The Past is in the Present

"The Past is in the Present" is the 1st episode of One Less Problem.

Summary
TBA.

Teaser
Three Years Ago

It’s a peaceful summer night in the town of Roseburn. The pretty suburban streets with their white picket fences and garden ornaments are lit up by the gentle glow of the lamps. All the wooden houses are dark and fast asleep… all except one. A little red house on the end of the street is lit up from the inside as best friends Joshua Anderson and Renato Belmiro play video games into the early hours of the morning, something they’ve made a habit of recently due to the relief and lack of responsibility they now have since school ended.

Outside the little red Belmiro house, the sun is starting to emerge, bringing with it the cheerful and musical tweets of the sparrows. The sprinklers on the Belmiros’ front lawn flick on, wetting the freshly cut grass. Once they shut off, a small group of birds land on the Belmiro household’s front lawn, pecking at the grass in hopes of getting their morning dose of wiggling worms. However, they soon flutter away in a panic when screams and smashing are heard coming from the little red house. Footsteps thud down the staircase in a hurry, and soon enough the front door swings open. Josh Anderson emerges from the house, running away as fast as he can, putting his coat on in the process, “Stay away from me!” he yells furiously, turning back to look at Renato, who is stood in the arch of his front door, holding his bloody nose with a look of pure hatred, but also worry, on his face. “You hear me?! Stay away from me you freak!” Josh screams again, waking up most of the neighbours down the street. Josh gives one last dirty glare at Rena before finally running away from the street and back to his house. Rena just watches.

Act I
Present Day

It’s the first day of school at Roseburn High, all of the young freshmen are eagerly rushing into the school gates with their freshly bought backpacks and books as the first bells of the school year ring. The seniors however, have a look of dread on their faces as they slouch their way through the main doors, ready to face their final year of high school. Among the students is the seventeen year old Joshua Anderson. Standing straight he struts through the school grounds cheerfully greeting the people he passes with a smile on his handsome face. He’s holding a small pile of paper and he hands pieces of them to certain people he walks past. One of the students he hands a piece to is a buff guy, who takes it and smiles in return, “Thanks Josh” he smiles, “No problem!” Josh responds, “It’s nice to see you again, Juan” he finishes before walking past him, brushing his hand through his dark blonde hair and continuing his walk. Soon enough Josh is almost knocked to his feet as he bumps into a friend of his, “Hey watch where…” the blue haired girl angrily says before she notices it’s Josh, “Oh my God, Josh!” she screams cheerfully, hugging him. Josh puts one arm around Joanna to hug her, holding the paper in his other. “Joanna,” he smiles, “It’s great to see you…I haven’t talked to you all of summer!” he adds regrettably. “Oh, well I tried ringing you a few times” she explains, Josh shrugs, “Oh, really? I guess I didn’t get any of them…” he says awkwardly. He glances at his mobile phone and notices that he has a recent missed call from Joanna so he quickly shoves it back in his pocket. “So how have you been, girl?” he asks with a huge grin, “And what is with the hair? Blue??” he adds, shocked. “Oh,” she says, twirling her blue hair, “Long story” she shrugs off, embarrassed. Josh smiles with eager eyes, sensing some drama, “Do tell”. “Okay, well you know the TV show Game of Thrones?” she asks, Josh nods. “Well there’s this pretty awesome character on it with red hair…” Josh just looks at her, waiting for her to continue, “And I wanted to dye my hair red. I bought the dye and shit but then my mom went ahead and said I couldn’t… fucking slut. Anyway, I guess she knew I’d do it behind her back so she changed the dye to blue…” as she finishes talking, she and Josh just look at each other for a moment before they burst out laughing. “Wow your mom sounds awesome” Josh smiles. Growing bored and slightly creeped out, he looks towards the school doors, ready to leave. “Well your hair looks great anyways so don’t worry about it!” he assures her; Joanna thanks him. “Well I’ll see you around then I guess” he finishes before walking away, waving to Joanna. She gives a little wave to him before walking away herself.

