SCENE ONE
"Thought you'd be at home plastering makeup on your face for the wedding." Mariah called out as she stood in the doorway of Hilary's studio, with her arms folded. "Maybe the rumors of your demise were NOT as greatly exaggerated as you've tried to-"
"Trust and believe Mariah, Devon and I are as happy as ever."
With a quaint smile, Mariah stepped in and headed over to Hilary who stood by the refrigerator drinking water. "So then why aren't you with him right now? I mean, Lily's going to be married pretty soon, and-"
"When my plans or relationship with Devon becomes any of your business, I'll make sure you're the first to know the details." Hilary snapped. "Not that Devon would want you to know anything, especially since he dumped your ass as soon as he saw you for the poor unfortunate soul that you are."
"...or maybe he saw how pathetic you were without him and decided to pity you." Mariah interjected. "You know, I'm really beginning to believe that Jordan was right about you and Devon having problems."
"The only problem we've had has been the two of you swooping down like vultures every time you hear a rumor, hoping to find something to feed on. Well newsflash Mariah, we're happy. And your belief in that holds absolutely NO relevance to me."
"You certainly seem hard pressed to prove your happiness to the masses." With a chuckle, Mariah shrugged her shoulders. "Then again, you're right. I've always known you were a liar and a con, and so does the rest of Genoa City, and it hasn't mattered to you for all of this time, so who are we kidding?"
"A con, coming from the girl who pretended to be her dead sister for Victor Newman...hypocrisy has such a rich yet acquired taste coming from you." Hilary answered before rolling her eyes. "Anyway, I have to get going. I need to make a stop before the wedding."
"Aww...kinda sucks. I was looking forward to spending the evening with you for more awesome conversation."
Hilary chuckled. "I'm sure there's an 800 number you can dial to keep you some company." Hilary responded before grabbing her purse. As she pushed past Mariah, she slightly bumped her shoulder and then boarded the elevator.
Smirking, Mariah waved sarcastically. "Have a wonderful evening, dear!"
"I'll make sure to send you a selfie of me and Devon. Maybe it'll keep you some company tonight." Hilary called out, just before the elevator doors shut.
Finally alone, Mariah stood awkwardly in the middle of the empty studio, looking around. She was trying desperately not to find any truth in Hilary's harsh words about her loneliness, but the sting of truth had already hit her. She had no one...and though for most of her life she'd felt that it was for the best, there was no hiding that she was changing. The years of wanting to be alone had passed, and Hilary was right: She needed someone.
SCENE TWO
"It's your wedding day and you aren't vomiting uncontrollably or running for the hills yet." Chelsea spoke as she stood at Jordan's apartment door. But noticing the pool of sweat forming on his forehead, she chuckled. "Okay so you're totally freaking out, but you seem to be winning at playing it cool."
"In less than two hours, I'm going to be marrying the woman of my dreams...hell yeah I'm freaking out." Jordan said as he widened the door for Chelsea to walk in.
She stepped into his apartment and looked around in slight confusion at the closed blinds, lit candles, and the Sam Smith CD playing in the background. "You're getting MARRIED, right? Not planning on giving up the ghost any time soon?"
"Chels, you know this is how I ease my mind. Darkness, sad heartbreak music, and a crapload of candy bars." He quickly reached down onto the coffee table and pulled up a brown paper bag. "Take your pick...I got Snickers, Milky Ways, Whatchamacallit's..."
"Whatchamacallit?" Chelsea repeated. "Jordan, you know those are impossible for me to pass up." She aggressively reached into the bag, almost as if possessed, grabbing the candy bar, and then chuckled. "Lauren would FREAK if she saw me eating this. I'm barely able to fit into my dress as it is."
"Ahh yeah...in a couple of weeks you'll be locked in YOUR apartment with the shades drawn, listening to sad music and eating candy."
"Not so much." Chelsea responded quickly. "You kinda lose the angst after a few laps around the altar." she sat down on the couch and bit the candy bar with a smile. A gleam of satisfaction immediately filled her face, but seeing the serious, almost dreadful look in Jordan's face caused her smile to slowly diminish as she stood up once again and walked over to him. "Jay...you know we've been friends for a while, and you know you can talk to me about anything, right?"
