Carmen:

"Hi mom."

"Hey honey, how are you?"

"I'm good."

"And how's your, um, boyfriend?"

"He's good. Why do you say it like that." I tried to ask humorously, but I knew what the answer would be.

"Because he's in another country maybe? Carmen you know what I think when people attempt to do long-distance relationships."

"That's kind of hypocritical considering you did that with dad."

"Your dad and I saw each other every other weekend. When was the last time you saw Van face to face?"I faltered, poking a finger in the hole of the couch. "Carmen?"

"It's been a while. But that's because I have school and he has to be in the studio. We try and talk whenever we can."

"Ok sure honey." She sighed, then changed the subject. "How's Katherine?"

"I couldn't tell you. I haven't seen her in like a month."

"How come? I just saw Isabel the other day and she said Katherine was still in Santa Monica."

"Yeah, well we had an argument."

My mom sighed again. It seemed like that was her response all the time now. "Carmen it's an argument. Was it about clothes or something?"

"No, she's been really annoying lately and I don't want to deal with her."

"This isn't because of Van is it?"

"Van has nothing to do with it." I answered quickly. "Alright mom I think I have to go."

"Alright honey. I'll talk to you later."

I hung up the phone, throwing it on the cushion next to me. I bit my thumbnail and looked at the ground, making up my mind.

"Van?"

"Hey babe, I thought I was gonna call you later?" There was a burst of static. "Everything alright?"

"I was just calling anyways. I miss you."

"I miss you loads too. Heaps and heaps. What are you doing?"

"I'm going to work later."

"Your favorite pastime."

"Shut up." I laughed, feeling instantly relieved at his laugh. Talking to Van was as soothing as taking a bath.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Van:

I grinned, leaning over the balcony and dangling the cigarette over it. "It is, don't lie."

"Stop. What are you doing?"

"I was writing."

"Oh no, did I interrupt your creative process?"

"Yup. You just ruined this album, thank you loads Carmen."

"You're so mean."

"How could I be mean if I love you?"

"That was a lame excuse." She laughed again. "I was talking to my mom a while ago."

"Oh yeah? Gushing about me?"

"I don't spend all my time doing that."

"One could dream. Was something wrong?"

I heard her exhale. "She just says the same thing every time you're mentioned. How we're too long distance blah blah blah." She laughed, but it sounded off to me.

"Yeah well you know I would rather not be in this situation."

"I know, and it's not like I'm blaming you." She said rather defensively.

"I know you're not." I took a drag, exhaling loudly.

"Sometimes I wonder though."

"Let me pick your thoughts then. Wonder what?"

"If distance could ever really affect anything."

"You're not gonna start thinking that are you? Cause then I'll have to hop a plane and prove you otherwise."

"Is that a threat or a promise?" She replied. It sounded like sugar to me.

"It's a promise, if anything we never finished that conversation about your filthy mind. I'd love to pick that now."

"Wouldn't you love that. My filthy thoughts now are tooth decay and screaming children getting their cavities fixed."

"Gross. I'd rather not know then." I laughed.

"You caught me at the worst time. I'm going to work in a bit."

"Damn it. Guess I'll have to think up enough filth for the two of us."

"I'm sure you're up for the task. I miss you though. So so soooo much."

"I miss you more than that. Definitely. The guys keep bugging me for bringing you up."

She sighed. "That's how it's gonna be for a bit then. Alright I'll let you get back to your creative process."

"If you must."

"You have to finish that album. So you can come back and I can kiss you until you're annoyed with me."

I ran my hand across my neck, pressing the phone tighter against my ear. "That would never happen though. If anything you'd be annoyed with how constantly I'd be asking you for it."

"Get to writing! Or we'll stay like this forever."

"I don't mind it."

"I'll talk to you later. I love you."

"Love you too babe."

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Carmen:

Half an hour till my shift started, I got a call from Lucy.

