Winthrop Prep -- 2.08 -- The Deep End

TEN YEARS AGO

Layla Bishop paddled about in the Bishop family’s pool while her timid sister stood on the sidelines, watching.

Layla: Come on, Bianca!

Bianca: I’m afraid of the water.

Layla: You take baths, don’t you? Think of this as a big bathtub, minus the bubbles and the rubber ducky.

Bianca: What if I drown?

Layla: I won’t let you drown. I could never let you drown. Dad would ground me.

 

Bianca: Mom says I don’t have to learn how to swim if I don’t want to, that large boobs run in our family and when I get older, all I’ll have to do is lay out by the pool in a bikini.

Layla: What if you’re in a plane and it crashes into water? Don’t you want to know how to swim so you can try to make it to dry land?

Bianca: Most plane crash victims die on impact, so statistically speaking –

Layla: Will you just get in the pool!?

Bianca eased into the water. It was warmer than she thought. She expected it to be ice.

Layla: Now, see? It’s not so bad.

Bianca: Just so you know, I’m only doing this because I plan to marry the prince of a small country and he’s going to expect his wife to be well-rounded.

Layla: A prince, huh?

Bianca: Yes, a prince. He’s going to have dark hair and bright, blue eyes.

Layla: If you say so. Let’s have a hold-breath contest!

Before Bianca could object, Layla sunk down into the water. Bianca pinched her nose and followed, against her better judgment.

Of course, Layla won. Bianca made it ten seconds before she panicked. 

 

Layla: I win!

Bianca: Don't gloat.

Layla: Well, that just gives us a goal to work on. Don’t worry, Bianca, one of these days, you’ll be strong enough to beat me.

PRESENT DAY

Dr. Masters sat with Layla. She’d been in control ever since their session began.

Dr. Masters: Do you know why Bianca let you out today?

Layla: She’s trying to kill me.

Dr. Masters: Is that how you see integration?

Layla: I know what you’ve said, that integration is a blending of Bianca’s core personality and me, but I don’t think that’s true. I think when – if we integrate, she’s going to go back to life as she knew it and I’m going to be a bad memory.

Dr. Masters: I’ve noticed a change in her since you’ve become more cooperative. She’s been eating cherry cheesecake.

Layla: Bianca hates cherry cheesecake.

Dr. Masters: But, it’s your favorite food, isn’t it? It’s becoming hers. The closer the two of you get to full integration, the more of your likes, your dislikes she’s going to adopt.

 

Layla: Did you know Lucas, the guy I met in Bridgeport, came here?

Dr. Masters: I do.

Layla: I didn’t get to see him. I begged and I pleaded with her to let me out, but she was so strong. She sent him away.

Dr. Masters: How did that make you feel? 

Layla: Powerless. I felt like she used to feel when she called on me. But, she’s not powerless now because of Jasper.

Dr. Masters: She isn’t powerless anymore because of you. You saw her through some of the most horrific moments in her life. When you integrate, she’ll take your strength and use it as her own, just like she’s developed an affinity for cherry cheesecake because of you.

Layla: We can’t integrate.

Dr. Masters: Layla –

Layla: We can’t integrate until she accepts the real reason I’m here.

Layla allowed the partition between them to shift. Bianca took control again.

Bianca: What happened?

Dr. Masters: I just had a discussion with Layla. She seems to believe you haven’t fully accepted why you created her.

Bianca: What else is there to accept? I remember that night completely. Pete attacked me, I killed him. I remember, I’ve accepted it.

Dr. Masters: Unless that wasn’t why you created her.

Outside, in the grand entryway, Lucas lurked. He knew he shouldn’t be here, his mother had chewed him out royally over coming to Sunset Valley. But, Layla was here, was calling herself Bianca. He didn’t understand. All he knew was that he wanted to see Layla, to talk to her, to hold her again.

Just then, a boy with dark hair and bright, blue eyes came in. Lucas didn’t recognize him.

Jasper: Who are you?

Lucas: My name’s Lucas. Who are you?

Jasper: Jasper Mancini. I’ve heard of you.

Lucas: Good for you.

Jasper: Bianca told me about you. You’re the sick freak who thought it was okay to have sex with my mentally ill girlfriend.

Lucas: I didn’t know –

Jasper: I don’t care what you knew. You don’t need to be here.

Lucas: I have as much right to be here as you do. From the way Bianca explained it to me the other day –

Jasper: You talked to her?

Lucas: She didn’t tell you?

Jasper: No.

Lucas: The way she explained it to me, Layla is a part of her and she is trying to reconcile the Layla piece with the Bianca piece. But, if she didn’t tell you I was here, maybe she’s starting to feel Layla’s affection for me.

Jasper: Bianca and I belong to each other. You are five minutes from her past when she thought I was dead. I am her future.

Lucas: Are you trying to convince me or yourself of that, Jasper?

TEN YEARS AGO

Bianca and Layla laid down for their afternoon nap. Later that night, Ted was taking them out on the boat. Layla couldn’t wait. She loved the boat. Bianca always got seasick.