She waited for him to respond, but instead, he continued gazing straight ahead at the picture on his wall, the photo he'd taken with Lily, Mattie, and Charlie. Studying Jordan, the look of impending doom had filled his face, and suddenly a sick feeling settled into the pit of Chelsea's stomach.
"Umm...dude I know that cold feet are a normal part of this whole wedding day jitters thing, but...Jordan there's something else going on here, isn't it?"
Snapping from his trance, he jumped a little and then looked over to her. "What do you mean?"
"Something has happened. Do you want to tell me what's going on, or am I going to have to wait for this to all explode in everyone's faces?" Chelsea questioned.
Swallowing the nervous breakdown that he was on the verge of, Jordan avoided eye contact and dropped his eyes immediately to the floor.
SCENE THREE
"No...NINA WEBSTER!" Nina exclaimed into the phone impatiently. "I've just recently relocated back to Genoa City, and I'm staying at the Chancellor Mansion for the time being. I'd greatly appreciate it if you would tell your boss to return one of my many phone calls."
As she spoke, the sound of the front door slamming shut echoed into the living room, and she looked up at the doorway as Kevin rushed down the hall and up the stairs. He was obviously angry, and as luck and his slight uncoordinated nature would have it, he tripped the stairs, falling on his face.
Quickly, Nina ended her phone call and rushed over to him. "Oh my God...Kevin are you okay?"
"I really need to talk to Chloe. Is she here?"
"Fortunately for the rest of us, NO she isn't. I'm pretty sure I overheard her telling Esther she was off to her community service thing at the Rec Center." She watched Kevin almost deflate with disappointment, and curiously she eyed him. "Is something the matter?"
"Uhh...something was the matter a couple of weeks ago. NOW, things are way beyond that. I think I just made the biggest mistake of my life tonight.."
"Wow...a new record, eh?" Nina joked.
"Yeah, totally not the best time for that." Kevin murmured as he turned around and sat down, visibly defeated, at the bottom of the staircase. "Nina...I don't think I can make things better after this. I think I just may have ruined someone's life."
SCENE FOUR
"Gimme a beer. Anything on tap...just-...just a beer man."
Charlie sat down at the bar, his hands shaking uncontrollably, his heart racing, his eyes glossed over with anger and confusion.
The bartender eyed him, and then he chuckled. "Kid, think again. I've got coke for you, and maybe not the kind you want."
"Man it's been one hell of a day, I need a beer. I'll pay you whatever...I just-"
"Unless you can pay for about five or six more years of age to be added to your life, then you won't get a beer from here."
Angrily, Charlie stood up and reached into his pocket, pulling out a stack of cash. "Look, what is it gonna take, huh? 100? 200? 300?" he slammed the hundred dollar bills on the bar, and then looked up at the bartender's name tag. "So uhh..LEO, what exactly can $300 get me in this hell hole?"
"If you don't turn around and get out of here, it's going to get you a nice long conversation with the police." Leo answered sternly.
Glaring into Leo's unwavering eyes, Charlie grunted and then turned around to dart out of the door, just as Victoria appeared in the doorway.
"Charlie?"
He looked at her, and angrily, he pushed past her, sending Victoria stumbling down to the floor. A few men in the bar rushed to her aid, each one yelling an obscenity to Charlie, who stopped upon seeing what he'd done and glanced at her apologetically. He decided against apologizing, and quickly rushed away down the street.
SCENE ONE
Hilary swallowed her pride, and then lifted her hand to begin banging on the door ferociously. As she waited for an answer, her mind flashed back to Mariah's words, that perhaps there was trouble between she and Devon, and annoyed, she threw up her eyes and began banging on the door harder.
"Dammit...Olivia open the door! I know you're in there!"
Before she could get out the last words, Olivia opened the door, and seeing Hilary standing there glaring at her, she grimaced. "Hilary..."
