Teddy Ferrara

  (Provost follows President off.

  Sounds of protest from off. Drew enters. Gabe comes out. He sees Drew.)

  GABE: Hey.

  DREW: Could you believe that?

  GABE: Crazy.

  DREW: I know. Are you okay?

  GABE: Yeah—I was just like—what do I—

  DREW: You did exactly the right thing—tried to keep everyone calm—didn’t overreact—

  GABE: I didn’t know what else to—

  DREW: You were amazing.

  (Pause.)

  GABE: Thank you . . .

  5.1

  Drew enters.

  DREW: What’s up?

  NICKY: Hey.

  DREW: Why didn’t you want to come to the office?

  NICKY: Because . . . I wanted to talk to you on more neutral ground.

  DREW: I guess we’ll get to why—can’t get more neutral than the food court. What’s up?

  NICKY: Now that charges have come down in Teddy’s case—I feel like the story is basically over.

  DREW: There’s no hate crime charge yet. That’s a story—that they just went with invasion of—

  NICKY: I mean—he’s dead, the roommate left school, the charges are filed, the university is having this big event tomorrow before the Homecoming game—I’d like to move on.

  DREW: Well . . . okay. You’ve done a great job but we can find you other stuff to cover—

  NICKY: No, I mean—I’d like to move on from the paper.

  (Pause.)

  DREW: Why?

  NICKY: I’m burned-out. On top of all my schoolwork it’s just too much.

  DREW: All of a sudden?

  NICKY: It’s been building . . .

  DREW: Right. Are you sure this isn’t about something else?

  NICKY: No—no.

  DREW: Are you mad that Gabe and I got back together?

  (Pause.)

  NICKY: Why would that make me mad? We had one—

  DREW: Because you’re in love with me?

  NICKY: Drew—that’s ridiculous.

  I’m not in love with you.

  (Pause.)

  DREW: Okay. Just—okay.

  NICKY: What?

  DREW: No, just . . . guess I misread you. I thought you were flirting with me . . .

  NICKY: I mean—I was but—so were you.

  DREW: Oh, I know I flirted with you. For sure.

  (Pause.)

  NICKY: So why did you never . . . pursue anything?

  DREW: I wanted to. I just didn’t think it was ethical. You worked for me.

  (Pause.)

  NICKY: I don’t anymore.

  DREW: Right—but I’m with Gabe now. So . . .

  NICKY: . . . That’s how it goes I guess.

  DREW: Well. I hate to lose a great writer, but— Are you still going to read your piece in the—

  NICKY: Yeah, I’ll still take part in the ceremony—

  DREW: Okay. Doing anything for Homecoming kickoff tonight?

  NICKY: Probably just catch up with schoolwork.

  DREW: Nothing? Not even going to see Beach Crew?

  NICKY: Oh God no—

  DREW: Can I ask you one question? Will you promise to be honest?

  NICKY: Sure.

  DREW: When you told me that after the vigil some guy blew you—were you lying?

  NICKY: No. Why?

  DREW: Really?

  (Pause.)

  NICKY: I’m not—

  DREW: Just tell me the truth.

  (Pause.)

  NICKY: No, I wasn’t lying.

  DREW: Okay.

  I gotta get back to work—I’ll see you at the ceremony tomorrow.

  NICKY: You’ll be there?

  DREW: Gabe has to be there as head of the Queer Students, so—I’m going for him.

  5.2

  GABE: Wow. I wonder if what happened had anything to do with his deciding to declare?

  JAY: He was so clearly acting out. It was like he wanted an excuse—

  GABE (Reading on phone): “. . . nothing to do with real or perceived tensions at the university”—

  JAY: Liar—which makes him perfect for the Senate!

  GABE: I guess he has to say that. It’s too bad—I think he was a good President.

  JAY: You do? Really? I know you liked him as a person but—how was he a good—

  GABE: He’s an adult. And he expected everyone here to also be an adult—

  JAY: Violently ripping a megaphone from a student is adult behavior?

  GABE: In context—sure.

  JAY: I think an adult would have allowed an act of protest to unfold.

  GABE: In the middle of my speech?

  JAY: I wish they’d waited but—it had to be at a moment when it would make an impact.

