Be My Bad Boy

“Ha, check this out. We've got 100 followers on the site already. Bonus. Do we need a Twitter? We need Twitter, right? And Facebook. A band is nothing without social media these days. Hey, it's okay me doing this? I mean, I don't wanna step on your toes or anything."
"No, it's okay really." Like I wouldn't want her doing all this work for free.
"There's another thing. I really feel like I'm being pushy now and.."
I looked encouragingly. I'd not known Angie for long but already it got me worried when she was nervous about broaching a subject. This girl had the motormouth to end all motormouths.
"… can I make a video clip? Please say I can? I need a project for my final assessment and if I had to pick any project at all this would be my uttermost dream project. In fact, I do dream about it all the time. I can direct it and I've a few friends who can film and do lighting and all that and I will do the most top notch professional job of editing it all together. Please say yes. Please say I can do it. Please, please."
She tried to look at me with puppy dog eyes, her chin rest on hands covered in some hot pink and black glove things. I'm not sure how puppy-like they were though. I calculated how that would affect my plans. Good thing? Bad thing?

"We could get them to dress up. Or maybe not. Andy would hate it. He'd probably want to sack you as manager."
"We'll do it."
She squealed.

“I also have some notes about where the band should play. I'm an idiot. Of course, you'd know all this stuff already but I really, really think they should be playing bigger venues. You saw how crowded the bar was last night and they weren't even headlining. In fact, half the crowd left before the main band. So I've made a few suggestions here. Maybe you've tried to book them already. I didn't call the venues or anything, honest."
I folded the notes and put them in my bag. They might come in handy.
"By the way, I need to ask you something. Where do…" I couldn't actually say poor people, could I? I mean people get a bit upset about that kind of thing. What was the polite way of saying it? "Where do you buy moisturiser when you don't have much money? Is there something that's good but not too expensive?"

She gave me a strange look.
"You don't exactly look poor, you know."
"Yeah, well all my money is tied up at the moment. I don't have a lot of cash to spend."
"Ah, shit. See, it's going to take about $1000 to make the video. We can do it cheap but we need to hire lights and a space. If we want it to look good, I reckon a grand is the absolute minimum."
"That might be difficult." I hated to say it. I'd never once in my life had to tell anyone I'd not been able to do something because I couldn't afford it.
We both sighed.

She rummaged around in her handbag – seriously that bag was the hugest thing I'd ever seen – and handed me a fistful of sachets. “Here, take these. I get them free."
I took them. That was enough moisturiser to last me a few weeks. Surely everything would be back to normal by then anyway. I'd never heard of the brand though. I hoped it wouldn't make me break out in hives.

"Thanks. Where do you get this stuff?”
“Well, it's my job. Hey, wait, do you want to earn some easy money?"
I raised my eyebrow. I might be down on my luck but I wasn't that down on my luck. Easy money usually meant one thing and I wasn't desperate enough for that.
"Don't worry, it's nothing dodgy. Easy as. I'm a promo girl. You know, those chicks you see at the train stations handing out free samples. It pays all right money and they are always looking for people. So long as you are okay-looking and not a complete social retard. It's just a couple of hours in the morning then again at night when everyone is knocking off work. You'll be a shoe-in."
I actually didn't know anything about people handing out free samples at the station. I'd never even been to the train station.
"I can't do that!"

"Why not? You said your money is tied up. Hey, is someone holding it for ransom?" She exploded into giggles at that, slapping the table. I tried to grin but she wasn't far wrong.
"And you get to keep heaps of samples, sometimes even chocolate or that moisturiser. Of course, sometimes it's shit stuff like discount coupons or crappy health food bars. Still, I'll just call Sammy and let him know to expect you."
"Wow, you're like my fairy godmother or something."
"Yeah, or something more like it. And anyway, the guys should reimburse you for the video production costs, right. I mean, it's for them. A couple of good gigs would just about cover the cost.”
I looked at the menu while she talked on the phone. Surely, if I was going to work, I could justify buying something to eat.
She covered the phone. "You don't mind dressing up as a tree frog, do you?”

Notes