One Night

---

Time is a funny thing.

One day you're a little

girl running fast

toward an unknowable future.

And then suddenly you're an

adult not sure of who you are

and what you're doing.

You want to go back to a

time when things were simple.

What if you could?

Maybe we go back to see

ourselves as younger people.

Still us, but different.

I've discovered that

the clock in here

is more important than

the clock out there.

The clock that stops when

a moment is beautiful.

As if the universe understands

you're trying to hold on.

What if I told you

that you could go back,

but it wouldn't

change the future?

Maybe we go back anyway

just to remember.

To try and hold

onto those moments.

What if you could?

Would you?

- Hey, do you guys

want a yearbook photo?

Just, uh.

- You gotta take the shot, man.

They always say no unless you

give them a reason to say yes.

- Okay, uh, I don't know you.

- I know that you are using

an internal light meter.

You can't trust those,

they're just not as reliable.

- No one else in

yearbook really cares

about the quality except me.

- Can I see that?

- Yeah.

It's a starter camera,

I'm gonna swap it out

for a better body.

- How's your prom?

Good, great, awful?

- It's over.

- Come on.

- Everything okay?

- I'm all good.

- No, you're not.

Looks like you're going nuclear.

- Are you someone's mom?

- That would mean that

I had a kid at like 12.

- I guess not.

- I take it that was your prom?

- Yeah, Arabian nights.

- I think our theme was

something like under the sea.

- We're either mermaids

or belly dancers.

Some grade-a sexist

bullshit in my opinion.

- You know, it doesn't

really matter what year it is

or who attends,

this prom is every prom.

- Except this prom

is supremely worse

because I got dumped at prom.

- You're dateless on prom.

There's gotta be a girl.

Maybe she said no, maybe she

came with some other guy.

- She didn't say no.

- Because you didn't ask.

- I'm not talking about her.

- What, am I gonna tell

my old-ass friends?

- There's nothing to

say, she's not into me.

She's with some other hack.

- You know, it only gets

worse from here, much worse.

This, you know, what

you're feeling now,

it gets multiplied

by 10 when you're 34

and you're not the hot

young thing anymore.

But that's not you.

You don't have to

worry about that yet.

Have a good night.

- You too.

- So you're the nice

guy in this story.

- You say that like

it's a bad thing.

- No, no, it's not a bad thing.

- Yeah, but what

you're trying to say

is that it's not a good thing.

- No I'm not, you're just

overthinking the whole thing.

They, women and girls,

they don't want nice.

They want someone extraordinary.

They don't want a hug,

they want a punch in the

frickin' heart, you got that?

You got it.

There's my friend, I'll see you.

Hi.

I'll get the same, and hers

too, just put it on mine.

Does your husband know

that you're here alone?

Did you see the kids?

- Yeah, I just saw her.

- Yeah, I saw him too.

- Remember what it was

like to be that young?

- My memory's a little hazy,

you'll have to remind me.

- So there was this guy that

I dated once in high school.

And he turned out to be

a colossal jerk, but,

there was this allure about him.

A kind of quality that just

drew you in against your will.

- I mean he sounds perfect,

but I know that this story

doesn't have a good ending.

- Mmm, as I discovered,

we were entirely incompatible.

- And so you looked at

him and you saw a future

that you didn't want.

- He could have grown up

and turned out to be amazing

and I'd never know it

because at the time

he was Mr. wrong.

- Well, I feel

sorry for this guy.

- Yes, of course you do.

I'm not the victim here.

I just got my heart

stomped on repeatedly.

- Yeah, well, I'm sure it

wasn't easy for him either.

- You know, actually,

I doubt that he ever lost

one night's sleep

over our break-up.

Over anything, over me.

- I lost hundreds of

nights' sleep over us.

- God, you know, I walked

into that one, didn't I,

I should have seen

that one coming.

- I should go.

- Liz, Liz, don't do this.

- Liz.

- Thank you for the drink.

- Stop.

Liz!

- Hey.

Where have you been,

everybody's upstairs by now.

- I'm going home,

I'm out, I'm over prom.

- Uh, no you're not,

you're coming with me

to the after party.

- No.

- You're gonna be the one

person who doesn't show up.

You really, really don't

want to be that person.

- Dave's gonna be there.

I'm totally fine

being that person.

- Okay, stop, stop.

Am I seriously

hearing this voice?

If you don't show up,

he has won.

Congrats, he ruined your night.

And you call yourself

a feminist, or...?

- What am I supposed to do?

- You swagger into that party.

- Swagger.

- Yes.

The swagger is essential.

And then you drop the mic,

and then you let everybody

see that mic for what it is.

You get to have your fun,

and Dave feels stupid.

And that's that.

- Dropping the mic,

what does that mean?

- You drop it.

- I don't know what that means.

- Come on, oh my god.

- What, you, just...

- it's game time.

- I don't have a choice, do I?

- Nope, no you don't.

And you can't bring

that with you either.

Sh! Sh! Look!

- Dude, they totally

just checked us out.

- They weren't

even looking at us.

- Look, man, I don't

need your negativity.

Okay, I need hope.

It's gonna happen for me

tonight, I can feel it.

- Mhm.

Prom is a scam.

You have the entire

summer to get laid.

- No, dude.

No, I'm running out of time.

You see this suit?

- That suit?

Yeah, it's a pretty nice suit.

- Yeah, yeah, it's goin' down.

Come on, let's go.

So they've been together

a grand total

of maybe two hours.

- Hey.

- Hi.

- So um, what are you guys

doing this summer?

- Oh, my parents are

making me go on birthright.

- Wow, that's cool.

- It's not really a cause

for celebration, but...

- I'm doing a bunch of stuff.

I'm gonna be backpacking

across Europe.

London, Milan, Barcelona,

all over the place, so...

- You didn't tell me that.

I'm really jealous,

I'd kill to go.

- When are you

thinking about going?

- Still making plans,

I don't know.

What are you doing this summer?

- Just this

photojournalism program.

- Wait, so, we're graduating

and you're going back to school?

- It's not school.

I don't know if I got in yet.

- Well, that was the

worst prom of all time.

And the biggest waste of time.

No, no, absolutely not.

You guys always pick the

worst pictures for yearbook.

- There's actually not

a single picture of you

in the yearbook, I checked.

- Well, that doesn't

give you licence

to take pictures of

whoever you want.

- Okay, sorry.

- Here we go.

- Liz, whoa whoa whoa.

What is this about, really?

- Argentina.

I thought we agreed that

we wouldn't talk about it.

- Well, maybe I do

want to talk about it.

- We were on a break.

- The situation was this,

an opportunity presented

itself to you,

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