The Wedding - A Screenplay

"The Wedding"

Scene: Hotel room, Mother and Daughter's faces are seen in a mirror, the Mother is putting a veil onto her daughter's head.

Mom: Oh, Julie, darling, you look so beautiful. I'm just so happy that you're getting married today and have found your one true love.

(Julie, smiling, looks at herself in the mirror. Shifts her gaze to her mother, and her smile fades and her face clouds.)

Julie: Momma, I love you so much and I should be so happy, but...

Mom: What? But WHAT, sweetheart? We've traveled here to your dream destination wedding and all of our friends and family are getting ready to watch you join your special man to be married forever!

Julie: But it's all wrong! I just can't do it, Momma!

Mom: Julie, honey, it is totally normal for a bride to get nervous and have second thoughts just as her special moment approaches. Don't worry about it.

(Mom pulls Julie into a hug from behind - both still looking in the mirror)

Mom (cont): It's just jitters, sweetie. I felt the same thing before I married your father and I've been ... happy.

Julie: Have you, Mom? Have you really been happy? I mean, Dad's a good man, but has it been everything you thought it should be? Is marriage really the right thing?

Mom: Why, Julie! What's gotten into you? Of course, marriage hasn't always been perfect. It takes work and compromise, but it creates the structure that our whole lives are built on. It's the foundation of everything else!

(Mom looks closer at Julie's face, then spins her to face her - no longer looking in the mirror. The camera pulls back to show them standing face-to-face, both dressed in white satin bra, panties, and stockings. Mom keeps hold of Julie's hands and catches her eyes)

Mom: but I can see there's something really bothering you, sweetheart. What? What is it? Never mind about the guests and the preparations and everything. If this really isn't right, you have to tell me!

(Julie starts to sniffle)

Julie: Oh, Momma! I caught Tyler looking at... looking at... PORN online! As if I wasn't enough for him. As if I wasn't what he really wanted. I feel so dirty and rejected!

Mom: Julie, honey, don't do that. Don't worry. Men just do look at naked women and it doesn't mean anything. Your father...

Julie (Interrupting): EW! MOM! I don't want to hear about Daddy ogling women! GROSS!

Mom: All I'm saying, honey, is that all men do it. And a lot of women, too, dear, I sometimes..

Julie: (Interrupting): MOM! EW! REALLY, Mom!

Mom: Julie, dear, now listen to me! Sex is just a part of life - and it's really important - particularly if you do it wrong. It can really mess up a marriage. But I've *heard* that if you embrace it and bring it into your life, it is beautiful and special and wonderful.

(Mom winks): and *hot*!

(Julie looks doubtful, but keeps listening. Sighs, and tilts her head, looking Mom in the eyes).

Mom: Honey, it's just a myth that any one person can always satisfy any other person sexually. I like to look at pictures of young studs with their hunky muscles oiled up and just so - well - so artistic. I have to admit that your fiance, Tyler, cuts quite an image in his bathing trunks.

Julie: MOM!! You've got the hots for my fiance! The man I'm about to marry? Tyler? Really? You COUGAR!

(Julie takes a moment, takes a breath, then looks back to Mom)

Julie: Well, I have to tell you that the porn sites he was looking at - were all Cougar sites. He was looking at older women. I looked thru his browsing history and he's had a subscription to a half-dozen sites for quite awhile. Oh, Mom, that's the problem: I've seen the way he looks at you when you're not looking - and I think he wants YOU more than he wants ME.

(Mom catches her breath. Can't help herself. Is lost in the thought of Tyler wanting HER - despite it being a devastating revelation for the impending wedding. She is clearly both very complimented and getting hot thinking about it - while feeling so badly for her daughter).

Mom: Oh, honey! Surely not! He can't possibly...

Julie (Interrupting): Let me finish, Mom. He does! I overheard him talking to his buddies about your perfect chest and your tight butt and ... what he wanted to do to you. To YOU!

(Mom starts to object, but Julie holds up a finger to stop her)

Julie: and you know what, Mom? The thing that really bothers me the most?

(both of them are shaking their heads, looking at each other, fighting off tears)

Julie: What bothers me most, is that I really don't mind! Honestly, I've been getting really hot looking at Ashley.

Mom: Ashley? ASHLEY your maid-of-honor Ashley? Your best friend since you were in kindergarten who now has those hot smokey eyes and those amazing tits and

(Mom is clearly losing her judgement - getting wound up)

Mom: and her... oh, my, Julie my dear, are you a lesbian? You?

Julie: I don't know, Mom. I do like guys, but Ashley and I made out a couple of times "just practicing for when we got boyfriends" and, honestly,

(Julie gets a dreamy look in her eyes and kind of hugs herself)

Julie: oh, honestly, Mom, I've never felt so... alive, so amazing, so consumed with LUST as when I was with Ashley.

(Mom and Julie look at each other sadly, feeling so badly for each other, shaking their heads)

(But then their mouths begin to curl up at the sides. They start stealing glances at each others' eyes, then they break into full-on smiles - then begin to laugh - holding each other and howling - clinging to each other - crying and laughing and letting all of the pent-up repression and emotion come spilling out).

(They move to the bed and sit on it - together - hugging each other and slowly catching their breath)

(They sit in silence for awhile, just looking at each other - glancing up, then away, then back).

Julie: So. Mom. Mother. Momma. What do I *do*???

(Mom thinks for a bit more, then comes to a decision, squares her shoulders, and looks Julie in the eyes - holding both hands again).

Mom: Well, dear. Daughter. Sweetheart. I think it's time for us to stop pretending - stop doing what we're expected to do - and go get what we really want.

(Julie looks at her mother, questioning)

Mom: I say that everybody else probably feels the same way we do and would love to be released from their expectations, too. We've really run late here and I expect that everybody is already out on the lawn by the ocean - waiting for us to start the ceremony. *I* say that we just march out there, grab the partners we *really* want and start a sexual free-for-all right there - and invite everybody else to join in!

(Grabbing Julie by the hand and pulling her to her feet and out the door)

Mom: Never mind our dresses, we wouldn't have them on very long anyway. Come on! Right like this. Right Now. It's now or never, Julie!

(as they are running down the hotel hall in their underwear)

Julie: Yes, Mom, YES! Let's go give all our guests a wedding they'll NEVER forget!

(Blackout)