Mal walked into Evie's room looking for her favorite skirt and almost fell when she tripped with one of her best friend's shoes. Barely hanging to the doorknob, Mal was happy that she wasn't wearing her heels, or she could've had mess her ankle. Looking around, Mal wondered how Evie being such a stylish girl, could live in such a mess while also looking immaculate all the time. Since the girls met each other in kindergarten, Evie constantly surprised Mal, first with the easiness that the girl had to get her way no matter the situation and then with the vision she passed since little about what she wanted for her future. Even back then, Evie knew that she wanted to work in fashion, she would make dresses for their dolls, and when they grew up, Mal was Evie's model whenever she managed to buy enough fabric to make clothes.
After high school, Evie moved to New York and went to the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she met people who helped her find an internship with a top designer. Mal stayed back in Seattle trying to figure out what her next move was, she was accepted to her college of choice, but she didn't want to move to Boston alone when she felt it wouldn't add anything to her life to study more. Since she was a teenager, Mal decided to vlog and upload her life to youtube; for a long time, her followers were just people she went to school with, but after a while, they increased, and by the time she was graduating, people from all over the world watched her. That had allowed her to move out of her house at a young age, away from the drama of her absent and manipulating mother.
People always asked her how she had decided to start vlogging, and while Mal would say that it was because she wanted to connect with people through the famous platform, the real reason was darker than that. Maleficient, Mal's mom, mistreated her physically and mentally after her father was out of the picture when she started middle school. When Mal shared that with Evie, the girls planned to catch it on video to help Mal get help from her father's family, who would constantly send her mom money for Mal's expenses, feeling guilty for her father abandoning Mal. They managed to catch some of Maleficient hitting Mal on tape, but the woman discovered the camera and destroyed the evidence, so they tried again. They managed to catch her yelling at Mal the second time and upload the files to the cloud so the woman couldn't destroy them. It took them a while to contact Mal's relatives, but Maleficient managed to convince them that the girl had tampered with the files and was acting out because of her father leaving her. However, when Mal told her that she would post the evidence to the internet, after trying the police, her mom was dating the chief at the time, and he believed the woman's lies; Maleficient freaked out. Maleficient's public image was the most important thing for the woman, and she also knew that the financial support from Mal's relatives would stop, and she used the money to live in a way that would otherwise be out of her reach.
Maleficient agreed to let Mal do her videos and earn her own money; she didn't share what her relatives were sending for Mal with the girl, so having Mal make her own money was more than ok with her. Sure, the woman didn't realize that with time Mal was earning a lot more of what she thought until it was too late for her to take a cut from it, and the girl was free of her and her hurtful comments. The woman ended up remarrying and conveniently distancing herself from Mal as soon as the money for the girl stopped coming in.
Mal's phone started ringing, and the girl turned and made her way to the living room, looking for the source of the noise. Finally, she saw the phone, but it was no longer ringing; Mal was about to ring Evie back when a text popped up asking her to please go to the store and pick some of the things they were going to need to make dinner. Reluctantly Mal put on a pair of leggings and a coat from her suitcase and went on her way. She was visiting Evie to spend the holidays together. Her friend was always asking her to move to New York with her, but the girl enjoyed Seattle a lot and had finally found the perfect apartment there. After years of apartments and several renovating series, this apartment was exactly how she imagined her dream place was going to be. People always love her renovating series, and Evie was trying to convince her that they could move to a bigger apartment together in New York, and she could make another series of videos about renovating it and being completely honest, Mal was starting to considerate it because whenever she was with Evie, she could remember exactly how great was when they live close to each other. However, with Evie's busy life, Mal always wondered if she actually was to move to New York how much time would they spend together, and also life was expensive there, and even though she was doing very well for herself, she wasn't sure that it would be a good investment for her to move there.
Finally, at the store, Mal went in and suddenly was in front of a guy filming himself while talking and walking around the aisles. Smiling she made her way to the other side of the aisle, not wanting to interrupt the guy and wondering if she knew him; that's when she heard him calling her name and assumed he was a follower. When Mal turned, she saw Jay, one of her vlogger friends from New York, the boy put his camera down, and both hugged and started talking about what the girl was doing there. They ended up walking around the store buying their things and even filming a little for their channels, Jay walked Mal back to Evie's apartment, telling the girl how he was planning to go to Seattle for a month next year. When they made it to Evie's apartment, the girl was there, and she invited Jay to stay for dinner; soon the conversation revealed that they had friends in common. Jay's girlfriend Lonnie was doing an internship in the same building Evie work and the girl sometimes saw her when they would go to the share eating space on the top floor or saw Jake picking her up. The boy shared with them that Lonnie's internship was ending that month and the girl had found a job in Seattle, and now that Jake's best friend had moved to Seattle a couple of months ago the girl was excited to move there and work knowing that she would have a roommate that she knew and a guide to the city.
