BooksBarbecue
Back Someone Had to Do It
Chapters (39)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Dedication
  4. About the Authors
  5. PROLOGUE
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. 10
  16. 11
  17. 12
  18. 13
  19. 14
  20. 15
  21. 16
  22. 17
  23. 18
  24. 19
  25. 20
  26. 21
  27. 22
  28. 23
  29. 24
  30. 25
  31. 26
  32. 27
  33. 28
  34. 29
  35. 30
  36. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  37. THE STORY BEHIND SOMEONE HAD TO DO IT
  38. SOMEONE HAD TO DO IT: THE PLAYLIST
  39. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

“I’m not the one you need to justify yourself to.” She sets the food down and turns to face me. “I don’t want anything to do with this, and I definitely don’t want your money.”

“It’s ten—”

“You need to leave right now or I’ll tell Nate about all of this.”

I pause. “You didn’t tell Nate?”

“Do you want me to?”

I drop my eyes down to her waist, then back up and leave without another word.

As I’m heading for the elevator, heat warms my chest. I feel it rising in my gut, something like lava, hot and burning. And just like that, I’m done being nice to her. I’m done trying to reason with her. I’m done negotiating. This could have all been over if she would have just listened to me. I’ve done my best to be civil with her. I’ve tried to be fair.

So fuck her and her perfect ass.

10

BRANDI

I don’t even believe in karma, but I must have committed a heinous sacrilege in a past life because this week just keeps getting worse.

I’m staring down at the letter I just tore open from FIT that I grabbed from the mailbox on my way back upstairs. Apparently, my tuition just increased by five percent and now I’m in the hole ten thousand dollars and some change. As if it wasn’t already expensive enough. I was barely affording it before this spike with my scholarships and loans.

I read it over but the words stay the same.

Amount due: $8,085

Amount due by: June 31

That’s only two weeks away. Two. Weeks.

I don’t have a job. There is no way I can find one that fast and even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to make that much money in time. I can’t take out another loan. Tried that last semester when I needed to cover the balance for my books and got rejected. I’m fucked, royally fucked. I might have gotten emails about this earlier this year—actually, I’m pretty sure I have—but I have this really bad habit of just dumping all my FIT emails straight into the trash since most of them are useless bullshit.

I hear Nate call me and look up, a little shaken, hoping it doesn’t show on my face. Normally, he’s so on point when he reads me, but when I take in the way he’s sitting across from me, staring at me like I’m a puzzle he’s trying to solve, he seems lost.

“You’re doing it again,” he says with the ghost of a smile. “I just called you three times.”

“Oh.”

“Something wrong?”

“No. I just...”

I keep thinking about the money Taylor offered me. Ten thousand dollars, just like that, as if it was nothing.