Reckless

It is two in the morning on a Tuesday night where Scott Freeman, who is an unemployed alcoholic, is sitting alone at the bar stand, deeply staring at himself in the mirror, suppressing his emotions. He drinks his eighteenth shot of Jack Daniels; “Yo bartender, reload.” The bartender walks up to Scott; “I think I’m cutting you off for tonight. I don’t mean to be rude, but the three guys by the table are starting to complain about the smell.” “I don’t give a flying fuck about them; give me another,” Scott screamed. “Sir, I’m only asking you once to lower your tone and please leave.” “I’m not done yet motherfucker! Now give me another fucking drink!” The bartender pulls out a baseball bat from under the counter and lays it in front of Scott; “We gonna have a problem here now?” Scott pulls out his wallet; “Okay, okay fine you’re the boss.” 

He pays the bartender what he owes but then Scott crouches down to the floor. “Hey don’t you fucking vomit on my floor,” the bartender shouted. Scott purposely vomits. “Oh you vomited on my floor; get the fuck out of here motherfucker!” Scott slowly gets up from the floor; “Okay, okay just a second. Just a second.” The bartender grabs Scott by the collar and starts forcibly dragging him out of the bar; “Get out of my fucking bar, now.” As he’s getting dragged out Scott starts reaching for his pants; “Wait wait wait; hold on just give me a second.” “NO, get out!” “Wait just give me a second, and then I’m gone,” said Scott. The bartender stops dragging him and Scott pulls his penis out and begins to purposely urinate on the bar floor; “Oh yeah that's the stuff.” The bartender violently continues to drag him out of the bar; “You motherfucker; you’re pissing on my floor. Get out of my bar, asshole.” He throws Scott out of his bar; “Don’t ever let me catch you at this bar again!”

Scott drunkenly walks to his truck that's parked next to an ATM and while taking money out three men and a woman sneak up behind him and slam his head on the cash machine. “Give me your fucking money,” said the man. Scott slowly gets up from the floor and drunkenly faces the three men, whipping the blood of his face; “Aren’t you the three guys at the bar?” The man pulls out a gun and points it at Scott; “I didn’t say talk. Give me your money.” Scott reaches into his pocket and hands the man his cash. The man takes the money, but still points his gun at Scott; “Is that your truck?” “Yeah.” “It’s a piece of shit. Key’s, now,” said the man. “I need my truck. You can take the money, I need my truck.” “I don’t remember asking. Keys, now,” the man shouted.

Scott reaches in his pocket and pulls his keys out, but as the man reaches for the keys, Scott drops them on the floor. The man crouches down, still pointing his gun at Scott; “Don’t do anything stupid. You hear me?” “Yeah I hear yah.” Scott then grabs the man’s arm holding the pistol and punches the man in the face, breaking his nose. The other two men reach for their weapons, but Scott takes the man's pistol and shoots the two men on their shoulders. Scott then violently beats the man’s face with his own pistol; ‘You wanted to fuck with me?! This is what happens when you fuck with me!” 

Scott steals back his own money from the man’s pocket and notices the woman still standing behind him in fear. “What do you want?” “There's his stash in his other pocket; that’s all I want, I swear,” the woman responded. Scott digs in the man’s pocket and pulls out a small bag of cocaine. Scott puts the stash in his pocket and turns to the woman; “You got a place around here?” “Yeah it’s not that far from here. Can you take me home please.” Scott keeps the man’s gun and starts walking to his truck; “Alright, come on.” 

Scott drives the woman back home, noticing the police cars driving towards the alley way. He walks upstairs with the woman to her small apartment and both head into the woman's bathroom where they set up four lines of cocaine and both snort it through Scott’s rolled up dollar bill. With the cocaine high Scott carries the woman to her and they both have mindless sex. 

Hours go by as Scott wakes up hungover from the woman’s infinite child crying loudly in his crib from across the room. Scott turns around noticing that the woman next to him is still passed out and sleeping on a pool of her vomit. Scott shakes her to see if she’s alive; “Hey, you okay?” The woman only rolls over and pulls the cover over her face as her baby screams louder. Scott sees himself in the woman’s mirror, continuing to hate himself. He puts his clothes on and opens her dresser drawer, stealing any money he can find, and sneaks out of the lady’s apartment, not realizing he left his watch behind. He drives off in his truck, trying hard not to look into his mirror at the woman’s apartment, and angrily starts punching the roof of his car. With the stress; Scott begins to sweat clutching his chest, gasping for breath, sucking at the air. His heart rate goes up while his left arm goes numb and a large pain in his chest causes him to lose consciousness as he swerves and crashes his truck onto a telephone pole. 