Bianca jerked awake.

Layla: What is it?

Bianca: I heard something in the closet.

Layla: It was your imagination, go back to sleep.

Bianca: What if it was a monster?

Layla: It wasn’t a monster.

Bianca: Will you go check?

Layla: It’s not like I need a nap.

Layla: See? No monster, just hideous clothes on your half.

Bianca: Thanks. I bet if there was a monster, you scared it off. You always make the monsters go away.

Layla: That’s my job.

PRESENT DAY

Bianca was frustrated. Her session hit a brick wall and Dr. Masters suggested she go back to her room to rest.

Layla: Quitter.

Bianca: She sent me away.

Layla: Funny, I thought you wanted to be with Jasper. God knows you whine about it enough, you and Jasper and your epic, vomit-inducing love.

Bianca: I do want to be with him!

Layla: Well, you can’t. Not until we integrate. What do you think? Dr. Masters is going to treat you here

forever? No, cupcake, that’s not how it works. When she gives up, she’ll recommend another place like the Reynolds Center, where you’ll spend day in and day out in captivity, seeing only doctors and the other crazies and the occasional visiting day with Ted and Rachel and Beth. Do you think they’ll give you conjugals with the grease head?

Bianca: It’s not working. You said I have to accept why I created you –

Layla: And, you haven’t.

 

Bianca: I have!

Layla: No, you haven’t!

Bianca: He raped me. You came out. See? I can say it out loud, I’ve accepted it.

Layla: Except, I wasn’t born that night and you know it. I was born a long time before you were even a blip on Pete Summers’ radar.

Bianca: I don’t want to talk about this.

 

Layla: I was born the night your sister died.

Bianca: Stop it!

Layla: No! Not until you say it.

Bianca: Say what? That I miss my sister?

Layla: You know what.

Bianca: No, I don’t!

Layla: Say it!

Bianca: No!

Layla: Say it or I swear to God I will take control and you will never see any of your family or your friends or your smarmy boyfriend ever again!

Bianca: Fine! I let her drown! Are you happy now?!

 

Bianca felt her stomach knot and it took everything she had not to throw up right there on her bedroom floor. She remembered that night more vividly than ever before. The storm came so suddenly and Layla was too close to the railing. She fell overboard when the storm rocked the boat and Bianca had grabbed her, held on as tightly as she could, but she wasn’t strong enough. Layla slipped from her hands and disappeared into the choppy, black waters below.

Layla: No, you didn’t.

Bianca: What?

Layla: You tried to save her.

Bianca: But, I didn’t. She always said she’d never let me drown and I was the one who let her drown.

Layla: You’re not responsible for what happened to her. You couldn’t have predicted the storm.

Bianca: But, I couldn’t even help Ted. Maybe if I would’ve let her teach me how to swim, like she wanted, I could have went into the water with Ted and helped him find her.

Layla: Do you really think he would have let you?

Bianca: I couldn’t do anything. I was –

Layla: Powerless. It was the first time you felt powerless. Part of you died with Layla, the part of you that slowly formed into me every time
you felt powerless. But, you didn’t realize it until that night with Pete Summers.

Bianca: Oh God –

Layla: It’s okay. You needed this, to face the monster in the closet all on your own and make peace.And, now that you have, we can tear down the wall between us and finally put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Bianca: No, we can't. You need to make peace, too.

Downstairs, Jasper ran into Alison.

Alison: Hey.

Jasper: I have nothing to say to you.

Alison: Okay. But, you look like you have a lot on your mind, so if you want to sit down and talk about it, I’ll listen.

Jasper: It’s Bianca. I’m scared of what we’re going to be like when she integrates, how she’s going to feel about me.

Alison: She loves you.

Jasper: There was someone else when she was in Bridgeport. The other night, she fell asleep watching a movie in her room. I was so happy to just lie there with her, holding her, and then she said his name.

Alison: That doesn’t mean anything.

Jasper: Doesn’t it?

Alison: When you and I were – one night you woke up, it was three am and I could hear you on the couch screaming at the aliens about experimenting on you. Does that mean you want aliens to experiment on you?

Jasper: No. 

Alison: Look at what happened with you. You got your memories back

and whatever you felt for me died. What makes you think the same won’t be true for Bianca?

Jasper: Because, I’m not so sure it died. I don’t love you like I thought I did, but I don’t hate you like I want to, either. And, I hate myself for it. Every time I think about a happy time with you, I feel like I’m cheating on Bianca.

Alison: You aren’t. Your heart is with her as much as hers is with you. Believe in that and this other guy –

Jasper: Lucas.

Alison: That guy who’s been hanging around here? I saw him talking to --

Jasper: Talking to Bianca, I know.

Alison: No, he was talking to Dr. Masters. I heard them in her office. He’s her son.

Jasper: He’s her what?

Alison: Son. I thought that was why he’s been hanging around. I had no idea he was here because of Bianca. You should go talk to him. I think I saw him heading towards the gym.

