'Harri With An I'
- Jane Hearst
- Sep 12, 2017
- 4 min read
INT. RESTAURANT – EVENING
JAMIE watches as HARRIETT silently laughs in slow motion. The Table light glows against her face, and her hair gently drops as she faces up to look into Jamie’s eyes.
INT. BEDROOM – DAY
Jamie lays on CLAIRE’s bed, gazing at the ceiling, as the muffled sound of Claire’s voice, incoherently rumbles in the background.
INT. RESTAURANT – EVENING
Harriett strokes her hair back behind her ear & lovingly smiles out of the side of her mouth. Sparklers flair behind her as a waiter serves a birthday cake to a child. The flair creates a glowing halo around Harriett’s head.
INT. BEDROOM – DAY
Jamie continues to lay, dazed, in a world of her own, still listening to the sound of sparklers.
CLAIRE
(Recoiling with pain)
Shit!
Jamie awakes from her daze.
JAMIE
What happened?
CLAIRE
Oh good! You ARE still in there
somewhere… at least for emergencies.
Jamie raises an apologetic eyebrow
CLAIRE
Bloody Straighteners, been on the way out
for months, bastards shocked me!
(She walks to her desk)
Who’s this special person that you’re
willing to risk my life for?
(She winks, expectantly)
Jamie blushes with embarrassment and moves away.
JAMIE
Her name’s Harriett Charleston,
I met her a few weeks back during…
Claire opens Harriett’s Facebook profile in the background.
CLAIRE
Aww, she’s cute!
Jamie turns around, confused, to find Claire flicking through facebook photos. She pauses on one…
CLAIRE
At least… I mean… he’s cute.
Jamie frowns, walks over, and the two of them stare at the screen; the comments read “thata boy” “who’s the man!” “looking good mate”.
INT. RESTAURANT – EVENING
HARRY continues to push his fringe back behind his ear & takes a sip from the straw in his drink.
INT. BEDROOM – DAY
JAMIE
Well… that’s… (goes to say “not a problem”)
Claire clicks on the ‘about’ page and it reads ‘male’.
CLAIRE
Tough break on finally finding yourself
the right girl.
JAMIE
Yeah, I guess so
INT. RESTAURANT – EVENING
JAMIE
…I mean I’ve always identified as a…
bisexual… female you know, so…
Jamie looks at Harry and smiles awkwardly. She inhales deeply, with a smile that is beginning to look a little crazy. She looks down at her glass and fumbles, and tries to casually say:
JAMIE
How about you? How do you identify.
HARRY
Oh, I’ve… always liked girls.
Jamie nods with an increasingly desperate smile on her face.
JAMIE
MMM HMM.
Harry reaches out to hold Jamie’s hand, but when she looks closer, she notices how small and feminine it looks. She tilts her head in confusion.
INT. BEDROOM – DAY
JAMIE
Should have worked that out from the Y and…
She points towards the name on the screen
BOTH
…not an I.
(Claire nods in agreement)
Claire continues clicking.
JAMIE
So “Harriett”… I must have just saw the name
and jumped to conclusions, you know cause I thought…
Claire finds something.
CLAIRE
…she was a girl.
Jamie looks downhearted, and walks back over to the bed to sit down.
JAMIE
Yeah.
CLAIRE
No… Jamie… I’m say… HE was a SHE.
JAMIE
What?!
INT. RESTAURANT – EVENING
JAMIE
Though, I guess the better description is
PANsexual… I like boys, girls and…
She smiles awkwardly again.
INT. BEDROOM – DAY
CLAIRE
2012 – long hair, school skirt – girl
2015 – reaches sixth form, cuts hair, wears
sports tops
Then first year of uni… looks like the first semester
the comments start changing.
JAMIE
Fuck!
CLAIRE
What wrong with…? I thought you liked…
JAMIE
There’s… there’s no pronouns here! Is it a she,
a he, a… ze?
CLAIRE
Well they’re certainly not an IT. You need to
calm down, everything will be ok.
JAMIE
No, it won’t.
Oh god, what if I’ve already called her a she
in our chats, when he’s, more likely to be a he.
INT. RESTAURANT – EVENING
HARRI cuts up Jamie, in her sexuality spiel.
HARRI
I have, a, hilarious, story to tell you.
So in my first year right, I went to this
house-party, about… a month or so, into the semester,
and I see this guy called John that I’ve been
hanging around with.
Jamie nods along with the story.
HARRI cont.
Guy’s talking to my housemate about the hilarious
boy that he lives with. Now the only other guy in
our apartment, is this dude called Taylor, and
he NEVER comes out of his room. So my housemate
George is all confused… dude points at me doesn’t he.
Me?!
Harri looks offended, then bursts out laughing.
HARRI cont.
Can you believe that! he thought that I was a
boy! and I mean he so sure, he was willing to bet
on it!
Jamie laughs, but she does so a little too late.
HARRI
You’re right boring story. You’ll get it when
you meet them.
JAMIE
Do you know… I mean… you know that your
facebook says you’re a boy right.
HARRI
What really?! Bastards! No wonder…
She looks up to Jamie.
HARRI cont.
You thought I was a boy.
She smiles mischievously. Jamie looks in horror.
JAMIE
No, I knew… well I thought I knew… at least before
I saw…
The sounds of the room get louder as Jamie feels trapped and embarrassed.
HARRI
You really are adorable.
Jamie is caught off guard.
JAMIE
what?
Harri smiles, and leans towards her, gazing into her eyes with intrigue. Jamie nervously smiles back, fumbling with her clothes. The moment holds, the two laugh…
The end.
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