Focus.
And as agonizingly difficult as it was, Matty read his books and thought of nothing else for the rest of the night.
Chapter 33
Coop
Coop finished ringingup what he had hoped was his last customer of the night, a mother and her son who got accepted for next year. Coop couldn’t believe that he was coming up on the last weeks of his first year of college. He thought about how much he had changed over his past year from the guy he was in high school. How much would this kid change? Who would he be?
“You’re gonna love it here,” Coop said to the kid. His mother beamed with a proud smile.
Coop’s sweet moment was interrupted by the next customer in line.
“Hi, Coop. Nice polo.” Kelvin stepped forward and put a Browerton T-shirt on the register.
“What do you want? Beside the obvious.” Coop scanned the T-shirt. He didn’t want to look at that punchable face.
“I never properly thanked you for all your hard work.”
Coop grit his teeth. “It was you spilling the beans that really put your precious plan over the top.”
Kelvin feigned modesty. “I had to take extraordinary measures to ensure victory.”
“What do you mean extraordinary measures?” Coop thought about what Matty told him about sabotage. “Did you do anything to Matty’s program?”
“No, I did not,” Kelvin said blankly. “You were my extraordinary measure, Coop.”
“I’m not your anything.”
Coop concentrated on going through the whole ring-up process that Lauren taught him.
“You really liked him?” Kelvin asked. “I thought you felt bad, but I didn’t realize you started to like the guy. Trust me, you only saw one side of Matty. You would not want to date him.”
Coop jammed his T-shirt into a plastic bag. He didn’t even bother folding it. He shoved it against Kelvin’s chest. “You listen to me. You don’t mention his name again, okay? Not one more time because in fifteen minutes, my shift is up and the first thing I will do is find you and punch you in your fucking punchable face.”
Kelvin took a step back. “Okay, then.” He handed Coop a hundred dollar bill. “Keep the change. As an added thank you.”
“Are you happy?” Coop asked him. Kelvin soon realized it wasn’t rhetorical.
“Yeah. I just got a slot in one of the foremost robotics labs in the country.”
Coop shook his head. “No. You’re not.”
“Enlighten me then.”
“You’re not happy, Kelvin, because you’ll never be good enough. All you do is pay to get your way. You don’t have any real talent.” Coop made change for Kelvin’s hundred dollar bill. He pulled out crisp bills and dipped his fingers into the change compartments. “That’s why you hate Matty so much. He has the right stuff. He’s going to soar. Maybe not in this special slot, but he’ll find another. He’s smart like that. He doesn’t need to cheat to get ahead. Those are the men that history remembers. Not brats like you.”
“And not little salespeople like you, either.” He grabbed his change from Coop.
“I feel bad for you Kelvin. A little bit. All you’re trying to do is impress your parents, but you never will. They may be happy you got this research slot, but you’ll know it’s because you cheated.”
Kelvin looked down, and for a second, he reminded Coop of himself in his String Cheese days.
“You’ll keep cheating and paying your way forward, but you’ll know what a fraud you are. You’re just pretending to be somebody else, someone that you can never be. And you have to live with that.” Coop slipped his receipt in the bag. “My parents are proud of me for taking this little salesperson job. My family might not have much, but we have something you’ll never have—integrity. And I’m proud of me, too. Everyday, I get to be exactly who I want to be.” Coop circled something at the bottom of his receipt. “If you take this survey at the bottom about your experience today, you’ll be entered to win a ten dollar gift card.”
Kelvin slipped the receipt into his bag. Coop smiled like the best employee in the world as Kelvin slinked out.
* * *
