The Eccedentesiast

Chapter Forty-three

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Chapter Forty-three
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Right when Emma walked into the apartment, she saw her friends all lined up in front of her. Each one had their hands interlocked in front of them and their eyes trained on hers.

"Are we joining a cult now? I thought we'd be older when the time came." She closed the door behind her and dropped her keys on the small table by the entrance.

She stopped in the middle of taking her coat off. "Am-Am I the sacrifice?"

Daniel rolled his eyes with a little smile. "Of course, we're joining a cult. And of course, when we're older. So, we have something to ask you for now."

Emma's brows frowned. "Huh?"

Brian pushed Daniel out of the way and stepped toward her. "I'm sorry for acting so weird." He sighed. "They just explained it to me and . . . well, it's not a bad idea."

"What isn't?" she asked, totally confused.

"I ran into this girl today." Daniel pulled out the business card. "It's a modeling agency or some guy."

She took the card from his hands. "You want to be a model?" she guessed.

Connor nodded no. "We need you to be a model."

She looked at them all. They looked serious and it scared her.

"You've got to be kidding me." She put down the card on the breakfast bar and leaned her back against it. They followed after her and stood in front of her again.

"We called." Gabriel cleared his throat. "They're looking for a girl to replace the one they already fired."

"Replace her in what?" She tilted her head slightly.

Daniel sighed, a sorry look on his face. "Underwear commercial."

"Fuck. Me." She couldn't help but laugh. "Me? In underwear?"

Daniel rolled his eyes. "No, pendeja. Me in a tanga." He looked at her like the stupidest person on earth.

She glared at him. "Don't call me that."

Gabriel whistled lightly. "Your daddy does that already?" he whispered.

Emma ignored him and turned back to Daniel. "I'm not doing this." She pointed at the business card.

"C'mon. We need money. We have rent to pay and gas tanks to fill up—to the top, buddy. Imagine that."

Emma laughed. "We have parents with money. Can't we just ask them to loan us some or something?" She raked her hand through her hair. "I'm not wearing underwear in front of a camera. I'm not going on TV."

Connor whined and threw his head back. "But we can finally afford spoons!"

"I can't believe it." She groaned and closed her eyes. "It's so hard. Why did we ever think we'd survive on our own?"

Daniel stepped close to her and tilted her head up to look at him. "You're not even in the whole video. You'll be in the background as the other girls play with each other or whatever."

Emma brushed him off. "They can't play with each other on TV."

Daniel shrugged. "I've seen movies."

They all stared at her until she gave in. "Fine."

𖨆

"Can I ask you something?" Emiliano stared down at Emma's body.