Studio 22 | Mary-Kate Olsen

Chapter Twenty-Four

MARY-KATE'S POV

June 24th 2022 - New York City -  Studio22

Instead of heading to my office to smoke before Blue returns with my coffee, I go to find my sister. "How was group?" She asked casually as soon as she noticed me. She was floating around her office looking for a file. "I don't think Blue was sick," I tell her, completely ignoring her question. She didn't pause her actions at my accusation but asked "Why?" "Will was questioning her when I got there," I explained. "Will?" She questioned as she retrieved the file she was looking for. "Her friend," I lied. "Her group leader, you mean?" She half asked, half corrected. "I'm not oblivious to your life, Mary-Kate. Clearly you both meet after group." I wanted to defend Blue, tell Ash she wasn't in the same type of group as me, that she was perfect and packaged with a pretty bow. She wasn't messed up like me. "So Will was questioning her? And now you think she was lying?" She asked, not giving me the chance to explain Blue's situation. She knew she was in the military so it would be simple to explain. "Did you ask her?" She questioned me. "No, because she got so stressy with Will this morning, she gets mean when she's like that." I pouted and Ashley rolled her eyes at me. "Why not just ask for a few days off if she's feeling burnt out? We're her friends. We gave Nia a few days off she could have asked too." I shrugged.

"I think it might have had something to do with her brother," I admit and Ashley stops reading through the file in her hand and scoffs a laugh. "What is with you and your vendetta against Sage? He's lovely! We had lunch with him that one time." "I don't have a vendetta against him," I defended. "He just looked shifty when I dropped the soup for her." "So you said. Maybe because he was nervous around you. Or Blue was really sick and you were keeping him from looking after her." "Or maybe the bruises on her arms weren't from a boxing class, maybe they're from him," I accused, Ashley actually laughed this time. "Yeah, the guy who opens car doors for her and gives her his jacket when she's cold is most definitely the reason for that. You know Mary-Kate, maybe you should apply to be a detective. I'm in the presence of the modern day Sherlock Holmes," She says sarcastically. "You didn't see him!" There was a light knock at the door so I stopped talking. "Come in Blue," Ash called to her.

"Morning!" Blue said brightly as she set the two coffee's down on the desk before hugging Ashley. "I missed your coffees," I hear Ashley say and Blue chuckled. "Glad to know I'll be keeping my job for my barista skills," She laughed before letting go of Ashley. "I have a huge list of things for you to do." "Okay? Is it in my email?" "No, it's here." She handed Blue the file in her hands before going over to her desk drawer and finding her notepad. There was a very extensive list on the first page, she tore it out and swapped the file for the list.

Blue scanned over it. "Flights?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. "Yes, Fashion week... Paris 3rd-7th..." "I'm not going right?" She asked, still scanning the list over with a serious face. "Of course you are." She looked up at Ashley, her eyes wide before looking at me. "No thank you." "What do you mean no thank you?" I asked, amused. "I don't do planes." "What?" I asked her, confused. "I don't travel well." Ashley starts to laugh now. "What do you mean?" "I'm scared of flying... So I'll stay here and cover homebase and you can take Alice." "Alice is coming and so are you." "Nowhere in my contract does it say I have to fly so..." She backed out of the room. "Blue... You're getting on the flight, sort it." Ashley left no room for her to object or argue as the door closed behind Blue. "How is she scared of flying? Open fire she's fine with but flying is scary for her?" She questioned and I shrugged. I could tell her Blue is also scared of spiders but I kept that to myself.

I was on the phone to her one evening and she just started screaming, I thought she was being murdered, then I hear her brothers voice and he kept saying "I've got it, chill." Though the screaming didn't stop until I heard the door close again. I asked what happened and she said there was a spider in her room. I didn't stop laughing for 15 minutes, she sulked about it for a while. I don't get her fears, flying and spiders seem so mild compared to being part of a war.