The day goes by as Scott wakes up, his eyes slowly open and looks around disoriented, in the hospital recovery room. He's hooked up to a mechanical ventilator with a cervical collar around his neck. A breathing tube was down his mouth and another tube going through his chest sternum. Scott begins to panic at the sight of all this and tries pulling the tubes and wires off, making the monitors BEEP, while the nurses rush in calming him down with a sedative. 

Scott wakes up the next day, in a regular hospital room, with the tubes out and a large bandage on his chest and still wearing the cervical collar around his neck. He sees a mirror in his room, disgusted by what happened to him, but the pain from his cannot allow him to look away. The doctor comes inside the room with his medical charts; “Mr. Freeman, I’m Dr. Patel. How are we feeling?” “I’ve had better days,” said Scott. “I bet you have. You seem better than before the bypass.” “Nice, so am gonna live another day,” Scott asked. 

“It's not quite that simple. You suffered neck damage from the accident, but that's not the least of your problems. Your heart; you're going to have to start taking much better care of it. For starters, you must take your medication every day. No more drinking. And no more cocaine.” “I don’t do cocaine,” said Scott. “It's all over your blood work, Mr.Freeman.” Scott feeling embarrassed; “Okay, I do it a few times.” “Well it now gotta be never. Including the alcohol,” said Dr. Patel. 

Leaving the hospital; Scott picks up his truck at a car lot and sits in his truck, as he is homeless. He opens the glove compartment and notices that the gun is still there. Looking at himself in his mirror sighing unhappily; he takes the handgun and places it under his head and prepares to kill himself. He then realizes that he’s not wearing his watch, and he realizes that it’s back at the apartment of the woman from the night before. 

He drives to the woman's apartment building and he sneaks inside knocking on her door; “Hey lady; I left my watch at your place, open up.” With no answer Scott twists the doorknob, learning that the door is open, and walks inside; “Miss you in here? You probably don’t wanna see me here, but that watch is important to me. You better not have sold it for drugs. Miss? Are you okay?” Scott walks to her bedroom, noticing a rancid smell, and then finds the woman dead in her bed as she choked on her vomit after he had left her. He turns around and sees the infinite baby dead from starvation. Scott grabs his watch and leaves, but feeling guilty he knocks on the neighbors door. 

The lady opens her door; “Yes can I help you?” “Listen mam; I live down the hall and the woman who lives next door has a baby and she was crying for hours until it stopped, and now there's a horrible smell. I’m worried; I think something happened to her and the baby, could you please contact the police?” The lady believes the story; “Okay just a second; I’ll call them now.” She shuts her apartment door and Scott then leaves the building. Scott cries in his truck with guilt holding the gun in his hand, preparing to kill himself, but he stops himself; “Alright. Alright; I know what I need to do.” He opens his glove compartment and finds a picture of his daughter and he flips the photo over seeing a bunch of scribbled phone numbers and addresses. 

The next day Scott looks at his old ex-wife's house, working up the nerve to approach it. He walks to the doorstep, ringing the doorbell, where his ex-wife answers the door; “What do you want.?” “Hey is Brandy home?” His ex-wife tries slamming the door at his face, but Scott puts his arm between the door keeping it open; “No; she’s not. Go away!.” “Listen, I’m not here to start any trouble.”

His ex wife pushes the door harder squeezing his arm; “No, you listen to me. This is my house now. I pay the rent. You don't pay child support. You just can 't walk in and out.” Scott’s arm begins to go numb; “I just wanna talk to Brandy. Please I won’t start anything, I just wanna talk to Brandy.” His ex-wife thinks for a moment, but then she opens the door, letting Scott inside; “You have five minutes, you understand me?” “Yeah I got it.”

Scott walks to the living room seeing his teenage daughter watch tv; “Hey Brandy. Remember me? It’s your dad” She angrily gets up and tries avoiding her father, but Scott goes after her. “Brandy wait, stop please. Can we talk.” “No. Get away from me,” said Brandy. Scott grabs Brandy’s shoulder; but Brandy pushes Scott, making him lose his balance, injuring his broken neck. “FUCK! FUCK,” Scott shouted in pain. Brandy sees her father in pain; “Oh my god; I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” Scott get’s up hiding his pain; “Yeah I’m fine. Listen there's something I wanted to tell you. I had a heart attack recently and it caused me an accident that almost killed me. I wanna try to fix things between me and you.”

