It had been some time since Mal had last seen her little cousin, and in that time, a number of things had changed. Adam had gone off to Europe to “find himself”—whatever the fuck that meant—and with his departure it had been decided by her father that she would be taking over his responsibilities in addition to her own. With this move, she was effectively made her editor in chief, which meant that the paper was no solidly on her shoulders, and its rise or fall was going to be dependent on the actions that she took. Honestly? There was a part of her that hated Adam for that. She knew that he had no love for the paper, that he didn’t see it as his final destination, but she hadn’t been ready to take it all on herself, not yet. She barely had a handle on her own duties, to say nothing of the fact that she now had to learn marketing and financing like she had any business handling it. That had always been Adam’s forte, she felt that she didn’t have the head for it. There were those, however, who were standing by her side and helping her stay afloat in the stress and pressure that she felt to be perfect. It would take time, but she would learn.

Eventually.

Tonight, however, was a night that was meant for just her and her cousin, specifically engineered to forget all of their woes and focusing on chasing some of that good old childhood nostalgia. As children they had spent a lot of time together, both being in the same city and being family. Now that they were older? They didn’t spend nearly enough time together, and that was something that she was honestly a little sad about. Lyric was her cousin, she felt a kind of protective impulse over both her and Nova Rose Pennbrook , and she wanted to spend time with the both of them. However, she could really only sneak one of them out of the school for sleepovers at a time, and if it happened too much she had a feeling that someone was going to start noticing the Pennbrook girls were disappearing during the night. Maybe. Probably not, to be totally honest. As much money as their parents had paid, she had imagined that there would be a little more security involved, but from what she remembered, she had no problems sneaking out of the school most nights, and she had never gotten in trouble for it either.

A sharp knock sounded from Mal’s front door, and a wide grin broke out over her lips. That could only mean that Lyric was here… or that Evan had come for a visit, which presented an unfortunate situation since she would have to turn her best friend away for some quality bonding time. As much as she loved Evan, she saw her a hell of a lot more than she saw Lyric, and tonight was about the two of them.

“Coming!” Mal wrapped her sweater tighter around her body and maneuvered around her sofa and made it to her front door, opening the door and nearly squealing with delight when she saw her cousin standing on the other side. The humid air of New Orleans made it no further than the front door, since she had cranked up the AC just a touch to make sure that Lyric wasn’t about to overheat in her living room. “Eee! I’m so glad you’re here!” She reached forward, folding her cousin into a tight hug, before stepping to the side and letting her actually come in to her apartment. “For dinner we have nothing but options, I didn’t want to pick since it’s been a minute since we last got takeout and had a movie night, and lord knows I didn’t want to get something you would hate.” She shut the door and immediately lamented the loss of the blessed Louisiana heat. Privately, of course. She would never tell Lyric that she took issue with the cold. “So!” She said, spinning back around and looking at her little cousin. “Feeling like anything in particular?”