"Hey Carmen honey. Sorry but one of the other girls came in and she thought she worked today. Said she cleared her whole schedule and everything to be here. Would you mind switching shifts with her?'

"Oh um sure. That's fine."

"Great, see you tomorrow instead then."

I hung up the phone. Now the night stretched out ahead of me. I guess I'd use the time to start filling out some internship applications then.

I grabbed my laptop and began to surf the web. It wasn't that hard to fill out a couple.

Curiosity got to me and I went to the Thredz website. Their website could definitely use a bit of brushing up, but it was easy to navigate at least. The office was located exactly thirty minutes from me, not bad.

I jotted the number down and decided it wouldn't do any harm to just dial now.

"Hello, this is Thredz headquarters. This is Stacey."

"Hi." I cleared my throat out. "I heard you had internship spaces available and I was wondering how I could apply."

The girl didn't miss a beat. "Sure. So what I'll do is set an appointment for you to meet with the team and get a little tour of the place. If you decide it's cool then we've got on the spot applications you can fill out and we'll let you know after. Is that fine?"

"Yeah, that'd be great."

"So could you come tomorrow then? Say ten?"

"Yes, that sounds good."

"Great, and can I get your name and contact info?" I filled her in on the details. "Sounds good Carmen! See you tomorrow."

"Great. See you. Bye." I hung up, feeling rather accomplished with myself.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Jesse got home from her classes and was surprised to see me. We hung out for a bit, watching reality tv. "This is nice." She spoke up from across me.

"Yeah, it is. Why don't we do this more?"

She shrugged. "You have work and classes. I have work and classes. And then Katherine was usually hanging around here. What happened with you two anyways? I haven't seen her lately."

"We had an argument a while ago. Nothing that big but I don't know." I shrugged, letting the matter drop.

Jesse nodded and we went back to watching tv, getting into a fun heated debate about the show we were watching.

"That's so dumb!" She laughed, shaking her head at me.

"It could be possible!"

"Whatever. I'm starving by the way."

"Me too. What's in the fridge?"

"There ain't shit in the fridge." Jesse stuck her tongue out. "I'm feeling pizza."

"You know what? Me too."

"Let's make it a date then." She stood up, turning the tv off. "Have you been to Gudino's?"

"What is that?"

She shook her head. "That is just sad. Come on, let's go change your life then."

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Hanging out with Jesse like this reminded me why I'd been excited to share an apartment with her. She was silly but she was also smart. She asked me questions and I asked her some, making up for times when we'd gone practically days without speaking to each other.

"So how does being in a long distance relationship feel?" She asked curiously. "I mean, I don't want to seem like I'm super doubtful about it or anything, but I've never known a couple who are on complete opposite countries."

I fiddled with my straw. "It sucks sometimes. I want to be with him but it's not like I can just drive over to his place."

She nodded. "Yeah that sucks. But he's gonna come back right? Or you're going to go visit soon?"

I nodded. "Yup. I might end up going before he comes. I wouldn't mind being a tourist for the summer."

She nodded and then changed the subject thank god.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

My phone rang a bit later, when we were back at home and again surfing the tv channels. I was surprised that it was Van, but his calls were always welcome of course.

"Hi babe."

There was static on the other end, but Van didn't speak. And then I heard him. He had probably butt-dialed me.

I was about to hang up when I heard the conversation he was having.

"Is this Abby girl someone?" I recognized Bondy's voice.

"Someone?" I heard Van's voice closer.

"Well she keeps coming over. Ya both went out for tea. And she's been here like three times already mate, what's going on there?" My hand trembled a little, my chest tightening.

"I don't know what you mean. It's nothing."

"Tell the truth mate."

"Bondy, if I'm being honest, she's"-

I hung up quickly, throwing the phone down and trying to keep my heart from coming out of my mouth. I clenched my hands together, drawing them to my knees.

"Are you ok?" Jesse asked slowly, still stretched out on the couch next to me.

