Say Anything You Want, I'll Turn the Music Up

Say Anything You Want, I'll Turn the Music Up

Chapter 9: Big Time Loser

"Why are you wearing sunglasses?" Bitters more or less yelled. God, the man was such an idiot. Or maybe I was the idiot. Maybe I should have just called up here. But even if I was the idiot in this case, he was still the bigger one, always.

"I quit," I said through my teeth. I needed this job like I needed air right now; I made good money here, but I still didn't have enough to get my car out of impound yet. But I could be nowhere near the same vicinity, let alone the same building, as James.

"You can't quit," Bitters said. "I fire you—"

"Fire me then."

He turned his nose up. "I didn't even want to hire you!—"

"Look, I'm being harassed by one of your residents." Not even a lie. "I can't work here anymore." I had folded my pantsuit as neatly as humanly possible, and now I placed the folded pile on Bitters's desk, with the gold Pool Boy name tag right on top. "I'm quitting whether you like it or not."

"You will never get a recommendation from me. Don't put me as a reference."

I just shrugged. I could still get a job without references; this was my first job, so obviously it didn't really matter. "Whatever. I'm a hard worker. I'll get a job either way."

I turned around and started to walk away. "You're not getting your last paycheck!" That made me pause, and he knew it would. That wasn't even about being mad at me; the man was just greedy greedy.

Finally I turned back around. "Then I'll sue you for every last cent. There was no contract, nothing saying I had to give like 2 weeks notice or anything like that. Or that you could keep my paycheck when I did the work for it. So if I don't receive it in the mail within a week, I'll sue you in court. I've always wanted to be on Judge Judy." Not that I actually had the money to hire a lawyer and sue him or anything, but I hoped he wouldn't call my bluff.

He didn't, thankfully. He just stared at me, open mouthed, horrified. So I turned around once again to make my confident exit. Only to be waylaid by none other than Carlos Garcia.

"Harper!" Carlos whisper-yelled at me. Thank God he had the good sense for that. "What are you doing here?" Okay, so sunglasses were a sucky disguise; Bitters recognized me, Carlos recognized me, and if they did, then James surely would if he saw me. I made a mental note to borrow a blonde wig from Camille next time I went on this kind of secret mission.

"Trust me," I told Carlos, "this is the last place on earth I want to be. And this is the last time I'll ever be here. I was just telling Bitters I quit."

"Because of James?" Carlos asked, and he sounded somewhat angry. "Look, what he did...was super messed up. But trust me, it's completely over no—"

"You're right," I interrupted. "It is over now. I'm being the bigger person. No hardcore revenge this time, even though he deserves it for what he's done to me. I'm done. He got what he wanted: my utter humiliation. And me finally giving up."

"You don't understand," Carlos said hopelessly. "He wasn't just trying to get revenge. He did it—"

"Harper!" He was interrupted this time by both Kendall and Logan. It was Kendall who had yelled my name. Honestly, I didn't want to hear James's friends defend his actions (he could get the balls to do it himself, but even then I wouldn't listen). But what Carlos was saying had me intrigued, and I for once wasn't going to interrupt him. I didn't believe for one second that James had any other motive but rebuilding his ego by making me feel like crap, all because I didn't think he hung the moon and stars like every other female he came in contact with. But only like 2 people had witnessed the club scene. I, on the other hand, was the most hated person in America; everyone on the planet knew my name and face thanks to James's stunt, which was on every tv channel and written about in every tabloid.

"Shhh!" I scolded them. "All of you are here, that means James isn't far off, especially since he probably already heard you, and if he sees me—"

"He won't," said Logan. "You're safe." I raised my eyebrows (I wished I could only raise one, like some people who shall not be named, that would be legit).

"He's moping up in 2J. He won't budge," Kendall explained. Very strange. James should be down here flaunting his victory in my and everyone's faces and making fun of me some more; that was who he was. If anyone should be holed up and moping it should be me. I was the one getting stuff thrown at me just walking down the street. So what was the deal? I assumed something must have happened with his family or something else that I wasn't privy to, and I took this blessing for what it was and didn't question it.

"Fantastic," I said. The boys' faces made it seem like the opposite.

"Harper," Carlos said. "You should know—"

I shook my head, cutting him off. "Whatever. It's all over now. You probably won't ever see me again, so it doesn't matter. I'll miss you three. Good luck with fame and...everything."

I went through and gave each of them a hug, starting with Logan, who was at the end, and ending with Carlos at the other end. When I reached Carlos I gave him a light kiss on the cheek. He was just so, so sweet (not to mention Jo and Camille would have killed me for kissing Kendall and Logan on the cheek). He was just too innocent and childish.

"No chance of that date, huh?" He joked with a smile. He was referring to his conversation with Rain and James that I had overheard the day I blew up at Rain.

I just laughed and shook my head. I hugged him again, but this time I slipped him a note into Carlos's hand and whispered in his ear, "Give this to James." I squeezed his hand with the note in it one last time before waving at the boys and walking away from the Palm Woods.

You win.

James POV

James finally clicked off the tv after surfing the channels for at least 30 minutes and finding nothing good on. He sighed, leaned his head back on the couch, and shut his eyes.

Just then the door of 2J busted open and James leapt up. When he saw it was only Carlos, he sank back down into the sofa.

"James," Carlos said. "She was just here!"

James just looked at him, not saying a word for once, then turned his head back to face the blank tv.

Carlos shook his head. "James!" he exclaimed, striding up to his friend. "Are you not even gonna go after her?" James said nothing again, and Carlos wanted to slap him to knock some sense into him, but instead he gave up with a sigh. "Here," he handed James the note Harper had given him. "She said to give this to you."

James took the note and unfolded it. It didn't take him more than a second to read it.

He crumpled it up in his hand. Carlos was staring at him with sad eyes, but James knew that though his best friend would always be sympathetic, he still thought James brought this on himself. He couldn't take any of it, not even from his best friend.

"What?" he blurted, practically yelling, just wanting Carlos to stop looking at him like that.

Carlos shook his head again and said, "It's not too late. You should go after her while you have the chance."

James went back to silence, clenching his fists. Carlos left, and he expected Kendall or Logan to walk in immediately after and give him a speech, but thankfully they didn't.

He uncrumpled the note and read it again. This wasn't what he wanted, not at all. Especially not like this. Yes, he was superficial, shallow, and mean because of that when he wanted to be. But people like Harper couldn't see that he did have a heart under that perfect hair; only people like his three best friends could see it.

You win.

That wasn't true and James knew it. He knew he had lost, big time.