Biker’s Collar: Property of Scrap (Rebel Barbarians MC #6)

Chapter 2 – Kamari Roberts

Two

Kamari Roberts

Now

I have to quit my job.

Go to Cornell, they said. Your life will be easy once you go to an Ivy League school. Yeah, that was a lie. After graduating with $218,272 in student loan debt for my fancy degree, I got a job at a prestigious consulting firm where I currently work eighty hours a week, my boss refers to me as Jamal (a boy’s name) despite having interacted with me on several occasions, and I only make $5,000 after taxes.

That sounds like good money, right? Except out of that $5,000, I spend $2,279 on my student loan and $1,700 a month on the four bedroom apartment I share with a couple of my coworkers, who are other recent college graduates. Our place at least has a great view and even if it’s hard living with strangers, we get along just fine.

We pay our rent to our “house mom”, Maggie Plyman, who keeps our chore chart organized, the compost heap empty, and the kitchen sink smelling like Mrs. Meyer’s lemon soap.

The apartment is expensive, but it’s in the city, and it’s easier to commute to work on foot than bother with the traffic around here. I don’t see the point in having a car in Boston. If I need one in an emergency, there’s always Tavarius, who would be happy to drive down from Shirley, even if he would act like it’s the biggest deal in the world. He doesn’t box anymore, so he left the high rents for the suburbs.

The only reason I’d need a car would be to get to parts of the city I have no business being in anymore.

This city is expensive and once I get my big expenses out of the way, and put a tiny amount of savings, I have nothing left. Tavarius thinks I should move to a cheaper neighborhood, but if I give up more of my time to commuting, I’ll lose more of myself than I already have.

I have savings to last two months, which should be plenty of time to find another job and get on my feet. It’s hard to explain what my job is exactly, but I can ask Maggie for help with the resume stuff. She’s good with that and she would totally understand how soul-crushing these consulting jobs can get.

I hear Holly coming up the stairs to the apartment door. I can tell it’s Holly from the heavy footsteps and because she always leaves in the morning to go for a run. The apartment door creaks open and Holly carefully shuts it. She’s the only one who shuts the door carefully, so it’s definitely her.

I can hear her panting in the kitchen as I round the corner. She’s dressed in a peach-colored skin-tight work out set and her ponytail swishes as she slams an envelope on the table.

“Have you seen Maggie this morning?” she says. “Look at this.”

“Past due.” I read the envelope out loud. “What’s that about?”

“Doesn’t have a name on it, just our unit number. There’s another one.”

She moves the envelope to reveal another equally scary looking envelope with bright orange text and an “open immediately” sticker across the front.

“I’ve never seen one of these in the mail box before,” I say to her. “I’ll check Maggie’s room to see if she’s up.”

“Get Seth up, too,” she calls to me as I head towards Maggie’s room. Seth’s room is the first door down the hall so I go to him first. I rap gently on his door. I can hear Seth grunting his way through his morning push ups on the other side of the door.

“Seth, get up. We’ve got a nastygram.” The grunting stops, and a couple seconds later he opens the door.

“What?” Seth asks.

“Hate mail. Go out to the kitchen. Holly found something weird in the mailbox. I’m waking Maggie up.”

“I do not want to see Holly right now,” Seth groans. “I’ll come with you to get Maggie.”

What happened with him and Holly? I don’t bother asking because we have an important task ahead. I let Seth towel off the gross sweat in his hair and all over his upper body. He’s in really good shape and I don’t know how he stays motivated to maintain his physique like this. Since I turned eighteen, all I’ve done is put on weight.

Seth leads the way to Maggie’s door and knocks. It’s quiet on the other side.

“She’s normally awake right now,” Seth says before knocking again and calling Maggie’s name out loud. There’s still no response from the other side of the door.

“Did she go for a run or something?” I suggest, even if it’s a ridiculous suggestion. Seth rolls his eyes dramatically and makes a tutting noise, confirming the suggestion is ridiculous. Maggie prefers hanging out at home, cooking and crafting, to anything athletic. Holly and Seth are the house athletes.

“Guys!” Holly yells. “Guys, where are you?!”

“That’s it,” Seth says, holding Maggie’s door handle. “I’m opening the door.”

He pushes the door open and there’s nothing inside Maggie’s bedroom.

“What the fuck,” Seth says out loud. The room seems to spin. There are no sheets. No shoes. There isn’t a laptop on the desk. Her prayer flags and Himalayan salt lamp are gone. The deck of tarot cards we used to predict the future of my love life are nowhere to be found. There’s no sign that Maggie Plyman ever lived in this room.

Seth flicks the light on as if that will make Maggie’s stuff reappear.

“Holy fuck,” he says. “Holly’s gonna lose her fucking mind.”

We walk quickly back to the kitchen. Holly’s pale as she grips an opened envelope in one hand and a pink sheet of paper in the other.

“She’s gone,” Seth says, avoiding eye contact with Holly as he strides across the room and grabs the paper out of her hands. He scans it and then swears loudly. Several times.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t even want to tell you,” Holly says. “This is bad, Seth.”

“Yes, Holly. It’s very fucking bad. Where’s the other envelope? That bitch…”

He hands me the sheet of paper so I can see for myself. My throat knots and it feels like there’s a heavy stone sinking to the bottom of my stomach. No. This isn’t possible.

The letter demands that we pay $33,600 in rent, approximately 6 months of back pay and we face immediate eviction. We each paid depending on the size of our rooms, except Maggie who paid $500 because she took on the role of property manager. Holly shreds open the other bills. My palms instantly glisten with sweat as I set the paper down on the kitchen counter.

“I don’t understand,” I whisper, although of course I understand. I just can’t fucking believe this is happening.

“That bitch pocketed our rent money and took off,” Seth says. “I’m calling my dad. My uncle’s a small town lawyer out in Deerfield, but he has connections in the city. She’s not going to get away with this.”

Holly lets out a panicked yelp as she reads through the contents of the other envelopes. I take each piece of paper once she’s done with it. Three months of unpaid electricity bills. Two quarters of unpaid water bills. A threatened fine over trash disposal.

“We have 24 hours to come up with the money and get out of here.”

“That’s easy,” Seth says pompously. “We split it three ways. I’ll call my dad to get my share. Holly, Kamari, you can handle this, right?”

“Yeah,” Holly says. “I’ll get my half from my savings and call my mom to see if she’ll unlock the summer home in Newport. I’ll stay there until I can find a new place.”

My roommates both have rich parents helping them out. I don’t have that. If I called Tavarius and asked him for over $50, he would laugh and hang up the phone. I have a savings account, but this plus everything in my checking account would leave me with $34 to get through the rest of the month.

It’s like someone hit me in the chest. I answer in a strangely numb fury.

“Yeah. I got this.”

“We need to pack our things and get our lawyers,” Seth says firmly, as if everyone just has lawyers on retainer.

“Should we go to the police?” Holly says. “I mean, where is she? I’m calling my therapist and then I’m crafting a strongly worded text message.”

“We don’t have time for that, Holly,” Seth says. “We need to get our shit, get out of here, and then we can handle that stuff. If these people find us in here… they could repossess our stuff or something. We have to move.”

I don’t bother texting Tavarius until I have everything I can fit in three suitcases packed. I have to leave almost everything else behind. Seth promises to contact the rental agency and let them know to expect our payments via eCheck online. I’ll have to drag my things to Tavarius’ house and he won’t want me there for long. Not just him. Caitlin won’t want me there either. My brother’s girlfriend hates my guts.

Sucking up to her will be my worst nightmare come to life.