Broken Down: A Novel by Hazel Taylor

Author:Hazel Taylor [Taylor, Hazel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-27T16:00:00+00:00

14

The next two days were busy to the point of being nearly chaotic. Ursula managed to get her paperwork finished and turned in just under the wire on Wednesday. She, Bethany, and I got together that afternoon before my shift at Walkers’ to finish designing our posters and flyers which would need to be brought to the printers first thing the next morning. At the printer, however, we ran into problem after problem, starting with the price we were quoted.

“You want how much for 10 posters and 50 flyers?” Beth stared at the man behind the counter wide-eyed.

“It comes to 423 dollars,” he said, “and 98 cents.”

“But on the phone I was told it would be a couple hundred dollars max.”

“That was before we got the files,” he explained. “There are a lot of bright colors involved in the flyers, and you requested a glossy finish, which is extra. I’m sorry, but this is how much it costs. Unless you want to downgrade—”

“No,” I said. “It’s fine. Here, put it on this.” I gave the man my credit card.

“What are you doing?” Bethany asked. It was just she and I at the printers; Ursula had gone to work already.

“I’ve got a crazy high limit. I can pay it off later.”

“It’s too much.”

“It’s necessary,” I said. “You and Urs can pay me back whenever.”

She frowned. “I don’t like this. And neither will Ursula.”

“Then don’t tell her,” I said, shrugging. “At least, not until after the party and after the campaign kicks off. We need this stuff, there’s no other way to get her name and face out there. And we can’t put off getting these printed even another day, or we’ll be really behind.”

She sighed. “Fine. But we are going to pay you back. Every last penny.”

“I know you will.”

The man handed me back the credit card after running it and said everything would be ready by the end of the day. We thanked him, although Bethany’s thank you sounded a little less sincere than mine, and left. After that, I had to go home to take a nap before my shift started that night, so Beth dropped me off on her way to the school. I slept for a couple hours and was woken up shortly after 1 by the sound of my phone vibrating on the bedside table.

Groggily, I picked it up without looking at the caller ID first.

“Hello?”

“Hey.”

I yawned. “Who is this?”

“It’s Theo.”

I shot up out of bed. “Oh, Theo. Sorry. I didn’t see the name, I just picked up.”

“You sound weird. Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine. I was napping, didn’t recognize your voice at first.”

“Ah. Sorry to wake you.”

“You couldn't have known.”

“So here’s the thing. I’ve been thinking a lot about what you asked. I’m sorry I never responded to your text.”

“I get it. I made you mad,” I said. “I knew I shouldn’t have—”

“I wasn’t mad,” he corrected. “Well, I was. But not at you. I was mad at, I don’t know, the world I guess?” He sighed.

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