  GABE: Right . . . —Hopefully I can work on his campaign. How amazing would that be.

  JAY: If that’s the kind of thing you want to do . . .

  GABE: You know, some good things do happen in Congress—Americans with Disabilities Act?

  JAY: You don’t have to lecture me on the Americans with Disabilities—

  GABE: No I wasn’t—lecturing—

  JAY: A lot of very bad things happen there, too.

  (Pause.)

  GABE: Well—I like him. And I think his caution proved correct—when the real story came out—

  JAY: Not this again—

  GABE: But the reason we have to be careful with grand pronouncements is they oversimplify—

  JAY: There’s a reason no legitimate news outlets ever reported that stuff—

  GABE: Yeah, because they want everything to be black and white—

  JAY: No, because it had nothing to do with Teddy killing himself—

  GABE: Nobody can say why he killed himself—

  JAY: You just refuse to even consider the possibility it was the obvious reason, though. Why?

  GABE: I don’t—I just don’t think we can know either way . . . Anyway. You doing anything tonight?

  JAY: I’m not sure yet.

  GABE: Me and Drew are getting together with Tim and Jenny if you want to join us.

  JAY: You patched things up with Tim?

  GABE: He did! I don’t know how he heard so quickly that Drew and I got back together—but he texted me this morning and asked if we wanted to get drinks.

  JAY: That’s it? You never talked about the fact that you stopped being in touch with him?

  GABE: I thought more about it—I think I overreacted—I was stressed about Drew at the time . . .

  JAY: I remember you being really upset that he kept saying he was going to cheat.

  GABE: But he didn’t actually do it—

  JAY: What do you like about Drew? I don’t really understand.

  (Pause.)

  GABE: I just—like him—his energy, his spirit, his drive—

  JAY: Do you respect him?

  GABE: I do. He’s overcome a lot of hurt—his parents—there was a guy who really hurt him—

  JAY: I’ve overcome a lot of hurt.

  (Pause.)

  I have a good spirit and drive. And I actually care about you.

  GABE: I—Drew cares about me . . .

  (Pause.)

  JAY: You can’t even acknowledge what I’m saying.

  GABE: I—what do you want me to say? You have great qualities but—you’re in a wheelchair.

  (Pause.)

  JAY: Thank you for saying that.

  I don’t think I’m going to go out with you guys tonight.

  GABE: Okay. —Why not?

  JAY: I don’t respect those people.

  GABE: You’re being an asshole.

  JAY: Right. I’m the asshole—

  (Gabe goes.)

  5.3

  JENNY: What do we have left to toast to?

  TIM: Remind me again? We toasted to not being at the Beach Crew show tonight—

  DREW: To senior year—

  TIM: To winning the football game—

  GABE: Ugh, I can’t
believe we wasted a toast on that—

  JENNY: What’s left?

  GABE: We also toasted to not having jobs when we graduate—

  TIM: Right, blocked that one out—

  DREW: I know!

  JENNY: What?

  DREW: To the best man winning on Monday.

  TIM: Good one! To the election!

  JENNY: Cheers!

  GABE: Cheers—

  TIM: But we know who’s gonna win.

  GABE: We do?

  TIM: Not to be insensitive but—since the gay kid died—the gay guy’s gonna win. Done deal.

  GABE: You don’t know that—

  JENNY: Speaking of which—we haven’t talked about the charges against the roommate!

  DREW: Yeah—no hate crime charge, at least not yet—

  TIM: I had people in my Civil Rights class saying it should be manslaughter!

  GABE: That’s insane—in a suicide case?

  JENNY: I don’t want to sound like a nazi but—did the kid really do anything that wrong?

