Work Text:
A woman in her early twenties walks into her apartment and slumps against the door. With her head down, she sighs and lets her bag slide to the floor. Her phone dings, its sound echoing through the barren, dark hallway. She looks at a text from her friend.
“April, you home yet?”
April looks blearily at the text before typing back.
“Yes, I just got home.”
Carlos instantly texts back.
“Hop on, we have to talk about your big day!.”
April locks her phone and rests her head back against the door. She lets out a high-pitched whine of frustration before slowly standing up. She turns on the hallway light and drags her bag on the floor on the way to her room. She turns on her bedroom light and throws her bag on her Pokemon plushie-covered bed. Anime figures fill her shelves next to it. A computer is sitting against the wall near a window, which shows it’s pitch black outside. She wiggles her computer mouse and, after the monitor wakes up, clicks on Discord. The incoming call sound is going off as soon as the screen is up. April puts on her cat ear headphones and clicks accept on the call.
Carlos pops up wearing a pair of black headphones on top of his short cut hair and instantly yells,
“ Aprillll!!!”
April recoils in her chair, taking her headphones off.
“Why do you have to do that every time?”
Carlos, in a much less loud volume,
“To get you excited. I know you. You’re all zero battery and probably want to shower and go to bed watching Community again.”
April starts blinking quickly and turns her head towards her bed.
“You don’t know that.”
Carlos laughs at that and then says,
“Of course I do. You lived with my girlfriend for a year. You were the worst bed rotter I’ve ever seen. “
April is looking downtrodden at Carlos’ joke. His face morphing into a look of concern at April not laughing back. Carlos sits up in his chair and quietly asks,
“Hey, what's wrong?”
April looks up, tears slowly running down her cheeks. She shakes her head while looking off to the side. Carlos, endearingly, tells her,
“April, look at me. Please.”
April slowly turns her eyes toward the monitor before a deluge of tears rolls down her face. Carlos, worry present in his voice, pleads,
“April, I need you to calm down. Copy my breathing, ok?”
He exaggeratedly takes a deep breath in and holds it. Mucous leaking out of her nose, she shakily pulls in a breath. Carlos takes another in, and April follows along. They continue to breathe for a little while until April is finally able to sadly say,
“Sorry.”
Carlos uses his hands to push aside her sorrow and tells her,
“There is no reason you should be saying sorry. I wish I was there to hug you cause you need one. Now I need you to tell me what that was all about, cause you need to vent.”
Carlos intensely stares at her through the screen, sitting patiently as he waits for April to talk.
April looks at the bottom of her monitor, trying not to see how Carlos is looking at her. She finally looks up, but doesn’t say anything for a minute. She takes a deep breath before finally saying,
“It’s just me being stupid. You know how I get.”
Carlos waves his hands at her and shouts,
“Nope, you don’t get to say that right now! You’re not stupid and you don’t have to make excuses for the world being the way it is. You’re the best person I’ve ever met.”
He looks around before turning back to the screen,
“Don’t make me say that again. It’ll cause problems over here.”
April, sobs quieting, laughs at his comment. Carlos looks at her lightly with just one side of his mouth tilting upwards. He says,
“Come on. Let me see that smile. No hiding it this time.”
April laughs a little louder while trying to hide her face in her arms. Carlos gives her one last pleading look, trying to get her to talk to him. April sighs before saying,
“It’s just sooo much. The new city, the new apartment, the new job, and the lack of an inner circle are making me go insane. I haven’t felt this bad since the first year of college, when you left home and I was forced to stay there.”
April morphs her face to an almost scary grin. Carlos doesn’t react to the sudden change in demeanor at all. He then asks,
“So, tell me all about it.”
April adjusts her sitting position so her knees are pulled up into her chest.
“Ok, going from college to a job is horrible. I’ve never had to talk to this many people before.”
Carlos laughs at her before saying,
“It’s just your first day, but yeah, it usually is a very talk-heavy day. I’m guessing you talked to HR, your Boss, your Desk Buddy, and the work mom. “
April’s face changes to one of annoyance at the mention of the work mom, and she groans,
“Oh, the work mom didn’t leave me alone. Every thirty minutes, she’d come by to make sure I was comfortable. She didn’t realize she was scaring me. If I didn’t know I would be interacting with fewer people next week, I’d quit.”
Carlos looks at April with an endearing face. April stops talking when she notices him just staring and says,
“What?”
Carlos shakes his head and says,
“Nothing, I’m just proud of you. Have you called your parents yet?”
April, with sarcasm flowing out, says
“Not yet, you demanded I get on while I was about to cry against the door.”
Carlos says,
“I’m pretty sure they’re going to say the same thing, but you are officially an adult now! Your introverted self isn’t going to be stuck in a room by yourself anymore. I can’t wait till Sara and I come visit.”
April lightly smiles and says,
“I can’t wait either. I need you two to help me find friends.”
Carlos holds his hand up in a salute and says,
“You can count on me.”
April and Carlos laugh at the absurdity of his action. Carlos then teasingly says,
“Ok, I’ll let you call your parents and get to bed cause you have to do it all again tomorrow.”
April looks up at the ceiling and groans. She then tells Carlos,
“Why’d you have to remind me? Ok, I’ll talk to you later, but really thanks for putting up with me.”
Carlos says,
“No problem. Don’t worry, we’ll find an extrovert for you so you’re not lonely without us. Who knows, we might find you an extroverted girlfriend. “
April blushes and stammers out,
“Shut up.”
Carlos giggles at her,
“Oh, we’re definitely trying to get you one. It’s been forever since you went on a date. Ok, goodnight dude, I do mean it though, I’m proud of you.”
April bashfully says,
“Shut up, I’ll see you later, dude. “