“We need your answer, Becca.” Rex held out his hands. “Will you choose love or money?”
Becca’s eyes filled with tears as she looked my way. My gut twisted, and I reached for her, one final pitiful plea for her to choose me. It was getting hard to breathe. Becca looked at my hand and then into my eyes.
That look would haunt me for an eternity.
Rather than keep them trained on me, she closed the windows to her soul, and sold it all with one word. “Money,” she whispered. “I choose the money.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
MAX
A week later . . .
“Don’t do it!” I wailed, throwing popcorn at the TV. “Don’t trust her! She’s a monster!” I couldn’t look away. I mean, I wanted to, but that’s the thing about cartoons, the colors damn near suck you in because they’re so pretty. “Stop! He’s using you!”
“We’re getting married!” the voice said on the screen.
“Stupid bitch.” I threw another popcorn kernel. “Stupid Disney princess. Damn you, Walt!” The two main characters started singing. My eyes welled with tears. She really thought they were in love.
But it was a lie.
“Just wants your money and title, yo.” I took another handful of popcorn with one hand, then opened my beer with the other. “Believe me, when things are all said and done, Elsa won’t even want you, your own sister! And what does that leave you with? Hmm? A reindeer! And no man! A reindeer!”
Hades sighed next to me.
“You’re different.” I patted his head. “You’re a goat, silly.”
He started snacking on some popcorn from the same bowl and I didn’t care. Everything had gone to hell anyway.
“Um, Max?” Milo called through the apartment. “You in here?”
“Max died!” I yelled back. “Hades ate me!”
Hades grunted.
“I taste good to all animals . . .” I took a long swig of beer. “But apparently my ass isn’t made of money . . .” I sighed. “Actually it is, but not the point, is it, Hades? Hmm? Little guy.” I tickled underneath his chin. When I looked up, Milo, Jason, Colt, and Reid were in my living room.
“?’Sup?” I sniffed and took another drink of beer.
“?’Sup?” Reid echoed and looked around the room. “Are you moving?”
“Nah.” I pointed to the stack of clothes. “I’ve been unpacking, doing laundry and whatnot.”
“For seven days?” Milo crossed her arms. “Max, when I left a few days ago you were in the same pants.”
I looked down and frowned at the blue plaid pajama bottoms. “But these are my house pants!”
“They smell.” Milo shook her head. “Take them off.”
“Aw, baby, bored with little Colt so soon?” I teased. “And your wish is my command.” I stood.
“No!” Colt held up his hands. “He drops his drawers and I’m not helping with this intervention.”
“Wait.” My hands paused at my waistband. “What intervention?”
“Max.” Reid held up his hands. “You know I love you, Bro, but this . . .” He waved around the room. “It has to stop.”
“I’m fine,” I repeated. “I’m just . . . jet-lagged.”
Jason took a look around. “Dude, look around you. You’re living in your own filth!”
“I’M FINE!” I yelled just as the music crescendoed on the TV.
Reid sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Frozen? You’re drinking beer, in the dark, with a damn goat acting like a trained dog, and you’re watching a Disney freaking musical about princesses?” His voice rose at the end. “And you see NOTHING wrong with this picture? Nothing at all?”
I looked around the room. “Well, you’re kind of blocking my view, and Olaf’s set to make his big entrance in a few, but other than that . . . no. I’m straight.”
“You’re SAD!” Milo shouted. “Just admit it!”
“I’m HAPPY AS A DAMN CLAM!” I shouted back at her. “I’ve got my goat! I’ve got a nice apartment. The nice lady next door said I could adopt her turtle! Things are looking up!”
And silence.
I shifted on my feet, uncomfortable that no one was saying anything. A long stretch of silence never boded well for a person with my personality type. It made me want to poke myself in the eye with a sharp pencil.
“Becca’s sorry,” Milo blurted.
Jason and Colt restrained her as she tried to run toward me.
Reid sighed heavily. “It’s true, she told me.”
“Me too,” Jason agreed.
“What?” I threw my empty beer can onto the ground. “You guys all BFFs now? What, do you freaking watch Star Wars together and have naked pool parties? Some friends you are!”
Milo’s eyes filled with tears. “But—”
“Get out!” I yelled. “Get out of my apartment!”
“I didn’t want to have to do this,” Reid said in a calm voice. “But you’ve left me no choice.”
I rolled my eyes.
To be fair, I didn’t even see the punch coming until I was falling backward onto Hades. The last thing I remember before my eyes fluttered closed is the smell of popcorn on Hades’s breath and the sad realization that it might be the last thing I remember, before I went to sleep.