Within the school halls, two boys are stood by their new lockers talking to each other. One of the boys, Benjamin Porter is a skinny little guy with glasses. As he talks to his bigger and butcher friend, Joe Midland, he looks on with nervous eyes. He’s a very timid boy. Joe, however, is quite the opposite. He’s loud and confident and not afraid to speak what’s on his mind. Meanwhile, Josh is making his way down the hallway. He finally comes to a stop at his locker, which happens to be next to Joe and Ben’s. At first the two boys don’t notice as Josh opens his locker and begins to put the pieces of paper inside. “So I just got caught up on the Red Wedding episode… it was fucking sick, man!” Joe says rather loudly, embarrassing Ben, “Yeah, I remember reading it in the books. It was such a shock” Ben responds quietly. Josh overhears this conversation and pokes his head around the edge of his locker door, “Oh, Joe, Ben, hey” he says with a smile. Joe and Ben turn around and the former greets Josh in return. Ben simply gives him a welcoming smile. “What’re you two talking about?” Josh asks casually, so Joe explains that they’re talking about Game of Thrones. “Oh the show…? Everyone seems to be talking about that nowadays” Josh tells him. “It’s really good” Ben grins, almost sweating from the nerves of having just spoken to someone outside of his friendship circle. “You should watch it” Joe adds, pretending to care if Josh watches it or not. “Yeah I’ll get right on that” Josh huffs. “So anyway, what’ve you two been up to this summer?” he wonders, Ben and Joe just look at each other, “Yeah I guess, we’ve been pretty busy” Joe explains. Josh wonders what with, but Joe shrugs off that it’s “just stuff”. Not wanting to pry, Josh moves on from the conversation, “So I’m gonna be having a party at my house tonight, I guess it’ll be one of the last few we’ll be able to have this year...” Josh explains sadly, “You two should come, everyone will be there” he finishes, handing them both two of the pieces of paper from his locker. The two boys take them and look at them, noticing they’re invites. “Sounds great” Joe says with a feigned smile. “You’ve both gonna come, right?” Josh asks. “Yeah, sure” Joe smiles as Ben silently nods. “Great” Josh says with glee as he slams his locker shut, “I’ll see you tonight at seven then!” he finishes before walking away, almost skipping with joy. Joe turns to Ben and whispers “What a dick”.

As he walks away from Joe and Ben, Josh is suddenly pleased by the sight of Elizabeth Mills, who is running straight towards him with a huge smile and open arms, ready to hug. Josh starts to open his arms too, ready to hug his friend, but he’s shocked when the petite ginger runs straight past him, greeting him with a simple “Hey, Josh”. An embarrassed Josh turns around to see Liz run straight into the arms of Joe and kiss him. He almost gasps, but instead walks up to the apparent couple - and Ben, who is stood silently nearby. “Liz, you didn’t tell me you were dating Joe” Josh says in an awkward tone. A love struck Liz turns to Josh and explains that they started seeing each other over the summer. “Oh wow, so it’s pretty serious, huh?” he asks, Liz nods and pecks Joe on the lips, “I think so!” she giggles. “Yeah, she’s great” Joe tells Josh as he grabs Liz’s butt cheeks in his hand. She squirms and lets out an embarrassed giggle. Ben notices this and gives an envious glance towards Joe before quietly walking away. Nobody notices that he’s gone. As Joe grabs Liz’s waist and pulls her tighter to himself, Josh looks at him with untrusting eyes. However, this soon changes when his face turns to that of pure shock and disbelief. “I’ll catch you guys later” he says with a distant voice, walking away from the couple. He starts to walk over to the thing that caught his attention.