Inside the gym, Layla found Lucas. He looked so beautiful, so handsome, the same as he had that night they roasted marshmallows and he sang to her down by the river.

Layla: Lucas?

Lucas: Layla? Is it you?

Layla: I thought I was never going to get to see you again.

Lucas: Are you okay?

Layla: Yes.

Lucas: Let’s get out of here.

Layla: I can’t.

Lucas: No, if you leave this Bianca girl, you’re stronger than she is. We can go and we can be together and –

Layla: I have to stay. Bianca and I are the same person. I can’t hurt her and if I take off now, I’ll be damaging both of us. Lucas, she let me out to say goodbye to you. We’re integrating. We’ve broken the wall she put up and there’s no stopping it now.

Lucas: Don’t say that.

Layla: I wanted to tell you how
happy you made me. You made me realize I have a heart and you’re in it, Lucas, no matter what happens.

Lucas: You’re the most incredible person I’ve ever met.

Layla: Do me a favor?

Lucas: There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.

Layla: Kiss me goodbye? Kiss me like you kissed me that night down by the river?

His lips were as soft and sweet and warm as she recalled. If integration was a lie, if this was the end for her, she could die happy knowing that she’d experienced a kiss like Lucas’.

Just then, the door flew open and Jasper tore through the room.

Jasper: Get your hands off my girlfriend!

Layla: Jasper, we were saying goodbye.

Jasper: Layla?

Layla: Duh. Seriously, I do not see what she sees in you besides the blue eyes and the incredible, incredible sex. Wait, since when do I think sex with you is incredible? Gross.  

Jasper: Where are you going?

Layla: To finish this. Try not to kill each other.

Layla went to the pool behind Dr. Masters’ estate. She hoped when the integration happened, Bianca wouldn’t be afraid of the water anymore, that she would look at crisp, blue waters such as these and see something fun and refreshing, not be terrified.

Bianca: It is kind of incredible, isn’t it?

Layla: Eavesdropper.

Bianca: Thank you, for everything. For protecting me when I wouldn’t or couldn’t protect myself, for giving me this second chance with my family and Jasper.

Layla: Just be careful with him. I’m the part of you that protects you and responds to your inhibitions, but I also have a bad feeling about Jasper. My 
bad feelings are rooted somewhere in your own misgivings about him.

Bianca: I admit, I’m scared. Jasper used to make a pastime of breaking hearts. But, I’m different.

Layla: Are you? Because I can feel it in my bones that ours is just another heart that’s going to be broken by him. Look, I know you’re not going to break up with him and I’m not asking you to. All I want is for you to go into this second chance with your eyes wide open.

Bianca: I will.

Layla: So, are you ready to finish this?

Bianca: How do we do it?

Layla: There’s something we have to go get.

Back inside the gym, Lucas and Jasper struggled. Jasper had had it up to his eyeballs with this guy. But, his fun was cut short when Dr. Masters, upon hearing the commotion, ran inside.

Dr. Masters: Good heavens! You boys stop that right now!

Jasper: He started it.

Lucas: No, he did!

Dr. Masters: I don’t care who started it. The mental health of two very fragile young women is dependent on a peaceful environment. I will not have the two of you jeopardizing Alison and Bianca with your petty arguments.

Jasper: Speaking of Bianca, I want you off her case.

Dr. Masters: Excuse me?

Jasper: You heard me. Now that I know that you just happen to be the mother of the guy Layla fell for in Bridgeport? How do I know you aren’t secretly weakening Bianca so that Layla and her feelings take over for good?

Dr. Masters: I would never do that to you.

Jasper: To me? Like you care about some stranger you met a few weeks ago more than your own son.

Lucas: Don’t you speak to my mother like that!

Jasper: I’ll speak to your mother any way I want. Especially if she is sacrificing my girlfriend to please her son –

Dr. Masters: You’re my son!

She spit it out more bluntly than she’d preferred. She had it planned how she was going to explain it to them, how she was going to sit down and talk to them. It wasn’t supposed to come out like this.

Jasper: What did you just say?

Dr. Masters: You’re my son, Jasper. So is Lucas. Both of you.

Jasper: My mother is dead.

Dr. Masters: No, I’m not. I survived the car accident.

Lucas: Mom –

Dr. Masters: I know this is a lot to accept, but it’s true. And, I can prove it.

While Jasper’s world spun off its axis, Bianca’s snapped back into place, piece by piece.

Layla: Come on, chicken!

Bianca: I’m coming, I’m coming. Gees this is cold.

Layla: There we go. See? Not so bad, is it?

Bianca: It’s not entirely awful.

Layla: Progress! Hold-breath contest?

Before Bianca could object, Layla went under the water. Bianca followed. She held her breath as much as she could, until her ears were ringing and her head felt like a swollen grape that would pop at any second.

She held it until she heard Layla kicking back towards the surface.

Bianca flew up and took a deep breath, joyous at her victory. Until she realized she was alone. 

It was over now.

Layla was gone.