Jeremy Applegate: How i learned to like "Heathers"

I've worked for nonprofit organizations since I was in high school. Started off at legal aid (where my mom worked at the time) moved from there to a new legal aid office, graduated high school...started junior college. That was how I found a organization which investigated police misconduct issues where I first became a "bar tender" ....see when people need assistance and they find that people are paying attention they suddenly want to lie any of a number of life issues down on you. I went in for an interview at the non profit and was immediately put on phones. It became my after college job. I would commute from Whittier to Los Angeles. In the office there was myself and an eccentric supervisor.
- one caller said the east Los Angeles county sheriffs department came to his home and took photos with his teletubby collection
- a Beverly hills couple had the cops bust in on them as they slept
- a man hiking at Griffith park claims he was baited by an undercover cop who falsely arrested him for solicitation


we had office terms like "B.B" (bizzare behavior) which I had to write on top of the complaints of some or those more eccentric callers. Me on one desk, my supervisor across from me often laughing as I reiterated eccentric story points to the callers so she could hear and contain her laughter.
Fridays though I was largely left alone. On one of those Fridays I got a call from someone who sounded distraught. It wasn't even really something we could investigate as a police misconduct issue (memory is hazy but I think he was unjustly stopped by law enforcement). He was one of those "bar tender moments" where quickly he told me about relationship issues etc etc. He told me about how he was in a movie "Heathers" ..i have to admit i hadn't seen it at the time and didn't realize the awesomeness of him reenacting one of his lines (r.e. Getting his story bumped in the school paper). We talked about a favorite recent movie of his "welcome to the dollhouse" (also hadn't seen at the time). And that was it. I could tell he needed someone at this time and I told him I would have my supervisor call him...even though there wasn't a need to since it wasn't something we could investigate


following Monday I asked my supervisor if she could call him
"why?"
"sounded like he just needed someone to talk to.."
"oh well that's not what we do"
he called and left voicemails...a few...i never called him back since I felt bad my supervisor told me she wasn't going to bother to call. I eventually watched "Heathers" and thought of him often. Years later I found out he killed himself shortly after we had talked.
with all of the years of service to the community I've done I haven't forgotten him. A certain distance has to be kept because I can't always save em all. I encountered Jeremy at a time when I was just exploring a lot of cinema I had missed growing up. Now being a cult film fan I've grown to love "heathers" which really just makes my inability to help Jeremy out that much harder.