Rags to Riches

And I have an enemy. That’s just fantastic. Exactly what I needed to add to my life right now. Not only am I already hiding my “job” from everyone in my life, but now I have to come up with an excuse for this damned dinner party thing.

‘I so don’t need this right now,’ I thought, sucking angrily at the last of the smoothie in front of me. I felt eyes on me and turned my head, straw still in my mouth, to see Callie giving me a weird look. I lifted an eyebrow, silently asking her what her deal was.

She covered her mouth and giggled at me, shaking her head. “It’s nothing, really. You just look kind of adorable right now, what with your angry facial expression wrapped around a straw, nursing that smoothie like it’s the only thing keeping you from screaming. Are you still mad about that whole thing with Connor?”

I groaned, letting the straw fall from my lips as my head plopped into my hands. I rubbed my face for a moment before answering. “No, not exactly,” I mumbled, noticing that the Seville’s maid – honestly, a maid? – had left us to ourselves in the kitchen. “I just really have a lot on my plate right now. And something tells me that adding this fancy-ass dinner thing on top of everything else isn’t going to make things much easier for me.”

I was only half-looking at Callie when I spoke, and turned back to my smoothie as soon as I was done, so I flinched lightly when I felt her hand on my shoulder, trying to comfort me, I’d guess. “I’m sure if you explained everything to my dad, he’d understand and wouldn’t make you go.”

“You heard him, Callie,” I said, shrugging my shoulders and accidentally knocking off her hand in the process. She didn’t make a move to replace it, I noted. I lowered my voice and put on my best impression of Donovan. ”’And you know what’s going to happen? You’re going to be friends.’”

A short laugh burst out of Callie’s mouth, seemingly on accident. “Sorry, you just – that impression was kind of funny, actually.” She sighed and continued. “But you’re probably right. He’s an understanding man, but he seems set on the idea of you both being at the dinner and getting along. I’m sorry, Kenny.”

“Nah, it’s alright. I kind of brought this on myself, in a way.”

“How on earth did you bring this on yourself?” Callie asked, reminding me that she still didn’t know exactly how I got the job at TechNet.

’Well, when you try to rob a stinking rich CEO, you’re kind of bringing the consequences on yourself, whether that’s jail like in normal situations, or fancy suit-and-tie type company dinners. And you can’t exactly weasel your way out of either of those situations, apparently.’

“Nothing,” I grumbled against my straw, continuing to suck at the very last of the delicious pink concoction in my cup. Swallowing that last mouthful, I pushed the cup away from me and shook my head. “Never mind about that. I ought to be heading home soon. Tell Lipsi-uh…”

“Liseph?” Callie supplied, smirking.

“Yeah, that. Tell her thanks for the smoothie. And thanks for, well, listening I guess. Or for the company, at least.” I stood up and brushed myself off, getting ready to leave for home. That is, if I could figure out how to get there from…wherever it is that the Seville’s live. Don drove so quickly that I didn’t exactly get a chance to see where we were going at all.

Callie stood up abruptly, jerking me out of my thoughts. “What, you think you’re walking home from here? No way. My dad asked me to take you home anyways. I’m not letting you walk home, Kenny.”

“Oh, no, Callie. You don’t have to do that. I really don’t mind. I like the exercise, actually.”

“You’re not walking from here all the way to wherever you live in those shoes,” she said shortly, giving me a sassy look as she gestured at the shiny black dress shoes on my feet. Okay, she had a point. They weren’t exactly comfortable shoes for walking in. Or wearing in general, really.

I tried saying something in response, but my mouth ended up simply opening and closing a couple of times, since I couldn’t come up with anything to say. I sighed deeply, hanging my head. “Dammit. Fine, you win. You can drive me home.” ‘I’ve seen your crazy family,’ I thought. ‘The least I can do is let you see my shitty neighborhood.’

---

“Kenny, man, you should have been there! It was fucking great bro. Ask Brandon!” my friend Shaun boasted from across the cafeteria table about a week after the big Connor blowout. I chewed on my carrot sticks thoughtfully as I tried to not visibly ignore my dumb friends talking.

They’ve been my friends since we moved into the part of town we’re in now, and they’re not great people. They’re the main reason I’ve been arrested three times since I was twelve. They suggested we start stealing things. They thought it was a great idea to mug an old lady. They even tried telling me that the guy they were beating the shit out of deserved it. That one still pisses me off; I didn’t even do anything and served time in juvie for trying to stop them, not that the cops believed me.

They don’t really do much of that shit anymore, but they’re definitely not model citizens either. I really hated the kinds of things they still did, but they were a good cover story. Once I stopped being such a bitter little shit of a kid and realized that I was being stupid, I couldn’t exactly just up and ditch the tough-guy persona I’d erected over the years. So I stayed friends with those fools as a way to keep up that image of mine.

Most of the time I could tolerate all their bullshit and stupidity, but there were just some days that I couldn’t stand being around them at all. This just so happened to be one of those days. But however much I wanted to completely zone out and not pay any attention to them, I didn’t want to have to deal with them confronting me about it.

Shaun was damned big and intimidating as hell when he wanted to be. Brandon was his complete opposite; small, fast, and quick handed. He’d be the one to come up behind you and subdue you somehow so that Shaun could start pummeling the absolute shit out of you. And even though I was their closest friend, other than each other, I was fully capable of getting on their bad sides.

