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Pushing past, he invited himself in. “Stacking the odds in my favor.”
What? “Shouldn’t you be unpacking boxes?”
“We need to talk.”
Closing the studio door, I turned to face him. “If you got something to say, say it.”
“There’s something I need to do first.”
I pursed my lips, regarding him for a long second. Then I stepped forward and angled my face toward him. “Go ahead.”
“Maybe I wanted to hit the other side,” he bellowed.
I shrugged and turned my face. “You better watch the lip rings. Matthew likes them.”
The fist he was making went slack. “Fuck.” He made a face. “You were just gonna let me nail you?”
I’d have given him one hit. “Figured you needed to get it out of your system.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s your deal, Arsen?”
“My deal?”
“You know what I’m asking. With Prism.”
“Why’s it any of your business?”
I never would have pegged Kruger as a hothead. He was a swim jock who spit sarcastic one-liners like it was his hobby. The only time I’d ever seen him be confrontational was after Jess’s accident. But in the past few days, his sarcasm bordered on asshole, and I found myself up against the studio door.
“If you plan on dating my brother, you’d better get real comfortable real fucking quick with me being all up in your business.”
Was I supposed to be intimidated? Because I wasn’t. He could snap and snarl at me all he wanted. Hell, he could even throw some punches. Ben Kruger did not scare me. To be honest, not much did. I was raised by an arrogant man who handed out consequences like people at the grocery store handed out coupons.
I could take care of myself. And at the risk of sounding completely douchey, if there was a problem I couldn’t deal with on my own, I could throw money at it.
However… Just because I wasn’t intimidated didn’t mean I wasn’t impressed.
“I’m glad he’s had you.”
“Excuse me?” he said, still pinning me to the door.
Please note I was allowing him to do so.
“You’ve been a good friend to Matthew.”
Kruger’s face darkened, and he shoved away from me. “I don’t like your condescending tone, asshole. And just so we’re clear, I’m not going anywhere. Prism is my family. For life.”
A light flashed on the panel across the room, and I crossed the small space to grab the headphones and fit them over my head. Kruger started to say something, but I silenced him with a slash of my hand. Flipping a switch, I leaned into the large mic.
“And that was the latest from pop sensation Ten. I’ll say the artist definitely gave one hundred and ten percent of his efforts, and that EDM mix in the chorus line was dope. I’d love to know your thoughts on this latest track, so drop Triple A a line on social and tell me what’s up. Since we’re coming up on the top of my last hour in the booth tonight, I’m gonna unpack another set of bangers before signing off, so if you’re powering through a study session, driving home after a long day, or maybe want out of your own head for a while, here’s your chance.” I paused, hitting a few more buttons. “Starting it off with a remix from yours truly, featuring a mashup of Assassin Elms and The Widower.”
After cuing up the playlist and making sure the panel settings were the way they should be, I pulled the headphones off and turned to Kruger. “I have about fifteen minutes before I have to be on air again.”
His eyes strayed around the small booth, taking in the sound panels, equipment, and posters that had been here since I’d started DJing two years ago. “Pretty cool place,” he said grudgingly.
“You never had a problem with me before,” I pointed out.
“That was before you got him arrested.”