At a stone staircase in the school, a tanned girl with long brown hair stands leaning against a pillar as she talks to a young, pretty teacher. The brunette student asks the teacher where the common room is, but the teacher responds that she’s new and this is her first official day as a teacher. The teacher apologises for not being much help, but the student assures her that it’s fine, “What was your name again, Miss…” the girl asks “Miss Trellar” she responds, holding her hand out for the student to shake. They shake hands and the brunette tells Miss Trellar it was nice meeting her. Once Trellar is gone, the girl turns around to begin her search for the common room, but she’s met by Josh who is just stood watching her in awe, “Mary…” he mutters quietly, “Mary, oh my God, it is you!” he screams with a sudden realisation. The girl, Mary, is also shocked, “Josh?! Is that you?!” she squeals as they both hug each other tightly. Once they break off, Josh explains that he thought he’d never see her again after she’d moved back to Spain with her family. Mary tells him that her father was offered even better work in the US so they decided to take it and move back, “I was hoping I’d be able to find you around here” she adds, smiling. An utterly shocked Josh asks how she’s been. She assures him everything has been good before asking the same to him and if “the gang” is still together. Josh shrugs awkwardly, “Eh, more or less” he replies. Mary wonders what he means about this, but he tells her that can be a story for another time, “But first, we need to catch up on you” he says eagerly. Before Mary can begin talking, another brunette girl walks up to them and greets Josh casually, clearly having seen him a lot throughout the summer. “Hey Val” he smiles. Val wraps her arm around Josh’s and then finally pays attention to the girl he’s talking to. She doesn’t like how pretty she is, so gives a tiny snarl - undetectable. “Who’s this?” she asks in a high tone. Josh explains that she’s called Mary, “She used to be like my best friend years ago but she moved away” he adds. This makes Val jealous. Mary, oblivious to Val’s jealous, holds out her hand to greet her, “Hi, nice to meet you. What was your name again?”. Val shakes Mary’s hand, maybe gripping a bit too tight. “I’m Valentina Holmes, his new best friend” she says with a bitchy smile. Mary finally catches on that Val is jealous, so decides to grab Josh’s other arm and pull him close to her, “That’s sweet, me and Josh used to get into so much trouble” she chuckles, nudging Josh, “Didn’t we?” she asks. Josh nods, chuckling too. Val in turn, pulls Josh closer towards himself, “Well don’t worry, we’ve had a lot of fun ourselves since you left” she tells her. Josh now senses the tension between the two girls, and it becomes even more awkward when Mary forcefully pulls him back towards her. “Funny thing about old friends, though, is that no matter what shit you get into, you always stick together. When you’ve known someone your whole life you kinda get a connection with them” she tells Val, who is almost red with anger. However, before Val can respond, the bell signally registration sounds. Josh sighs with relief and tells the two girls he’ll see them around before quickly making an escape. Val and May both walk away from each other without speaking another word to the other. Meanwhile, however, the trio have been oblivious to the shady figure than has been watching them from behind his locker. Renato Belmiro moves away from his locker and glares angrily in the direction which the three were stood. He then slams the locker door before making his way to class.

