Wild (sequel to Deep) - Zarry AU

Real

I was walking through the park with Chloe, her cigarette break from her new job as assistant events co-ordinator at the leisure centre where I worked out. Two weeks in and she was already complaining about it.

"Well it's really not bad for a first job, Chlo!" I laughed.

She inhaled. "Not when I studied media at college, Riss! Thought I could at least get an internship at a friggin' film company."

I looked up at the greying sky. We were lucky it hadn't rained yet.

"I think you were living in a dream world, hun."

She pursed her lips and looked at the ground, tapping the cigarette so that the ash fell alongside her footstep.

"Nobody gets a job in those kind of companies," I continued. "Not unless they have connections."

I knew Chlo was tough enough to take this kind of truth. The truth that she would probably only work in this small town, or, at most, in some drone office job in the City. Because when they first graduate, everyone thinks they are going to get their dream job – for Chloe it was working in tv, meeting famous people and making a lot of money. But I knew life just wasn't like that.

She smiled. "Well, don't you have connections now? You know, with your blackmailing-celebrities-and-hanging-out-with-the-press lifestyle??"

I laughed. "That's over. Had my luck, gave the spoils to Val and helped give his Dad a chance to beat that disease. But the tape will never come out, like you said."

"So who's got it?"

I looked up as we approached the car park which fronted the glass wall of the swimming pool.

"Well, no one has. The Sun contacted me – their agreement with the powers that be was that all copies would be destroyed – including the originals. So Val and I had to delete ours."

Chloe stopped dead in her tracks and looked me in the eyes. "What???? You deleted the tape??"

"Yes," I said, deadpan.

Then I burst out laughing.