Me and you

Dumbass money

I was not one for making conversation. Especially when me and whoever I was talking to had no common interests.
"So... is that like a career or something?"
"No. I'm a student and that's how I pay to go college,"
"Sick. What's your major and where do you study?"
"Nursing, at UCLA," I told him "Turn down that road,"
"Okay. How much is college? Like per year? I have a kid so I need to know this stuff for when the time comes," He explained
"Well, it depends where you go. Mine is 13k a year with federal aid,"
"Federal What?"
"Basically they give students loans to pay their tuition and then when they have a job they pay it back," I said "How old is your kid?"
"She's nine,"
"Cute,"
"Yeah, something like that,"

We drove in silence for another few minutes, until he arrived outside my apartment block
"Thanks for the lift,"
"No problem," he replied "You want me to walk you in or something?"
"No it's fine, I'm only on the second floor," I replied. Whilst it was great not having to pay for an Uber, the conversation I had was painful at best, and I did not want it to go on any longer
"Okay. Well, I'll see you around; maybe you'll come back to the studio,"
"Maybe,"

I was so tired when I came back, and practically fell asleep before my head hit the pillow. I could hear Conor getting up and leaving the house in the morning when I was in that weird half asleep half awake kind of thing, and by ten am I was fully awake. I'd sort of adapted to getting little sleep over time, it wasn't the healthiest thing for me to do, but I didn't work every night, so I would get a decent amount of sleep then.

Later on, Conor FaceTimed me
"Can you please come to the studio and buy me coffee on the way?"
"Um no," I replied, for two reasons. Firstly, I was comfortable and was not into the idea of putting socially acceptable clothes on to go out and second of all, I didn't want to see machine gun kelly again. Why? Because he made me shit the bed. He was just so; so intimidating. For all I knew, he could be the kindest, sweetest person on the earth, but until I had proof of that I would continue being afraid of him
"Please. I can't leave! I have to stay here and work on the songs," he begged
"Hey is that Devon?" I heard someone ask in the background
Conor turned around "Yeah it is,"
Almost immediately, three if the boys ran to the phone "Hey will you show us some moves?" One asked, making the rest of them laugh.
At first I didn't know what he meant, then I realised. "Fuck all of you guys," I said before hanging up the phone.

I was mortified. He told all of his friends. I felt like I was going to faint, or throw up or something. The only person outside of my job that knew was Conor. And of course Machine Gun Kelly had to walk in here, pay me a bunch of cash and then go tell his stupid little group! Was all that money he gave me a way of saying sorry? Even if it wasn't, I didn't want it anymore.

Somehow I found myself changing into different clothes and driving to the studio. I was in the parking lot and I actually came to my senses and realised what I was doing. Fuck. Now I was scared. But I knew I couldn't pussy out now. The money was sitting in the bottom of my bag, tied together with an elastic band. All I was doing was giving it back to him, why was that scary? It's scary because it is completely out of character for me, I don't know where this feistiness had come from.

After having to psych myself up again, I went into the building.
"What room is machine gun kelly recording in?"
"Third one on the left," the receptionist replied to me. I marched down the corridor and walked into the room, he was in the booth.
"Did you bring my coffee?" Conor asked
"Nope," I replied and walked straight into the booth, even though he was mid song. He turned to face me
"What the fuck?"
"You can have all your dumbass money back because I don't want or need any of it," I said before thrusting the pile of bills into his hand
"Wait, come back!" He shouted as I walked out of the room. But I didn't. I walked straight outside to my car and got in. I was about to drive off when I heard someone knocking on the glass. Of course, there he was. I rolled one the window
"What?" I asked, or rather demanded
"If you didn't want all this, why didn't you give it back to me last night?"
"Because I didn't know you were going to tell all your friends about what I do,"
A look of realisation flickered across his face "Oh, shit. I'm sorry, I didn't know you wanted it to be a secret," he said, sounding genuinely apologetic
"It's fine. But still you can keep your cash," I said, before rolling up my window.