Page 90 of The Midseason Fakeout

“Can we not go there right now? Darrin…” I sit back on the couch next to him and turn to face him. “What are we going to do? Do you like it here? Do you want to stay?”

“It’s not an option.”

“Well, that’s bullshit.”

“Mom and Dad aren’t going to pay for you to go to Warner, so forget about it.”

“Okay, but should that matter? Darrin, kids all over the world go to school and I’m sure their parents don’t have money. They must do something.”

“Yeah, loans.”

“Okay, we’ll get those.”

“I don’t know. Don’t you think we kind of owe it to them to toe the line on this one? They’re terrible people. They want the best for us, and if you put Warner and Carnegie side-by-side, Carnegie wins.”

“But at the expense of our identity? Our happiness?”

“They’re just going to say you’re making a decision for a boy. And hell, maybe you are. What’s so terrible about going to Carnegie? They have a great reputation. Great professors. Good class size.”

“What are you? The brochure?”

“I’m only saying, a lot of people would kill for that education.”

I rub my palm up and down my arm, thinking. “So we wait it out a couple more years?”

“I don’t know, you’re Miss Smarty-Pants. You’ll probably have a degree after a year and a half. It’s not that long.”

I roll my eyes. “It’s not fair.”

“They’re not being malicious about it, Bailey. They want us to get the best education.”

“What if they don’t offer what I want to study?”

“And what’s that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then you canI don’t knowat Carnegie. This is about Aidan.”

“It’s about freedom, Darrin. It’s not about Aidan at all.”Well, maybe a little.Aidan’s a part of that feeling. He makes me feel like I’m soaring through the clouds. Reckless. Happy.

“Bails…” He stares down at his hands.

“Yeah?”

“They already matriculated us. We start in January.”

My stomach falls. Darrin starts going on and on about how the tuition is paid, about how they told us this was just going to be a little break. Almost like a tiny gap year, except it’s nothing like that because we’re still going to school, just nottheirschool. “This can’t be happening.”

“If I were you, I’d tell Aidan sooner rather than later.” He blows out a breath. “Faking it or not, I’m pretty sure if you guys are the real thing, he’ll understand.”

I stand as if in a daze. Like thick fog has rolled in and I can’t seem to get my bearings.

Before, I had hope. Now, I have nothing.

It’s done. They went behind my back and did it. They knew this was never going to be anything. They gave me a couple months. If that.

Mom is coming tomorrow… Is she going to tell me that I have to leave right away? Did Aidan answering my phone in the morning really spook her that much?

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