  TIM: You could definitely argue that it falls within typical collegiate behavior—

  JENNY: I mean this kid’s gonna go to jail? What’s the maximum—

  DREW: Five years—

  JENNY: The kid’s a jerk but—

  GABE: Well you better believe that all that stuff about Teddy is gonna come out at trial—

  TIM: Right, all the stuff the newspapers wouldn’t print—

  GABE: I mean the roommate obviously at the least made a mistake and was a jerk—

  DREW: Harassed, bullied, intimidated, spied—

  TIM: Typical Saturday night at a frat—

  DREW: But he didn’t join a frat—he had an expectation of—

  TIM: No, true—I don’t think we should underplay it. He broke a law—

  JENNY: But the defense is gonna be that the roommate was nervous about who Teddy was bringing over—he just wanted to see what the guy was like—

  GABE: That’s hard to believe—

  TIM: It’s at least a little believable—that dude was kind of weird, you’d want to know who—

  JENNY: And I hear the guy was sketchy—some people said he looked homeless or something—

  GABE: But there’s all the roommate’s homophobic Facebook and Twitter posts—

  DREW: Right—the “curious to see who it was” defense won’t work—

  TIM: There’s all the hype now but—I bet the kid makes a plea—no jail time—

  JENNY: Nobody’s said the obvious thing though, about why he might have done it—

  GABE: What?

  JENNY: Maybe he was gay! Like—he wanted to watch—

  DREW: I don’t think so—he watched from a girl’s room, seems like—

  JENNY: Yeah, which is what you would do if you wanted to cover up—

  TIM: If he wanted to watch a guy—no offense but—I don’t think that’s the guy you’d—

  JENNY: But being homophobic is a sign of being gay, right? Ooh we could ask Tim—the expert—

  TIM: Ha—yeah—

  JENNY: He thought he could tell for sure that Kevin Gillman wasn’t gay—

  TIM: I—no, not that I knew—

  JENNY: You were pretty confident—

  TIM: I’m gonna take a piss. By the time I get back hopefully we’ll have exhausted this topic!

  GABE: Don’t take too long or you’ll get accused of being gay!

  TIM: Ha!

  (Tim goes.)

  JENNY: I think we need more shots!

  GABE: We do not.

  JENNY: I’ll take that as a yes!

  (Jenny goes.)

  GABE: We are not having those shots. And neither should they—

  DREW: Why not?

  GABE: We all have to be at this event in the morning—

  DREW: Teddy totally took the spotlight off Kevin. No one’s talking about him—pisses me off.

  (Pause.)

  GABE: Yeah, but . . . Kevin—was last year—

  DREW: The whole point of that article was to raise awareness about guys who are in the closet, who are passing as straight—and now everyone’s just focused on this gay geek—

  GABE: Whoa—

  DREW: It’s almost like he was jealous. Like he read the article and wanted to upstage Kevin.

  GABE: Drew—that’s crazy.

  DREW: It’s not—a lot of these little loser gay guys can’t deal with the fact that hotter and straighter-acting guys are starting to come out of the closet. The world is changing. Being gay is not just some silly little effeminate, queer, faggoty thing anymore—

  GABE: Where are you—seeing all these supposedly straight-acting gay guys?—

  DREW: We’re both pretty straight-acting.

  GABE: We’re not flaming—but I don’t think we seem straight—

  DREW: If I walk down the street people don’t know.

  GABE: I—wouldn’t be so sure of that.

  DREW: Um—that’s why straight guys are attracted to me. I seem like them.

  GABE: Wait—straight guys are attracted to you?

  DREW: Whether they’re straight or not—I can’t say but—a certain kind of guy, yeah.

  GABE: What are you—who?

  DREW: Well—Tim finds me attractive.

  GABE: Tim?

  DREW: Yeah. We hooked up, actually.

  (Pause.)

  GABE: What?

  DREW: The other night. It was before we got back together—

  GABE: Wait—are you kidding?

  DREW: No. We messed around.

  I’m sorry if it upsets you—you said you weren’t attracted to him so I thought . . . I didn’t know we were gonna get back together—

  GABE: When . . .

  DREW: I was interviewing him and . . .

  It just sort of happened.

  (Pause.

  Tim enters.)

  TIM: All right—what are we talking about? Don’t disappoint me!

  DREW: Ha—

  TIM: I can’t believe how early it is. How are we this drunk this early?

  GABE: Yeah, we should probably—

  (Jenny returns with shots.)

  JENNY (Toasting): To getting FUCKED UP!

  TIM: I think that’s all we have left—

  (All save Gabe drink.)

  Dude!

  (Pause. Gabe drinks.)

