THE MOST PATHETIC CONTEST - Todd & Blair

This is the scene, 'The most pathetic contest,' between Todd and Blair was born and the first time they started clicking together. Blair stops being afraid of him and tells him a little of her back round, he tells her about just proposing to Rebecca and being dumped by her. They form a start of their friendship and attraction together. It is midnight, a time when the hospital rapist was on the loose, so Blair took a big leap of faith in trusting to sit with him alone in the park, and he knew that and found one of the few people in Llanview that would even talk to him let alone, like him. She is sitting on a park bench, looking very upset.

TODD: What’s wrong?

BLAIR:(looks up surprised, gets up crossing away from him nervously stuttering) Nothing......nothing. Nothing at all.

TODD: Just trying to help. Sorry I bothered you.

BLAIR: (turns back to him) What do you expect, Todd? You come creeping up on someone in the middle of the night....

TODD: I wasn’t creeping. You’re hanging out on a park bench at midnight, crying! Oh, but god forbid I come along, Todd the rapist. (leering, sarcastic) I may just do it to you right here on the park bench. Run. Go on get out of here. Before my animal instincts take over. (his eyes blaze)

BLAIR: I’m sorry. (he is a bit surprised that she is not running away, she crosses back to the bench, throws down her purse and sits) Of all the people I’ve run into tonight you’re the only person who’s shown me any bit of concern.

TODD: Does that mean I can sit down?

BLAIR: Yeah. (he sits on bench next to her) But I do have a can of mace in my purse just in case I’m wrong.

TODD: Yeah, well I’ll keep that in mind. So tell uncle Todd, why all the tears?

BLAIR: It finally hit me tonight, like a ton of bricks, that it’s over, utterly over. You know the man I told you about that I was willing to kill myself for, well he went back to his wife, he made the safe choice.

TODD: (understanding) It’s rough. But I can top it. The woman I love, she broke up with her safe choice and she still doesn’t want anything to do with me. I had the ring out, everything, the whole deal. Totally turned me down.

BLAIR: Well, you win, the most pathetic newcomer.

TODD: (with little smile) I’d like to thank all the little people.....(she smiles, they start to connect)

BLAIR: (noticing his bleeding, bandaged hand, picking it up) Todd! What happened to your hand??

TODD: Well, unrequited love got the best of me.

BLAIR: You better.....you better go to the hospital, that looks bad.

TODD: Been there, I done that. I thought all the bleeding had stopped. (wipes his hand on the bench) Leave a trail of blood wherever I go. (looks directly at her, small moment) Wow, is it me or is it hot out, I don’t know?

BLAIR: It’s....it’s the air. There’s a cloud right over us, I mean look you can’t even......you can’t even see the moon anymore. (both look up)

TODD: You think that cloud’s over everybody or just us. (with smirk)

BLAIR: (she smiles) For that, the loser of the most pathetic contest is gonna buy the winner a soda over here at the deli. You wanna go?

TODD: (smiling) Yeah. I guess that’s why they call you Miss Congeniality, huh? (both walk out of park)

Scene break

TODD: (they are walking back in with their soda’s) I’m desperate? Look who’s talking. Least I’m not hanging out with Todd Manning.

BLAIR: I don’t.....I don’t know what....what to say, but for some reason, (pause, he sits, then she sits next to him) I feel....feel comfortable, with you. Maybe cause you’re more rotten than I am.

TODD: Oh yeah, that’s me, I’m rotten. (she agrees verbally) You look in the dictionary under rotten there’s a whole picture of me. You should of heard the woman I was talking about before. I thought she was gonna call me sweetheart. She called me animal.

BLAIR: That hurts.

TODD: (flip) Yeah, if I had feelings, but we both know I don’t. (smiles)

BLAIR: You’re bad, Todd. (emphasizing each word) You are bad. I’m not gonna take anything away from you on that, but you are sitting on a park bench with a woman who systematically set out to destroy her aunt’s life.

TODD: (smile) Did you?

BLAIR: No

TODD: What’s the big deal?

BLAIR: (trying to top it) Wait.....wait....wait a minute, you know Asa Buchanan, well I was married to him, see, and I pretended to be pregnant, and I faked a miscarriage, he had a heart attack and I withheld his medication. I stood there while he crawled and begged at my feet. (she gives him a look as in, see?)

TODD: That’s bad, (his eyebrow goes up) I like that. That’s real bad.

BLAIR: (pleased with herself, smiling) Thank you.

TODD: Hey keep it up, you’re gonna end up in the rotten hall of fame with me.

BLAIR: And um, where’s that?

TODD: (slowly speaks each phrase, sparks are now flying off each other) Right here, on a park bench, after midnight, alone. (breaking the spell, a bit uncomfortable, he stands gets his jacket) Um, I gotta get.....I gotta get home, where ever that is.

BLAIR: (she stands) Yeah, me too. Todd? Look I’m....I’m sorry about that girl you care about. And uh.....you’re not so bad you know.

TODD: Yes, I am. So are you. (whispers, tons of chemistry in the air) Night, Blair.

BLAIR: (she whispers back) Night. (they both turn 3/4 away, glance back and exit at the same time)