She strode into the center of the room as the rest of us were heading toward our respective corners and, with her arms spread wide, said, “I guess now is as good a time as any to share my exciting news. Sit, sit!” She directed us to the couch in front of her. It was telling—or it should have been to Selena—that none of us moved with any kind of enthusiasm.
Mom went first, raising her chin and determining that she was about to hear something good. I followed after, frowning in warning at my oblivious sister. Dad remained standing behind the couch, his expression somewhere between Mom’s and mine.
With her arms outstretched and her palms down, Selena smiled full-out. “You have to promise to hear me out. This is good news.”
Which, of course, meant it wasn’t. Not even Mom could keep her chin up after that opening.
“I’m leaving college.”
Mom shot to her feet. “No. Nope.” She blinked at her daughter. “Selena, no.”
“Mom, you’re supposed to let me finish—”
“If you are starting with dropping out of college, then no. I’m not supposed to do anything.” She turned to Dad, arms slapping against her sides. “Dennis, back me up.”
It was beginning to dawn on Selena that her exciting news was exciting only to her—and even that was being thrown into question by our parents’ reaction. Dad wasn’t yelling yet, but he was gearing up.
“What happened?” he asked.
Selena’s laugh lacked conviction. “Nothing happened. I just figured out what I want to do and I don’t need college to do it. Really, you guys should be happy. Think of all the tuition you’ll save!” She bounced her gaze between our parents, her face falling more and more each time she settled on one. “I was really hoping you guys would be more supportive. Isn’t this what I was supposed to be doing at college? Figuring out what I want to do for the rest of my life? Some people need all four years—or more. I only needed two.”
“When you put it that way, you’re kind of a prodigy.” I waved my hand in a flourish.
Selena glared at me. “Shut up, Dana.”
“Hey, I’m just here for moral support, which you are clearly going to need once you drop out of college.”
Mom made a sound in her throat that drew every eye in the room.
“I’m not dropping out!” Selena said. “I’m moving forward!”
“Where exactly are you moving?” I asked, knowing it couldn’t be good or she would have led with it.
“Well, you guys have always encouraged me to dream big and work hard toward whatever goal I wanted. I’m taking your advice.” She filled her lungs with fortifying air. “I want to move to Nashville and become a singer.”
“No, you don’t.” My face scrunched both in disbelief and annoyance. We sang in the car, and she’d sung in the choir at church before, but singing as a career, no way. She’d never shown any interest in that. But when Selena didn’t respond, my expression fell as flat as our parents’. “Since when?”
Selena turned more fully to face me. “Since kind of a while. I’ve been learning to play the guitar, and I’ve even sung at a few coffee shops. I’m writing my own songs, and Gavin thinks—”
“Ohhhh,” I said, just as Mom started shaking her head.
“A boy? This is about a boy?” She looked at Dad. “Both of them in the same day.”
Selena had no way of knowing Mom had asked me almost the exact same question earlier that day.
“Gavin is not a boy.”
Mom stretched her five feet two inches to an imposing height. “He better be, because if you say the wordteacher—”
“He’s only a couple years older than me, Mom. And he’s really talented. He’s worked with a ton of great people and knows basically everyone in Nashville.” Ignoring the escalating hostility in the room, Selena let her obvious enthusiasm flood her voice. “And get this, he thinks he can get me a record deal within six months. Six months! Can you believe it?”
Nope, I really couldn’t.
“Brother Todd, was it? Does he also have plans to ride off into the Vulcan sunset with you?”
Selena snarled in my direction. “Shut. Up. Dana.”
Sitting back on the couch, I crossed my arms. If she wanted to fly solo with our parents, that was fine by me.