While Shaun rambled on about some party the two of them were at the night before, Brandon was also only half paying attention. He looked up at the mention of his name with pasta hanging from his mouth. ’Fucking dunce.’ “What?” he mumbled over the mouthful of food. I think my eye twitched a little as my patience dropped again.

“The party last night, dumbass. That’s what I been tellin’ Kenny all about.”

Brandon finished his bite and then spoke up, suddenly really excited. “Oh man, it was such a bitchin’ party. Plenty of booze, tons of hot chicks, and the cops even got called. That’s how you know a party was good.” ’That’s how you know a party was fucking stupid,’I mentally scoffed, trying not to roll my eyes. “Fuck man, I even made out with this real hot twenty year old babe and got her number!”

“Shit, Brandon, you didn’t tell me that!”

“Cuz you were upstairs fuckin’ that Mexican chick.”

“She was Puerto Rican, fuck head.”

“Same thing.”

“No bro, it’s so not the same thing. Ain’t you half Mexican or somethin’? You oughta know the difference.”

“I’m half Filipino, stupid. That ain’t anything close to Mexican.”

“Well still, it real obvious that Puerto Ricans ain’t Mexican.”

“Not really man. They look real the same sometimes.”

Those two dunces were starting to get pretty visibly pissed off at one another, so I knew that however much I didn’t want to deal with their shit, I had to stop them from getting into an actual fight.

“Okay, hey, guys, calm down here,” I interjected, putting my hands up as if they were going to stop Brandon and Shaun’s words from flying around and causing trouble. “Sounds like that party was awesome and I really wish I’d a gone. Guess I just gotta come to the next rager.”

As if he completely forgot that he was fighting with Brandon three fucking seconds before, Shaun laughed and hit my shoulder lightly. “Well you in luck then, man.”

“What do you mean?” I asked once I realized he wasn’t continuing.

“One of the guys at the party last night was tellin’ us ‘bout his cousin’s girl or some shit and he said she’s throwing a part this Saturday that’s ‘posed to be way better than this one was. We gotta go to it man. It’s gon’ be fucking cray. It’s a college party and you know the girls be banging and all kinds a horny at these college parties. Tell me you going, Kenny.”

I’m really not a fan of parties in the first place, and this one sounded especially gag-worthy, but I had to make it seem like I actually wanted to go. Thank fuck I wasn’t going to have to go to that thing though. That damned TechNet dinner-thing was that same Saturday. I mean, it’s not like I wanted to go to that either, but apparently I was being forced into it. It would probably be better than this college party my stupid-ass friends wanted to drag me to anyways. But that also meant that I had to make up an excuse as to why I couldn’t go with them. Fuck.

“Aw, shit man, that sounds fucking great. Of course I’ma go to it! What time is – fuck!” I cursed suddenly, hitting my fist against the table, knocking over Shaun’s bottle of water.

“What man?” he asked instantly, picking his water back up and looking at me with as concerned of expression I’ve ever seen him form.

“Shit, I can’t come bro. I totally forgot.”

“Why? What you got going on that you can’t just blow off?” Shaun asked, narrowing his eyebrows.

“This party gonna be so fucking amazing, man. We gon be tellin’ stories about this party for years. You can’t just miss it!” Brandon practically yelled, trying his damnedest to convince me to go.

“I know, man, I know! I don’t wanna miss out on this, but I gotta. Annabeth’s got a artsy camp thing or some shit that I promised I’d take her to.” ’What the hell am I even spouting right now? Please God, let them buy this shit. It’s the best I have, apparently.’ “It’s all the way cross town and she’s too little to be riding the bus all herself. Both my ‘rents gotta work Saturday so I told them I’d make sure I got her to her thing and back.”

“What, no one else can take your sis to her stupid ass art thing?”

“Believe me, Shaun, I really don’t wanna take her to this thing. But there ain’t no one else we can get.”

“What ‘bout whoever drives that real fancy silver car that dropped you off a couple times?” Brandon asked as if it were the most obvious answer to my problem. My eye really did twitch this time. He was talking about Callie’s car. He’d seen her drop me off.’Oh sweet hell. How am I going to get myself out of this one?

“What you talking about Brandon?” Shaun asked, tilting his head nearly sideways in confusion.

“Last week, some real fancy car dropped Kenny off at his house, but the windows were all tinted black and shit, so I couldn’t see who was drivin’,” he explained to a very curious Shaun. He then turned to me and asked, “Who was that anyways? Since when you know someone with a car like that? It was kind of a girly car, really. What, Kenny, you get yourself a fancy little girl and don’t tell your best friends about it? Come on, boy.”

’Just go with it!’ my brain screamed at me. ’It’s better than telling them the truth.’

“Oh, alright, fine. Y’all caught me. I knew you’d make a big deal ‘bout it, so I didn’t wanna tell you yet.”

Shaun took this news almost as a personal triumph. “Ohh, shit!” he basically yelled, throwing his hands up in the air. “Kenny got himself a chick!”

“She’s a rich one too, bro. Wants to piss off her daddy by dating a guy like me. We ain’t the kinda guys girls wanna be bringing home, ya’know,” I laughed along, just thankful that I wasn’t actually found out. And after that news was brought up, all they wanted to talk about was my ‘new girl’ and they completely forgot about Saturday.

I sure as hell am not telling Callie about all this.