by Jack Harbon
Barbie was proud to let him know that her second job was paying off pretty well and she might stick to it. Even Yolanda seemed nicer to him. When he offered to let her use his phone to test out how all of her graphics would look on a smaller screen, she didn’t have anything snarky to say.
Come Friday night, he was done with it all. He headed home and collapsed on his sofa. Chad and Michelle were supposed to come over tonight, but he had a few peaceful hours to himself until it was time to meet with them. In his pocket, his phone buzzed loudly.
“What’s up, Bria?” he answered.
“Hey, are you busy?”
He groaned. “Is it important? I was gonna take a nap before my friends got here.”
“It’s actually pretty damn important. Mom and Dad want to talk to you.”
Here we go, he thought. He had no idea what they could possibly want or why they’d picked the worst day of the week to come over. “I’ll be there in a second,” he sighed. He turned his phone off and tossed it onto the other side of the sofa. “Fuck my life.”
Kit rose from his seat and headed up to Bria’s apartment. He didn’t bother knocking when he realized the door was unlocked. Inside, he found his parents and sister sitting around the table. His mind immediately drummed up the worst scenarios. His mother was pregnant. They were staging an intervention into all the beer he purchased. Somehow, they’d gotten a hold of the thotty pictures he took for guys back at school.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
Tonya smiled wide. “We meant to tell you we needed to talk to you earlier.”
“It’s fine,” he shrugged. “What’d you need?”
Dorian glanced at his wife before he said, “Your mother and I were thinking about how we behaved the past few years. We made some bad decisions with you two, and that really shows. Bria and I were talking, and she told me how much debt she’s in because of school. Your mother and I would have never let that happen had we not been so stubborn about you two.”
Kit made a face. “So… What are you saying?”
“Mom and Dad said they want to help pay off our student loans, Kit.” Bria’s lips curled into a smile.
He wasn’t sure he’d heard that right. His parents—the ones who’d kicked him out years ago for something he had no control over—were trying to flagellate themselves by paying off his loans from school? Not only was that ridiculous, but the idea that they thought he couldn’t do it on his own pissed him off.
“I don’t need your handouts, you know that, right? I have a job. I make money. I’ve been making payments since I started working at Yellow Fall. You can keep your charity money, I’m good.” Kit didn’t mean to sound so bitter, but he couldn’t help it. The audacity of their implication was enough to bring out that side of him.
“Kit,” Tonya murmured, “We’re not saying that you can’t take care of yourself. You have your own apartment. You’re making good money at your job. You’ve been living on your own since you were eighteen. Clearly you can take care of yourself.”
“Your mother and I know we could never change how we treated you and Bria, but we can change what happened to your debt because of what we did. Had we never abandoned you, neither of you would be in this situation. You’d be debt-free, a clean slate. We can fix that. It’s nowhere near enough to apologize to you, but I’d like to think it’s a start…” Dorian looked at Kit with pleading eyes.
He’d never seen his father with so much emotion on his face, nor had he heard Dorian speak this much in one sitting. Unsure, he looked at Bria. She bit at her thumbnail, silently watching the conversation unfold.
“I need a minute,” he said. Kit stood up and walked out into the hall. He leaned against the wall and sighed. All he’d wanted to do was spend the rest of his night watching dumb movies with his friends and eating Doritos. He didn’t need to add making financial decisions onto his plate tonight.
Bria stepped outside a minute later. “Kit…”
“Bria, what are they even doing? Do they really expect me to just be cool with them throwing money at us to fix the problem? That’s some white people shit!”
Bria nodded. “I know. I agree. But I don’t think they’re trying to parent us anymore. They can see that we made it just fine without them, and they’re probably just hoping we haven’t cut them out completely.”
“Why shouldn’t we?” he asked. “The way they used to talk to us and treat us?”
