as the new head of promotions for the company. Whispers start to emerge. The meeting ends, and Jason is now intrigued. He looks toward Kyle who has a sympathetic look on his face. Jason pressures Kyle for information, until finally he gives in. Kyle begins to tell Jason of the rumors, Baylin had only been there for two months, at a starting position and yet she was now the head of promotions, and there had been rumors that she was only promoted due to her “relationship” with Logan Curtis. Jason couldn’t believe that this was happening, the girl that he thought was beautiful, and was movie savvy really broke up his parents’ marriage. Jason rushed to his fathers’ office, and slammed the door demanding an explanation. Logan was very calm at first, trying to explain that he fell out of love with his wife, and there wasn’t anyone or anything else responsible. As soon as Jason brought up Baylin’s name, his father got quiet, and he never gets quiet. Jason then knew it was true, he could tell by the silence. His father then told him that there was a connection between him and Baylin, a connection that he didn’t fell with his wife, and wouldn’t feel with her again. Sick of his excuses, Jason stormed out of the office, slammed the door and traveled back down the hall to his office. Kyle waited for words to come out of Jason’s mouth, but nothing was happening. Jason was in shock, his father just admitted infidelity and his world had just begun to crash.

         The day wore on, Jason hid in his office doing his paper work, which was two months behind, while the rest of the crew was working, laughing, and doing what they did while Jason was gone. Five o’clock rolled around and Jason was more than ready to leave the workplace. He started out of his office, when Kyle came and intercepted him. There was a small get together at the local bar in Jason’s honor, and he had no choice but to attend. Kyle drove the two of them to the bar, psyching Jason up before they got there with stories of boredom when he was gone. They got to the bar, walked in and sat at their usual table.  A few people from work started to show up, and gather around Jason, welcoming him back. Jason’s eyes focus on the door, noticing the dark brown hair of Baylin come walking in the door. She heads straight to the bar and grabs a pitcher of her favorite beer, which happens to be Jason’s favorite as well.  She sets it on the table in front of him, introduces herself, sits down next to him and strikes up a conversation. Jason answered sarcastically to each one of her questions, and was down right rude. He stood up from the table and walked over to the bar. He ordered a Blue Moon, and waited for it to be handed to him. Baylin snuck up behind him. He turned around, looked at her, turned back to the bar. She got up right in his face and asked him what his problem was. He didn’t know her, what did she do to him? He looked her square in the face and stated. “My Father.”

Act Three:

         Baylin just stares at Jason, she couldn’t even find any words to say. After a few seconds, she finally chimes back in. She admitted to having some sort of connection with his father, but there was no relationship. She never “did” his father. Jason began to say exactly what his father said, and through in some office rumors. Baylin’s eyes began to swell up with tears. She couldn’t stand to take the abuse, so she started to run out of the bar. Jason felt responsible, so he followed her, forgetting that Kyle drove, and he was walking out on his own party. Kyle started to follow him when he signaled him to stay put. Jason ran out of the bar, looking both directions to see where she went. He started to run down the sidewalk to his left, making a b-line to what he thinks is Baylin. He grabs the girl from behind, and it turns out not to be her. He apologizes and turns the other direction to find Baylin standing by the door of the bar with a slight smile on her face. He walked back towards her, feeling embarrassed. She complimented him on his running skills, and he began to apologize. She then proceeds to tell him the real story. She felt like his father was her father, and there wasn’t anything sexual about their relationship. She used to be in charge of promotions at a small company, which is why she got promoted so fast. There was a reason for everything. Jason had some explaining to do himself, like why he freaked out and was such a jerk to her. He then proceeded to explain about his parent’s divorce and how he found out, and that he decided not to date since his parents couldn’t make it though. By this time she was less upset, and had stopped crying so they decided to go back into the bar, where they continued to talk. Kyle ran over to Jason, saying he was ready to go when Baylin offered to drive Jason home.

         They closed out the bar, and decided to take a walk around Hollywood Boulevard and continue their chat. It was getting to be four am, and they needed to be at work at nine.  They journeyed up to Baylin’s car; her IPod was plugged into her radio, with Motley Crue blasting out at them. She apologized for the loudness, and they got to talk about how they liked the same music. Before either of them knew it, they were at Jason’s apartment building. He didn’t seem to want to get out of the car. They were having such a good conversation and finding that they had a lot in common. Jason finally got out of the car, and waved goodbye as he walked into his apartment building. He rode the elevator in silence, contemplating what he had just experienced.

         He didn’t sleep in those four hours. He laid in his bed until his alarm went off, got up, jumped in the shower, and starts to head out of his apartment. On his way down the elevator he realizes that he left his car at the office. He pulls out his phone, and starts to dial Kyle. He walks out of the elevator only to find Baylin standing in the lobby with two cups of coffee.  She also realized that he had forgotten his car at work, and brought him coffee and a ride. Jason smiled, hung up the phone, and walked over to meet her. She hands him his cup of coffee and guides him out to her car.  She smiles, and tells him that she got no sleep the night before, and is making an executive decision, they are skipping work to go for breakfast at her favorite spot, right off of the beach. He agrees, since he is the bosses son, he can get away with one free day. They drive down to the beach discussing everything from movies to the bible. They have their food with them, and find a nice spot on the beach, secluded and peaceful. Jason explains to Baylin that he has never met anyone like her before, and could understand why his father would feel something more for her. Baylin interjects saying that the relationship between his father and her was completely innocent, and that if there was anything else it was completely one sided. Jason leans in and kisses her. They pull away, and he just stares at her. She questions his motives, he had stated that he wasn’t dating anyone because his parents fell out of love. He looks into her eyes, and says the one thing that he can think of to keep the moment perfect. “There is one exception to every rule.”