Page 105 of Filthy Liar

“That’s like, a few thousand a month,” I said in disbelief, and Reid sighed as he looked at me exasperatedly.

“If you’re going to be a teacher, you really need to learn to do math properly.”

“It’s six and a half,” Logan said in a mocking voice, and Reid groaned.

“I practically raised you and you’re both wrong. How? It’s four thousand six hundred. Each.”

“I’m not going to be a fucking math teacher,” I grumbled, offended when he scoffed.

“Good. You’re meant to be giving kids a chance, not teaching them the wrong?—”

“You haven’t signed any contracts yet, Barron. Don’t get cocky,” I tsked, and Beckett nudged me.

“Mom said you’re going to college. You’ll only have one year of peace before Noah joins you. Him and his buddies will follow you around like a bitch in heat. If you both go to Ashburn Valley University, anyway. Who knows? Maybe he’ll all of a sudden feel the need to thrive in life and go to Harvard with Marla?”

The way Diesel hummed told me that was unlikely.

“So, you boys in? We open next weekend, so we’ll need you to come and get up to speed on a few things this week. No uniforms or fancy shit. Don’t want to scare the locals away,” Diesel explained, and Reid held out his hand to shake.

“We’d love to work there. Honestly, thank you for the opportunity, and for everything you guys are doing in the Heights.”

Diesel shook his hand, turning to Logan to do the same.

“You boys are good kids. Hopefully, seeing some of their own peers succeeding will give others the chance to chase their dreams a little,” Diesel smiled. “I need to go and check in with Slash, but you guys go and help yourselves to the food, it’s all ready outside. Grab a beer too. I’ve told Zavier you get one each on the house, so take advantage of it.”

We stared after him in stunned silence as he walked off, and Beckett laughed. “You’ll catch flies if you don’t close your mouths.”

“I need that beer,” I said absently, hearing her laugh more as I started walking towards the bar, unsure what the fuck was happening.

Did we just all somehow become employed members of society? With legal jobs?

Hell really had frozen over.

CHAPTERNINETEEN

REID

It had been a long week. Logan and I spent most of it at the community center, learning the ropes of what was expected of us, which honestly wasn’t anything that we didn’t already know.

We had contacts given to us for places that could help the locals, and for once, they weren’t full of shit either. The list had been created by Diesel and Marco, carefully vetting each company to ensure they could do what they said they did, giving us so many opportunities for people who were struggling.

Free mental health consultations, drug and alcohol counseling, and food assistance.

Those who desperately needed it would thrive, and those who took advantage would lose it, which I thought was fair enough.

Poor Ander had mostly been stuck home alone with Raven since Zavier had been busy with Psychos business all week, and I wasn’t sure what I was more relieved about.

Raven’s period arriving, or me not being the one at home dealing with her demonic behavior.

I’d brought her home chocolate and ice cream all week. I was trying to make it easier for her, but it seemed Ander wanting to curl up on the couch with her was doing the job more than anything.

She was an emotional mess, but I hoped this was the start of her hormones balancing. Watching her give herself emotional whiplash sucked, and she’d randomly had meltdowns throughout the week.

Zavier had brought flowers home and made her cry on Tuesday night. Logan put too much milk in her coffee on Thursday which had made her cry, and I’d accidentally woken her up when I got up to pee last night, somehow upsetting her enough that she’d cried over that too.

So far today, she’d been fine though, like a switch had been flipped.

It was Saturday, the community center opening day, and I really hoped the day out would cheer her up a little. She seriously needed it.

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