Act II
Mary Rosales quickly makes it through the door to her first class. Once she sees she’s in the right place she takes a sigh of relief. “Hey, Mary, come sit here” a voice calls out to her from the ocean of students before her. Mary looks around and spots Josh waving his hand at her, signalling her to sit in the spare seat beside him. She walks over and then takes the seat, stating that she didn’t know they’d be sharing Algebra together, “You sure it’s okay if I sit here? It isn’t taken, is it?” she wonders. Josh ponders for a moment but then assures her that she can sit with him. “So tell me, Mary, how was Spain?!” he asks excitedly. “Hot” she giggles, before going on to explain that it was nice living there as all of her father’s side of the family live there and she’s never met them before. Josh points out that she must have learned to cook so many Spanish dishes during her time there. Mary nods, “My grandma used to come over twice a week and cook for us, eventually she started teaching me all her recipes” she smiles. Josh tells Mary that she’ll have to come over to his house one time and cook some “Paella or something” for the both of them. Mary is delighted, “Sure, I’d like that”. With that, Josh gets a sudden look of realisation on his face, “Oh, God, I nearly forgot!” he gasps, rummaging through his backpack. Mary asks what he’s talking about, so Josh explains that he’s having a house party tonight, “You HAVE to come!” he demands, passing her an invitation. Mary studies the invitation and fails to recognise the address, “Aw you moved out of your old house?” she asks sadly, “Yeah, we moved a couple of years ago… just reasons” he shrugs. “Well I’ll be there” Mary assures him. “Be where?” a suspicious voice calls out from behind her. She turns around to see Val standing before her. Josh explains to Val that he just invited Mary to his party tonight. “Sweet” she huffs, turning to Mary, “Well if you wouldn’t mind, you’re in my seat” Val snarls. Mary gives a quick glance to Josh and then back to Val, “Josh said I could sit here, darling” she smiles. Val gives a furious look to Josh, “C’mon, Val…” Josh pleads, “I haven’t seen her in years” he explains. An angry Val tells him she doesn’t care, adding that it is her seat as she always sits beside Josh. Josh awkwardly asks Val not to make a big deal out of the situation and cause a scene, “I don’t want to have to uninvited you tonight…” he says quietly. Val is filled with rage, but before she can respond to him, Mrs. Trellar enters the classroom and politely asks Val to take a seat so they can start the lesson. Val stays standing for a moment, just glaring at Josh with a look of betrayal and rage. “Now, please!” Miss Trellar says more forcefully. Val finally gives in and walks away, sighing angrily. She sits next to a skinny little boy, Tyson, who is the only person in the class to have a spare seat next to him. “Move over!” she hisses at him as she sits down. Josh watches Val with a look of regret, but Mary watches her with a look of victory.

After the first lesson, Joe and Ben walk together through the school corridors. Ben notices that mixed in with the books Joe is holding is the invitation that Josh gave him. “Why do you still have that?” Ben asks, looking at the invite. Joe takes the invitation in his hand and grins at his friend, “Because we’re gonna go, dude”. Ben looks confused, “But… I thought you hate Josh” he points out. “I do, idiot” Joe huffs, leading a puzzled Ben to ask why they’d go to his party then. Joe pats his schoolbag with his hand, smiling “Because we’re gonna have some fun there”. Ben smiles as he thinks about the devious plan Joe has planned, but this distracts him and he walks straight into the skinny Tyson. Both their books fall to the floor and a horrified Tyson begins picking them both up, apologising and stating it’s his fault. Ben just silently watches with an awkwardly look on his face. Joe, however, scolds Tyson for being so reckless and demands him to pick them up. Tyson does so and hands Ben his books back, “Sorry” he says meekly before rushing off with a sad look in his face. Ben refuses to make eye contact with the boy, and once he’s gone, quietly continues to walk. Joe notices that Ben is uncomfortable and puts his hand on his shoulder, “I know he used to be your best friend, dude, but people have to grow and change” he tells him. Ben doesn’t answer, “And you’re growing” Joe smiles, “Besides, I’m your friend now”. Ben turns to Joe and forces a smile, clearly saddened by the encounter with Tyson, “Well I gotta go, I’ll catch you later” Ben tells Joe before walking away.

Meanwhile, Liz is walking through the corridors when she notices Ben heading in her direction. She calls him over, filling his face with a smile. “Hey Liz” he blushes, “What’s up?”. Liz explains that she’s looking for Joe so that she can talk to him about tonight, “Oh, you’re going to the party?” Ben wonders, making conversation, “I am” she smiles, “How about you? You should totally come!” she tells him excitedly. “You think I should go?” he asks, fishing for a specific response. “Of course I want you to come” she tells him. Ben tells her that he’s glad and assures her that he will be attending the party. Liz then asks if Ben has seen Joe, so he explains that he was just with him, pointing Liz in the direction. She thanks him and tells him she hopes to see him at the party tonight. Ben stutters to say “bye” to her and ends up stopping her, “Wait, Liz!” he says awkwardly. Liz innocently turns around and asks, “What’s up?”. Ben struggles to speak for a while, but finally plucks up the shy courage to say “H-have you ever thought that, uh, m-maybe Joe is-isn’t right for you?”. Liz is confused at first and asks what he means, “It’s just, don’t you think Joe is wrong for you…” Liz is shocked, “M-Maybe you’d be better off with someone like me…” he finishes. A furious Liz slaps her hand across Ben’s face, causing him to hold it in pain. “Don’t you ever say anything like that to me again” she growls. Ben cowers in pain and embarrassment. “Don’t you fucking dare tell me what and what isn’t right for me” she continues hissing. Ben simply looks at Liz with sad eyes. “I won’t tell Joe you just said that. But I’m warning you, if you say anything like that again… then I will”. Liz then stomps away from the emotionally and physically hurt Ben.