“Let’s look at this another way,” Bria said. “You’re fifty thousand dollars in debt. Do you know how many payments you’d have to make to pay that off? How many years you’d have to work at Yellow Fall before that was all taken care of? Even if you don’t forgive them or want to forgive them, fifty grand is fifty grand. I don’t take that shit lightly, and I know you don’t either.”
Kit wanted to argue, but she was right. They couldn’t find that amount of money just lying around somewhere. His shoulders slumped. “I guess you’re right. My thing is, I don’t want to feel like I owe them something, y’know? Like, years from now, I don’t want them throwing it back in our faces that they did this for us.”
“That’s a risk we just have to run,” Bria said. “I don’t want you feeling pressured, though. If you don’t want this, you don’t have to accept it. Just know that I’m not the kind of bitch to turn down free money.”
It made sense. Bria had spent all summer taking care of him and now someone was offering to take care of her. He couldn’t be mad at that. He pushed himself up from the wall and headed back inside with Bria.
“So, what do you say, son?” his father asked.
“I’ll think about it. Today’s been really stressful, and I just need a breather before I make any other huge decision. I hope you guys understand,” he said. He hated how apologetic his tone was. He didn’t need to apologize for being hesitant.
“Of course,” Tonya said. “Take as long as you need. The offer’s always on the table.”
Kit nodded and glanced at Bria. She seemed relieved that he wasn’t still so defensive. It was crazy to think that when she was his age, she’d been just as fiery as he was. Now that she’d calmed down, Bria had changed into the level-headed one in the family.
“Listen,” he said, “I have to get going, now. I have company coming over. I’ll talk to you later.” He gave a small wave to his parents and made his way back to his apartment. He had a little bit of time left to get a quick nap in before Chad and Michelle were over, and he was going to use up every last second of it.
His friends arrived at eight that night. He heard the knock on the door just as he pulled the pizza out of the oven. He wasn’t a chef by any stretch of the imagination, but he knew how to throw together a little pizza. It didn’t hurt that he enjoyed flirting with the lady that made the dough and got it for a discounted price.
“Hey!” Michelle exclaimed when he opened the door.
“Hey, you guys, come in!” Kit stepped out of the way and ushered them inside. “I just finished making dinner. Chad, do me a favor and cut it for me?”
“Cut it, cut it, cut it, cut it,” Chad sang, heading into the kitchen. “This pizza way too big, you need to cut it.”
This was what Kit needed. Trying to balance work, dating, and his family was becoming increasingly difficult, and he knew that taking a break from it all and enjoying some time with his best friends would be good for him. Just like Roman had needed the massage oils and lotion to destress, Kit needed time off and hilariously shitty horror movies.
Michelle took a seat and stretched out her legs before she said, “How have you been, Kit? It feels like I haven’t seen you in forever!”
“Work at the office has been keeping me busy all week. I seriously miss last week when all I was doing was filing paperwork and shit.”
“Speaking of last week,” Chad said from the kitchen, “How did your birthday date go with Roman?”
One corner of Kit’s lips curled into a smile. That date had been on repeat in his mind since i
t happened. “It was perfect,” he sighed, shaking his head. “We went to a bar, played some games, had food, then went home and spent some time there.” Repeating it out loud made it sound lame as hell, but to him, it had been everything.
“You guys are seriously the cutest,” Michelle exclaimed.
Chad looked back over his shoulder. “I’d be down for a double date if you would.”
“I’ll ask Roman what he thinks about that.” Kit reached for his phone, but hesitated. Tonight was about the three of them getting together and forgetting about work. His text to Roman could wait.
Chad managed to carry three plates of food into the living room, handing one off to Kit and Michelle. Kit tore a bite out of his pizza and began scrolling through the movies on Netflix. There were plenty of bad “scary” movies there, and for a moment he couldn’t decide. He eventually settled on a cheesy slasher flick.
“Here, can you take a picture of me, Michelle?” he asked. He handed over his phone and posed with the food. She had to take the picture twice because she couldn’t stop laughing at his ridiculous face. When she was done, she handed the phone back to him.
