Page 25 of Subscriber Wars

Brick grunts out his understanding or frustration. I can’t tell which. It really doesn’t matter as long as he catches every second of Valentina Lambros going down.

Vee scrambles outside, barking orders at her friends, giving them each a job. She does a pretty good job of making it out like she’s worried Tony will come out and catch the mess versus them finding all my secret notes to her.

She hurries over to the courtyard, picking up all the slides, reading covertly as she finds more than a handful of notes on the bottom of the slides. When she and her crew have all the trash and slides bagged up, they all retreat back inside.

“Can I stop recording now?” Brick asks.

I lick my lips, the taste of victory sweet on my lips. “Take thirty.”

His brow raises. “What happens in thirty minutes?”

Was it really a good idea to hire Brick? I’m thinking no. “You’ll see. Just keep the camera on standby.”

It takes exactly thirty-one minutes before Brick is able to press record again.

University CamFlix Competition Submission

Entry Number: 75

Sebastian and Valentina

First Interview Continued, or that time I thought about how long I could hold my breath until I passed out

Tom coughs, attempting to mask his laughter. “So, Sebastian acting the scene out behind you was the start of the wars?”

Why must he ask me to repeat it? “Yes. He humiliated me on camera.”

Sebastian, unable to mask his laugh, adds sweetly. “Oh, come on, baby. I think you were doing a jam up job of that on your own. I was merely your funny sidekick.” He kisses me on the cheek, and I manage not to vomit. “Your fans loved it.”

They loved it all right. They loved it all the way to his page.

“You’re a dick.”

The asshole neighbor of mine grins and slides his hand down his bare stomach, lingering dangerously close to the button on his jeans. “Mmm… Don’t pull out that southern Latina accent of yours. You know what it does to me.”

His words say it like it sounds sexy; yet, the look on his face his nothing but pure distaste.

“Where are they?” I push through the space between his hard body and the door frame. I don’t ask if I can come in. Once upon a time, I was over here more than my own apartment.

“Where is what?”

Deep breaths, Vee. I know you want to throat punch him, but you can’t. You need to get what you came for first.

“My keys. Where are they?”

I notice a guy who I haven’t seen before rounding the kitchen counter with a camera pointed right at me. “Cute,” I tell Sebastian. “You managed to blackmail a decent human to document your misdemeanors.”

Sebastian flinches as if my comment stings, but he schools his features quickly. “Smile for the camera, Valentina. Show all that hostility to our loyal fans. You know they love when mommy and daddy fight.”

If my father wouldn’t be sorely disappointed in me, I’d headbutt this fool in front of me. Instead, I go with, “If that camera gets anywhere near me, I will shove it so far down your throat, you’ll be your own personal nightlight.”

My comment brings a smile to Bash-hole’s face. “Violence isn’t very ladylike, but then again, you’ve never been much of a lady.”

He’s not wrong there. When your father is a Marine and all your friends are boys with Marine fathers as well, you learn to hold your own. Before I could talk, I could perform a chokehold. Such is the norm in my life, and it’s served me well.

“I want my keys, Sebastian.”

He leans against the wall, smug and annoying as shit. “Not until you tell me what you learned.”

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