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Before I’d even asked, she’d thrust a hand into her large tote bag.
“Like this.” She held out a blue folder, an oddly familiar smirk toying with the tips of her mouth. She wiggled it tauntingly when I didn’t immediately reach for it. “Come on. You asked.”
I snatched it out of her outstretched hand and threw it open on the table.
Time stopped.
“What—uh… what’s this?” I asked stupidly. Even though the answer was written right there, clear as day.
Five separate university application forms, all of which were already filled out. With my information.
“You just have to sign ‘em,” Alba said, evidently pleased with this small victory of hers. “I couldn’t do that part for you. Because of the law.”
“I… can’t,” I stammered as the rush of nerves hit my bloodstream. My mind was reeling, trying to climb out of the thick fog it’d been stuck in for the last ten days.Come up with an excuse. Any excuse!“Just sending these in would cost like six hundred and twenty-five dollars. Even if I had a job right now, I wouldn’t spend that much money just to prove a point.”
Jamie poured a bunch of food onto my plate, smiling to herself.
“Interesting that you know the current going rate for university applications in the country,” Alba mused. “Almost like you’ve checked them recently. Or even regularly. Like maybe that dream isn’t quite as dead as you want everyone to believe.”
I wasthisclose to developing an ulcer. But before I could try to convince her that it was just a lucky guess, she reached into her bag again.
“Five checks. One for each school. Any other excuses?”
Panic sprouted in the pit of my stomach. “I’m not taking six hundred dollars from you just to send in a bunch of joke applications to universities that are going to take one look at my record and reject them.”
She blinked slowly, waiting for a beat before she said, “Except for the fact that your record wasn’t the full reason your offers and scholarships were revoked. Josh’s dad pulled a bunch of strings to make it happen, and you know that because he told you so. Right before he made you believe you’d never have a shot at pursuing a post-secondary education again, as payback for ‘what you did to his son.’” Her fingers bent in the air when she said that last part, anger ticking in her cheek.
My jaw hit the floor. “How do youknow that?”
She swallowed thickly, her gaze softening. “Why didn’t you tell me that he threatened you? I could have tried to help.”
My forehead hurt from the strain of my frown. “Seriously. How did you find out? And when?”
“Yesterday.” She very pointedly did not answer my first question.
“What an asshole,” Jamie said midchew. “Can you imagine being a grown-ass man and threatening an eighteen-year-old girl like that? Fucking loser.”
Alba nodded. “Point is, Ria, if you really, truly, in your deepest of hearts don’t want to go, then that’s okay. But if there’s even a part of you that’s held on to the dream… you should send in those applications. Trust me.”
“Mmm.” Jamie nodded, mouth full.
I watched the two of them carefully, my eyes thinning into slits. “And how are we so sure Josh’s dad won’t pull his strings again?” I asked slowly.
Alba looked me dead in the eyes, smirked, and said, “He’s been taken care of. As have the admission board members that accepted his bribes.”
Click.
“But wait, there’s more!” Jamie interjected as I continued to hold my sister’s gaze. She was wiggling with excitement. “Ria, tell her you don’t think you could afford the tuition even if you did get in.”
I was going to have at least one cracked molar by the time this conversation was over.
Alba’s little smirk twitched. “That’s a very valid concern to have,Ria,” she said, pointedly ignoring the eight separate veins protruding out of my face and neck. “Did you know that certain law firms will actually pay to putexceptionally talentedindividuals through school if saidexceptionally talentedindividuals agree to work for them for a certain period of time after graduation?”
“A law firm scholarship program!” Jamie exclaimed. “They even pay for your living expenses if they want you badly enough. Who’d have thunk it?”
Who indeed.
“Now, I know what you’re thinking,” Alba went on. The two of them were having way too much fun with this sloppy little performance of theirs. “You’re thinking, ‘Alba, those sponsorship programs are for law students. I don’t even have my bachelor’s degree yet. Why would they ever considermefor such an amazing opportunity that I would be incredibly silly not to at least consider?’”