"Yeah I'm fine." I feigned a yawn. "I should probably go to sleep now. I've got an early appointment for an internship tomorrow."

Jesse smiled. "No way, that's great. Yeah go to sleep. I'll see you later. We should do this more."

"Definitely." I tried to smile. "Night."

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Van:

"To be honest, she's a friend."

"A friend." Bondy said suspiciously.

"A friend." I reassured him. "You know I got Carmen already, why would I want to mess this up?"

"Because you're dumb?"

"Bug off then. I already told you." I stood up, grabbing my phone under me. The screen was bright and unlocked. Weird. Oh well, hoped I hadn't called someone on accident.

"So do you like this girl?" Bondy cut off.

"What do you mean?"

"Like her personality. What did you think I meant?"

"Well yeah, she's crazy."

"How would you feel if Carmen made a new guy friend she spent a lot of time with?"

"I wouldn't mind. Cause at the end of the day I'm the one she's putting her lips on."

"We'll see." Bondy said.

"I'm gonna go outside for a bit." I grabbed my writing notebook and went to the balcony.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Carmen:

"Hi, Carmen?"

"Yes, hi." I shook the girl's hand. "Stacey?"

She nodded, smiling brightly. She brushed a hand through her short red bob and wound her fingers together. "So if you didn't guess I'm like the secretary slash greeter." She laughed. "It's a really chill work environment and we have cake on Wednesdays. Sorry that's probably like the most irrelevant details of the job. But come on, let's go meet the team."

As I followed her, I looked around the place. It was super relaxed, large windows illuminating huddled sofa and seats. We finally passed by a row of cubicles, large and also brightly lit. Some people were typing away on their computers, others talking on the phone. Definitely not your stereotypical lame office. "So what exactly is Thredz?"

"That's a good question. Thredz is a social media shopping platform. You can design your own outfits with clothes you have, or with clothes you'd like to have. People can see your outfits and then shop from your closet or from the stores you love. You can gain followers and make cash, and you can advertise for the stores you love. If you get really big, like lots of followers, and you advertise stores, sometimes those stores will come through and give you thirty dollar credits or coupons. It's actually a really cool platform."

"It does sound really cool." I admitted impressed. "And the offices are really nice."

"Yeah, definitely not the worst place to work at."

"How did you get started?" We stopped outside a pair of closed glass doors. I could obviously see the people inside, and the room looked just as bright as the entire office.

"My brother is the co-founder. He kind of pulled some strings for me." Stacey smiled. "Come on."

"Guys, this is Carmen."

"Hi Carmen." Everyone called out. There were like ten people, some standing and some sitting. One guy jogged over to us, smiling.

"You're the intern right? I'm James."

"You should say what you do here you dumbo." Stacey scoffed. "Don't worry Carmen, he's my brother, I won't get fired."

"That is to be determined. I'm the marketing whiz."

"Yeah, you wish." A girl called out from her spot on the couch. She was typing away on her laptop, reciting something to the guy sitting next to her.

"I am, Yvette. Go back to your coding you nerd." He sighed. "As you can see the people here are nice."

"Are you the co-founder?"

"Sort of. There's other people here who did twice as much work as I did. I was just at the right place at the right time to be named co-founder."

"Don't be so humble." Stacey teased. "Anyways, tell Carmen what the internship would consist of."

"I will quit hounding me. Alright Carmen, public affairs huh? What school?"

"La Verst."

"No way, a fellow La Verst student. You're even more on my good side. Alright, so as intern you would be of course, unpaid."

"Boo." Stacey chimed in.

"The school requires it. But after the first two months maybe we could work something out? If you're interested of course. And if you get the position." James crossed his arms. "Did Stacey show you around already?"

"For the most part." Stacey spoke up.

"Ok, well you need to meet the actual people you'd be working for. Is Zach in?"

"Yeah, pretty sure I saw him sneak in an hour ago."