  Phew. Close one!

  JENNY: Remind me to start drinking a lot of water an hour ago.

  DREW: Just got a text—a lot more people showed up to that Beach Crew show than have tickets—

  TIM: God bless America—

  GABE: Guys—I feel sick, I think I need to go home.

  TIM: Oh no!

  JENNY: You okay—want us to walk you?

  GABE: No, I’m fine—

  DREW: I’ll go with you—

  GABE: I’d rather be alone—I just—it’ll help me clear my head—

  TIM: You sure you’re okay?

  GABE: I’ll be fine—

  (Gabe goes.)

  TIM: Was that weird?

  DREW: That’s Gabe, though. He overthinks things. He probably has a headache that he’s misinterpreting as an existential crisis.

  JENNY: I can see that.

  TIM: I hope he’s okay—

  DREW: Trust me, he’ll be fine.

  5.4

  GABE (On phone): Hey Jay . . . hard to imagine you’re asleep so I guess you’re just not picking up—I’m—outside the—auditorium—the Beach Crew show is about to let out I think—

  I’m—not doing so well tonight. Which can you probably tell. So—if you can, call me . . .

  (Ends call. Pause. Dials.)

  Nicky. Hey. So. You probably maybe don’t want to hear from me . . . buuuuut in case you—do—if you happen to be in the Beach Crew show—I’m just outside—maybe you wanna—take a walk or . . .

  Fuck it. Erase.

  5.5

  NICKY: He’s so fucking shallow. I’m sorry—I know I keep saying that—

  JAY: No—I
don’t know him, but from what I’ve heard—

  NICKY: And he gets everything. Why? Why does everyone want him so much?

  JAY: Oh look—I have another message from Gabe. Wonder what this one says.

  NICKY: Whatever happened—I’m sure he’ll go running back to him tomorrow.

  (Jay listens. Nicky checks his phone.)

  JAY: Yeah, same. Boo-hoo.

  Who called?

  NICKY: Gabe—but of course he didn’t leave a message. You’re not calling him back so he’s moving down his list of people to cry about Drew to.

  JAY: Unbelievable.

  NICKY: Whatever.

  All right. It’s not happening here for me.

  JAY: No . . .

  We could go somewhere and get something to eat?

  (Pause.)

  NICKY: I think I’m gonna call it a night. Go to bed early.

  JAY: Okay . . .

  NICKY: Have a good one.

  JAY: Bye.

  5.6

  Library balcony. Gabe looks at a book. Pause. He goes to restroom and enters.

  Inside the bathroom. Gabe enters a stall. He closes the door. He sits, fully clothed.

  Nicky enters. Bends down, checks stalls. Goes into the next stall. Shuts door. Sits. Gabe moves his foot over a bit. Nicky mirrors him. Their sneakers touch.

  GABE (Whispers): Hey.

  (Nicky extends his hand below the stall wall, motions with it. Gabe kneels down and positions his pelvis below the stall wall. He unzips.)

  You want that?

  (Nicky reaches inside Gabe’s pants. Campus Police enter quietly. They look under the stall doors.)

  POLICE 1 (Loudly): Come out of the stalls now—

  POLICE 2: Come out of there.

  (Gabe quickly zips up. Nicky opens the door and steps out.)

  NICKY: What is this about—

  (Gabe opens the door and steps out.)

  GABE: What’s going on—

  POLICE 1: Come with us—

  (Gabe and Nicky see each other.)

  GABE: I didn’t—we weren’t doing anything—

  POLICE 2: Follow us, and you can explain whatever—

  GABE: We weren’t—I don’t understand what’s—

  POLICE 1: Are you going to comply?

  NICKY: Yes.

  GABE: No—no—nothing—

  POLICE 2: Let’s go—

  GABE: Nothing was—

  POLICE 2: Now.

  5.7

  PRESIDENT: I want first of all to say that it’s wonderful to be here with this diverse group behind me: my good friend and colleague—Ellen; two inspiring young people I’ve gotten to know during a series of conversations about GLBTQ issues—Jay, Jaq; outgoing (possibly incoming) Student Assembly President—Tim; and the fearless editor of the Daily—Drew; thank you all for being here.