Page 24 of All That Glitters
“Because they’re nerds. And the minute she tells them about the vampires, they’re all in. Plus, she’s hot.”
Debbie rolled her eyes, but there was something to this idea. “It definitely ups the humor. Maybe have them competingwith each other for her attention while they’re designing these cannons.”
“Exactly.” Tony couldn’t write fast enough to get these ideas down.
A month into the boot camp, Tony’s productivity had increased exponentially. He was actually filling up his notepad way faster than he could transcribe the ideas into screenplay format. And for the first time since starting this latest scheme, there was an end in sight.
Debbie lay on his couch, reading the latest script pages, while Tony typed furiously across the room on his laptop. From time to time, he heard her laugh at something she’d read, and this fueled him to type even faster.
He finally sat back in his chair and stretched. He looked over at Debbie, who was just finishing the last of the pages.
“So, what do you think?” he said. “Genius or disaster?”
She finished the last page and looked up. “This is funny,” she said, sounding more surprised than she’d expected. “I mean, really funny. But it also has heart. I actually felt bad for Jessica when her brother died trying to save her, and killing Marcus becomes a revenge quest for her.”
“So, you like it?” he said.
Debbie shuffled the pages into a neat stack. “I don’t just like it, I love it. This is a movie I would watch, and I don’t even like horror.”
Tony beamed. “I think one more day of Debbie’s boot camp for clueless slackers, and I’ll have it done.”
“Just think,” she said. “You won’t have to worry about me throwing ketchup bottles at you anymore.”
“And I can get my Netflix password back,” he laughed, and so did she. “You know what,” he said, his voice softening. “I’m actually gonna miss this. Hanging out with you every day, it’s been fun.”
“And by ‘fun,’ you mean grueling torture.”
He grinned. “It’s been that too.”
She gave him a smile. “Another Tony-Debbie adventure for the record books.”
“And this one didn’t require us push-starting my dad’s car in the morning.”
They both laughed.
“Seriously, Deb,” he said. “Thanks. It means a lot, your helping me out like this. I’m glad I picked you as my taskmaster.”
Something warm filled Debbie at this simple acknowledgement. It meant more to her than he would ever know. “You know something else,” she said. “This means I won my bet with Jeff.”
Chapter eight
Canceled TV Shows and Other Life Lessons
“You’re such a dick,” Jeff said to Tony as he counted off a wad of cash and handed it to Matt.
The boys sat in Tony’s living room that night. He’d finally finished The Frat that afternoon, and called them and Debbie to share the news. Debbie was taking her midterms, so when the call went to voicemail, he hung up. This wasn’t the kind of news you left on a voicemail.
Understandably, the news wasn’t so great for Jeff.
“Do you know how much money I just lost by you finishing this thing?” Jeff said. “I could have made a car payment and a student loan payment.”
Tony just grinned from his chair across the room. “A hundred-to-one odds against. That’s gotta hurt.”
“It does. So the next time you decide to be responsible and finish something, warn me first. It’s a shock to my financial system and the cosmic order of the universe.”
“No, don’t tell him,” Matt said, waving his wad of cash in Jeff’s face to taunt him. “I need the money.”
Jeff frowned. “You guys are dicks.”
