The Internationals: A Sam, Nikki, and Amy Story

**"The Internationals: A Sam, Nikki, and Amy Story,"** is a narrative focused on the characters of the same name. Nikki deals with attempting to hide abuse from her friends, Sam develops a drinking addiction and tries to keep it from affecting the people in her life, and Amy begins to care for her friends without a second thought for herself.

In the beginning, Amy is shown to have had a friend named Red as an orphan who constantly needed reassurance. Sam, halfway across the world, found smoking as a vice to being pushed away by those who made fun of her. Lastly, Nikki felt pushed into her group circle where they would make fun of her for constantly struggling to keep up.

Years later, the three have become friends who meet together for drinks. Secretly, Amy has developed a codependency on her friends for which she constantly wills herself to keep them happy. Sam has lost weight due to years of smoking and is now openly drinking and feeding her addiction. Nikki deals with hiding secrets from her friends after having a child with a man who abuses her.

Sam's addiction begins bothering Amy's care for her immensely as she feels that it will only burden Sam more and more, and the two begin to have problems in their relationship when Sam keeps falling back on her promises. Nikki continues to hide the abuse as it gets worse and she has to start wearing clothes that cover her up.

Sam notices that Amy tried to hide one of her liquor bottles to herself. Rather than be mad, she realizes that Amy is picking up on it due to her own lack of promise. As she begins to attend AA meetings, Amy's starting reliance on alcohol only gets worse without reprieve, which burdens Sam immensely as she sees it as her fault. Meanwhile, the two begin to become suspect of Nikki's constant need to be with her husband, which she continues to brush off as being nothing.

While in the park one day, Sam notices bruises on Nikki's neck as she forgot that they were there before passing out. The two realize and connect the dots to what has been happening. Amy is emotionally broken by this and reserves herself away without telling Sam that night in the hospital. She goes after Amy and confronts her. Once there, Amy deeply blames herself for what's happened, subtly reveals that Red actually abandoned her, and leaves Sam feeling guilty and lonesome.

Amy goes on a drinking binge by herself, while Sam gives hers to a person she meets on the street. Both of them seem to have an epiphany as Amy realizes that having something to herself for once makes her happy, and Sam realizes that sharing something with someone else can give her happiness. The two reconcile with one another by the night's end, finding common ground in giving one another a piece of their own struggle. Nikki wakes the next morning, fearing that her friends have left her in anger and disgust. However, they show up at the last minute and have an emotional reunion.

When all seems to be going well, Gregory, Nikki's husband, tries to confront them. The police show up and bring him into custody. As their lives go on, Sam continues to go to AA meetings and becomes sober for the first time in years. Amy lowers her amount of drinking, but secretly has a glass of champagne every now and then. Nikki begins to attend unions for survivors of abuse. They all continue to meet for drinks in the park