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Part 5
The business
Josh’s pace became determined. He couldn’t help but wonder if what he saw really was nothing more then an illusion. ‘There are many girls out there that look like that! I mean how would it be possible anyways?’ He began to jog. ‘Man, I was just so hyped to see her again that I’m hallucinating!’ Soon he found the spot the figure had stopped at. He looked and saw 4 girls chatting happily together and a few boys spread about the grounds. He walked over slowly and called out.
“Bella… is that you?”
The head turned and Bella’s bright eyes looked towards him.
“Josh!” she smiled.
The girls that had been around Bella suddenly came into shock! “Hey wait a sec!” “That’s Josh Watanabe! He’s a popular senior here!” “Looks like Bella’s got connections!”
As he began to move, Bella smile widened.
“What – what are you doing here?”
“I eh… I transferred here,”
“What?! Why?”
“Why is it that whenever we bump into each other randomly you sound upset?”
“But you can understand why I’m in shock! I mean…”
“I just… wanted to get to know you again and the timing was right. My dad was asked to live in Gambino for a few months to train some employees for the company and he didn’t want to leave cause of me… so JB thought up this plan,”
“JB! I should have known!”
“But… it’s not a bad thing right? We can see each other a lot more now,”
Bella grabbed Josh’s hand and he felt his heart beating fast. He was happy.
***
Orientation was over and it was soon lunch time. Josh and Bella headed towards his usual meeting place with JB near the lockers, next to the small school library. As they arrived, the golden-eyed boy put on a grin that was reminiscent of the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland.
“Well hello, fancy meeting you here,”
“You’re relentless,” said Josh, his eyes drained of emotion.
“Think of me more as your… guardian angel! I put wrong things to right! Don’t you think so Bella?”
“You definitely have some kinds of special powers alright! Just remembering how you convinced me to do this still makes my head spin! You’re dangerous!”
JB laughed gleefully.
“Oh! I almost forgot! I’m going to go eat with those the freshmen girls today! I promised I’d go, sorry,”
“It’s ok. It’s good you already have friends even if they’re not in your year,”
“Yeah, they seemed really excited about something after you came to see me. Maybe one of them likes you!” she laughed.
“Eh… yeah! That’s possible,” said Josh nervously.
“Oh! Aren’t we confident? Don’t tell me you’re in high demand here?” she said raising an eyebrow.
Josh eyes searched for help in JB.
“Well, you better hurry! Lunch isn’t really that long and then all of us start classes,”
“You’re right JB! I better go! Well, I’ll see you guys after school,” she said in a cheerful voice and ran of towards the cafeteria.
The color in Josh’s face seemed to have drained within those few seconds. He leaned towards the lockers and let his head drop heavily on them creating a loud clanging noise.
“She doesn’t know about you, does she?” asked JB, side glancing to his friend.
“Oh man… she’s going to hate me! There’s no way she won’t find out eventually,”
“Well, it’s not like you DO anything with these girls. I mean, that’s just part of the policy!”
“That’s not the point! The fact that you ‘sell’ dates to people with me is going to make me look like a…”
“Prostitute?”
“NO!”
“A gigolo?”
“Hey!”
“An escort!” he said smiling. “Yes, escort sounds best. It’s sounds classy,”
“WHAT! No, I mean, the reason why we started to do this in the first place was so that we could gather gold to start up our own business after university! Plus, I like spending time with girls so it was an easy thing for me to do! You handle the girls by charging them a fee for a date and I get to go out with them and have fun! I mean, it’s a totally innocent and a mutually beneficial transaction!”
“Why are you so worked up about this now?” asked JB. “It wasn’t a big deal before,”
“But Bella might think I’m some kind of pervert or a weirdo but I don’t even kiss these girls!”
“Well, you said you wanted keep dating this year and it’s too late to stop now,”
“What? What do you mean? The year hasn’t started! I mean, we could just shut down right now right? Yes! Bella doesn’t have to know!” he said, a glimmer of hope now at the horizon.
JB looked at him and sighed. He then removed two papers from his pockets. One looked like a flyer while the other looked like a list of some sort.
“Did you forget the ‘Freshman Discount’? Half price off for the first date? While you were out there hanging out with Bella I was working. I gave off about 15 of these,”
“Fifteen? Already?”
“You reputation seems to have travelled to the junior high schools. It was too easy. Plus the waiting list from last year still has six people on it that are on hiatus until the beginning of school. We can’t forget about them,”
“Wait, that’s already 21 people!”
“Well, I asked you when we came in if you wanted to stop but you clearly said: “What reason would I possibly have to stop now?” right? Too late to start whining now,”
Josh looked spent. This was terrible. It would only take a lunch break for her to find out everything about the way Josh’s social life was run. JB stared at him and sighed.
“Well… maybe I could do something about this,”
“R-Really?”
“Yeah, I’ll jack up the prices for this term to make it harder for people to afford you. This way, only the really determined can go on dates, I won’t lose any gold and you’ll have more free time. I can’t do anything about the Freshman discount, but since it’s a percentage off the normal fee then they’ll simply have to adjust to the new prices. Since last years clients paid in advance, they’ll receive a price adjustment but if they want new dates, they’ll have to pony up the gold,” said JB in the most serious tone.
“You know… hearing you talk like that is making me feel really cheap,”
“We’ve been doing this for 2 years and only now you tell me?”
“Yeah but somehow, initially… in my head, this all felt like a worthy cause…”
“It IS a worthy cause! It’s for making me- uh, US rich!”
 Josh_JB_Benton · Tue Apr 14, 2009 @ 05:28am · 0 Comments |
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