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“Maggie! You’re going to be late You can’t afford to be late during your first feeeks It will reflect badly on your father”

I glare ath ponytail It’s the best I’ll be able toOver my shoulder, a shelf full of stuffed ani

I get it I’d judge me too, if I were the in my childhood bedroom—a bedroom that has not been updated since I left to live in the NYU dory shared aparto Now, freshly finished with ree, I’m back in this trap Back in a life I never wanted to live

Worst of all, I’rateful for it all

“Maggie!” My nize that tone It’s the I’ain voice

“I’ toward the stairs We live in an honest to goodness Upper West Side brownstone, the kind of house that nobody who hasn’t lived here for generations could afford any one of the best hospitals in the city, we can afford to pay the crazy high property taxes

But, according to him anyway, he can’t afford to pay that, my med school tuition bills, and rent fora nursing gig at Dad’s hospital, right under his nose, where he can keep an eye on me

I barelyatfroht pink stripes

“Those look frivolous,” he comments, before he sniffs and turns back to the kitchen Apparently the rest of me passes inspection, at least for the moment “How much of my money did you waste on those,” he adds over his shoulder, as my mother passes him a cup of his coffee The sa, just the way he likes it: black, no ar

Like his soul, I always joke But only where he can’t hear me

“I didn’t,” I respond, crossingschool friends, and a former roommate back when I still lived don, near school Our apart was a rat hole, the bedrooued by a never-ending streas to cockroaches Yet I still preferred it to my current room

That should tell you so

“Julia The one with the hair?” Dad squints into his coffee suspiciously, the saht have somehow messed up the order

Over his shoulder, Molance Not that she’d ever stand up to hi In this house, Dad makes the rules, and the rest of us leap to follow them

“The redhead, youpast his a little, the reminder of my friends I haven’t seen any of the what I wish I could be doing Julia took a position straight out of nursing school with Doctors Without Borders, and a handful of our other roommates followed her shortly thereafter They sent ht I sent back a sad selfie in my childhood bedroom

Then I stayed up halfway through the night, scrolling through their socialin every detail I could

It’s not the travel I envy, though that would be fun too, of course It’s the fact that they’re doing so the people who really need itall the same rich old clientele I’ve watched my dad ko to for his entire adult life

“Are you co?” Dad barks, before I’ve even had a chance to finish downing rabcolder outside, finally, though even the fall bite in the air—norloomy mood

Just appease hi, despite the fact that she says nothing for now She just leans in to kiss iven h times by now that I have it memorized After your school tuition debt is paid back, then you can decide what you want to do Where you want to live and work