CARMEN ; m.c.

tu as besoin de moi

002

"Carmen," Her dad's voice echos against her bedroom door, taking her attention from her reflection in the mirror. She leaves her vanity and goes to open it, smiling at her father when his face is revealed.

"Yes?" She politely answers, keeping the door ajar and going back to her dresser. She was halfway done with doing her makeup, after having gotten dressed for a party. One of her classmates, Luke, was having a summer function, despite the season having already been happening for weeks. 

"Your mom and I think you've been going out way too often―"

"Pops, come on," Carmen interrupts, lowering the arm that was held up as she applied her mascara. Her parents had done this before―told her that she wouldn't be allowed out for a while―and she knew how his sentence was going to end.

She'd started her trend of late nights a little over a year ago, so you can imagine how many times she had been told that it was time to slow down. Carmen just learned that she loved to make people happy and if entertaining them at parties at troublesome hours did the job, she'd do it with a grin the size of the sun.

Carmen had become a hometown celebrity―if being a girl who's well known for having a pretty face and being a good time counts as being a celebrity, which, to some people, it does―before she'd even realized it, and she felt like she had to keep up her good reputation. Even when it became tiring.

"Can I at least go to Luke's party, and then that's it, please?" She tries to bargain with him, putting down the applicator she didn't notice she still had in her hand.

Shaking his head, her dad folds his arms. "No, Carmen. No more parties, starting tonight." He says, in the conversation-ending-way that only dads can speak in.

Carmen nods, holding in an obnoxious eye roll and foot stomp. "Okay." She starts thinking of how she'll tell Luke that she can't make it as her father nods in response and leaves her room. She hardly ever has to cancel on people, or at least she hasn't had to in a while, so she doesn't know what to say.

Grabbing her phone from her vanity, she crawls into her bed, sliding her heels off of her feet as she got further up the mattress. 

She considers calling him, but doesn't enjoy hearing the disappointment in people's voices whenever she declines an invitation. It drips in through the dotted speaker and sticks to her ears; it bothers her, and she'd rather do without it.

Carmen sends Luke a quick text, telling him that she's been grounded and that she would have loved to have gone to the party, and that she misses him, and charming words, charming words, charming words, love, Carmen.

After the message has gone through, Carmen scans through her contacts and stops at Michael's name. Her thumb hovers over it, then taps it and starts up a call. 

Her and Michael had been friends, or moreover neighbors, ever since they were seven years old, way before Carmen was Carmen. They didn't talk as much as normal friends did, but they acted like they were best friends sometimes. He'd show up at her house at random times of the day if he wanted to chat or vice versa. 

Carmen likes to think that they transcended the phase in friendships where you tell each other everything. Which, they sort of did, but only because that's how they both work. Michael was always quick to call someone his friend, and Carmen enjoyed his company beyond what was normal for a neighbor.

She also feels drawn to him since he seems to be the only person that isn't obscenely infatuated with her. Carmen had never asked him why, but she noticed; the difference between the way her other friends acted around her and the way he acted was as clear as day. 

"Hello?" Michael had picked up on the fourth ring and slightly startles Carmen out of her thoughts.

"Michael." She says, smiling and sitting up a bit. Carmen doesn't even know why she called him, other than her just wanting someone to talk to. 

"Hey, Car," Michael sounds like he's also sitting up as he talks. "I'm not hearing any music or your adoring fans, so I take it you're at home."

Carmen grins, scooping up one of her pillows and idly twisting a loose string on the corner of it. "One, I don't have any adoring fans, and two, yes, I'm at home." She tells him, reminding herself to check and see if Luke responded to her text.

Putting Michael on speaker, she presses the home button on her phone and goes to her messages when she sees that there's a couple of texts. Luke lets her know that he'll have another party just for her soon, and that he misses her too, and fond, fond, fond.

Michael hums, audibly throwing something somewhere. Carmen thinks he's thrown something into the metal bin next to his desk. "Why's that?"

"Mom and dad put me on lockdown." Carmen squeezes her pillow like it's one of those rubber light-up spiky balls that she'd always managed to lose as a kid. 

"Ah, the old LD," Michael sighs, as if remembering the last time she was grounded. "Did they say for how long?" 

Carmen doesn't know why Michael continues to ask her this question. Every time she's not allowed to go out, her parents never give her a specific time. It may be a strategy of theirs or something, maybe not, but either way both her and Michael should be used to the untimed sentencing. 

"No, Michael." She says, lifting one of her feet off of the bed and examining her toenails. 

Michael hums again. "Well―"

"What are you doing tomorrow?" Carmen asks, dropping her foot back down. She didn't mean to talk over him, smiling and rolling her eyes at herself when she realizes that they spoke at the same time.

"Nothing. When do I ever have plans that you don't know about?" He responds, letting the rhetorical question hang between the lines for a moment. "I'm free."

"Good. Will you join me in my self pity then?" She jokes, glancing at various things in her room. 

She could have forgone asking him during this call, since Carmen has all access to his house whenever she feels like popping over, but she decided to take the opportunity at the last second. Also she didn't want to end their conversation without having felt like it accomplished something.

"Sure, Car." Michael says, with a chuckle attached to her nickname. Carmen giggles with him, laying back on her bed.

"Okay. I'll see you, Michael." Carmen replies, unintentionally using her honeyed voice that she uses on her other friends. If he notices, he doesn't say anything about it.

"See you, Shining Star." 

A/N: word count: 1137

I literally did the same amount of words wow haha anyway HI I like this little fic but I'm glad that it's just going to  be five chapters but I hope you like it too!

also shout out to all of you that are doing the fdc you guys are honestly so cool and great and I love seeing all these writers participating like it makes me so happy 

anyway anyway if you did enjoy this chap please vote and comment ya know show some looooovveee 

xoxo