Joanna is walking down the school hallway when she bumps into a furious looking Liz, who has just walked away from Ben. Joanna stops Liz to say “hi” and the angry ginger decides to shrug off her annoyance to talk to her friend. “Hey Jo, what’s up?” she says, slightly distant. Joanna notices that something is off about her friend so questions it, but Liz simply assures her that she’s fine. Desperate to move on from this topic of conversation, Liz asks Joanna if she’s “going tonight”. Joanna gives her a puzzled look, “Going where?” she wonders. “To Josh’s party…” she says obviously, but Joanna continues to look confused. “He’s having a party?” she asks, slightly heartbroken that he hasn’t asked her yet. Liz realises the awkward situation she has created so tells her friend that he probably didn’t get around to asking her. “But he saw me this morning…” she points out. An even more uncomfortable Liz supposes that Josh simply forgot to ask her. Holding onto hope, Joanna meekly responds “Yeah…he probably just forgot”. Liz puts on a smile and tells her friend that this shouldn’t stop her from coming to the party, “I really doubt he’ll mind if you come with me” she tells her friend. Joanna seems conflicted, “I dunno…maybe I shouldn’t. What if I did something to upset him?” she wonders. Liz assures her that it’ll be fine, “And if he’s funny with you about it then just tell me and I’ll have a word with him” she tells her, grabbing Jo’s hand and swinging it playfully. “Thanks Liz” Jo says with a forceful smile. Liz then excuses herself, explaining that she needs to find Jo. The two part ways, but when Joanna turns around, she’s startled by the sight of Rena Belmiro stood a few feet away from her, looking right at her. “Were you eavesdropping you little creep?!” Joanna hisses. Rena doesn’t respond. Instead he takes a few steps closer to Jo, creeping her out, “Don’t worry. I wasn’t invited to the party either” he tells her. “I don’t give a shit about what you weren’t invited to. There’s a difference between you and me and we all know why you’re not invited” Joanna says furiously, this last comment seems to upset Rena, but in an aggressive manor. “You know nothing” he tells her bluntly. “Well I know that I’m a better friend to Josh than you ever were!” she says loudly, “Really? Is that why he didn’t invite you?” Rena taunts her. An embarrassed Joanna explains that Josh most likely was distracted and forgot to ask her. Rena smirks. “Trust me, nothing Josh does is by accident”. Joanna raises an eyebrow and wonders what he’s talking about. With an emotionless face, Rena tells her “You’ll find out soon enough”. With that, he turns away and walks down the corridor, leaving a ticked off Joanna.

Act III
It’s the night of the party. Josh’s parents are out for the night, leaving him and his friends to party as much as they want and as loud as they want. The music from inside the house is blasting heavily, sending vibrations down the street and every so often when a door or window is opened, flooding the streets with the loud sounds. Numerous people arrive at the party, including Val, who is the first to arrive. Liz and Joe arrive soon after that and then Ben isn’t long after them. Juan also turns up and so do dozens of other students. Most of them gather in the living room, dancing and chatting whilst they drink their alcohol. Josh and Val spend most of the beginning of the night together, dancing and talking to each other about their crushes. Everyone is having a good night. However, this suddenly comes to a halt when Mary enters the house and rushes straight to Josh, interrupting his dance with Val. She greets him with a hug, not even acknowledging Val. As Josh and Mary hug, Val just stands there with her arms crossed. She gives the former an angry glare, and he gives her a sympathetic look in return, poking his head over Mary’s shoulder. “So you wanna go dance?!” Mary asks Josh excitedly. Josh awkwardly tries to look in the direction of Val, explaining that he was already dancing with her. However, before he can finish, he notices that Val has begun walking away, moving towards the kitchen. For a moment he contemplates going and talking to her, but realises he’ll only make matters worse. “Actually, never mind. Sure” he tells Mary in response to her request. The two then make their way into the centre of the room to begin dancing.

