SUSPENDED

Written by

DEVON VONDER SCHMALZ

And
JAKOB BAUWENS

Devon_vonderschmalz@emerson.edu
Jakob_bauwens@emerson.edu
1 INT. BATHROOM - DAY 1

BRADLEY (19) enters the bathroom, pulls down his Mario Kart
boxers, and PLOPS down on the toilet; his bare feet just
touch the ground.

Bradley rubs his eyes with his cheeto-stained hands. He

immediately takes out his phone to find a only one
notification from Twitter. It’s just an alert that someone he
followed tweeted something, nothing about him. He turns off
his phone and finishes his business.

2 INT. COLLEGE CLASSROOM - DAY 2

Bradley sits in class and clearly does not pay attention to

the teacher. He decides to sneak a quick peak at his phone,
but is disappointed to see no new notifications. He doesn’t
stop looking at the screen, maybe something will pop up...

Nothing. Defeated, he opens Twitter anyway and checks his

profile to check how many followers he has. He has 633. Not
enough.

Bradley presses the “New Tweet” button and brainstorms.

Eventually, he types “my facial hair looks glued on...”

Send tweet.

3 INT. CORNER STORE - DAY 3

Bradley mans the cash register at a local corner store. He

finishes ringing up a customer’s order, but maintains
prolonged eye contact with his Twitter profile. So far, he
has 1 like on his tweet and still 633 followers.

BRADLEY
$6.33

The customer shuffles through her purse for cash. Bradley

looks up from his phone.

BRADLEY (CONT’D)
So, do you think that’s a high
number, or...

CUSTOMER
Wait what?

BRADLEY
Would you say 633 is a... high
number?
 2.

CUSTOMER
For what...

BRADLEY
Um, followers.

CUSTOMER
I- I guess so.

BRADLEY
Thank you. I... I needed that.

Bradley has still not taken the money from the customer. He
is too blinded by this ego boost. They stand awkwardly until
he realizes he has to finish the transaction. He hands the
customer the change and her bag, and she leaves in silence.

Back to the phone. Bradley has a notification this time! It’s

a text from KIMMI (17), his internet girlfriend. Several
heart and flower emojis surround her contact name.

NOTE: ALL TEXT MESSAGES ARE IN ITALICS.

KIMMI
How’s work baby? :)

BRADLEY
It’s okay I guess... :/ kinda
boring...

KIMMI
U wanna FaceTime?

BRADLEY
I wish I could with all my heart,
but my boss would kill me...

KIMMI
Oh, ok...
(new message)
Send me a pic at least... I wanna
see ur face :3

Bradley opens his camera roll and scrolls through his

“Selfies” album to find a worthy picture. He selects a selfie
of himself dressed in a neon-pink Speedo and Sonic the
Hedgehog suspenders.

Sent.
 3.

4 INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT 4

Bradley FaceTimes Kimmi. He has Twitter open in the

background.

KIMMI
I don’t know, the math part was
really confusing, so I just guessed
most of it. Everything else was
pretty easy though...

Bradley only half-listens. He’s mainly focused on his Twitter

feed.

KIMMI (CONT’D)
So what are you thinking about?

BRADLEY
I don’t know, nothing much...

KIMMI
Come on, give me something babe!

BRADLEY
Well, honestly, I’m kind of
surprised with the lack of activity
on my Twitter profile today.

KIMMI
Oh...

BRADLEY
Like, I don’t understand why I
don’t have more followers yet. I
mean, my content is pretty funny,
right?

KIMMI
Yeah, I think so... I do like all
your tweets, don’t I?

BRADLEY
Yeah, but that’s it.

KIMMI
Am I not enough anymore?

BRADLEY
I mean, I’m happy you like them,
but famous people get a lot more
than one like...

KIMMI
Yeah, you have a point I guess.
 4.

BRADLEY
Apparently it’s only five dollars
to promote one of your tweets.

KIMMI
No, don’t spend money on Twitter.
Just tweet about things that are
trending.

BRADLEY
Yeah, true...

Kimmi continues to ramble about Twitter algorithms. Bradley

opens his Twitter feed again and browses popular hash tags.
He clicks on “#relatable.”

Millions of results appear. He digs deep enough into the hash

tag, and a tweet catches his eye. It says “that moment when
you sneakily open Twitter in class, while looking at the
teacher like a hawk #relatable.”

Bradley can relate. He notices that this tweet does not have
that many likes and retweets at all. He studies it more, then
copies the text.

Bradley pastes the text he copied into a tweet for his

profile. He doesn’t post it yet.

