“Oh jeezus,” Leland mutters. “Maybe I’ll take her to a church and see if they’ll perform an exorcism on her. Exorcise out the evil.”
“My mom’s still notthatbad,” Jackson says.
“Eh…” Leland throws out there.
“EH,” Cassel tosses out.
“I bet she’d like Ellis,” Leland decides as he scrutinizes me. It sounds like a strange kind of jab, and I don’t know how to take it. “Anyway, no one needs their parents that much.”
Maybe… you don’t end up where they’re at in life when you have people there to support you and love you and care for you. Maybe if they had a family who supported them and cared for them, they wouldn’t be off… doing this stuff.
Or maybe this is what they enjoy doing, and having loving parents mixed in has nothing to do with the matter.
Not knowing what else to do, I lean against the window and just watch the world outside. I should probably call my job and tell them what’s going on or something since I’m scheduled to work tomorrow. When they ask why I didn’t show up the past two days, I can tell them I was on Murder Island before jumping out of an airplane and being offered raccoon jerky.
They’ll assume I’ve gotten into drugs and likely question whether or not I need to take a drug test before I return.
“Okay, it’s been too damn long, I’m breaking into his office,” Cassel decides.
“Oh thank god. I was getting so antsy,” Leland says.
“Let’s go fuck shit up,” Tavish declares, which… I feel like isn’t the plan here, but the rest seem quite thrilled by the idea.
NINETEEN
ELLIS
When we step out of the meeting room, the office is definitely busier than when we went in it about forty minutes ago. I have absolutely no idea how they’re planning to pull this off and question if we’re going to get caught and go to jail or possibly even prison. I mean… do they have a license to carry? But even if they do, surely they shouldn’t carrythatmany weapons? And what about me? Do you have to have some kind of permit to carry a taser?
I’m over here fretting every step of the way while the group of them just talk about where they want to go for lunch and strut right over to the door.
“I don’t know, man, that Korean barbeque is the place to go,” Cassel says as Leland knocks on the door. I realize that Cassel is fiddling with the doorknob as he does so, but in a way that doesn’t make it apparent what he’s doing.
“Act like you’re supposed to be here,” Tavish urges.
“I’m not an actor. I tried out for a play in high school and the director pulled me aside and said, ‘I love your enthusiasm so much that I think you’d be fantastic at pulling the curtains.’ Thecurtains! Like not even the chorus or hell, working on the set. My job was to pull the curtains.”
“Did you do it?” Tavish asks.
“Yes, I fucking did it, and I was fantastic at it, but that’s not the point.”
Tavish is grinning now. “Did you get to go out on stage at the end and bow with the rest of them?”
“I sure as fuck did, and my mom bought me this huge bouquet of flowers and told me how proud of me she was,” I say.
“Were you a little embarrassed?”
“Maybe. But then the lead role asked me out on a date, and I was floating high.”
“Oh yeah?” Tavish asks, eyebrows quirked. “Tell me about this lead role.”
I glance over at him as I realize that maybe he’s wanting to know their gender. But that’s ridiculous. Like the two of us couldn’t be more different. He’s like… an assassin or something, and I’m like… boring ol’ Ellis. I’ve never even snuck a drink into the movie theater out of fear someone will catch me, I’m so boring. And he’s…not. He’s handsome and adventurous and slightly illegal in everything he does.
“Well, as the lead they were very talented,” I say, teasing him… even though I know this is ridiculous.
“Yeah? What else?”
“Definitely sweet.”