Later into the night, a loud knock on the door is heard. Josh, who was chatting with Juan, excuses himself when he goes to answer it. He has a look of awkwardness and surprise when he sees Joanna stood before him, “Jo…” he says quietly, embarrassed. Not getting the response she expected, Joanna tells Josh to “forget it” and she turns around, attempting to walk away. However, Josh grabs her shoulder and swings her around to face him. He tightly hugs the blue headed girl, “Oh my God, Jo!” he says, shocked, “I am so sorry! I can’t believe I forgot to invite you!!” he says sadly. Joanna assures him that it was fine and that she never took it personally. Josh continues to apologise and explain that he was just distracted with everything going on. Pleased that he is truly sorry, Joanna smiles and tells him it’s fine. Happy that Jo is happy, Josh gets a smile on his face and then drags her inside, telling her to just make herself comfortable. He excuses himself, explaining that he was just in the middle of a conversation before walking back over towards Juan. Now alone, Joanna walks further into the house. Annoyed by the loud music, she makes her way into the kitchen. In there she finds Val talking to Liz, the former is clearly bitching about how much she hates Mary. Liz tells Val that if she has a problem with Mary then she should confront her about it. “Or stick your foot up the skank’s ass” Joanna adds, catching on to the conversation. Val smirks, “I might just do that” she says before walking off into the other room. A cautious Liz contemplates stopping a clearly drunken Val from causing a scene, but she’s distracted when Joanna approaches her, “So you were right about Josh” she smiles, “He did just forget”. Liz tells Joanna that she told her so. After a moment of silence, Joanna attempts to make conversation by asking if Joe came to the party, adding that she hadn’t seen him when she walked through the house. A puzzled Liz shrugs and explains that he did come but she hasn’t seen him in a while. “He’s probably off having his seven minutes in heaven with Ben” Joanna jokes, “The two can’t be separated” she giggles. Liz forces a laugh at her friends joke, but she’s clearly frustrated by the mention of Ben.

Meanwhile, Valentina enters the living room in search of Josh and Mary. She looks around and makes her way to the staircase, but is stopped by Ben who frantically tells her “You can’t go up there!”. Val gives him a distasteful look, explaining that she doesn’t want to go upstairs, she just simply wants to find Josh and Mary. Ben points towards a large crowd of people, so Val looks over and is able to spot them both dancing together. Val barges over, pushing through the crowd, and then gently pushes Mary out the way, “Is it okay if me and Josh talk for a moment” Val asks her with a bitchy smile. Before Mary can respond, Val starts dragging Josh away. However, Mary quickly intervenes, yelling “Um, I don’t think so!”. Mary rushes towards Josh and grabs his arm, attempting to pull him back to her. Josh gets a look of nervousness, but it soon turns to shock when Val turns around and punches Mary straight in the face. Mary lets go of Josh to hold her bleeding lip. She is stunned…but only for a moment. The wild Spaniard leaps towards Valentina, knocking her to the floor. Josh steps back and looks in horror as his two friends fight. The rest of the students simply gather around and watch with enjoyment, chanting for them to fight. The two jealous girls roll around on the floor, clawing at each other and ripping each other’s hair out. As Valentina crawls on top of Mary, scratching at her, the latter is able to knee the former in the stomach, winding her. Mary stands to her feet and starts screaming profanity towards Val. Mary gives Val enough time to stand, making the fight a fair one. The second she stands up, Mary punches her straight in the face. Furious, Val charges at Mary. “Leave Josh alone you fucking whore!!” she screams as she rugby tackles Mary, crashing them both into the table full of alcohol. The table smashes under the weight of the girls and alcohol spills everywhere, including Josh’s expensive rug. Seeing this has gone too far, an angered Josh manages to get himself between the girls, “Enough! Both of you!” he roars. Val and Mary stop, but they continue to pant heavily and give each other death glares. “Mary… I think it’s time you went home” Josh tells his Spanish friend, upsetting her. Val lets out a victorious laugh, but she’s soon silenced when he adds, “You too Val…”. “What?!” Val screams, “You can’t possibly blame ME for this?!” she finishes. Josh turns away from both the girls and tells them that he doesn’t want to hear from either of them. “Go…please” he tells them before walking away. Mary and Val’s angry looks soon turn to looks of regret as they watch their hurt friend walk away. They then make their way outside the house.

