one
PAST
KATE
My boyfriend is making out with one of my sorority sisters.
I pull up short at the sight, grappling for the swinging door before it can bang open against the wall and alert them to my presence. I misjudge the distance. The loud smack reverberates off the fraternity house’s dingy bathroom tiles, and the couple’s wild eyes fly to me—still frozen across the threshold.
At least Jax has the decency to look embarrassed, but Tweedle-Dee perched on the pedestal sink is too glazed over with desire. She promptly returns to my three-week escapade and crushes her lips to his again. Jax makes no effort to resist, giving me a half-hearted shrug before returning to his terribly unsanitary make-out session.
I roll my eyes, drain the contents of my red plastic cup, and close the door.
It’s not like Icare. About him, anyway.
Jax was getting clingier by the day, and I have a zero-cling policy. I might as well be carrying a can of non-stick cooking spray and spraying the abs of each hot guy I fraternize with. I’d rather catch any of the diseases I learned about in my undergrad health class last semester than catch feelings.
I stumble down the narrow staircase of the fraternity house, dodging other fall-break students engaging in nefarious acts. I scan thecrowded living area. The pumping bass from the second-hand speakers writhes deep in my stomach. The room is crammed to the breaking point with loud laughter, sloshing drink cups, and kissing couples.
And then, there’s just me. Without Jax as a distraction, the music suddenly feels too loud, the laughter grating. Anxiety senses my weakness like a predator, closing in as I cling to the handrail. The frat house’s front door slams, making me flinch. It sparks the unwelcome memory of a different door slamming last month.
Has it only been a month?
I try to breathe, but the air is being siphoned from my lungs.
Unbidden shouts begin to echo from the memory.
“Did you think we wouldn’t find out?” Dad’s voice thundered.
Panic had numbed my brain, my tongue. I’d never heard Dad like this—Mom was usually the one shrieking when she didn’t get her way. But Dad? He’s mute half the time unless his reputation is being threatened.
“I—I…”
“You dropped out of law school and moved back without telling us?” Mom snapped. “What were you thinking,Katherine?”
“She wasn’t.” Dad’s craggy black hair shook with rage. “How could you be so stupid to throw everything away?”
Indignation lit a fire beneath my skin, but my words came out desperate. “I didn’t throw anything away, Dad! I transferred back to finish my degree from UIC. The tuition got refunded and transferred before the deadline. I tried it your way, really, but?—”
“Aweek? You call one week giving law school a try?” Dad bellowed. “You’re smarter than this, Katherine.”
“Maybe she’s not.” Mom’s honey-colored eyes were cutting.
Angry tears slid down my cheeks. “That’s not fair! I still have a 4.0! I just refuse to live two hours away from Liza in a city I hate, majoring in something I hate even more. I can’t do this anymore.”
“Selfish,” Mom snarled. “After all we’ve done for you.”
“I didn’t ask you to!” I screamed, sobs rising. “I didn’t ask you to apply to that program! Or donate, or whatever strings you pulled to get me in! Art history is what I’m going to major in. Grandma Chen would have understood.”
Dad’s hard laugh made me shrink further against the backrest ofthe couch. Liza, my only sibling and older sister by eighteen months, sat beside me, clutching my hands with tears streaming down her face.
“That crazy woman had no brains,” Dad shouted. “No vision! I should have never let her buy you that camera. Art is ahobby, not a career. No daughter of mine is going to squander her future with…with… a damn paintbrush!”
Maniacal laughter bubbled through the lump in my throat. I was suddenly standing, though I didn’t remember moving.
“That!” I aimed a shaking finger at him before sweeping it sideways toward my mom. “That shows how well you guys actually know me! Isuckat art!” Another hysterical laugh. “Which you two would have known if you bothered to come to my Senior Art Showcaseyearsago!”
My parents were taken aback. I had never stood up to them in this way before. No one had.
