Carmen with a rare opportunity

Walking by one of Leah's old art classes, I heard a shout.

"Yo, Mac!"

I turned and found a woman with blue-green green hair running up behind me, with a dark expression on her face. I recognized her as Carmen, one of Leah's old classmates. She'd come over a couple times to our apartment to work on the odd art project with Leah.

She usually brought beers, which made her an unforgettable guest. Not that there was anything forgettable about Carmen.

Carmen had a wild green faux hawk and a penchant for leather jackets and ripped jeans. She rode a motorcycle and smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. She was about as opposite a person as you could get from the artsy, kind-hearted, sometimes goofy, always fun Leah.

Today, Carmen looked worse than usual. Dark circles ran under her eyes and her otherwise striking face looked hollow. She was slightly shorter than me, and very thin, with an impressively stacked chest. The chest wasn't obvious under her leather jacket, but when she'd come over to our place in the past, I'd committed the sight to memory when she took it off.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked neutrally. But my fingers trembled.

Inside, I was frantic. Carmen hadn't come by the house to have her memory temporarily expunged like Leah's other friends, nor had she called, texted, or emailed. Ironically, I would've forgotten all about Carmen if she hadn't accosted me.

Did Carmen know what I'd done to her friend? Was she suspicious? Leah was under instructions to never answer the door or her phone unless it was me, but Carmen could probably pick a lock. Had she gone by the apartment and seen what I'd done to Leah? If Carmen had a gun on me, it was over. I would have **** but to comply with whatever demand she made of me.

But Carmen didn't pull a gun or a knife.

"Leah hasn't moved out, has she?" asked Carmen, woorried.

I swallowed. "N-no. She's just -"

"I know, I know. Leah's going through shit. I've been there," said Carmen, her expression pained. She took a breath. "I know she's not really taking calls or visitors. But I figure if she'll see anyone, she'll see you. Could you ask her something for me?"

"Of course," I said, already trying out different plans in my head for how I could get the helmet on Carmen and make this problem go away, permanently. "What do you want me to tell her?"

Carmen shrugged, looking very conflicted. "Well... we had our big Euro trip planned for after graduation," she said. "I've got all the tickets and hotels booked, but I can still cancel Leah's side of it if she wants. It won't be all the money back, but I'd rather her get her money than invite someone else on her dime. But if she can't deal, that fucking sucks, but that's life. And inviting somebody else would be better than wasting the airplane tickets."

Vaguely, I recalled before last month, Leah occasionally brining up her trip plans to Europe with a friend. "Huh. I hadn't realized that trip was supposed to be with you," I said.

Carmen snorted. "Yeah, her parents are kinda paranoid. She avoided mentioning details to avoid freaking them out. They never liked the idea of Leah going off by herself to college, let alone another continent. Never liked hearing about their precious baby daughter hanging out with the likes of me, either."

Interesting. didn't realize Leah had already paid for that trip. If I'd known, I would've had her cancel that too. We could've used the money and it would've raised less questions. Carmen wouldn't be talking to me either if I'd taken care of it, nor would she be this worried.

It did make sense I missed the plans about the trip, though. If Leah gave Carmen the money, all the bookings and financials would be under Carmen's name.

I promised myself to be more thorough in the future.

For now, I was curious. "I'll talk to Leah. No guarantees, but... what kind of plans do you have for this trip?"

"Ireland, Britain, France, Germany. That's to start," said Carmen. "I've got family in Poland that are fine with us staying a while."

That set off an alarm. "You have family expecting you and Leah to show up in Poland?"

This was a nightmare. Did this mean I had to go to Europe? How was I going to smuggle my equipment onto the plane? Maybe they wouldn't care. The system's main component was an off-the-shelf VR helmet. Nothing notable in and of itself, right?

Carmen shrugged, hands in pockets. "My grandma and me have this thing where I can drop by her farm anytime," she says. "She means it, too. Probably feels bad about not being there when I was a kid, you know? We wouldn't be able to stay over there the whole 2 months otherwise, we'd run out of cash. Europe - especially Eastern Europe is cheap, but not that cheap."

My heart rate slowed, my mind picking up the slack. "You're telling me that after finals, you're going on a two-month vacation to Europe you haven't told anyone about?"

The woman chuckled. "Sounds crazy when you put it like that. But yeah, the only person crazier than me is me when I'm with Leah."

"What about your family?" I asked. "They've got to know about this, at least."

Carmen's expression darkened. "My life's none of my mom's fucking business."

Ah. Touchy subject. I'd asked Carmen about her family before, but she always dodged the subject. I'd just stepped on a landmine.

"Talk to Leah for me, yeah?" asked Carmen, knocking my shoulder with a closed fist. "Tell her to give me a call."

The green-haired woman turned, adjusted her backpack, and started walking away.

But even that emboldened me - Carmen didn't suspect me of any foul play. And where I'd been searching weeks for an opportunity to test my device, here one was, falling into my lap.