Dirty Sex by Ashley Bartlett

looked at me like I was stupid. “Get this. The
    lawyer is gone. My private detective couldn’t find him.”
    “So call the cops,” I said.
    “What good would it do?” Reese asked.
    “Um, dude did something illegal. So you call the cops on his ass.”
    It seemed like a logical move to me.
    “They can’t bring the money back.”
    I was missing something here. Or Reese was hiding something.
    “Uh, I think Coop’s right. We need to call the cops,” Ryan said.
    “And what? They’ll find what I found. The money is gone. So
    is Christopher. So is the lawyer. They’ll just dig into the paper trail.”
    Reese stared hard at Ryan. He shrugged.
    “Good call.” Ryan.
    “Yeah.” Reese.
    “Cops suck.” Ryan.
    Something had just happened. That look. I decided to roll with it.
    For now.
    “So what are you going to do?” I asked.
    “Not a damn clue. Mooch until he kicks us out.”
    “You guys are fucked.”
    “Thanks, asshole.” They both glared.
    “Okay, no, maybe not.” I figured it couldn’t hurt to throw out
    some dumb ideas. “Your credit cards are paid by his account, right?”
    They nodded.
    “So what?” Ryan didn’t follow.
    “So buy your house in Hawaii, he’ll have to pay it off. Buy cars in
    your names and sell them off later. Run your credit cards up to the limit
    until he stops paying them off. He’ll probably catch on pretty quick, but
    until he does buy everything you can.”
    • 82 •

    Dirty Sex
    “It’s better than nothing.” Reese was resigned. “I wonder if we can
    use our credit cards for mutual funds.”
    “Fuck, Reese. You’re so boring.” It was actually a good idea.
    “Anyway, you can probably get cash advances.”
    “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you’re a genius.”
    “Why? You guys would have thought about cash advances.”
    “No, the whole buy everything thing,” Reese said.
    “You guys are taking this really well.” They shrugged. Maybe
    they were in shock. “When Christopher gets back into town again you
    should probably confront him.” I knew they weren’t going to like that
    idea.
    “I guess,” Ryan told his mac and cheese.
    “If he gets back in town, that is. The dude is probably long gone.”
    If I stole a bunch of money, I would take the fuck off.
    “We’ll deal with that when we need to.” Reese was all business.
    “In the meantime, let’s spend some money.” She grinned.
    “So are you guys going to throw me a kick ass party for my
    birthday?”
    “Fuck, yeah.” Ryan and I slapped our palms together.
    Whatever had just happened was weird. But Ryan would fill me in
    later. I was sure of it.
    • 83 •

    • 84 •

    Dirty Sex

ChApter eight
    The newest slasher flick was playing at midnight so we were
    totally going. There’s nothing better than thirty-year-olds
    playing teenagers bleeding all over the screen.
    The theater was insane. Not in a good way. After graduation, you
    really don’t want to see most of the people you went to high school
    with, but it was unavoidable at the theaters in the middle of summer.
    Midnight releases of big movies increased the chances. By the time
    I got to the ticket window, I’d seen at least twenty people from my
    graduating class, three girls gave me their new numbers, and two guys
    gave me the evil eye. It wasn’t my fault about the guys. Their girlfriends
    had wanted me and were hot. What was I supposed to do? Anyway, that
    was for days ago.
    “Coop, did you see Melanie Hendricks?” Derek asked as Ryan
    and I approached.
    “Who?” I tried to remember a Melanie.
    “You know.” Carson smacked my arm. “Hendricks. We went to
    middle school with her. And she had government with us senior year.”
    This was why I went to theaters in Sacramento.
    “No idea. Should I remember her?”
    “Sweetness,” Austin said. “You made out with her at homecoming
    when we were juniors. Remember?” he said like there was a reason for
    me to remember.
    “Did I go to homecoming?” Dances