“Siddown.”
“You already know?” I said, and he folded his arms.
“You shoulda just told me.”
“Look, I was panicked. But I’m here now.”
“So what are we gonna do now?”
“That’s what I wanted to ask you, dude. I don’t… I don’t fucking know.”
“I told you not to do this,” he said. “Can’t keep coaching you if you ain’t gonna listen to me.”
“Listen to you? About what? Dude, I’ve been doing what I can. This was just bad fucking luck. It’s been two years, and it couldn’t have waited another month and a half?”
“That’s exactly what I wanna know. You couldn’t keep it in your pants?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“You and Helena Warrick. How long you been sleeping with her?”
“What?” I shook my head, the pain in my skull sharpening into a blade point behind my forehead. “Dude, what the fuck… that’s not what I’m here about!”
“I told you not to get involved. Like I said, can’t keep coaching you if you ain’t gonna listen to me.”
“Listen, that is not important right now.”
“So you finally admit to it.”
“Dude, I just got kicked out of my home. All my fucking stuff is in there, too. I’m broke and homeless and I don’t have anything except for what’s in my day bag.”
He hesitated awkwardly. “What the fuck did you do to get kicked out?”
“Nothing! Literally nothing! But it was always an illegal sublet, and they just happened to catch on yesterday, and my landlord changed the locks, he’s ghosting me, the police told me there’s nothing they can do. Fuck, dude. I’m fucking screwed,” I said, my voice thick, and he shifted uncomfortably.
“You, uh… I don’t know what to do with that,” he said.
“Seriously?”
“I don’t get involved in shit outside the law.”
“It’s not—it’s not my fault!”
He shook his head, hands up. “Better go to the courts or whatever, I dunno.”
“Seriously?” I gasped, clutching my hands in my lap. “Now that it’s come to this, you’re just fucking blowing me off? What happened tosuccess guaranteed?”
“It ain’t… it ain’t guaranteed if you won’t participate in it.”
“You fucking—this is because I hooked up with Helena, you don’t give a shit if I’m out on the street?” I stood up, my eyes burning now. “Why are you so fucking mad about it, anyway?”
“I told you it ain’t right for the mission, and you just fucking blow me off for some hot piece of ass just because you got lucky enough she’s there at this event paying attention to you? And I’m the one who got you there, and you won’t even tell me about it?”
“What the—” I put my hand on my forehead. “Dude, are you serious?”
“Why don’t you go ask her for help instead?”
“You’re fuckingjealousthat I slept with Helena and so you’re just putting your hands up while I’m out on the fucking street?”
