[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-four-of-a-kind":3,"chapter-four-of-a-kind-four-of-a-kind-chapter-28":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Four Of A Kind",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1529722,1985,"Chapter 28: [2.1] My Social Status Is A Rental","four-of-a-kind-chapter-28",28,"\u003Cp>[VOLUME 2 COVER]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Week 1: Monday - 7:35 AM]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Lexus smelled like money.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not in an obvious way. Not like perfume or cologne or anything you could identify. Just... expensive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The leather had that particular softness that came from being treated with chemicals whose names probably had more syllables than my entire vocabulary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The dashboard gleamed with a matte finish that absorbed light rather than reflected it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The steering wheel fit my hands like it had been custom molded for them, which it definitely had not been.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I sat in the driver’s seat with the engine off, staring at the Hartwell Academy parking lot through a windshield so clean I could count the individual leaves on the oak tree forty feet away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was 7:35 AM.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>School started at 8:00.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I had been sitting here for thirty-two minutes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is insane.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The car had arrived at our apartment building Sunday evening, exactly as Miranda’s email promised. A driver in a black suit had handed me the keys, explained the basic functions and then disappeared into an Uber before I could ask any follow-up questions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Iris had practically vibrated out of her skin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It’s so shiny,\" she’d whispered, running her finger along the hood like she was afraid it might bite her. \"Zay, it’s so shiny.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Don’t touch it. You’ll leave fingerprints.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I had spent Sunday night reading the owner’s manual cover to cover. Then I’d read it again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then I’d watched YouTube tutorials on hidden facts about the vehicle until two in the morning, because apparently my brain had decided that sleep was optional when anxiety was available.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The drive from Philadelphia had taken two hours instead of my usual three hours of train and subway transfers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I’d white-knuckled the steering wheel the entire way, certain that at any moment I would crash this vehicle worth more than every possession I’d ever owned combined into a guardrail and spend the rest of my life paying off the damages.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I hadn’t crashed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I’d found the Hartwell parking lot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And now I was sitting here, in a sea of Porsches and BMWs and Range Rovers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s not yours, I reminded myself for the hundredth time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I looked at the key fob in my hand. It was heavier than I expected. Solid metal, brushed finish, the Lexus logo etched into the surface.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At any moment, security is going to notice you. They’re going to see the scholarship kid sitting in a luxury car. They’re going to drag you out, call the cops, and you’ll spend the rest of senior year explaining to a judge that you weren’t stealing, you were just committing economic fraud on a smaller scale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The paranoid voice in my head was extremely convincing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rational voice pointed out that I had signed a contract, received legitimate documentation, and technically had every right to be here.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The paranoid voice responded that technically having rights had never stopped rich people from ruining poor people’s lives before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I closed my eyes. Breathed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Get it together, Angelo. You’ve handled worse than this. You’ve dealt with drunk customers at 2 AM who wanted to fight you over the ice-to-whiskey ratio. You’ve survived Ms. Vance’s pop quizzes on three hours of sleep. You’ve raised a teenager.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Okay, that last one was ongoing. But the point stood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I opened my eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The parking lot was starting to fill up. Students in designer clothes and hundred-dollar haircuts were climbing out of vehicles that ranged from \"casually expensive\" to \"my father bought a small country.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A girl in a white Porsche 911 was redoing her lipstick in the rearview mirror. A guy in a matte black Mercedes was blasting music so loud I could feel the bass through my closed windows.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Normal Monday at Hartwell Academy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Except now I was part of the scenery instead of the punchline.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A massive Range Rover pulled into the spot next to me with a throaty roar that suggested the engine had been specifically designed to intimidate pedestrians.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The door opened and Felix Beaumont emerged, wearing sunglasses despite the overcast sky and a blazer that probably cost more than my monthly rent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He spotted me through my window.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His jaw dropped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not metaphorically. His actual jaw physically descended, creating a gap between his lips that could have accommodated a small bird.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"BRO.\" He was already moving toward my car, his sunglasses pushed up onto his forehead. \"BRO. WHAT. WHOSE CAR DID YOU STEAL?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I sighed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Here we go.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I opened the door and stepped out, leaning against the Lexus.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Morning, Felix.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Morning my ass!\" He was circling the car like a shark that had spotted a particularly interesting piece of chum. His hand ran over the hood with the reverence of a man touching a religious artifact.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This is a Lexus ES. This is a 2024 Lexus ES. This is a forty-thousand-dollar car, minimum, probably more with all these options. Isaiah.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It’s not mine.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No shit!\" He’d reached the back now, inspecting the tail lights. \"No offense, but you literally told me last week that you were eating instant ramen for the third day in a row because the grocery store was too far to walk to after work.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That was... a slight exaggeration.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Was it though?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was not.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Felix completed his orbit and stopped in front of me, his expression a mixture of awe and suspicion. \"Seriously, man. What is this? Did you win the lottery? Did one of your rich old lady customers at the bar finally adopt you?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Felix’s eyes went wide \"Is this some kind of sugar mama situation? Because if it is, I’m not judging, but I am taking notes.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I pushed off from the car and shrugged. \"One of my regulars at the Velvet Room is out of the country for a few weeks. Asked me to look after it. Pays better than a parking garage.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Felix’s eyes went wide. \"Wait, really?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Really.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Someone just... gave you their car? To watch?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"They’re in Europe. Didn’t want to pay for long-term parking. I check the oil, drive it around the block a few times to keep the battery charged, make sure no one keys it. Easy money.\"\u003C\u002Fp>",1032,"2026-06-06T06:03:59.713Z",1,"novelbin.me","0f230525eba12fb1d56ce252d575780c7115ac4b3c04c5d379a65d2fd754a7ca","four-of-a-kind-chapter-29","four-of-a-kind-chapter-27",251,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Ffour-of-a-kind-cover.jpg"]