Infinite

Mirror

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You've gotta open your eyes
Take a chance on the sky
Make a break for it
You might begin to doubt
But there's no one else
Who can do what you can
Just look in the mirror
Stand in front of the mirror
And realize
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"Okay, this orientation thing has me wiped out. I'm going to go take a nap. Don't wake me up unless the building's on fire." Elle yawned, walking into her room. After a long week, Carrie wanted to agree. But, she'd learned how to get a few minutes of sleep here and there and was still wide-eyed and bushy tailed despite their late nights and early mornings. Her father's shows required it, and she'd been to a lot of them.

"Well, I've got enough energy to do something. Who wants to join me?" Port asked.

"I'm going to go visit a friend. But, I'll be back before dinner if anyone wants to head to a local place." She and Julie had made plans earlier that week to meet up after their orientations were completed. Julie's ended a half hour earlier. Theirs ended an hour before hers, but they got food and watched an episode of a random TV show.

"I'm down for that plan." Port replied, and Karter was quick to agree, promising that he would tell Elle about their plan once she woke up from her slumber. Nobody dared to attempt to wake her up just to ask about plans that wouldn't affect her at that exact minute. Or for the next hour, even.

"I'll see you guys at five? That way we can pick a place and walk there," Carrie suggested, walking out the door before they could say anything. She wanted to hear all about Berklee. Julie had been bursting with energy when Carrie called her, but she had just as much. Everything about both of their schools excited them. They were innocent freshmen with no idea what lied ahead.

She drove to Julie's dorm, parking in front of the building and paying for enough hours to last her until 5PM. They were only a handful of miles away, but it would've taken her at least two hours just to walk from her dorm to Julie's. Plus, Carrie liked the freedom. She liked driving and knowing that she could go anywhere she wished any time she wanted. It was the freedom she never got when she was growing up. Her whole childhood was dictated for her, every movement and thought a calculated one by her father or her father's manager. After all, a child misbehaving was not something they wanted in the press.

"Perfect timing. Now, I heard there's this amazing museum nearby. Do you want to visit?" Carrie thought that was a great idea. A museum was just the thing to draw them both in. Julie loved art and seeing some of the famous works on display wherever she went. (They were required to go to a couple of the art museums while on their road trip to see all the local colleges, not that Carrie was opposed to the idea.) "Let me pull it up on Google. I'm not entirely sure where it is."

Julie liked that the one person who enjoyed going to museums as much as she did lived in Boston with her. Her dad and brother were never that interested in art and Flynn and Mari would rather go to concerts than go see art on a wall. Her mother loved it while she was alive, but that wasn't much of an option now. Though her mom was still a ghost haunting her dorm room, bringing her to a public place was not a good idea.

She could barely keep her mouth shut when it was just the guys, who annoyed her most of the time. Her mother would probably not say much, but Julie would know she was there and it would ruin everything. Carrie shouldn't have even known, but she convinced herself Carrie had already forgotten about it.

"I just found it. It's called 'The Museum of Bad Art'. It sounds fun." Julie struggled to keep a laugh in, knowing the name itself was hilarious. Who could blame her? It was a funny name for a rather eccentric place. And the name held true. Julie couldn't believe some of the pieces she was looking at. They had definitely been made by a middle schooler. At best. Of course, Carrie attempted to find meaning behind the beautiful lines, but it was all for show.

She thought they were just as dumb as Julie did. For an hour, they walked through every room and tried to find some hidden meaning behind the finger paintings and the abstract sculptures of craziness. And it only served to make them laugh harder every time they moved to a new room.

"Okay, I think we should go before we get kicked out." Carrie whispered into Julie's ear. She'd noticed the glares from some of the other patrons, and the obvious looks from the security guards. Clearly, their amusement was not shared by the majority of the museum-goers.

"You're right." Julie agreed, and they left. Berklee definitely seemed like a better option, and Julie wanted to relax a little bit more. She hadn't gotten nearly as much rest and relaxation with only a half hour of time between the end of her orientation and the beginning of her adventures with Carrie. "Back to my place?"

"Absolutely." Carrie drove to Julie's dorm and they both crashed in her room. She couldn't see her mom, which meant that her mother had gone out. Whatever her plan was, it didn't involve sitting in Julie's room twiddling thumbs. "So, is your mom still around?" Carrie kept her voice down, even though her roommates weren't in her room.

"No. She's not always here, but I see her a couple times a day." With orientation, she was hardly in her room. She, actually, hadn't seen her mom in three days. But, Julie felt ashamed that she couldn't even keep track of her own mother for a week.

"Hey, she'll always be there when it counts. I'm kind of jealous, really. I wish I could say one final goodbye to my mom." Julie didn't realize that. Carrie didn't have anyone. She saw how little her and Trevor talked and Carrie's mom died years before her did. It made Julie feel worse, really. The guilt ate at her, reminding her she took far too much for granted. "But, before we both start to cry, I say we watch a movie. Relax. Enjoy the free time before we don't have any."

"Yeah." Julie's mind was farther away than Pluto at that moment, but somehow she was still able to pull up a movie on Netflix and play it without thinking.

"Hey, is everything okay?" Carrie paused the movie. "I didn't mean to make you feel... I don't know, guilty? Sad? Sometimes you don't know what you have in front of you until it's too late. You can't see what an amazing life you have, even as it stands directly in front of you."

Julie's jaw dropped. She couldn't believe what Carrie was saying. What did she have that was standing so obviously in front of her? What did she mean? Carrie couldn't have been less obvious if she tried. There must have been something Carrie was specifically talking about.

"What do you mean?" She wondered. Carrie was never as opaque as this. "Carrie, you can't just say something like that and expect me not to wonder why."

"You have to figure it out." Carrie shrugged, leaving Julie's mind to spin. Her life was pretty great. Awesome, in fact. She just couldn't quite understand what Carrie meant by it all. What was she missing that was apparently right in front of her eyes?

But, Julie wouldn't get that question answered for a while because Carrie decided to play the movie and quiet them both for the next couple hours. The movie played but neither one of them were paying attention to the screen. It played an adorable love story, but they couldn't keep their minds from drifting into the abyss. Julie wanted to know what exactly Carrie meant and Carrie wished she hadn't said anything.

"I have to go, Jules. My roommates and I have plans for dinner and I promised them I'd be there by five. Can we promise to make plans for another day?" Carrie looked to her friend, hoping for a moment that she had not completely ruined what they had.

"Of course. Text me." Carrie sighed with relief, giving one last goodbye to her best friend before heading out to her car.

Author's Note: What do you think Carrie meant by that comment? Comment what you think it means. Also, please vote. Sorry for posting these couple chapters late. I had finals and papers. It's not an excuse, but I'm still sorry. All the best, MistyRider921.