Page 82 of Sharkbait
“I’m almost thirty-three. I think I’ve earned the right to say, ‘kids today.’”He smiles.
“Oh and the headline reads: “Don’t Be Like Moonshine Girl.”
“Are you ‘Moonshine Girl?’”
“Apparently. I guess she was playing off the name of the liquor and the fact that there I was, in the moonlight... being mooned.”
“That analogy needs some work.”
“Agreed.”
“Am I in the photo?” he asks.
“You’re mostly cropped out, but you can see your arm. Your hand too.”
What I don’t say is that seeing his hand holding mine was the only part of the picture I liked.Morethan liked. Seeing his strong arm trying to guide me out of that weird line of fire stirred something in me.
“What does the article even say?”
“It goes on and on about the dangers of underage drinking and sexing, a message I support of course, but—”
“Tell me she doesn’t say ‘sexing.’”
“She says sexing. Many times. Turns out Marcy is a god-awful writer but an excellent marketer. Her article got into the exact right hands to ef up my life.”
“A high school online newspaper? Come on. Who reads something like that?” James scoffs. “And you’re an adult. Who cares what you do during your free time, whether it’s drinking or sexing or whatever?”
“Corbin Bellows cares.”
James looks at me, confused.
I take a sip of my beer.
“How’s this for synchronicity? Corbin’s grandson goes to the same high school. He wrote an article about pollution in the Schuylkill River on the same page and his proud grandpa recognized me in the photo.”
“That’s not synchronicity. That’s just some shitty-ass luck. And okay, he doesn’t want to offer you the internship? Fine. But to take away your scholarship too? What the hell?”
James is getting heated on my behalf.
“The follow-up email I got after I asked them—who am I kidding,beggedthem to reconsider—said that as a ‘devout manwith conservative values,’ Corbin decided I wasn’t ‘the right fit’ to be affiliated with his foundation after all.”
“This is thatDeep Sea Discoveryguy we’re talking about?”
“Yeah.” I wipe my eyes with my sleeve. “Did you watch his show as a kid too?”
“Of course, who didn’t? Doesn’t he have like nine wives and a whole bunch of weird scandals going on?”
“Six wives. I mean, not all at the same time, but yeah, he’s been married a lot. And yeah, he’s got some not-so-secret skeletons in his closet.”
“Fuck him, then! You really want to work with a guy like that? Someone hypocritical who makes quick judgments and breaks promises without getting the whole story?”
I shrug. “No? Yes? I mean, I certainly didn’t want to lose my scholarship, James.” I feel the tears welling again. “I’ll have to drop out of the program now.”
“No way! Then he wins! You gotta keep going!”
“How, though? I don’t have that kind of money.”
“So you take out a loan. I can help you with the ins and outs of that process if you want.”