Without invitation, Hilary pushed herself into Olivia's apartment and looked around. "Hope I'm not interrupting."
"Well actually..."
"I know I may not be your favorite person. I'm sure Lily had a hand in that, since you haven't been back in town long enough to form your own opinion, but all that aside...I need-"
"Hilary I really don't have time, nor do I appreciate you showing up here to my door this way. You were a PATIENT...not a friend."
"I'm aware." Hilary called out sarcastically. "But I have no one else to talk to, and-"
"How about you talk to Devon?" Olivia questioned. "Look, I really don't have time. I should be getting dressed and heading down to the church for the wedding."
"Can't you see I'm in dire straits right now?"
"You're PREGNANT, Hilary. You're not dying. And I'm not your obstetrician, so if you need to talk, then maybe you should set up an appointment with someone. I can recommend-"
"I don't need an obstetrician, Olivia. I need-..." she hesitated for a moment, and then she sighed. "I need to get an abortion, and FAST."
SCENE THREE
"I'm here to talk if you need me." Nina spoke. She could see the terror on Kevin's face, and for a moment, she almost regretted lending him her ear.
"Have you ever-.." he hesitated. "You know...let your emotions get the best of you and you just throw caution to the wind and say 'what the hell', and end up making a fool of yourself?"
Nina smiled and sighed. "Let's see...there was Cole, and Ryan, and-...sure. I've been known to let my emotions get the best of me a time or two."
"It never ends well, does it?"
"Depends on the situation I suppose." Nina responded as she motioned for Kevin to slide over.
He obliged, and she sat down next to him at the bottom of the staircase. "I kinda feel like a large tub of rocky road ice cream would be incredibly appropriate for this conversation."
Kevin half-chuckled, still visibly uneasy. "I was thinking more along the lines of a big fat juicy cheeseburger with a ton of bacon and crispy onion rings...oh and barbecue sauce." he closed his eyes, and then looked down at the floor. "I really screwed up this time."
"Let me guess...there's a girl that caught your eye, and you let yourself get in your own way. You know Kevin, in a lot of ways, you and I are a lot alike in that aspect."
Shaking his head, Kevin responded, "No, unfortunately, not even the infamous Nina Webster can compete with what I've just done." he looked up at Nina and then shook his head. "I think I may have just ruined someone's marriage. And it's not-...it's not like I didn't know what confessing my feelings would do. I just decided somehow that being in love somehow justified my selfishness."
"Well what did she say when you told her how you felt?"
"It was the weirdest thing." Kevin answered. "It was almost as if we just-"
The sound of Nina's phone interrupted Kevin, and she quickly grabbed it and then looked over to him. "I'm sorry Kevin. Hold that thought for a moment...I've been waiting for a week for this phone call and I gotta-"
"No, it's fine." he stood from the stairs and stretched a bit. "I need to just go lie down anyway, and clear my head."
As Nina headed back off into the living room, Kevin grabbed his cell phone and headed out the door of the Chancellor Mansion. Once outside, he dialed Chloe's cell and waited impatiently for her to answer.
"Kevin I can't talk, I got-"
"I know, I know...community service. Chloe...I did it. I did what you told me to do."
Chloe's eyes bulged immediately. "Wait...WHAT?"
"I went over, and I confessed my feelings..and-..."
"And how'd it work out?" she questioned.
Kevin sighed. "How could I be so stupid? I mean...I couldn't have expected-..." grunting Kevin shrugged his shoulders. "I have to face the facts...I'm in love with a man...a man who is just an hour away from getting married, and there's not a damn thing I can do to stop it."
But Chloe's response shook Kevin to his core. "Like hell there isn't." she called out. "Kevin, you hold all the cards and YOU'RE in control of the game. If you want him, then how far are you willing to go to get him?"
SCENE TWO
"Yo, I screwed up!" Jordan called out aloud, as he threw up his hands in dramatic defeat. "I don't know what else to say."
"Screwed up HOW? Please don't tell me there's someone else...HILARY, Jordan?" Chelsea's face filled with disgust.
"No. No, well no...not Hilary." Frustrated he sat down on the couch, covering his face with his hands. "I didn't ask for this."
