Echo

19. Going To Hurt

Momma doesn't have anyone woke up in the morning. I think she sleeps through it too.

I sit at the dining room table and stare at it.

Malax comes in and sits by me.

Then momma comes in. "It doesn't spawn food, kids. You have to tell the servants you want breakfast."

I stretch and yawn.

Momma nods. "Malax, it seems you're reverting to teenage sleeping hours as well. You might want to fix that before it gets out of hand."

He rubs his face.

Eriska roams in and lays her head on the table. "I took a half day off, Malax."

He nods. "Me too." He checks his phone. "I need to be in by 1 for the press stuff."

"What time is it?"

"10."

"Plenty of time. Let's take a nap."

"No. You are going to eat then get ready for work. Malax can take you. He's already here."

Eriska stands up. "I don't even work today. I'll be at the pool."

"Eat first."

"Ok." She plops down, and the servants bring breakfast.

We get showers and Malax has Eriska come too, in case there are any issues with the press. She can help.

He changes into a clean suit when we get there. He's so sexy. I have on a nice dress, but my stuff isn't sexy. I look at Kai and Eriska when the boys go into Malax's office. "We should be sexy too."

Kai laughs. "Too."

Eriska nods. "She was staring at him hard yesterday. I had to smack her. But he didn't have a shirt on. I understand. But still, it's not appropriate for business associates."

"We were swimming and I drew on him. I was looking at my drawings."

Kai rubs her face. "So many things are wrong with that statement."

Eriska cracks up laughing. "Let's design some clothes for the Cru N suppras, then we can go shopping so we can be sexy too."

Kai gets paper. "They're going to be in there forever anyway."

An hour later, daddy and Azo walk by us. "We're here to help with the press."

Kai nods. "I can't get off the floor. Push the yellow button and tell them you're here."

"This is why you have desks."

"It's not big enough. We need a big table, and he's in there."

"Let's go use Rye's. He's not in his office."

"Will he care?"

"Can you ask while you press the button?"

Daddy rolls his eyes. "Malax, me and Azo are here. The girls want to move to Rye's office and use his table."

Rye and Malax come out. We're drawing on the floor and have papers everywhere.

"A table would make this easier."

Kai lays down. "I can't get off the floor."

Rye tilts his head. "Yea, you can work in my office. Stay off my desk. You can use the table."

"Thank you." I wiggle around and lay down. "I'm stuck too."

Rye helps Kai up. "This is why you have desks."

"They're not big enough." Malax picks me up and puts me on my feet. I stretch and my back pops about 5 times. "Thank you. That's better."

"Take your stuff. Don't leave it everywhere."

"Ok."

So, we take over Rye's conference table. 2 hours later, the dressmaker and tailor show up with the clothes we designed for Cur N suppras. We put them on and go to Malax's office. The door is open and daddy's gone.

"Pretend we're the suppra's on Cru N. This is the outfit we made for the girls."

Bonnin shakes his head. "That skirt is way too short."

Eriska lifts it up. "It's bikini bottoms. Seeing as how some people like to swim."

I roll my eyes. "It has a purpose. It's swimsuit material. If those big things are chasing you, you can run into the ocean. They will not follow. After you get out, it will dry fast because of the material. The boys' outfit is made of the same thing."

Kai smiles. "Also, because they are suppra and not human. These can be worn all the time. You can't allow a human to wear a swimsuit for long amounts of time but the suppra's are fine with it. They are cheap to make. Dry fast. Wash quickly. For the most part, the fabric is stain resistant. Dry it on a line and the next suppra who needs an outfit grabs it."

Malax nods. "And the design? Where did that come from?"

"She said you wouldn't like girls roaming around in what looks like underwear. So, we put a little skirt over it."

I nod. "And we know Rye doesn't like boobs, so we did a little tight t-shirt instead of a bikini top. We can't wear your shirts. They're too big for our frames. I had to deal with that last night. The red with white and black stripes is the design. It can be changed. Phade is written across the back of the shirt." I turn and move my hair so they can see it. "Then I put Kinnik on the front patch of this 1. Because it's mine and I wanted my name on it."

Eriska nods. "We wouldn't put people's names on them for real. It doesn't matter if suppra's wear other suppra's clothes. They don't even sweat."

"Why does it say Phade?" Boonin is writing something.

"The suppra's and the clothes are property of Phade Enterprise. It made sense in my head. But I guess it isn't necessary. Probably cheaper to make them without the patches and names too."