Later into the night, in a small closet in one of the rooms upstairs…Joe stays hidden as he unscrews the bolt closing up a vent. After unscrewing the four corners, the cover to the vent is released. He puts his ear against the vent and realises that he can hear the music from downstairs coming through it. “Perfect…” he whispers to himself with a wicked smile. He then opens up a backpack he brought with him and takes out several small vials. Stink bombs. He removes the lid to one of the vials and moves it towards the vent, preparing to pour it down. However, he’s suddenly interrupted when the door to the room he is in opens and someone enters. Joe remains silent and hidden in the closed closet so he isn’t caught. He peeks through the gaps in the closet doors, revealing that he’s in Josh’s bedroom. He sees Josh enter the room…closely followed by Juan. He watches the two with confusion and curiosity as they sit on the bed. “You feeling any better then?” Juan asks a clearly saddened Josh. Josh explains that he’s just conflicted, “I just don’t know what to do. I like both Val and Mary…but they seem to hate each other” he finishes. “Well, have you tried asking them to try and get along?” Juan asks, but Josh explains that he doesn’t think it would make a difference since they both seem to be so jealous of one another. “Well maybe you should be more firm with them?” Juan suggests, “What do you mean ‘firm’?” Josh wonders, so Juan explains that Josh should give them a choice, “If they can’t get along for you…then tell them you don’t want anything to do with them”. “I don’t think I could just cut one of them out of my life…” Josh responds sadly. “Well you wouldn’t have to” Juan points out, “If they loved you like I do then they’d do anything for you” he finishes, smiling at Josh. Josh smiles in return and then they both lean in to kiss each other. Inside the closet, Joe is watching in shock, eyes and mouth wide open. He quickly pulls out his mobile phone and begins recording the scandal before his very eyes, “Holy fucking shit!!” he thinks to himself. Juan and Josh fall onto the bed behind them and continue to make out, kissing romantically and stroking their hands up and down each other bodies. Josh leans over to lift off Juan’s shirt, revealing his tight abs. However, before anything else can continue, a cracking sound is heard coming from somewhere outside. The sound also startles Joe, who stops recording as he hears it. In a panic, Josh and Juan stop what they’re doing, “What was that…?” Josh asks nervously. The shirtless Juan moves over to the window of the bedroom and looks outside, but he cannot see anything. He turns to Josh and shrugs his shoulders, explaining that it was probably nothing. Juan notices that Josh still seems shaken over the Val and Mary situation so suggests doing this another time. Josh smiles at Juan and nods thankfully. Juan pecks Josh with a kiss on the cheek before putting his shirt on and leaving the room. Now alone, or so he thinks, Josh just sits quietly on his bed, considering his situation.

