"What do you think I should do?" I asked my best friend Kara.
"I think you should find that Zayn guy, he could be hot." She said while smoking a cigarette.
Kara has been my best friend since seventh grade. We fought, but our friendship was just too strong to give up. She's hilarious and always sexually frustrated, somewhat like me.
"He's like forty. Not joking."
"Damn, how old was your mom at the time?"
"Twenty, like us."
"We're twenty-one, Luna."
"Same difference." I waved the cloud of smoke away from my face.
"Well, let's see," she opened the calculator app on her phone and did some math. "She's been dead how long?"
"Twenty-one years this October."
"Okay, so what year is it? Two thousand and thirty five, minus twenty-one," Kara mumbled. "She died in two thousand in fourteen, at twenty right?"
"Twenty-two, but just use twenty." I nod.
"Okay, so, wait. What the hell? I don't need a calculator." Kara sighed and closed out of the app. "Do you know how old she was when she had you?"
"Twenty or twenty-one. I was only six months old when she passed away."
"So, let's say she was twenty. You're twenty, twenty plus twenty equals forty. She would've been forty-one, forty-two, so yeah, you were right that Zayn guy would be like around his forties, unless your mom was a cougar."
"Jesus, let's hope not."
"Look, you have less than a year before training starts. I think you should do it. I can maybe tag along or help in some way and whatever." She exhaled smoke.
"I already told my dad I didn't want to do this." I covered my face. "I really don't know. I feel like I'll just waste my life on nothing."
"You're getting paid thirty dollars an hour, trust me, you're not wasting your time."
"I'm getting paid twenty."
"Yeah, but this is just that internship they wanted you to go into. Once you start working, you'll seriously make more."
I stayed silent.
"Look, go with your dad to Seattle like you always do. Meet up with those detectives or cops that he introduced you to last time and study hard. You'll find Zayn and get the answers you want about your mom."
"Yeah," I sighed. "Maybe you're right."
"I know I am." We laughed.