"So you are staying in New York? I know you said you were visiting Seattle, so you don't plan to move there?." Mal asked a little taken aback by the information. She wasn't close to Jay or even knew the guy that much, but she knew he was very much in love with Lonnie. The last time she visited, Mal found them on her way to see Evie and saw firsthand how much they care for each other and how in sync they were, so hearing that Jay was staying back surprised her.
Jay chuckled at Mal's expression and shook his head. "No, I'm moving once Lonnie decides that Seattle and the company are the right fit for her. I would've gone earlier, but Ben is there, and she needs space to have a real idea of the city without me giving her my input, she even told me that it wasn't necessary to help her move there but I told her that I wanted to see Ben so she agreed."
Evie nodded and asked who Ben was, Jay then went on to explain that the boy was his friend since childhood and went on to tell stories about them and Mal couldn't help but smile at how their relationship resembled hers and Evie's. By the end of the night, Evie had invited Jay and Lonnie to spent Thanksgiving with her and Mal so the girl could talk to Mal about Seattle so she could feel free to call her when she moved there. The holidays came and went quickly, and the girls found themselves spending time with Jay and Lonnie, Mal was excited to have the girl move to her city where they will be able to spend more time together. Lonnie and Jay went to Seattle before Mal, so the girl promised the couple to visit them as soon as she was back in the city to show them some of her favorite spots and introduce them to her friends, so Lonnie knew more people there.
Evie convinced Mal to stay longer in New York, so Jay made his way back to the city before she got to Seattle, the girl apologized to him for not making it so she could show them all the places she promised, but the boy assured her that Ben was a great guide and Lonnie was enjoying her time in the city just fine. The night before Mal made his way back to Seattle, she sent a quick text to Lonnie asking her if she had time to see her that weekend, and they decided to have brunch together, with Mal offering to pick the girl up to show her around the city. Finally, when Mal made her way back to Seattle, she noticed that there was some damage in her bathroom ceiling, so she called her landlord to ask him to check it out and made her way to Lonnie's place after he assured her that he could get in with his key.
When Mal stood in front of Lonnie's place, she was in awe of how beautiful was the house the girl was staying in. She wondered how Lonnie managed to find a place like that in such a short amount of time; the house, even though it was beautiful, was in obvious need of some renovations, but Mal could see the potential and was excited to see the inside of it; hopefully, Lonnie would be open to give her a tour and maybe let her share some suggestions about how she can make the place reach its full potential. After a couple of minutes of ringing the bell, Mal wondered if she was early or had the wrong address and was about to call Lonnie when the front door suddenly flew open, and an out-of-breath shirtless boy appeared, making her jump a little out of surprise.
"Hey! sorry I was in the back, and I didn't hear the bell, or maybe I ruined it while trying to fix it earlier, and now it is not working back there. Either way, sorry you had to wait, I saw you on the camera, so I came as fast as I could. I'm guessing you are Mal? I'm Ben. Lonnie went to the store, but she must be here any minute now; please come in." He said that without breathing, and Mal almost didn't understand half of it, but she understood most of it, so she followed the boy inside, and for the first time since her last meeting with Jay, the girl remembered that Lonnie was staying with Ben.
The boy walked in front of her, and Mal noticed that he was clearly her age or very close to it, a little taller than her, and worked out or at least was athletic in some way; his jeans and hands looked dirty, which meant that he was working on something. His hair was light brown, and it was messy, covering his eyes a little, and the way he was smiling at her was making her blush a little, and she hoped that the boy would assume it was the warmth of the house that had her cheeks red.
Ben cleared his throat, noticing that Mal wasn't listening to him and the blush that intensified on the girl's cheeks made him smile, he remembered seeing her on one of Jay's vlogs, and she was even more beautiful in person. He asked Mal again if she wanted something while she waited for Lonnie, and the girl shook her head; that's when Ben noticed how her eyes travel up the walls to the molding on top of them, and he took the opportunity to talk about them and some of his plans for the house. His friends always rolled their eyes at how excited the boy got whenever talking about his renovation projects, but he couldn't help it. Before moving to Seattle, Ben had studied the real state market to find the perfect renovation project, and when his offer was accepted, the boy was thrilled; however, the cost of the renovation was too high for him to do them at once or hire someone to help, so he was working on them little by little in his free time.
Ben shared all that information with Mal, and to his joy, the girl seemed interested in the details and asked a lot of questions about his plans. In the middle of their conversation, Lonnie walked into the house carrying a couple of bags making them turn. Lonnie apologized to Mal for the delay and then turned to ask Ben where his shirt was; the boy looked confused for a second and then realized that he had no shirt on, and after apologizing, he went on his way to put the bags out and his shirt on.
Lonnie turned and watched Mal for a second with a knowing grinned and told the girl that she was ready for their outing and walked out of the house after shouting a quick goodbye to Ben.