“Here you go.”
“Thanks,” he said, wiping his greasy hands off. He took the phone and headed over to his Instagram. He knew Michelle didn’t have one, so he didn’t bother tagging her in the post. He did tag Chad, however, and he captioned the picture, “Greasy bitch brigade.”
Halfway through the second movie, Kit felt his eyes get heavy. Michelle and Chad had gotten quiet as well, but he wasn’t sure whether they were asleep or just paying close attention to the movie. Clearly the nap he’d taken before wasn’t enough to keep him up for much longer, because the second he convinced himself he was going to “just listen to the movie,” he was drifting off towards some much-needed sleep.
26
Disappointment
On Monday, Kit nearly fell out of the shower from dancing too much. The combination of his erratic movements and the soap on the floor wasn’t the best, but he managed to catch himself just before he went tumbling out onto the bathroom floor. He didn’t let that kill his vibe, either. Instead, he grabbed his towel and shimmied as he dried himself off.
This past weekend had been everything that he needed. Chad and Michelle slept over on the couch Friday, and on Saturday and Sunday, he’d stayed over at Michelle’s apartment with Chad. Chad just recently purchased a ton of new games on Xbox and Kit was more than willing to test some of them out.
Though he wasn’t exactly keen on going back to work, Kit couldn’t deny that he was excited to see Roman again. They hadn’t talked all weekend and Kit still needed to invite Roman out for a double date. He wasn’t sure if he would be into it, but it wouldn’t hurt anything to ask him and see.
At the coffee shop, Kit gave Michelle his usual Monday order and stepped to the side as the next customer moved forward. Michelle blended up the vanilla drink and looked up at him.
“So, don’t be weird or anything, but I think Chad and I are getting pretty close to making this thing between us serious,” she said. Kit could tell she was choosing her words very carefully.
“For real?”
“Yeah. When you went home last night, he stayed over a little longer and we had a long talk. It’s kind of scary because I don’t get this way about very many guys. There’s only been one in the past that I really cared about, and he treated me like trash. Chad’s the first guy since then to actually capture my attention and make me feel like I’m wanted.”
Kit’s smile widened. “Michelle, that’s amazing. If you feel that sure about it, you should go for it. I know he can be annoying and frustrating sometimes, but Chad is an amazing boyfriend. I’ve seen the way he treats the people he’s with. He’s a good guy.”
He wasn’t just saying that to hype his best friend up, either. There were times when Kit wished the guys he’d been with gave him even a drop of the care and affection that Chad had given his boyfriends and girlfriends in the past. When he wasn’t making sex jokes or crass comments about celebrities, Chad was capable of deep, meaningful conversations that could easily change Kit’s opinion on something entirely.
“You think I should go for it?”
“Absolutely. He cares a lot about you, and clearly you feel the same way, so go for it. Love is in the air, Michelle!”
She laughed and rolled her eyes. “If he rejects me, I’m gonna have some choice words for you, you hear me?” She handed over his two carriers of coffee and winked at him. “Have a good day!”
“You too!”
Kit used his back to push through the doors of the shop and made his way to work, his thoughts returning to his friends. Had Michelle never invited him and Chad to that party months ago, he doubted the three of them would even be as close as they were now. There were times when he was skeptical about fate, but this wasn’t one of them. Everything happened for a reason.
Kit headed into Yellow Fall and smiled at the receptionist, Jules. He’d asked Roman what her name was last week, and as he passed by, he greeted her by her first name. She looked shocked that anyone had even bothered to address her in that way. He knew exactly how that felt.
When he’d first started working at Yellow Fall, not very many people talked to him. Aside from lunch with Barbie and verbal sparring with Yolanda, his other coworkers ignored him. Now, however, they talked to him regularly and made him feel like he was part of the team. Being acknowledged had a way of turning someone’s day around, and he hoped he could give that to Jules.
