Alice logged out of the VR system not believing she had met and exchanged contact info with Brad. She lay in bed with her arm over her eyes and an afterglow of budding teenage romance. She replayed the concert in her head and drifted into a pleasant sleep.

When she awoke it was supper time. It was customary on Sunday evenings to do a mixed reality dinner with her parents. She went to the kitchen and 3d printed a favorite of hers, simple spaghetti and meatballs. She took the finished bowl of tepid, manufactured food and took it into the MR dining room. She flipped a switch on the wall and the augmented reality projector scanned the dimensions of the room with a red beam. After about a minute it started to live stream her parent’s dining room from Mars. She took a seat at her normal spot and waited for her parents to come.

“Hi baby,” her mother’s hologram appeared in the seat across from hers.

“Hi mom,” she replied.

“Your father...will be late again so go ahead and eat.”

The distance between them was deafening. She sighed and started to eat her meal. The pasta always came out al dente, but she preferred hers slightly overcooked and chewy. Her family had migrated from the Philippines to America for better job prospects. Her dad was an engineer and they were able to live a lower-middle class lifestyle for the first few years of moving. At the start of high school, however, her dad opted to be part of the Mars colonization engineering division as it paid a lot more and he could send money back home. 

This changed their life tremendously. Her dad moved to Mars and with the money they were able to buy a better home in the suburbs and send Alice to a more affluent private school. Since it took a whole month to get to Mars her mom spent half the year on Earth with her daughter and half the year with her husband on Mars. For the first year it was exciting, but after the second year the trip between planets was so exhausting her Mom decided to stay on Mars, and ask her sister to check in on Alice weekly. Missed birthdays, parties, and parent-teacher meetings would wear Alice down. She hated Mars and everything it stood for. The pay was extremely well and her Dad sent a generous allowance, but Alice wondered if it was worth it. The house was lonely and felt hollow. 

“Have you thought about what major you want to study in college?” Alice’s mom asked.

“Not yet”

“You should study to become a nurse, my friend’s daughter makes a good amount of money.”

This wasn’t the first time Alice heard this recommendation. She knew that being a nurse was a good profession, but she wanted to work with people and not robots. Ever since primary healthcare was automated nurses, almost exclusively, worked remotely on machines and computers. Every now and then they’d have to go in to repair the health robots and machines. Nurse practitioners mainly assessed new robots and machines that could help further automate the healthcare process. It was a field that required heavy STEM and robotics knowledge.

“I know mom, I just haven’t decided yet.”

“If you become a nurse you can come live with us on Mars. You can even go to college here.”

She knew that too. It was what she wanted.Or maybe not? She knew she wanted family, but that meant giving up on her real dreams and desires for her career. She wanted to live here, on Earth, she wanted her family back here too. She also wanted to be a journalist and interview people, that major didn’t exist at college on Mars which exclusively had STEM majors only.

“I’ll think about it mom. My graduation is in a few months, can you and dad come?”

Her mom hesitated to answer and looked apologetic.

“Your dad is still very busy, and I don’t think I’ll be able to come back to Earth this year. I’m sorry baby. We’re both really proud of you,” her words fell flat.

Alice finished her meal. She was used to it: frustration and disappointment, but the spaghetti tasted particularly sour today. They finished the rest of the meal in silence. Alice got her backpack ready for school the next day and picked out clothes for tomorrow. She got a text from her dad.

“Sorry I couldn’t make it to dinner love, wishing you a good night.”

Alice knew that they loved her, but 241 million miles makes it hard to receive it. She went to her nightstand and looked over her various makeup palettes and lipsticks. She looked over the rainbow display of colors and ironic names for her palettes. “Lonely Hearts Club” a palette filled with blues, “The Dark Side of the Moon” a palette with white, black, and gray shades, and “Sucker Punch” filled with intense purples. She looked into the mirror, quietly dabbed the tears from her reddened eyes, blew her nose, and decided she would wear black lipstick tomorrow.