Boom - Sabrina Stark Page 0,55

something about a family emergency."

"Really? What kind of emergency?"

"Oh, that's the best part," I said. "Apparently, his 'cousin' is having health problems."

"Which cousin?"

My voice hardened. "Guess."

"You don't mean you?"

"Well, I am his only cousin."

"That dip-wad!"

"Yeah," I muttered. "Tell me about it."

"But he can't avoid you forever."

I gave another scoff. "That won't stop him from trying though. I mean, he must know that I'll be expecting my money back."

"What money?"

"All the money I gave him for the house. You know, the payments, the repairs, everything." I made a sound of disgust. "God, I was such an idiot."

"You were not," she said. "Come on, if you can't trust family, who can you trust?"

This was so easy for Cami to say. Unlike me, she had the kind of family you could really count on – parents who loved her and a whole bunch of siblings, too.

But me? I had nobody. Sure, I had parents, but they were off doing their own thing. And even my mom, who should care about the house, hadn't cared one bit about keeping it in the family, even when I'd begged her for just a tiny bit of help.

Now, thinking about it, I almost wanted to cry. But I'd cried plenty already, especially three years ago, when my grandpa had passed away so suddenly.

At the memory of him – and my grandma, too – my eyes grew misty like they always did.

Desperate to focus on something else, I said to Cami, "Hey, do you want to hear something funny?"

"It can't be too funny," she said.

"Why not?"

"Because you sound like you're gonna cry."

"I am not going to cry," I said, wiping a stray tear from my eye. "I'm gonna throttle Brody."

"For what now?"

"Well, remember when I told you how the film crew was walking me through the house, making me talk about the damage and stuff?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, get this. We get to the upstairs hallway, and I see this hole that wasn't there before."

"What kind of hole?" she asked.

"Oh, that's the funniest part," I said. "It's like, well… a peep-hole."

"A peep-hole?" She hesitated. "Into what?"

"The bathroom." When she made no reply, I felt compelled to explain. "You know, the one where Brody barged in on me."

"Ohhhhhh, that bathroom. So, do you think he's a perv?"

"No. I think he's a jerk."

"You do realize, you can be a perv and a jerk at the same time, right? In fact, I'm pretty sure they go hand-in-hand."

"Not with Brody," I said.

And then, there was the thing I didn't say. Even if Brody were a perv, he would never get pervy with me.

In fact, other than our attic encounter – which had ended only with my humiliation – Brody had shown so little interest in me that I might've gotten some sort of complex if I happened to be interested in him, which I totally wasn't.

"So if he's not a perv," Cami said, "why the peephole?"

"I'll tell you why," I said. "He was thinking of shooting me."

She hesitated. "You mean with a gun?"

"Well, I'm not talking about his 'love gun', if that's your other guess." I sighed. "Anyway, the next time I see him, I'm gonna let him have it."

I meant it, too.

And just fifteen minutes later, I had my chance.

Chapter 31

Arden

Brody gave me a look. "Hell yeah, I made a peephole. What, you think I'm nuts?"

We were standing in the kitchen of the crew house, and I'd just confronted him about that hole in the wall.

If Brody were anyone else, he would've been mortified at my discovery, or at least a little embarrassed. But Brody was neither of these things, and his lack of shame was a real kick in the pants.

With growing indignation, I considered his question. He was nuts, alright. And he was making me nuts, too.

I glared up at him. "How am I supposed to answer that?"

"With an honest opinion," he said. "Pretend you're me. It's the middle of the night. And you hear someone in the bathroom – someone who doesn’t belong. So tell me. Are you gonna look to see who it is? Or wait for them to come at you first?"

I rolled my eyes. "And do what? Shoot you through the door? That is what you implied earlier, wasn't it?"

Too late, I recalled where he'd said such a thing. It had been in the attic, where we'd had that unsettling encounter.

Then again, nearly all of my interactions with Brody were unsettling.

In fact, I was feeling a little unsettled now. His shirt was slightly damp, and his face and