KIMMI
Sometimes her tweets are good, but
most of the time I just don’t like
them at all-

BRADLEY
Yea, yea they’re so unoriginal.
Wait, so how about this for a
tweet?
(reading)
“that moment when you sneakily open
Twitter in class, while looking at
the teacher like a hawk
#relatable.”

KIMMI
Oh, yeah... that’s pretty good! I
think a lot of people will like it.

BRADLEY
Thanks, babe.

Bradley sends the tweet.

 5.

BRADLEY (CONT’D)
I’m getting kinda tired, I think I
might go to bed.

KIMMI
Oh, good night then... I love you!

BRADLEY
Love you too. Bye.

They hang up. Bradley closes his laptop and places it under
his pillow. He turns off his side table lamp and curls up
under his covers.

Bradley tries to go to sleep. A few minutes pass and he is

still awake. He shift positions multiple times in an attempt
to get comfortable.

He can’t help it. He has to check Twitter.

Bradley reaches for his phone and checks his Twitter

notifications. No likes on the new tweet yet.

However, one notification suddenly pops up. One person liked

his new tweet, and it’s not Kimmi.

He excitedly smiles, turns off his phone, and goes to bed.

5 INT. CLASSROOM - DAY 5

Bradley takes a quiz in class. He hears a faint VIBRATION. He

wants to check his phone, but is scared the professor will
think he is cheating. She watches over the class like a hawk.

The VIBRATION does not stop. Getting more curious, Bradley’s

hand starts to inch towards his bag. He quickly glances up.
The professor hasn’t noticed anything. He tries to grab his
bag, but a GRUNT from the professor startles him, and he
returns to his quiz.

6 EXT. HALLWAY - DAY 6

Bradley exits his classroom, and immediately takes his phone

out of his bag. It hasn’t stopped VIBRATING since the quiz.
He looks at his phone to see hundreds of notifications from
Twitter continue to pop up. Bradley’s mouth is agape.

He unlocks his phone to find that his stolen tweet from the
previous night has now reached 30 thousand likes, and 10
thousand retweets.
 6.

Bradley closes the app in disbelief. Maybe it’s a glitch. He

reopens Twitter to find 99+ notifications in the span of
seconds.

Bradley slumps down against the wall of the hallway, glued to

his phone. He impulsively refreshes Twitter and scrolls
through every single notification that pops up.

7 INT. UBER - NIGHT 7

Bradley leans against the bus window, still glued to his

phone. His tweet has now reached 50 thousand likes. It has
received so much attention that his other tweets are getting
more likes too. On top of this, he now has 10 thousand
followers.

He composes a new Tweet. It says,

“wow my account blew up! Welcome to all the new fans. My last
tweet was actually a quote from trending, but I hope you guys
will stay... I’m pretty funny.”

Bradley hovers his finger over the tweet button. He goes back
and reads it over again. He stares at the screen for a good
minute before deleting part of what he wrote. The tweet now
says,

“wow my account blew up! Welcome to all the new fans... I’m
pretty funny.”

Bradley presses send.

A text notification from Kimmi pops up. Bradley clicks on it.

KIMMI
Babe? :/

Bradley hasn’t answered a few of her previous texts in a row,

so he decides to respond to this one.

BRADLEY
Hey Kimmi baby :* Sorry I didn’t
see these... my phone has been
blowing up with Twitter
notifications :O

KIMMI
Oh wow haha it’s okay. That’s
crazy... I’m so proud of you babe
:)

BRADLEY
Thank you baby ;D
 7.

KIMMI
I love you <3

Before Bradley can type a response, he receives another

notification from Twitter. Shia Lebouf retweeted his tweet.

Bradley instantly clicks on the notification. His tweet now

has 100 thousand retweets and 200 thousand likes.

UBER DRIVER
We’re at your stop.

BRADLEY
Oh shit. Thanks, man.

Bradley exits the Uber.

8 INT. BEDROOM- NIGHT. 8

Bradley showers in the other room. His phone RINGS. Bradley

quickly dries himself and enters the room to see who is
calling.

It’s a FaceTime call from Kimmi. He lets it ring. He wraps

his anime-themed towel around his waist and gets in bed. He
turns the light out and goes to bed.

CUT TO:

9 INT. BEDROOM - LATER 9

Bradley lays awake, eyes wide open. PHONE VIBRATIONS come

from the other room. But, Bradley can’t check it because he
can’t move his body, only his head.

Bradley struggles with this and whips his head back and
forth. The VIBRATIONS further multiply and grow in speed.

Bradley’s eyes start bleeding. His skin turns bright blue.

The VIBRATIONS come closer and closer.

The door SLAMS open, but no one is there. Silence. Then,

Bradley’s head starts to VIBRATE. He screams.

