Candy Store, Nate Jacobs & Maddy Perez

i. Pilot - dead girl walking

Ashtray was smitten with Vera. Me, not so much. He was our dealer.

"I can't stay long," she said, "Is Fez here?"

"Yup, he has a register of kids who asked for prescriptions this week."

"Shit. I'm not gonna be able to get to it today."

"Beautiful," Nate grabbed her arm. "I thought I told you to stay in the car." He helped Vera climb into the back of the truck while McKay occupied the passenger's seat.

In truth, I didn't have much of an issue with Nate until all the bullshit with Jules. I mean, I never liked him, and once, during freshman formal, he tried to finger me on the dance floor without my permission. Plus, Veronica swore he only ever put his hands on her to sober her up. But it's America. And if they were throwing an end-of-summer party...

"Yo, I'd do it for Rue!" Nate shouted obnoxiously, prompting Veronica to make eye contact with me.

And if she was also there, of course I'd f*cking go.

=

"Yo. The whole world's gonna be talking about how McKay threw the grimiest f*cking banger of the summer."

"I don't know, bro. You know my mom is real OCD. She notices the smallest shit: a little scratch on the wall, the dishes are out of order."

"Fine. We'll just take a picture of everything, and we'll put it back the way we found it. What the f*ck is this, Mission Impossible?"

Veronica scoffed, "clearly, you've never had a black mama."

Nate laughed, "At least my mom's around."

Mckay rolled his eyes. "Come on, man. don't do her like that."

"I was joking." Nate said, "Would you stop worrying about your mom, and start worrying about all the f*cking pussy that we're gonna smash tonight, bro."

"No, no, no, no, no. Wait. Isn't Maddy coming tonight?"

"I don't know. I don't give a f*ck. She broke up with me."

Maddy had broken up with Nate one week before I got out of rehab when he sped up and made Veronica hit her head on the dashboard "as a joke."

"The fuck, Nate?"

"She can take a fucking joke. Right, beautiful?"

"He's just playing around."

"God, you're always fucking gaslighting her." Maddy groaned, "You know what? Take me fucking home!" Maddy felt like Nate used Veronica to prove he wasn't just some misogynistic rich white boy from the suburbs, which rubbed her the wrong way. She wanted Veronica to wake up and see that she was, in fact, Nate's token black girl.

"Maddy, come on."

"We're fucking over, Nate!" Maddy slammed his door. "Call me when you start treating Veronica like a fucking person!"

Maddy knew exactly what she was talking about. It was always Nate forcing Veronica to do things. It was always Veronica he had to get ready for the party, as if she was a fucking child.

"Fuck her."

"See, no, bro. 'Cause she's crazy. I don't want her to come and try to burn my house down."

"Burn your - Yeah. Shut the fuck up." Nate saw a blonde girl riding down the street. "Yo. This is exactly what I'm talking about. Right here. I'm gonna tell you something..."

"Nate, don't do anything stupid. Come on." Mckay prompted.

"Hey, yo, what up, B? Yo, how 'bout you come and ride on this dick?"