“Yeah, my parents are out of town for the whole week with my brother. I should have had the party at my house so that skank Mary wouldn’t have been allowed to come” a cut and bruised Valentina says down the phone to Joanna from the comfort of her own living room. It’s now much later into the night and Josh’s party is long over and everyone has gone home. “I mean, can you believe the nerve on her… coming back here and acting like she owns the place. She was practically throwing herself at Josh. She’s such a fucking bitch” Val complains. On the other end, Joanna replies “Yeah. She sounds like such a bitch”. “I know right!!” Val gasps, “And then she started that fight with me at Josh’s party and got ME thrown out. I can’t believe her. I hope she drops dead” Val snarls. Joanna giggles, “Well why don’t you do it then?” she asks. “Kill her…?” a confused Val asks. “No!!” Joanna laughs, “Throw a party at yours. You can have it your way and make it so Mary doesn’t show up” she explains. “Nah I can’t do that. Josh is too mad at me right now, I think I need to give him some space” she explains, “Besides…I promised my parents that I’d behave”. “Boo, you whore” Joanna moans. Noticing the clock, Val tells Joanna that it’s late so she should get going, “I wanna catch up on Game of Thrones anyway”. “Ohh it was a good one this week” Joanna smiles. The two part ways and then hang up. Val turns the living room TV off and heads up stairs, turning her bedroom TV on, preparing to watch Game of Thrones. She heads over to her dresser and gets changed out of her clothes and into her Pyjamas, however, one piece of clothing she keeps on is a necklace she’s wearing. As she stands facing her dressing table mirror, she gently rubs the necklace and is filled with memories of her grandmother, the late owner of the necklace. Tap tap tap. Valentina’s heart begins to race as she hears gentle footsteps coming downstairs. She’s frozen with fear. “Hello…?” she calls out meekly, “Hello? Who’s there?” she asks, scared out of her mind. She heads downstairs and is confused to see her television on, but only playing static. As she slowly creeps around her living room and kitchen, she keeps her eyes out for any signs of movement. “Hello?” she calls out once more, but there’s no response. Not until something suddenly pounces out the shadows at her. Valentina screams with horror as her cat jumps at her and begins playing around at her feet. Once she realises it was only her cat, she has a sigh of relief. “Oh my God, Vissie” she giggles, “You gave me a heart attack”. She picks up her cat and strokes it for a while. She then puts Vissie down and heads back upstairs to continue watching her show. She enters her dark bedroom, confused to see her television off. “What the hell…” she sighs with frustration. She moves over to turn her TV back on, but she’s met with a sudden chill in the air. The window is open. Thinking nothing of it, she heads over to the window and closes it. She then heads over to her bedside table and drinks from a glass of water she’d prepared earlier. And then it’s all over. Valentina instantly gets a tingling sensation in her stomach. It begins to spread throughout her body and into her limbs. She collapses to the floor, unable to move, but none of her sense are dulled. Tap. Tap. Tap. There they are again. The footsteps. Except this time they’re much slower. Unable to move her head, Valentina cannot see what is going on until the masked shadowy figure stands above her with a knife. A second masked figure stands above her as well. Fear overwhelms Val, but she is powerless to do anything. She simply lays there as the knife is thrust into her chest and face repeatedly. Val cannot even let out screams of pain. But she can definitely feel the pain. Blood from the poor girl splatters all over the room. He torso is sliced open, allowing her entrails to pour out onto her pretty white carpet. The second masked figure reaches down with their gloved hand and they steal the necklace around her neck. They then quickly run away, exiting out the window, leaving Val to gargle in her dark blood and breathe her last final breath.

In a pleasant little neighbourhood in the town of Roseburn there is a little red house. A person makes their way to the house in the early hours of the morning, clearly distressed. They open the front door, using a cloth, and make their way straight up to the bathroom. Renato Belmiro looks at himself with disgust and anger as he begins to wash the blood off his hands in his sink. As the blood washes away down the plug, Rena watches it with anger…but then he soon turns to himself in the mirror and gets a look of determination on his face.

Unanswered Questions

 * What happened on the night that Josh Anderson and Rena Belmiro fell out?
 * Why did Josh Anderson move house?
 * Who murdered Valentina Coupe?
 * Why did Rena Belmiro have blood on his hands?

Gallery
This is a gallery of photographic stills released to promote the episode.