Instead, Tiffany shrieked, “I’m really looking forward to our hearing in front of the SDU tribunal!!! I can’t wait to tell them all about how you stole my credit card AND attacked me on campus!!! I’ll make sure you’re expelled, you sniveling cunt!!!!!!!”
That hadn’t gone quite the way I’d hoped.
Sigh.
A black Firebird Trans Am was parked in the driveway when I came home. It had a huge gold firebird decal on the hood and gold pin striping around the windows. The T tops were off. It was an old muscle car, but in perfect condition. I had no idea whose it was.
I hoped it wasn’t Tiffany’s. She drove a black Mercedes, but you never knew. Maybe she was trying to impress Christos and win him back by buying him a muscle car as a present. She could certainly afford it.
Stupid bitch.
She was making my life miserable without even trying. Yeah, I hated her.
I put my key in the lock of the double front door and discovered it was already open.
“Anybody home?” I called uncertainly.
“Samantha!” Nikolos smiled as he walked out of the kitchen. “I was waiting for someone to get here. I let myself in.”
“You have a key?”
“Yeah. I’ve had it forever.”
“How come you never use it?” I smiled.
He arched an eyebrow and shrugged his shoulders. “Oh, you know,” he said casually.
Boy, I was still putting my foot in my mouth from time to time. I guess growing up took longer than six or seven months. But I was doing my best. “Is that your car outside? It’s beautiful.”
“Yeah. Seventy-seven Firebird Trans Am, Special Edition. Same one they used in Smokey and the Bandit.”
“Smokey and the what?”
“You haven’t seen Smokey and the Bandit?” Nikolos gasped.
I shook my head.
“That movie is a classic. We’re going to have to have movie night at my place. Bring Christos over. We’ll put it on my big TV.”
“Sounds like fun!’ I grinned. “Do you want something to drink?”
“I already helped myself to some of Dad’s lemonade in the fridge. I can pour you a glass.”
“Oh, I’ll get it. You sit down.” I walked over to the cupboard and grabbed a glass from the shelf and poured some from the pitcher perspiring on the counter.
“Did you ever hear back from my maid service?”
I sat down at the kitchen table across from Nikolos. “I didn’t. Did they try to call me?”
“I told them to call the house since I didn’t have your cell phone number. Did you not get a message?”
“No,” I said.
“Do you still need a job?” he asked.
“Are you kidding?” I blurted. “I would kill for a job right now. I would clean skunk toilets if it paid.”
Confused, he asked,“Skunk toilets?”
“You know, the ones the skunks use? They probably smell awful. I hear that public skunk restrooms are the worst.”
Nikolos laughed. “Skunk toilets. You always have the strangest ideas.”
“Is that good or bad?” I asked uncertainly.
“Definitely good. It shows you have a creative mind.”
“You think so?”
“I do.”
I rolled my eyes, “My parents never did.” I felt like I was sinking back into my own self doubt as I talked to Nikolos. I so wanted to be over it, but all I had to do was close my eyes for a second and I could see fifty foot tall red neon numbers blinking in my mind’s eye:
-$5,000
-$5,000
-$5,000
I was never going to find that kind of money.
“So, when am I going to see some of your art, Samantha? My dad says you’ve really been coming along since he met you.”
“Yeah,” I smiled, suddenly in a better mood thinking about how nice Spiridon was to me all the time. At least I had him and Christos watching my back. But I would never dream of asking either one of them for $5,000.
I said, “I have my sketchbook, if you want to see that?”
“Sure,” Nikolos grinned.
I walked into the studio and grabbed my sketchbook off my drawing table and returned to the kitchen.
Nikolos started flipping through it on the table top from the beginning so we could both look. He didn’t say much at first. “I can see the progress right away. I’m guessing this page marks the point you started getting instruction?”
“Yeah, that was stuff I drew right after I started taking Life Drawing with Professor Childress.”
“Walt Childress?”
“Yeah. I took his class in the fall. Now I’m taking Drawing The Costumed Figure from him. Do you know him?”
“Very well. I haven’t talked to him in a few years though.”
“What’s up with Walt and Spiridon, anyway?”
Nikolos cracked a wide grin that had the same dimples as Christos. “Ahh, Walt and my dad go way, way back.”
“Was there some kind of drama between them? Whenever Walt’s name comes up, Spiridon hints around the bush, but never says anything.”
Nikolos nodded. “They have, how should I say it? A history together.” He emphasized the word history like it hid buried treasure.
“Really?” I leaned forward on my elbows, all ears.
Nikolos arched his eyebrows.
And…he wasn’t going to say anything.
“Aren’t you going to tell me?” I asked. “I’m dying to know!”
He shook his head and smiled that stupid Manos dimpled grin. “Sorry, it’s not my story to tell. You’ll have to ask my dad some time.”
I groaned and smiled. “Fine.”
Nikolos turned back to my sketchbook and continued flipping. When he got to my pot smoking wombat sketches he stopped and laughed. “What is this?”
“It’s my ideas for a logo for The Wombat.”
“The what?”
“The comedy newspaper at SDU.”
“Oh, that Wombat. These are really funny, Samantha. How come you have so many?”
“The editor of the paper asked me to design some new ones.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” I smiled.
“Which one did he pick?”
“Oh, they’re going to have a vote. Everyone on staff gets to vote. And other people are submitting ideas.”
“Well, yours should win. These are hilarious. And your design sense is beautiful. You draw very elegant shapes, yet they have humor and wit without being crude.”
“Wow, thanks!”
“Based on all this work in your sketchbook, I can see that you truly have talent. No wonder my dad has said so many nice things about you.”
I was blushing like a school girl, which was okay because I was still in school, even if it was college. It was okay to blush when someone was complimenting you this much, right? I was totally on cloud nine.
-$5,000
-$5,000
-$5,000
There went my good mood.
“Something bothering you?” Nikolos asked, concern on his face.
“Oh, uh, nothing.”
“Don’t kid a kidder, Samantha. You look like someone killed your kitten. What is it?”
Nikolos was so friendly and kind, I couldn’t help opening up to him. “I owe the university a bunch of money I don’t have.”
“What do you mean?”
“My tuition payment is late because I used up the little loan money I already had. I was supposed to pay in monthly installments but I ran out of cash.”
“Is that why you were asking about the maid job?”
“Yeah. Jobs are scarce right now. I can’t even find a math tutoring job, which I would be good at.”
He took a sip of his lemonade, “I thought you said you were working at a convenience store.”
“I was. I was also working at the campus art museum.”
He smiled, “You were working at the Eleanor M. Westbrook museum?”