Chapter 53 Let the Countdown Begin
Let the Countdown Begin
They were sitting on benches in one of the city’s pocket parks but Taz couldn’t remember where exactly they were. His head itched. Under B-Roll’s supervision, he’d spent the morning setting up their White On Posse vendor account at RedLite so they could run their own show.
Things were fucked up, though. The platform had gone down hard, some kind of massive cyberattack.
As a new vendor, Taz had gotten corporate emails saying that a buncha their old content and backups got wiped and folks everywhere were freaking out since the vids were seriously gunked with viruses so if you downloaded or watched anything it’d Swiss-cheese your hard drive.
He stared at the latest email, claiming that RedLite was rebuilding from bare metal.
“Dunno,” Taz said. “Mebbe we shouldn’t…”
“Shouldn’t what?” B-Roll said.
“Dunno,” Taz said. “Dunno.” He drew in a breath, added meekly, “Mebbe we should, like, just chill for a while, let all this shit blow over.”
B-Roll grabbed the phone out of his hand, scrolled a bit with his thumb. “No, man. No. The upshot is RedLite needs a ton of new content and fast. Says so right here. And I got that Blanca chick scheduled for Friday so that means cha-ching.”
Mikey said, “Me and Finn-Finn got two more on the hook, lining ’em up for next week.”
Taz held out his hand for his phone and B-Roll pretended to give it to him, pulled it back. Did it again. The third time, Taz managed to snatch it.
B-Roll turned his focus to Mikey. “What’s with Dirty Pete?”
Mikey said, “Can’t reach him.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Dirty Pete runs on Dirty Pete time,” Mikey said, with that evil Big Mikey grin. “He’ll call when it’s done.”
Taz’s phone chimed. Now a text from RedLite. He read it, that sick feeling crawling back into his stomach.
“What’s it say?” B-Roll asked.
Taz shrugged.
Before he could hide the screen, Finn-Finn leaned over his shoulder, breathing baloney fumes. “Dude, dude! Says they’ll pay double royalties for live-stream content before the weekend!”
“Why live-stream?” Mikey asked.
B-Roll said, “Prob’ly uses different servers and content-delivery networks and shit. So those ones didn’t get virus-fucked like the uploaded content did.”
“Double royalties,” Finn-Finn said. “Double royalties.”
B-Roll said, “Glad my dick’s finally getting paid what it’s worth,” and the guys cracked up.
Taz tried to keep the worry from his voice: “What day’z it today?”
Big Mikey said, “February, I think.”
“Day of the week, dumb shit.”
“Dunno. Check your phone.”
Taz tapped his phone. Wednesday, Feb 11.
“Let’s move Blanca up,” B-Roll said. “Do her tomorrow, upload Friday in time to qualify for the bonus.”
“’Kay, ’kay,” Finn-Finn said.
“Where we gonna do it?” Mikey said. “I mean, no Manny. There’s no Manny, which means no crash pads.”
“Mebbe we should put it off,” Taz said weakly. “Till we can lock down something secure.”
“Double royalties, bitch,” B-Roll said. “I’m not putting off shit. We can do it at my place.”
“Won’t she know your address then?” Taz said.
“Ain’t my address,” B-Roll said. “Month to month, paid in cash money. ’S not even in my name. Any heat and I can bounce. But I ain’t worried. I got this one wrapped tight. I know the type. She won’t do shit about anything. We can tell her that if she talks, we’ll do her little sister next.”
“Heh,” Finn-Finn said. “Heh.”
“Cool, cool,” B-Roll said. “I can set up cams for live stream. And I still got some of the props there from last time. Was gonna bring ’em back to Manny but whoops, he’s in jail.”
Mikey said, “’T’s why we’re doing it our own fuckin’ selves.”
“Good props,” B-Roll said as he dialed. “It’ll be a good show.
” He held up a wait-a-sec finger, put his phone to his ear.
Then: “Hey, Beauty. Friday won’t work no more.
” A beat. “I’m bummed, too. But Luce’s gotta be with her birth dad now for the weekend.
” He listened, rolling his eyes. “I know, I know, I really want her to meet you, too. Now we’re watching The Little Mermaid tomorrow… ”
Mikey said, “Isn’t there a Gray’s Papaya around here?”
Finn-Finn shushed him hard.
B-Roll: “Really? Thursday’s a half day for you? Okay. Sure. We can meet after school, pretend it’s a trig study group.” He made the universal jerk-off signal to Taz and Finn-Finn. Big Mikey was too busy Googling hot-dog places to see.
Taz’s temples were throbbing, his head humming loud enough that B-Roll’s words sounded fuzzy. He wanted to throw up or run into traffic. He realized he was biting down hard on the inside of his cheek.
“I mean, I didn’t want to push you,” B-Roll went on, still air jacking off.
“Want to respect boundaries, you know. But if you could? Luce’d be so happy.
” A beat. “Maybe me, too,” he answered, putting a smile into his voice.
“Okay. Fine. A little. I’d be a little happy, too. ” He hung up. “Got her for tomorrow.”
Mikey belly laughed, raised a high-five hand to Taz, said, “Let the countdown begin!”
Taz swallowed blood, unclenched his jaw, mustered an unsteady grin.
And returned the high five.