"Fifteen thousand."

The old guy tried to wager with me. I leaned against the old mustang that I was trying hard to sell. The owner before me had completely given up on it, and was about to send it to the junkyard when I bought it. It was a fair price and seemed like a good summer project.

I had completely redone it, inside and out, it didn't even look like the same car anymore. What was once an old dented piece of shit, was now a cherry red hot rod. It had taken me weeks to fix it up, and this guy only wants to give me fifteen thousand dollars for it. No way.

"Thirty grand, or no deal," I said firmly.

"That's a little steep," he said surveying the car. "How about twenty?"

"Twenty," I scoffed. "This is a classic car, it's worth way more than what I'm charging you."

"Hm," he hummed. "I don't know, you said you did everything yourself."

"Yeah," I replied. He still seemed unsure, so I knew I was going to have to up the ante on this guy.

"Look if you're not interested, I'm just going to go," I told him. "I have a guy willing to offer me forty-five thousand for it." I didn't but he doesn't need to know that. As he stood there contemplating the lie I had just told him. I acted like I was going to leave.

I opened the car door making sure to jingle the keys extra loud so he knew that I wasn't messing around. While I seemed confident, I was beyond nervous, because I've been trying to sell this car for a month. And school starts on Monday, it's got to go.

I started the car with shaky hands. "Come on, old guy, make the right decision," I said to myself. Just when I thought he wasn't going to take it. He knocked on my window.

"Okay, I'll take it," he said through the open window. "It's a bit much, but I think I can manage thirty."

I smiled turning the car off. "Wise decision."

I slid into Marcus's SUV, thirty thousand dollars richer.

"He bought it!" I announced to Marcus and Sam. Marcus sat in the driver's seat, while Sam occupied the back, it wasn't until I got in the car that he pulled his eyes off his Nintendo Switch. That thing had been permanently glued to his hands since he got it.

"That's great, Nick," Marcus congratulated me. "It didn't look like he was going to."

"Yeah," I sighed. "He gave me a hard time about the price, but I wore him down eventually. I told him another guy offered me forty-five thousand."

"Did they?" Sam asked.

I laughed, "Nope."

Marcus shook his head with a laugh. "Well, congratulations."

"Thank you, thank you very much." I looked at the thirty thousand dollar check I held in my hands. I had done this once before, with an old clunker I bought off Craigslist. That one had been harder to redo, it had a shit ton of damage. But it had been an easier sell than the Mustang. This check, just like that check, was going straight into my savings.

I didn't necessarily need to save money. That's one thing my Dad did for me, he gave me plenty of money. He didn't offer much in emotional support, but it doesn't hurt my feelings anymore. I don't even know where he is this month, last time I talked to him he was somewhere in the Caribbean fucking off with some model he had met. That's always been his style; islands, clubs, drugs, supermodels-that is how he met my mom.

But like all his other supermodel girlfriends, she left him. I had to admit she stayed longer than the rest, she had me, but not even that was enough to keep her around.

She ran off with our pool guy, Renaldo, when I was seven. One day she was there, and the next day she wasn't. It wasn't much of a transition with her not being there, she wasn't a very present mother in the first place. Throwing me with a nanny the first chance she got, but that ended when I was twelve, the nannies disappeared, my Dad said I didn't need them anymore. And then I was alone, that's around the time Crystal started coming to spend the night.

But that's over now too.

"Nia and her friends are coming to your party tonight," Marcus said as he drove down the road.

"Which ones?" I asked.

"She has three friends," he laughed. "Tasha, Lavender, and Maya."

"Are you excited that Maya's coming?" Sam asked.

I furrowed my brows. "Why would I be excited?"

"Uh, because you totally have a crush on her," he replied. Marcus choked on a laugh.

"What? No, I don't." I do think she's really hot, but I don't have a crush on her. I met her at school once, and I'd seen her with Nia a few times. And we didn't talk much any of those times. I didn't usually like the shaved head look on girls, but it looked pretty badass on her.

"Oh, okay, sure you don't," Sam said sarcastically. "Maybe you could try saying more than two words to her without choking."

"How about you try to walk more than four steps without getting a nose bleed? How about that Sam?" I said annoyed.

He scoffed. "Really, Nick, really? Don't be such a dickhead."

"Oh, I'm being a dickhead--"

"Hey! Hey!" Marcus yelled. "Stop fighting! Damn, I feel like I'm someone's mom."

"Sorry," Sam and I apologized.

Marcus rolled his eyes, sighing, "Anyways, they're coming. Do you have everything set?"

"Yeah, everything's ready." My annual back to school bash was set for tonight, but I wasn't feeling up to party.

"Is Crystal going to be there?" Sam asked leaning forward in his seat.

I cleared my throat. "I didn't invite her, but I'm sure she'll be there."

"I still can't believe you two broke up, like it doesn't seem real," said Marcus.

"You're telling me." Crystal and I had broken up at the beginning of the summer, she wanted to take a break to find herself. Her words not mine. I hadn't seen her all summer, she had spent the summer in Italy with her family.

Maybe I should feel worse about us not being together. I can't remember a time when Crystal wasn't my girlfriend, but I didn't feel anything. I felt worse about not being able to talk to her as a friend more than losing her as my girlfriend.

Things had been weird for awhile, we had stopped talking as much, all she wanted to do was hook up. Not that it wasn't fun when we did, but I didn't want to do that all the time.

"Hey, well, maybe you'll meet somebody tonight," Sam said patting me on the shoulder.

"Maybe." I doubt it, it would just be all the same East Chapel girls that were always there. I'm not looking, but who knows, maybe I'll meet the girl of my dreams tonight.