The Internship (Stuart Twombly)

Chapter 10

Julie had had an abrasive time after the argument with Stuart. The margin of three days before the next challenge announcement were spent mainly alone in her dorm room or walking around campus; except for the few hours she spent with Neha. When she had lunch with the only other girl in the group, she recounted every moment of the fight and Neha just about blew her top. Juliette had taken half an hour to persuade her friend into not going and slapping Stuart (as much as she would have liked to see that happen).

It seemed like the days spent unaccompanied were the days that went by slowest, where even reading a whole book couldn't fill the empty time. Juliette wanted so badly to go and see Stuart - just see him - but she knew well that tension was tight between them and she couldn't let herself be any more of a bother to him.

On Stuart's end, he hadn't done much either. He was incredibly bored, and not even his smart phone could keep him occupied for thirty minutes. And he, too, wanted to go and apologize for being a complete and utter dick to the one person he found tolerable in a ten mile radius. But he figured that you hated him at this point, and that any chance he had possessed before the incident was shot.

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"Ladies and gentlemen, it has been an impressive summer." Chetty pronounced his words. The sun was just rising above the horizon, and almost everyone in the large lecture room was still tired - some more than others.

The team sat in a line along a lime green table, laptops and notebooks in front of them. Nick had taken the seat at the end, and kept one chair empty, in desperate hopes Billy would come back. Stuart sat beside him, despite his normal seating arrangement which was usually next to Juliette. But Juliette sat at the complete other end.

Neha had insisted on letting her sit as far away from Stuart as possible. Though she didn't exactly want to be far away from Stuart (in fact, she secretly wanted the exact opposite), she acknowledged her friend's attempt to make things better so she agreed.

"And one final challenge remains. Sales."

Stuart glanced at Nick, hope sparked in his eye, as he recognized the older man's jones for sales. Nick looked down, completely aware of the painful irony.

"Over a million companies advertise with google. Find one that doesn't. Convince them. The bigger the sale, the more chance you have of taking this competition. The winner will be announced at our final meeting this afternoon. Good luck. Happy hunting!"

Team Lyle had walked out of that chamber with victorious smiles on their faces and confidence in their stride - as if they had this challenge handed to them on a silver platter.

"Sales, son! Man, those other bitches are going down!" Neha promulgated, dancing while walking, the crew behind her. Juliette giggled subtly, but noticed something was missing.

"Wait, where's Billy?" Julie voiced her concern. The others looked to Nick expectantly.

"He left." He admitted, almost under his breath. Everyone stopped walking except for him.

"What?" Lyle articulated. Stuart's heart skipped a beat.

"You heard him. He thought he was holding us back," Nick explained, "and he didn't want to talk about it, that's for sure."

"We got to get him back." Julie declared.

"She's right, we're all a team. That's what you guys taught us."

"I mean, it might have been buried under, like, a mountain of obscure '80's references and just you know, a ton of other super inappropriate bullshit that I guess was intended as life lessons," Stuart started. Julie had to hold back a laugh. "but, I mean, you did teach us how to come together, Nick. You taught us that."