When the car arrived to pick me up yesterday and I wasn’t there, nothing much happened for a while. I had been anxiously waiting for something, but I guess the driver only stayed a few minutes and then left when I didn’t show up. It wasn’t until today—a whole day later—that my mom must have realized I never got on my flight, and she’s called me three times.
My phone rings again.
“You should probably answer it,” Belle says. She has a pile of pink flowers at her feet and she’s tying them into a flower crown. “Just get it over with.”
I sigh and answer the phone. “Hi, Mom.”
“Sophia! Where are you?” Wow, she actually sounds… concerned? Worried?
“I’m fine. I’m at school.”
“What happened? Why aren’t you here?”
“I told you I’m not going. I’m staying in school and graduating.”
“You are absolutely not. I will come there and drag you out of your dorm kicking and screaming if that’s what it takes.”
“No offense, Mom, but I’d love to see you try.”
My mom is silent for a very long time. I almost ask if she’s still there, but then she draws in a breath. “Why are you being so difficult?”
“It’s not difficult, Mom. It’s very, very simple. You made me enroll at a school and I’m here and I’m staying. I’m going to finish what I started, and then I’m going to run my life the way I want to.”
“You better think twice about what you just said,” Mom snaps. “What you are threatening is very serious.”
“It is serious,” I say with a nod. “It’s my future. And I’m choosing to live it the way I want to.”
“Your future won’t be very fun if I take back your trust fund.”
There it is. The ultimate threat. The one thing that keeps all my friends in line back in Malibu when it comes to their parents. They always stray, always get in trouble, but the threat of losing it all will bring them back home in a split second. This time, however, I don’t think it’s going to work for me. I think of my aunt, and of a life I could make for myself based off happiness, not money.
“I don’t need a trust fund, Mom.”
“You think you mean that but you don’t,” Mom says, not sounding the least bit concerned, which only makes me more set in my decision. “You have forty-eight hours to get on a plane or your trust fund is gone.”
“No,” I say, feeling more confident even in all the uncertainty that lies in my future. “I have forty-eight hours until I’m a legal adult.”
Mom hangs up the phone.
My heart is racing, and I’m a teensy bit freaked out, but I’m also proud of myself. I’m standing my guard. I’m doing what’s right. Deep down in my heart I know if I don’t stand up to my parents now, I’ll end up letting them control me forever.
“What happened?” Belle asks.
I tell her everything. She watches in fascination, her jaw hanging open the whole time. “You’re really just going to give up everything?”
I shrug. “Money isn’t everything.”
She smiles. “My mom will be proud of you.”
“That’s good, because she’s probably the only family member who will come to my graduation.”
Aunt Kate must have some kind of mind reading capabilities, because Belle’s phone rings, her mom’s picture appearing on the screen. “Hello?” she says.
I can hear Aunt Kate frantically talking on the other end of the line. She asks where we are, where Belle is, and then where I am all at the same time. I guess she doesn’t realize that’s just three different ways to ask the same question.
“We’re fine,” Belle says. She puts the phone on speaker, and I also try to reassure her that we’re fine. She says my mom is livid and has sent Charlie down to find me, only to realize my dorm is empty. The administration doesn’t know where I am because I haven’t signed out anywhere, and it’s spring break so it’s not like I’m required in classes.
I decide to tell my aunt what’s going on. I leave out no details, and she listens completely before speaking.
