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Lauren shakes her head. “The application period is closed.”
Great. I missed my chance. I don’t even know if I want to work in an art museum or own a gallery, but it beats sitting at home, doing nothing. “Do you know of anything else going on?”
Lauren and Charlie share a look. “What do you mean?” Charlie asks.
“Haven’t you seen all the flyers around the art school offering jobs and interns for the summer?”
“They’re like, everywhere,” adds Charlie.
“Well, they were. The last program application closes in a week and they require a ten-page essay.”
“Ten pages?” I breathe. “How did I not see the flyers?”
Charlie shrugs. “I guess… you’ve been a bit preoccupied?”
Fuck, fuck, fuck my life, fuck. It’s exactly what Bryan said. I’m going to become my dad—alone, divorced, living in a crappy studio with a shitty job. Not only that, but I’m going to have a mountain of college debt I won’t be able to pay off until I’m eighty years old at the soonest.
As if the universe hasn’t given me enough trouble to stress over, my phone vibrates and the moment I grab it, I groan at the caller ID flashing:Mom.Double fuck! I should let it go to voicemail. Nothing good can come of this conversation. She’s going to tell me something stupid about fucking Bryan and how he’s so much better than Dad ever was.
However, she is my mom and my stupid thumb gravitates towards the green phone icon, pressing it lightly before holding the phone up to my ear. “Hello,” I say hesitantly.
“Hi, sweetie! I hope you’re not in the middle of class.”
“Nope, not yet,” I say while glancing at the door. “I have about five minutes.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I won’t be long. I wanted to know how your first few days were going.”
“Fine,” I say tersely. That’s why she called? To ask me about school? Since when has she ever called in the middle of the day to ask me about school.
“Bryan and I were just talking about you. He thinks you’re so charming.”
Insert eye roll here. Bryan is a little suck up that needs to shut his mouth. “Great.”
“I hope you like him, too. It would be great if the both of you got along.”
“Mom, I don’t have time to be talking about Bryan right now. Class is about to start.”
Charlie and Lauren frown at me. I’m being obvious. They can see my relationship with my mom hasn’t been the greatest, especially she started dating this new guy. I know they’re going to ask about it, which makes this conversation so much worse. I don’t need everyone knowing my family drama, but it’s hard to keep pretending everything is perfectly fine all the time.
“Well, I wanted to know if you have any summer plans, yet?”
Why would I have summer plans? It’s January. “No, Mom. Not yet.”
“Good, because Bryan and I were thinking we could take a small road trip to the Hamptons. Rent a little cottage, go swimming at the beach. How does that sound?”
Fucking terrible. The last thing I want to do is be alone with Mom and Bryan. “Can I think about it?” I ask hesitantly.
I inwardly cringe at the silence on the other line. She’s pissed. She’s going to say something about how I don’t like her new boyfriend, how I haven’t even given him a chance, and how it’s not fair that I always take Dad’s side. The silence seems to go on for hours, but I know it’s only been a minute. The clock is right in front of me, ticking by slowly.
“Rachel,” Mom begins, her tone dark and warning, “you could at the very least give Bryan a chance.”
“I am giving him a chance, Mom.”
“No, you’re not. You didn’t come to dinner with us at La Grenouille.”
Oh, for fuck’s sakes. Again, with fucking La Grenouille. “That’s because I was having dinner with Dad, Mom.”
“And then you and your friends gallivanted off after the ball dropped. Although, I suppose that wasn’t exactly your fault since Seth was sick.”