Shia Lebouf appears in the doorway. He wears nothing but a

speedo and suspenders.

SHIA LEBOUF
Admit it. You stole the tweet.

BRADLEY
NEVER!!
 8.

Shia shoots a beam of electricity at Bradley. His head

vibrates more intensely.

SHIA LEBOUF
Admit it. Admit it. Admit it.

Shia repeatedly shoots electricity and chants. Bradley

screams. He inches closer to Bradley until he grabs a pillow
off his bed.

SHIA LEBOUF (CONT’D)

TWEET STEALER! TWEET STEALER!

Shia raises the pillow. He SLAMS it on Bradley’s head.

10 INT. BEDROOM - NEXT DAY 10

Bradley jolts up on his bed. It was just a bad dream. He

processes what happened for a second.

He reaches for his phone. There are hundreds more

notifications from Twitter. But these don’t look very
positive...

Bradley opens Twitter. All of the notifications are replies

to a tweet mentioning him. He finds the tweet. It’s a
screenshot of the original tweet and a screenshot of his
tweet with the time stamps highlighted. The caption reads,
“Y’all really out here supporting tweet stealers. SMH!”

The tweet is by Oprah.

Bradley can’t believe it. He stares blankly at his phone

screen until eventually, Twitter logs him out.

Bradley tries to log back in, but he gets a notice that says,
“Account Suspended. You have breached the terms of service.”

CUT TO:

11 INT. COLLEGE CLASSROOM - DAY 11

Bradley sits at a desk and stares blankly at his notebook.

His eyes start to water. He takes out his phone and opens his
text messages. He opens Kimmi’s.

He has now missed multiple texts from her, all sad-face

emojis. She hasn’t sent one in awhile.

BRADLEY
Hey.
 9.

No response. A single tear falls from Bradley’s face onto his

phone screen. Kimmi starts typing...

This lasts for some time. Bradley stares at the graphic in

anticipation.

KIMMI
We’re done. UR Blocked.

Bradley breaks down in tears and storms out of class.

MONTAGE - VARIOUS

A) EXT. COLLEGE - DAY - Bradley slams his phone on the

ground.

B) INT. BEDROOM - DAY - Bradley packs a bag.

C) EXT. COLLEGE - DAY - Bradley stomps on the phone because

he didn’t throw it hard enough to break it.

D) EXT. ROAD - DAY - Bradley stands on the side of the road

with his thumb up.

E) EXT. ROAD - NIGHT - Bradley stands on the side of the road

with his thumb up. An old car pulls up to him.

F) INT. CAR - NIGHT - Bradley stares blankly out the window.

G) INT. BAKERY - NIGHT - Bradley gets in through the window.

He moves a few tables next to each other to sleep on. An old
woman hears the commotion and walks downstairs.

BRADLEY
...Hi, mom.

The woman nods her head.

H) INT. BAKERY - NEXT DAY - Bradley bakes bread.

I) INT. BAKERY - A FEW DAYS LATER - Bradley eats bread and

cries.

J) INT. BAKERY - MONTHS LATER - Bradley bakes bread.

K) INT. BAKERY - MONTHS LATER - Bradley eats bread in the

middle of the night. Alone.

L) INT. BAKERY - MONTHS LATER - Bradley engages with

customers.

END MONTAGE
 10.

12 INT. BAKERY - DAY 12

Bradley stands behind the checking counter and rings up a

customer. After he is finished, he admires the environment.

The bakery is now empty. As he gazes, the shop’s doorbell

RINGS as a customer enters. ANNA (23) strolls into the room
and browses. Bradley notices her.

BRADLEY
Hi, welcome! Can I help you with
anything?

ANNA
Hi! Actually, that would be really
helpful. I can’t decide which
pastry to get.

Bradley ponders for a second. He scrambles to study all of

the potential options.

BRADLEY
I would say our chocolate croissant
is definitely one of the better
ones.

ANNA
I guess that’s what I’ll go with
then!

Bradley and Anna continue to chat inaudibly. The sun is

slowly setting in the background. Bradley hands Anna the
chocolate croissant, wrapped in a napkin.

Anna puts the napkin on the counter, reaches into her pocket
for a pen, and scribbles down something on the napkin. They
both smile and she exits.

13 INT. BATHROOM - DAY 13

Bradley PLOPS on the toilet. He takes out his flip phone. He

has an unread message from Anna. He opens it.

ANNA
It was nice talking with you today!
:) Hope to see you soon.

Bradley smiles.
 11.

BRADLEY
Same to you :) What are you doing
later this week?

CUT TO BLACK.