Mates

Mates

Lou, Ron, Jason and Nick are eleven years old playing on a beach on the Jersey Shore. Throwing a tired football around, they dive into the waves. Without a care in the world, they’re having the time of their life, because at that age, every moment is perfect. They don’t worry about work, money, or broken hearts. They have each other, which is all they need, that and any excuse to have fun.

An entire morning of living it up in the sun, and four growling stomachs are an easy sign that it’s time for lunch. The four friends migrate to the boardwalk to devour a few hotdogs. As they munch down their dogs, an oversized spinning wheel boardwalk game grabs their attention. They each take the change they had left from the hotdogs, and let it ride on a game that will ultimately be the crossroads of their lives. As the wheel turns, the boys watch hypnotically, each hoping that maybe one of them will get lucky and win. The wheel starts to slow down. They are on the tips of their toes anticipating the wheels resting place and subsequently the lucky winner. Finally, it stops! With a loud, deep voice, the gamekeeper shouts, “No Winner!!” Without hesitation, Lou drops the rest of his hotdog, snatches a prize, and takes off. The three remaining boys falter, drop their hot dogs, and high tail it after Lou. Jason and Ron, being better athletes, are far ahead of Lou and Nick. The gamekeeper is in pursuit and steadily gaining on the slower of the boys. In an instant, Nick grabs the prize from an unsuspecting Lou and starts to slow down. Lou shouts in confusion, “What are you doing?” Lou pleads with him not to give up, but Nick insists on taking the blame for the stolen prize to save his friends. The gamekeeper grabs Nick. An out of breath Lou stops from a distance, and turns to see what has become of his friend. The two boys lock eyes, and Lou watches Nick get dragged away, knowing that it should be him.

Six years later
Lou, Ron and Jason are hanging out at Ron’s house. Lou is watching TV, while Jason is telling Ron he will be going to the University of Maine next year on a full scholarship for ice hockey. Ron congratulates him, and interrupts briefly to ask Lou where Nick was. Lou replies that he should be along any minute as Nick simultaneously waltzes in. He quietly sits down. After a couple of minutes he stands up, obviously bored, and proclaims that he is hungry. “I need to get outta here.” Nick barks. He asks Jason to go for pizza with him. Jason agrees and they head out the door.

As the chunky rain hits the windshield of his bronze colored T-bird, Nick races towards his favorite pizza place with his death metal music blaring. He insists that they take the long way so that they can mess around with the car in the rain. Jason cheers Nick on as they hydro glide into some garbage cans outside of an old girlfriend’s house. As the trash spills into the street, Nick comments that now, they are having fun.
Meanwhile, back at Ron’s, Lou complains that he is hungry and wonders what is keeping the pizza. Ron informs Lou that the weather is pretty bad outside. They discuss their concern for Nick, who isn’t satisfied unless he is out doing something dangerous and over the top.

Jason’s tolerance of the “so-called” fun they are having decreases as Nick’s stunts become more extreme and more dangerous. Performing doughnut turns, Nick loses control a few times which transforms Jason’s fear to panic. Jason opens his mouth to tell Nick to settle down when the car spins out of control. They slam into a tree, impacting on the passenger side of the vehicle. Nick exits the car unscathed when he realizes that Jason is injured, in fact he isn’t moving. It becomes obvious to Nick that his friend was killed in the crash. Police arrive and comfort Nick as he tells them that the slippery roads were the cause of the accident, his lies pay off. The police not only believe his story, they show compassion for his loss. They don’t know that Nick’s poor judgment and carelessness were the cause of Jason’s death.

Back at Ron’s the phone rings. Ron picks up and exclaims “What, they were just picking up a pizza!”

The following summer Lou, Ron, and Nick say goodbye to their families. Their mothers cry and the guys try to act strong as they venture out for their first year at college. Nick’s goodbye is less heart felt than his friends. He hurriedly says goodbye and races out the door before his mother can respond. However, he is not going off to college like the other boys. Nick will enter the working world today, where he will hear a customer say for the first of many times, "ten dollars regular.” Nick worked at a Hess gas station.