"Alright cool. So Zach and Ella are our two PR people. They're really good at their job. And of course they could fill you in on what job duties consist of also. Let's go to the pr office then." James lead the way and Stacey stayed behind, flashing me a grin before turning to talk to a girl.

"So you're a junior?"

"Yup, about to be senior."

"Nice. Alright, here we are." The door was partly open. James knocked. "Zach, are you decent?"

"I always am." The door opened and a guy smiled at both of us. He fixed his hair and adjusted his cap back. "Hello, lemme guess, an intern?"

"You're a psychic. This is Carmen."

"Hi Carmen." He shook my hand, stepping back. "So PR huh? It's the most rewarding job in the world."

"Alright Zach you can start your speech until after I'm done. So Carmen, as intern you would assist Ella and Zach in all their duties, while also handling some of your own. A lot of your internship would consist in figuring out ways to advertise the platform, some social media, and tons of public appearances with Zach and Ella to promote us, while trying to get some client sponsorship. How involved are you on social media?"

"Not tons." I admitted sheepishly.

"Luckily Zach is as involved for all three of you."

"Thanks." Zach cracked.

"It's true. That's why you're my favorite."

"I'm telling Ella."

"If you tell I'm cutting your pay."

"You drive a hard bargain."

"Anyways Zach, is there any little challenge you'd like to give Carmen to test her abilities?"

"Hmmm. Alright Carmen, I'm a clothing brand that may or may not be interested in collaborating with the platform and offering some pieces. What's the first thing you'd do to try and convince me."

I got a flashback the beginning PR theory class I took last year. "Ok, well by offering us some of your pieces, we'd be happy to promote them even more to the clients using the platform. We could do a special brand promotion. Have special events where people who use the platform try and design entire outfits with just your pieces. Maybe even have little contests with said outfits and guarantee some prize to the winner. This would gain some nice buzz for your brand and the platform to ensure future successful collaborations."

I screwed up. It sounded like a load of shit to me. But Zach and James were nodding thoughtfully. "Interesting idea Carmen." James murmured. Zach nodded and smiled. So maybe it wasn't as bad?

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

"So would you like to fill out the application then?"

I nodded.

James smiled and Zach pushed his cap down, smiling also. "I hope you get the position Carmen." Zach said earnestly.

"Me too." I said sincerely.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

I filled out the applications and was seen out by Stacey. "I'll call you if anything." She smiled.

"Thanks again." I felt light as I walked towards my car. I was actually very excited and hopeful that I'd get this internship.

My phone buzzed, Van's name flashing. In the midst of throwing myself into the possibility of this internship, I'd put the conversation I'd overheard from Van's phone behind me.

I didn't want to answer. What would I do? Confront him? Act like everything's fine?

But I couldn't help want to hear his voice and his laugh.

"Hello?"

"How's the prettiest girl in the world?"

"That's cheesy."

"I'm cheesy. We've discussed this."

"What are you doing?"

His voice dropped. "So me and the lads went to this pub last night"-

"Have you finished writing?"

Van paused. "No, but"-

"Oh ok. Cause everytime I call you it seems like you've gone to some pub. But I just thought you'd be putting more energy into writing so you could get on with the album process." My throat tightened and I gripped the steering wheel, listening for anything on his end.

"...Are you ok love?"

My will faltered. "I just-I miss you that's all."

"Me too, I miss you loads too. I'd catch the first flight there if I could."

"I know." I said, looking out into the street. Thredz HQ was still in plain sight.

"Sometimes I don't think you do. I'm flying over there soon as I can."

"Sure Van ok."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"You're acting so..so sarcastic. Did I do something?"

"I don't know did you?"

"Well explain to me if I did love. Because you're being so neutral right now it's kind of scary."

"I need to go." I said. "I've got something to do."

"Ok, well skype later?"

"Sure."

"Bye."

"Bye."