The Eight-Point Arc

v. critical choice

               

v. critical choice

After the actions of the earlier stage, the next step is for the main character, our dearest Abrielle to make a crucial decision, to make a critical choice. This critical choice is important because it's often this choice that reveals who a person really is, the way a true personality is revealed during a moment of high stress. There also needs to be an actual decision being made, it can't just be something that happens by chance. It's often choosing between the good but hard choice or the easy but bad one.

In Romeo and Juliet the critical choice is Romeo poisoning himself when he sees Juliet dead, so one could see how critical choices are not always good choices.

And it's in the spirit of poisoning that Abrielle figures out that the best way to exteriorize deep hidden feelings is to get drunk with her roommates and figure out which one she wants to make out with.

It doesn't need much for ABC to convince her two bachelors to stay in and get their drink on. Ace needs a break from all the studying and Chief is a wanna-be alcoholic.

            After finishing a copious amount of not so cheap beer—because the two divas only like to buy beers from microbreweries—their conversations go a little like this:

"I think I'm going to write an essay on Kubrick's work," Chief announces. "It's going to be called Tits or Nonsense because in general if there's not a significant amount of tits in one of his movies, it's nonsense, like 2001: A Space Odyssey."

"Wasn't it you that went up to a chick and told her you were totally doable because you understood that movie?" Ace asks. He's leaning all the way down on their kitchen island, resting his head on his arm. It has become quite heavy. Abrielle finds it adorable when he does that. But she doesn't think it's enough to say she's in love with him.

"Yes but I'm of higher intellect so you can't really base your judgment on that," Chief simply answers.

"Spartacus made sense. Where were the tits?" ABC asks.

Chief drinks form his bottle of beer. He's stalling. "It was a gay fanfest."

Ace raises his head, beginning to feel triumphant. Finding the fault in Chief's arguments is one of Ace and ABC's favourite activities. "That's not tits or nonsense though," he points out.

"ALRIGHT! So, Tits, Nonsense or Gay As Fuck. Stop arguing with me on this. I know you can't stand Eyes Wide Shut!"

"You can't stand it either!" Ace replies.

"Yeah because it completely ruined Nicole Kidman for me," Chief whines. "I'm sorry but seeing her wiping her ass at the beginning of the movie... it just ruined it for me. Even when we kept seeing her tits or seeing her get it on, no way in hell could I get a rise out of it because all I could think about was her wiping her ass," he continues and shudders in disgust at the end. 

"Yeah and great way to show Tom Cruise isn't gay," Abrielle adds. "Out of everyone he's the one that has the least sex in it or doesn't take the opportunity. In my mind, that was the proof that he was gay."

Chief nods in agreement and continues, "Just like Spartacus and Crassus totally dillyed in the dalley. You know Kubrick didn't tell Laurence Oliver that his character had bamchikawawamed Spartacus because he would have freaked if he'd known. But seriously, that scene were they throw the lances, sorry but can someone say aaaawkwaaaard."

ABC narrows his eyes at him. "Out of all the movies in the world, why do you keep watching Kubrick's stuff if you don't enjoy it?"

Chief seems pleased with the question. "Tits and Nonsense? Please, I thrive on that stuff."

"Don't forget Gay as Fuck, you thrive at that too," Ace says, smirking against his arm, his head still resting on it.

Chief smiles at him. It's an annoyed smile. "Thanks."

Abrielle chuckles at their antics.

She is drunk enough that everything spins a little. Not in a bad way yet, in an amusing way. She still doesn't know what she's feeling though.

Well, that's not completely true. She's hungry. That, she knows.

And that's how the three friends end up wandering the street of their neighbourhood, at two in the morning, trying to get to the closest Mini-Mart. When they finally reach it, only Ace goes in.

Out of the three he's the only one that's not a giggling mess.

While they wait, Chief shoves ABC a little, teasing her. She shoves him right back, chuckling. "That's a nice shirt you're wearing there," he tells her.

She smiles. She thinks it's genuine. Poor drunk girl. "Thanks!"

Shanahan grins back at her. "Bet it would look even nicer off of you."

"That's such a laaaaame pick-up line dude."

"I know, that's why I wasted it on you," he grins, overly proud.

She wants to kick him. But she wants to laugh too. Laughing wins. She thinks about the fact that Shanahan can pretty much say whatever he wants and she always lets him. 

When Duncan gets out with the food they head back home. They take a different route. The get lost a little and end up in a park.

Chief runs to the jungle gym and climbs on top of it. Ace takes his phone out and starts filming him. ABC opens one of the bags of chips and starts eating—hey, her emotional distress is not a reason to stop snacking, alright?

Chief tries to slip through the metal bars to get back on the ground but he gets stuck at his arms. He cries for help. His best friends just laugh.

The thing is, his legs are dangling in the air and he's flapping his arms like a desperate seal stuck on a rock. That's comedy gold for them.

            "Any advice for the male specie? It's for prosperity," Ace yells at him, laughing.

            "Cut your nails, trim your bush and if you can't have a proper diet at least drink pineapple juice so your cum doesn't taste like rotting McDonald. Your sexual partners will thanks me later," he says that and then winks, clicks his tongue and finger points at them. 

            He's an idiot. Abrielle thinks that. She acknowledges it. It's quite obvious. 

            But the thing is, even like that, even while he makes a complete fool out of him, Abrielle can't deny that he looks gorgeous doing it.

            At that point, Chief figures out that pulling himself up will free him from his predicament, and finally he's free from the climbing frame. He catches up with his two friends and Ace makes fun of him.

Abriell though, she looks at Chief and she thinks about kissing him and she isn't repulsed by the thought. She's curious actually. She wonders how it would feel like to kiss him. She wonders what it would feel like to have his hands on her, to feel him everyone.

            Chief is always trying to convince her that sleeping with him would be a great thing. Maybe she was just resisting out of spite. Maybe the truth is, that's actually what she wants.