Six months later, Nick is at the same Hess station with a cigarette dangling from his bottom lip pumping gas for a customer. He obviously cares very little for his job. Suddenly a car pulls up, and Ron jumps out. They are excited to see each other. Nick invites him inside the office for a drink. Nick lights another cigarette as he pulls out a cooler from behind his desk. Ron expresses concern for Nick drinking while at work, but Nick brushes him off and claims that it is no big deal. His shift is ending soon, so they make plans to go out together. Nick drives, Nick drives very fast. He claims that he has to stop by a friend’s house to pick up a CD, which is okay with Ron. They pull up in front of a small row home in a shady neighborhood. Nick hops out of the car while Ron waits in the car. After a few minutes Nick exits the house, throws the CD on Ron’s lap, and speeds away. Ron becomes uneasy by Nick’s reckless driving. To his relief police lights emerge behind the car. They pull over. Nick’s panic indicates to Ron that this is going to be more than a routine traffic violation. The cop reaches the window and raps off the usual speech about how fast they were going. The cop adds that Nick didn’t pull over immediately when the cop flashed his lights. Ron, seeing that his friend is struggling, attempts to help Nick out. He says that they were listening to his new CD and that the music must have been too loud. Ron holds up the CD to show the cop what he was talking about when a little baggy falls from the case into Ron’s lap. Nick’s stop was to purchase heroin. Ron, in an attempt to bail his friend out from a simple traffic violation ends up involving himself in a very serious crime. Ron refuses to rat out his friend and he takes the blame. Nick, however, does nothing and says nothing to clear Ron in return. Ron receives a hefty sentence and continues to hold his silence. After that night Ron would spend time in a dead end jail cell, while Nick would go back to his dead end job.

Three years pass, and Lou has graduated and returns home. He has a typically small and drab apartment for someone just out of college. He unpacks his possessions from several boxes and a duffle bag. He then relaxes in a beanbag chair and opens the paper to the Classifieds. Suddenly there is a rap at the door. Unalarmed and curious Lou heads over to the door. Nick is slouched outside Lou’s apartment obviously not sober. He starts to chat with Lou about how he’s been. He spurts things out like, “I would have called, but things have been so crazy around here,” and “looks like your doing well after being done with school for only a few weeks.” Finally, Nick spurts out what he’s wanted to say the minute Lou opened the door to the smell of Southern Comfort. “I need some money Lou.” After those five words, the pace of the conversation picks up. Nick is practically begging. In as nice a way as one could handle a situation of this magnitude; Lou explains that he really doesn’t have any money to spare. Rent, living expenses, and not to mention paying off college loans was just the start of where what little money Lou had was going. The answer he gives Nick is a big, confident “NO.” Nick, surprised by the answer, abruptly heads out the door.

Later, Nick walks into a convenience store and heads over to the magazine rack. He picks up a “LIFE” magazine and flips through the pages without even glancing at them. Constantly monitoring his surroundings, he sizes up the situation. He drops the magazine and strides over toward the register. Nick screams while aiming a handgun at the young female clerk. He spits out several obscenities and threatens her in an attempt to keep her quiet. Suddenly, there is a gunshot, followed by screams, and finally the door chime.

Even later, we see Lou is settled in a little more. Lou sits on his couch with some boxes of Chinese food in front of him. There is a loud bang at his door, which shatters the silence. He calmly approaches the door, which bursts open before he reaches it. Nick rushes in and locks the door behind him. He squats on the floor, leans against the door, and breaths heavily from his sprint back to the apartment. Lou, who is very concerned, asks Nick things like, “What’s going on?” and “Is everything alright?” Nick springs up from the floor and violently brings down the window shade. Nick shuts off the lights and goes over to the window and peeks out through the shade. Lou becomes angry with Nick when he won’t answer him. Nick turns to Lou and begs him to let him stay the night. They stare at each other in a brief silence.

That instant, Lou can’t help but remember what happened ten years ago between the two of them. Lou remembers looking back at Nick and feeling how that moment shaped his life. Nick saved Lou when they were kids, before there true selves emerged and their innocence was lost. This memory is triggered in Lou, because he now has an opportunity to pay an old friend back.

Nick and Lou are still staring at each other. After a dead silence Lou says, “No…I’m sorry Nick I can’t help you.” Sirens are heard in the background, which slowly grow louder and closer. Nick’s face drops in disbelief of what just emerged from Lou’s mouth. Nick pulls his gun from his belt, turns around, and heads out the door.

The end