Not feeling sorry for her father, Brandy becomes angry at her father; “You’re a fucking piece of shit, you know that?” “Yeah, I know I am.” “You’re not here to fix things between us; you just want somebody to feel sorry for you cause you had a heart attack.” “No, it’s not like that.” Brandy starts walking away to her room; “This is so like you; you only show up when you want something from somebody.” Scott follows her, but Brandy shuts the door at his face. “Brandy, could you please give me a chance to talk to you?” Scott’s ex-wife tries pulling Scott away from the door; “Okay, times up. You need to leave now.” Scott shrugs her hand off his shoulder; “Just give me two more minutes, please.” “No get out of my house before I call the police.” “Listen I’ll leave; I just wanna explain something to her. Two minutes; then I’m gone, I swear.” 

Scott's ex-wife allows him to speak to his daughter, and Scott steps forward; “Brandy, listen I know you think I’m a shitty father. I left you and your mom as a child. I just want you to know that whatever you think you said or thought; you did nothing wrong. I was young, I was stupid; I was’t thinking about my kid. Or my wife. Now I’m worth less than the clothes on my back. There’s literally nothing in my life worth living for anymore, but I just wanna make thing’s right again with you. I’m just here to tell you how sorry I am; I just hope it's not too late. Can you try to forgive me?” A few seconds go by until; Brandy opens the door and she hugs her father, as they both cry in pain. 

“Can I please see you again? I wanna get to know you more,” Scott says in tears. “Will you come back?” Scott takes off his watch and gives it to Brandy; “Here. My dad gave me this when he left me. I don’t wanna end up like my father, so I’m giving you that watch. And as long as you hang on to it I’ll always come back for you. Can I see you again?” “I’m free tomorrow night,” said Brandy. “Tomorrow, got it I swear I’ll be here. We can get some pizza or anything you want.” Scott walks out of the house while his ex-wife follows him; “You better not fuck this up again, Scott.” Scott leaves happily from the house.

The next day Scott’s withdrawals begging to kick in. He drives to a bar that he hasn’t been to and he parks his car, battling himself not to step inside. His body shakes in pain and he begins to sweat, before he decides not to go inside. As he’s about to drive off, someone taps on his window. Scott rolls down his window; “Yeah, whats up?” “Are you Scott Freeman,” the man asked. “Who wants to know?” “It’s me, Danny Bomer. We grew up together,” said the man. “Oh wow. I remember you,” Scott said with disinterest. “So what are you doing now?” Scott looks at him barely capable of moving his head; “Nothing, bout to go home.” “You looking to party, right now? I got some speed in my pocket?” “I can't. I had a heart attack a few days ago,” said Scott. “Oh that sucks. Well if you change your mind i’ll be in the bar.”

Danny walks away from Scott’s truck, he notices a woman, with a miniskirt, is following him as if she's about to party, intriguing Scott. Through impulse, Scott comes out of his truck and follows Danny to the bar; “Hey wait, I’m in.” The three all get drunk and then sneak inside the dirty bathroom all snorting lines of a mixture of cocaine and heroin off the bathroom sink. Under the influence; the woman gives Scott oral sex while Danny is having sex with her from behind. After the threesome Scott removes the cervical collar around his neck, and snorts more of the speedball off the sink and immediately after, Scott overdoses. Danny and the hooker see him fall to the floor, twitching, and they immediately leave him behind in the bathroom, to avoid suspicion. 

Hours later the bartender finds him and starts smacking Scott’s face; “Hey wake up. Hey buddy you better not be dead.” Scott’s eyes slowly open. “You good,” said the bartender. “Scott becomes paranoid; “What time is it?” “Almost midnight.” “AWE FUCK,” Scott shouted. 

Scott drives to his ex-wife's house loudly ringing the doorbell and banging on the door. “Brandy, please open up!” His ex-wife opens the door; “Get the fuck out of here.” “Let me just talk to Brandy.” “GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!” Scott then pushes the door in, hitting his ex-wife in the face; “Brandy, I’m here for you.” Scott opens her bedroom door seeing his daughter barely awake; “Get the fuck out of here!” “I know I fucked up. I fucked up bad. I’m sorry,” said Scott while slurring. “You didn't fuck up! You are a fuck-up! A walking, living, breathing fuck-up!” Scott begins to cry; “Brandy, I’m sorry. I'm trying to change, really. I had a relapse and-” “I don’t care, I hate you!” “Brandy I’m sorry. I can change for you just give me a chance,” Scott pleaded. Brandy takes the watch off her wrist and she throws it at Scott’s face; “Take it back; I hate you.” Scott begins to cry as Brandy slams the door in his face, his ex-wife comes behind him. “I already called the police. You need to go.” Scott takes his watch back and hastily runs out of the house and drives off.

With nowhere to go, Scott drives and parks his car some place quiet. “I’m a fucking loser,” said Scott. He hears police sirens from a distance, everything catching up to him, he takes out the pistol from the glove compartment. He looks at himself in his mirror, only sighing in disgust, fiddling with the handgun as the police sirens get louder.