Judging by the way the room felt when Kit walked onto the floor, Ari was Roman’s office. Barbie wasn’t her usual chatterbox self, and Logan and his corny jokes were nowhere to be found. Kit didn’t let this get to his mood, though. He placed the drinks down and handed them out to his coworkers, offering a bright smile to each of them. He turned to grab Roman’s when his office door opened.
The look on his face froze Kit in his place. Roman’s mouth was tight, his eyes were hard, and his silence was deafening. Rather than saying anything, he jerked his head towards the room. Kit looked around at the office. Everyone averted their eyes. Without a word, he swallowed hard and grabbed Roman’s coffee, following him into the room.
“Close the door,” Ari said.
“Sure.” He did as he was told, then took a seat in the chair next to Ari. Slowly, he placed the cup of coffee on Roman’s desk, beside an empty brown box. “So… What’s up?”
Roman and Ari shared a look before Ari said, “Kit, I wanted to ask you a few questions before I left for my trip.”
“Of course,” Kit nodded.
“Do you enjoy working for Yellow Fall?”
“I haven’t had many jobs, Mr. Naser, but Yellow Fall has been the best place I’ve ever worked at. It’s corny to say, but this place really does feel like a family.” Kit glanced at Roman, unable to tell if he’d answered that properly by the look on Roman’s face.
“I’m glad to hear that,” Ari continued, “And you’re comfortable with the company? The progress we’ve made?”
“One hundred percent. I had some family that was worried about me working here after the Grandeur campaign, but I know that you’ve gone above and beyond to fix that fiasco. I believe in Yellow Fall.”
Ari nodded slowly, his splayed fingers pressed together as he listened. “My last question is if you think you’re smarter than me.”
Kit blinked. “Uh—what?”
“Do you think you’re smarter than me?” he repeated. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out about what you’ve been doing?”
Kit’s stomach sank. Ari knew about him and Roman dating. Roman’s expression told him everything. “I… I don’t know what to say. We didn’t mean to, but it kinda just happened. I know it’s unprofessional, but I—”
“Stealing from me is more than just unprofessional,” Ari said curtly.
“Wait, what are you talking about? I didn’t steal from you.” Now Kit was truly lost.
“Don’t.
Don’t play stupid with me, Kit.” Ari shook his head.
“I’m not playing dumb, I genuinely have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said. He looked to Roman for support but found nothing. Only that expressionless, statuesque stare.
“As I’m sure Roman told you, my tech team was looking into the theft. For weeks, there was nothing. Ask them. I was pissed that they couldn’t find any trace of this person. I’d given up hope. Then, last week, we saw something interesting. Rather than seeing a large amount of money disappearing into any offshore accounts, we saw three hundred dollars deposited into your account.”
Kit shook his head. “No, that’s impossible. That wasn’t me.”
“It wasn’t? But it was on your work tablet. The money was transferred directly into your account, from your own company card. Pretty sloppy considering how untraceable everything had been before that.”
“Almost like it wasn’t me that did it,” Kit said, narrowing his eyes. “Almost like you’re accusing the wrong fucking person—”
“Enough,” Ari nearly shouted. “Over the course of four months, you’ve taken seven thousand dollars from me. I’ve thought about it for hours, and pressing charges against you simply isn’t enough. Roman is the one that gave you the job. Roman is the one that hired you. After the shitshow that was his last assistant, he promised me that he’d choose much more wisely. Evidently, he wasn’t able to do so. That’s why this money is coming from his salary. That’s why I plan on putting your ass in prison. That’s also why you’re fired.”
Ari stood and scooted the box over to Kit. “You have twenty minutes.” He closed the door behind himself.
Kit sat in silence, staring at the box. This had to be some kind of joke. This had to be some mistake. He couldn’t even take money from friends when they offered to pay for him at the movies. How the fuck would he have been able to take seven grand from Yellow Fall?