Rye rubs his hair back. "I DO LIKE BOOBS. Just not 17-year-old boobs in the office."

"Oh, so if my boobs were 18, they would be fine in the office?"

I laugh so damn hard. I nearly fall over. "We're never talking about me again."

"Oh please. You were showering with him."

Malax jumps up. "That's enough. We're going forward with this... We need to refocus. Leave the design here. And the dressmaker and tailor information. We're going to alter it. It doesn't need to say anything. We need cheap stuff they can throw on as needed. Or as it gets ruined."

Rye is staring at Malax with an eyebrow up. Then he snaps out of it. "Girls, we're going to refocus now. Good ideas for clothes. We'll get it sorted out and put in the order. Why don't you..."

I throw the folder on the table. "We're going shopping. I already have 2 stores shut down and waiting for me to show up. I need my money out of your car, Malax. The helicopter should be landing in a minute."

Kai smiles. "I'm staying to answer the phone. My ass misses my chair."

Rye rubs his face. "I don't think you should wear something that says Phade across it while you shop. That will make the news."

"Good thinking." Eriska grabs me. "Let's change while they find our money."

We get back in our business clothes and I dump my purse I brought today on the table. "I got $6,500."

"3,200."

I check the black purse. "$3,500."

She smiles. "$13,200. That's enough to shop with."

We shove it into my black purse.

"No." Malax rubs his hair. "You 2 are not walking around with 13k in cash." He hands me his credit card.

I stare at it and shake.

Eriska looks at it. "Wow."

"Ax, I'm not sure if you should have done that."

Rye nods. "That's going to hurt."

Eriska grabs my arm and pulls. "LET'S GO." It breaks my trance, and we run to the helicopter.

We go to 4 stores. We buy so many sexy dresses and shoes. The first store was $24,000, but the card went through. I don't know what the rest of the stores cost.

We leave everything in the helicopter and go to Malax's office.

He stares at me when we walk in. I have on a short tight dress with tall sparkly silver heels. It's black with silver trim. It has trim around the boobs and waist. It's so tight. I love it. It's even low cut in the front.

I spin in a circle and he smiles. "You look amazing."

"Thank you. I brought your card back. Thank you for letting us use it. I'll bring the money tomorrow."

"Don't worry about it. You didn't spend too much."

Eriska comes in with a tight red dress on. "How much did we spend? We lost count."

"84k, that we know about. Malax kept getting alerted on his phone."

He puts his card away. "They alert me if the charge is over 15k. It helps prevent fraud. I knew you were using it. It's alright. Let's get out of here for the day."

Malax takes us home because he took us to work. We sit down and daddy comes in fuming. "Who gave you permission to use my credit card?"

"We used Malax's credit card. Not yours."

Daddy freezes and stares at Malax. "Was that a personal card or a business card?"

"Personal."

"UGH. THESE KIDS NEVER LEARN, JAYDA."

Momma nods. "They'll figure it out."

"Figure out what, momma?"

"Check the news, baby."

I watch Malax check his phone. "I look good in this dress."

"Read the headline, baby."

"Who cares what the headline says, look how good I look." I take his phone and show momma.

Daddy rolls his eyes and sits down. "I don't want to know. He can deal with it."

"You do look good. Damn. I wonder if they got any of me." Eriska flips through her phone.

Malax nods. "I don't care about rumors. There will be different rumors next week."

I stretch. "So true. No point in even reading them."

Momma smiles. "They figured it out quickly."

Daddy nods. "A lot quicker than we did."

I shrug my shoulders. "I doubt that. But I've been dealing with rumors my whole life. Unless it's actually going to impact my future, I learned not to care what it is. I used to read them and get so upset."

Malax nods. "It's better to ignore them. Can't let them ruin your life. I worried about it a lot when Phade first took off. Not so much anymore. People can believe whatever they want. Doesn't hurt me any."

"At least I look good in the pictures."

He smiles. "You look beautiful."

An hour later, the 2 of us stand on Cru N.

"Are we the only ones here?"

"Yea. The people are gone."

"This is weird. An entire planet with only us on it. Not much we can do."

He smiles. Then he takes my hand and spins me.

"Dancing?"

"I don't know what else to do either. Might as well have a dance."

I laugh and we dance. There's no music. Just us.

Then we walk. I find a new stick. He gets some kind of fruit out of a tree. Then momma yells at us to get our asses back.