"Look, if you're not sure that you're ready to marry Lily, I'm sure she'd appreciate if you just told her before it was too late."
"It's ALREADY too late!" Jordan snapped. "Chelsea I'm not trying to spazz on you, but-..." he hesitated. "There's just a lot going on right now that you don't know. That NOBODY knows..."
"You're my friend Jordan, but so is Lily. And she deserves to know the truth, regardless of how difficult it may be." Sitting down next to Jordan, she reached over, placing her hand on his leg and looking sympathetically into his eyes. "I know it's going to be hard, but it'd be harder if you actually went through with this wedding, while you have something else going with someone else."
She watched as a single tear fell from Jordan's right eye, which he brushed away quickly and looked down, almost in shame.
"When I moved here to Genoa City, I said I was going to turn over a new leaf. I was gonna be legit, I was gonna do everything right, and then-...then I saw Lily and she was everything that I ever wanted in a woman. I knew right then that I needed her in my life, but she was married to Cane. And do you know what? It didn't stop me!" he stood up from the couch and walked over to stand by the window. "I thought it was some kind of act of God that separated those two, because I knew that she was the one for me. And when I got her, I felt that everything else just kinda fell into place."
Chelsea nodded. "That's beautiful."
"But then...something happened. Something so wrong, but so right at the same time. Chels...I-..." painfully he looked away from her. "I fell in love with somebody else."
Trying her hardest to be the understanding friend, she swallowed hard and nodded her head. "Well sometimes that-"
"No...no it's not like any other thing I've ever felt. I mean, I thought it was something I could brush off like I've been doing for my entire adult life, but-...I can't shake this feeling. I can't stop thinking about it. I can't stop longing for it, and when we're together, I feel whole. Us being together made me realize how broken I am, even with Lily."
Her eyes filled with tears, she broke eye contact and cleared her throat. "Wow."
"I want to go to that chapel, grab the most beautiful woman I've ever known, and make her Mrs. Lily Wilde. But-...man, it ain't that easy."
"Because you'd rather be with this other woman." Chelsea finished softly. "You have to tell Lily. And you don't have long to do it."
Jordan's eyes met Chelsea, and the look of panic had infiltrated his face. He'd obviously not realized that the guests were probably already arriving to the chapel. Lily was most likely already dressed, and no matter how soon he could get to her, it wouldn't be soon enough to save them both the embarrassment and heartache.
"I've got to get down to the chapel...now." Jordan said as he grabbed his jacket from off the couch and threw it on.
Quickly Chelsea stood from the couch. "I'll drive you. You don't need to be driving in this condition."
They both headed for the door, and just as Jordan opened it, Charlie lunged forward from the hallway, tackling him down to the floor.
"WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU DO THIS!" Charlie exclaimed as he tightened his hands around Jordan's neck. "How could you do this to my mom?"
"CHARLIE!" Chelsea reached forward to pull him away from Jordan, but not before Charlie struck Jordan across the face, sending a pool of blood flying through the air, landing on Chelsea's dress. Another strike from Charlie followed, this time forcing the blood to escape from Jordan's nose. "Charlie NO!"
As Charlie finally stood up, he snatched away from Chelsea. "DON'T TOUCH ME! Don't freaking touch me lady! You mean you're going to stand there and try to defend this guy? After what he's doing to my mom?" refocusing his attention on Jordan, he shook his head. "No way in hell dude...there's no way I'm allowing you to marry my mom today. Not after what you've done."
"Listen, Charlie I don't know what you just heard, but-"
Cutting over Chelsea's voice, Charlie interrupted. "I didn't hear ANYTHING. I saw it with my own eyes." He looked over to Jordan, who had stumbled up to his feet. "Yeah, that's right. I came here to apologize for how I've been treating you. I was upset because I thought you were the reason mom wouldn't take dad back...and I got an eyeful when I got here." Angrily, his fists balled again, and he glanced over at Chelsea, before finally glaring straight ahead at Jordan. "That's right...I saw you kissing Kevin Fisher."