mary jane | stuart twombly ✓

chapter 19

Rocky Mountain Pizza was a small brick building with its title written on the side in cool looking graffiti. It looked family friend — a warm and inviting place — so the team wasted no time in heading inside where they met with the owner, Sal, and his son.

"...contextual, targeting, technology can automatically match, um, your ads to webpages that, uh, are most relevant to your business", Neha was slowly stammering out, her laptop in her arms. For a girl who was usually so confident, this presentation was surely kicking her ass, her nerves were off the charts. "Yo-Yo?", she finally asked, desperately wanting to stop talking.

Yo-Yo smiled. "Review ad performance to see impressions, click, cost, and conversion data." The two men just blankly stared at him, probably wondering what had happened to his right eyebrow. That or they just weren't interested.

Mary Jane sighed. This is why she wanted her and Lyle to do this. Lyle because he knew a lot and her because she never really had a problem with things like this. She was a go-getter and a people person, thanks to her mother for always pushing her way too hard. The redhead stepped forward, trying to look as professional as she could. She had put back on her button down and her hair was once again held back by her black headband. "What my friends are trying to say is that, once you start advertising with us, your business will be booming! You'll be connected to your customers, they'll be able to find you and leave reviews easier and bring in new customers. People are always hungry, right? Also, it'll be easier to check out things that you might need to improve on and what you can do to draw more people in while also keeping track of how much you've made among other things."

The man still wasn't buying it, much to Mary Jane's dismay. Even with her cheerful attitude, it all just sounded like a waste of time to poor Sal, who simply wanted his business to stay exactly as it was. "Look, you seem like good kids, and I'm glad you stopped by, but we're just a family run business — we don't do the internet." Their faces all immediately fell. Bummer. "Frankie'll get you a slice on the way out."

The team felt defeated. That was it. If Billy didn't show, it was all over.

They stood outside the building, pizza slices in hand, looking defeated. Without Nick and Billy there, they felt lost on what they could. There was no way they could make this sale — not on their own. They needed their charismatic guys. Mary Jane lifted up the napkin that was protecting her pizza, bringing the greasy food up to her lips and taking a bite. Her eyes lit up the way they always did when she tasted food from a new place and liked it. "This is actually really good."

Before anything else could be said, Graham and his team rose by on their bikes, stopping in front of them. Mary Jane flinched at the way the tires squealed against the concrete. She and Graham hadn't spoken much after she punched him in the nose, aside from a few arguments over text.

"Lovely", Stuart sighed, rolling his eyes.

"This guy", Neha mumbled.

"Not you again", Mary Jane sighed, just loudly enough for Graham to hear.

"Saw you checked in here at four square and thought we'd stop by", Graham smirked.

"That's really creepy!", Stuart shouted back, making Mary Jane snort. It was really creepy, borderline stalkerish. "Is that all?" It was obvious that Stuart had gotten pissed off, so Mary Jane rested a manicured hand on his arm.

"It is all, actually. We just closed a deal at the coffee shop down the street, your chances of beating us just went from zero to piss all!" Stuart tensed up again, so Mary Jane gave his arm a gentle squeeze. He glanced at her with a small smile, but his body remained tense. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we've got to get to the final meeting to these jobs of which we're so profoundly deserving."

"You know what else you're so profoundly deserving of?", Mary Jane asked, mimicking Graham's accent on the words 'prof deserving.' "My foot up your ass! You want another punch to the nose, Hawtrey? Cause I got two hands!" MJ handed her pizza to Yo-Yo and was about to go full on attack mode on Graham, but Stewart grabbed one of her wrists with his free hand.

"Alright, Annie, cool it." MJ shot him a dirty look, but sighed.

"Should've let me get him, Dark and Stormy."

"He's not worth it."

"Zach, eyes off the pizza, mate. God made you lactose intolerant for a reason, yeah?" The chubby boy at the end had been smiling up until that point, his happiness slowly fizzling out. Team Lyle looked at each other with shocked faces. They couldn't believe that Graham would say such a thing, and they especially couldn't believe that Zach would just sit there and take it. Mary Jane was especially surprised. Had Graham gotten worse or had she just not realized he was this bad before? Did he get off to making other people feel like shit or something? "You're so fat. So fat. Let's go, on me." He left afterwards, the others trailing after him. Zach looked back at Team Lyle, as if he were saying 'help me.'

"Why did I ever date that loser?", Mary Jane asked in disgust. The team shared a short laugh, but that was it. The reminder of their failure quickly came rushing back.

"I don't know", Neha shrugged. "He's such a douchebag."

They sat in silence for a few minutes before a yellow taxi arrived and out stepped Billy and Nick. "Our heroes have arrived!", Mary Jane shouted in relief.

"Welcome back, Billy Boy!", Lyle called to Billy as he and the interns rushed over to join the two men.

"Good to be with you." Billy's tone was more serious than it ever was before. He meant business.

"What happened, how'd it go?", Nick asked as they headed back towards the small building.

"The fish ain't bitin, chief", Mary Jane informed.

"Yeah, not well", Yo-Yo added.

"You know who else it didn't go well for?", Billy asked.

"Lay it on us, Big Daddy", Stuart said, looking up at Billy. Mary Jane couldn't help but to giggle.

"That's right, that steel town girl, Alice. When she finally got her shot in front of all those stuffed shirts, she took a tumble and fell." He paused, looking around at all of them. "You wanna hear something totally nuts? She picked herself up, she tightened her little ass, and she pumped her legs, and she danced herself right back into their hearts and into a slot at that dance school."

"And that's what we're gonna do", Nick said, determined. "Tighten your asses, let's go!" He drew a line on Yo-Yo's face, an attempt to make it look like he had a second eyebrow.

"Let's get her done, boys and girls", Neha said, falling into step next to Mary Jane as they headed back inside the building.

Time had begun running out, but the group was hopeful. Another one of Billy's really stupid pep talks had worked in rallying them together. Together, they could accomplish anything. And accomplish they did. Billy got the deal, and, when they realized they would be late anyway, the team planned out one hell of an entrance.

February 26, 2019
Last chapter and
the epilogue coming
up! 😔