Genre: Dramedy
Cast Breakdown: 4 any gender
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Four Teens are trying to have a companionable meal together but their selfie habit gets in the way.
(Warning: Using this scene without permission is illegal, as is reproducing it on a website or in print in any way.)
(Four TEENS at a table at a restaurant, a plate of chicken nuggets sitting in the center.)
FIRST TEEN: This looks so amazing.
SECOND TEEN: I am so freakin' hungry.
THIRD TEEN: One sec.
FOURTH TEEN: (Knows what's coming:) Should we get in it, or do you just want the food?
THIRD TEEN: It's not a selfie if we're not in it.
(Beat.)
One of us with the food, one of the food.
FIRST TEEN: I don't know—you might just want one of us and forget the food for once.
THIRD TEEN: Hello—food blogger here.
SECOND TEEN: Can we do this? I missed lunch.
THIRD TEEN: I should get the food first, then us with the food.
FIRST TEEN: Because how could you live without a photo of chicken nuggets.
THIRD TEEN: (Trying to take a picture of the food:) The light is kind of sketch.
FOURTH TEEN: Do you want me to do that napkin thing again?
THIRD TEEN: That would rock.
(The Fourth Teen turns on the flashlight of her phone and illuminates the food through her napkin.)
THIRD TEEN: Try doubling up the napkin.
(The Fourth Teen does.)
THIRD TEEN: That's better, but now it's kind of brighter on one side.
SECOND TEEN: Seriously?
FOURTH TEEN: What if Terry does it from the other side?
FIRST TEEN: Anything to get this over with.
(The First Teen [Terry] does, so that both teens are now illuminating the food through their napkins.)
SECOND TEEN: Seriously. These are nuggets.
THIRD TEEN: These nuggets represent our friendship.
FOURTH TEEN: Do you want to be a shadowy, out-of-focus nugget?
THIRD TEEN: Exactly. (To the Fourth Teen:) You know me so well!
(The Third Teen takes a photo and then checks the image.)
THIRD TEEN: Got it.
(The phone flashlights go out.)
THIRD TEEN: OK—what if we all bite into a nugget.
(Everybody grabs a nugget and poses in mid-bite. The Third Teen takes a photo.)
SECOND TEEN: We good?
THIRD TEEN: (Checking the photo, to the Fourth Teen:) Alex, you're faking the bite.
SECOND TEEN: (To the Third Teen:) Seriously?! (To the Fourth Teen:) Seriously?!
FOURTH TEEN: I told you I went vegetarian.
THIRD TEEN: When?
FOURTH TEEN: That's why I ordered the onion rings. I didn't want to make a thing out of it.
SECOND TEEN: Can we eat the nuggets already?
FIRST TEEN: Yeah. I'm hungry.
THIRD TEEN: Can you just bite into it a little?
FOURTH TEEN: It's chicken.
FIRST TEEN: That's questionable.
FOURTH TEEN: If I'm a vegetarian, I can't bite into chicken.
THIRD TEEN: You don't have to swallow.
FOURTH TEEN: Vegetarians don't bite into meat.
SECOND TEEN: I'm biting before it gets totally cold.
THIRD TEEN: Wait! (To the Fourth Teen:) If these nuggets are like our friendship—
FOURTH TEEN: Your words.
THIRD TEEN: —if the bite looks fake, what does that say about all the rest?
SECOND TEEN: (Biting into a nugget:) Nothin' fake about this bite.
FIRST TEEN: (Biting:) Yup. I'm all in.
(Beat.)
THIRD TEEN: Never mind.
SECOND TEEN: What? We were hungry.
FIRST TEEN: We gave a hundred-ten percent on those bites.
THIRD TEEN: Did you see me taking a picture? And what about Alex? I can hear the whispers starting already.
FOURTH TEEN: What are you talking about?
THIRD TEEN: Do you remember Tyrone Williams?
FIRST TEEN: Who's Tyrone Williams?
THIRD TEEN: Exactly. He fails on a burger selfie with Alice Williams, Murray Williams and Tina Williams—no relation—last spring. It starts with a few whispers. "What's up with Tyrone in that burger pic?" "Was Tyrone sick or something?" "He's not looking into it." "Is Tyrone having an allergic reaction?" And in under 24 hours, it's turned into this giant snowball of bad juju or mojo or karma—something. Tyrone blames the rest of them for starting it, they blame him, and there's so much shade going back and forth that he deletes all his social media accounts and some random kid is passing him in the hall and says something about a cheeseburger in a totally different conversation and Tyrone blows giant chunks all over him. By the end of the week, not one person in that photo—or any of their friends—is speaking to him, and a week after that, he leaves school and he's never been heard from since. And what's worse, nobody else in that picture talks to each other anymore either. It's like that one little poisonous seed killed the tree.
FOURTH TEEN: It's not like that.
THIRD TEEN: I'll bet Tyrone thought that too.
SECOND TEEN: Can we keep eating the nuggets?
FIRST TEEN: Yeah—we're true friends.
(The Third Teen gestures to go ahead. Beat.)
FOURTH TEEN: The onion rings are coming.
THIRD TEEN: You're just saying that.
FOURTH TEEN: No—I really ordered onion rings.
(Beat.)
SECOND TEEN: I'll still be hungry.
FIRST TEEN: Me too.
FOURTH TEEN: I could go all-in on those onion rings.
THIRD TEEN: Those rings could be our last chance.
FOURTH
TEEN: I won't let you down.