Come Around

"Are you working today, Cass?" her best friend and roommate, Angie, asked, walking into the bathroom without so much as a knock. Cassie laughed, unable to be upset because she often did the same thing. "No, seriously," she said, "I'm trying to decide if I should go into the office or call and tell them I'm working on a project."

"I have an interview," she said before splashing her face with water, "Come with me."

Angie looked at her friend in the mirror, "Who are you interviewing?" she asked.

"Does it matter?"

"I don't know."

She laughed again, "Angie, seriously? If you don't want to go in today, just don't go. I do it all the time."

Angie shrugged, "I'll go with you. I feel bad if I just sit around here not working at all."

"Because you could be going into the office and doing really gratifying bitch work instead," Cassie said.

She sighed, "I don't get how you can just not care. I wish I could be like that."

Cassie turned to look at her, "I do care. I really love this job. But I've learned over the last year or so that as long as you meet deadlines, they don't care if you come in every day or once a week. Just get your shit done."

Angie and Cassie met seven years ago when Cassie moved across the country to go to college in Los Angeles after graduating early from high school. Angie was still in high school but they lived in the same apartment building a few floors apart. The two would see each other coming and going often and finally Angie asked Cassie one day what school she went to. Conversation sparked and it turned out that they had quite a bit in common and have been almost inseparable since.

Angie sat on her friend's bed while Cassie put on the very little makeup she wore on a daily basis. "You're really not going to tell me who you're interviewing?" Angie asked.

Cassie laughed, "They're called All Time Low. From what I hear, they're somewhat popular. And I actually reviewed their last record when it came out. But to be honest, I don't know much about them as a band," she said, "And by that, I mean I don't know anything about them."

Angie laughed, "How does that happen with so many bands?"

Cassie shrugged. That was a really good question. One she had often asked herself.

"When do we have to leave?" Angie asked.

"Soon. We're meeting them at a coffee shop in about fifteen minutes," Cassie said, slipping her feet into a pair of white and black Macbeth shoes.

"Do you know what they look like?" she asked, "Because otherwise this whole thing could be a problem."

Cassie nodded, "Someone sent me a picture of one of the guys."

The coffee shop was only a few minutes drive from their house. They got there with plenty of time to spare so they both ordered a drink and found a table in the corner that would be big enough for the six of them.

As soon as Cassie had gotten her stuff set up, four boys walked into the coffee shop, looking somewhat lost. One of them was, unmistakably, the guy in the picture she had been sent. Another one looked vaguely familiar. She stood up and took a couple steps toward them.

"Holy shit," she said.

"What?" Angie asked.

"Holy shit," she said again, louder this time, catching their attention. Cassie made her way over to them quickly and practically tackled the one who was familiar. "Rian Dawson!" she exclaimed.

"Cassandra Black!" he said, hugging her tightly. "Fucking shit, it's been forever."

"Is this a friend of yours?" one of the boys asked.

Rian nodded, "You won't believe this. I grew up next door to her. Our parents are really good friends. But every time she visits them, we're always gone."

Cassie smiled and held out her hand, "I'm Cassie," she said.

"Alex," the boy said, shaking her hand.

"It's nice to meet you," she said, "You guys probably won't believe this, but I'm interviewing you."

"Well that's just a crazy coincidence," Alex said, sounding rather disinterested.

She looked at Alex and then at Rian before heading back to the table. Rian fell in step next to her.

"Just ignore him. He's kind of a jerk at times."

Cassie nodded, "Whatever. It's fine," she said, sitting down. "Angie, this is Rian Dawson. I've actually known him since he was born and we were really good friends until we fell out of touch after I moved. He's in All Time Low."

Rian reached across the table and shook her hand, "Nice to meet you, Angie."

"It's nice to meet you too, Rian," she said with a small smile. Cassie could tell that Angie thought he was cute.

As the rest of the boys made their way over to the table and introductions were made, Cassie turned on the recorder and opened up her notebook to a blank page.

"I'm not out to get anyone, or anything like that," she said, "So if you say something you don't want included in the article, just say 'off the record,' and I won't put it in. Okay?"

"Awesome," Jack said and looked at Alex, "Why can't all the people we do interviews with say that? I mean, how many times have we said stuff and then were like, oh shit, I really shouldn't have said that?"

Alex said nothing and just shrugged. The girls could tell from the looks his band mates were shooting him that he was not normally like this. Cassie mentally shook it off, reminding herself that everyone has their days.

"So, you guys are getting started on a new record soon here in LA, right?" Cassie asked, getting the interview started.

They spent the next hour or so just chatting about everything and anything. Jack was very animated and talkative and pretty much drove the entire interview, while Rian and Zack added things in every so often. Alex, on the other hand, only spoke when he was being directly spoken to and often followed his response with 'off the record.'

Finally, Jack turned to him, "Dude, what's your problem?"

"I don't have a problem," he said.

"Really? You're kind of being a douche right now. Why aren't you taking this interview seriously?" Jack said.

Alex looked at Cassie, then at Jack, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize the interview had started. It sounded like idle chit chat to me."

"Bro," Rian said, shooting a look at Alex, "Seriously? Stop being a dick."

"Whatever," Alex said looking at Cassie, "All of that is off the record."

"Of course," she said.

"Are we done here?" he asked.

Rian shot another look at Alex and Cassie nodded, "Um, yeah, I guess we can be. I think I have enough to write a decent article."

"Good," Alex said, standing, "I'm out. See you guys back at the house," he said and walked out.

Everyone watched him leave and continued staring at the door even after he was gone. It was pretty obvious no one knew what to say.

After a few minutes, Rian broke the silence, "Cassie, I am so sorry. I don't know what's up with him today. I mean, he can be an ass sometimes, but he's usually much more pleasant in interviews."

Jack nodded and so did Zack, "That crossed the line, even for Alex," Jack said.

"It's fine, guys. This isn't the first difficult interview I've done. Really. I got this," she said.

"Hey!" Jack said, "I wasn't being difficult."

She laughed, "No, you weren't. I actually have about three pages of notes on your expressions and actions alone. You were very wonderful."

"Thank you," he said.

Cassie smiled, "You two were wonderful as well," she said to Rian and Zack, "Thank you for your time."

"No problem," Zack said.

The guys got up and stretched and Cassie looked at Rian, "So I know you're probably really busy but if you have some time, we should hang out and catch up."

"Definitely," he said, "We're actually playing a super secret show tonight. You should come." He looked at Angie, "And you too. I can put you on the list. And then maybe after the show we can go grab something to eat and talk or something."

Cassie looked at Angie and she nodded, "We'll be there," she said.