A Real Disaster (21 page)

She winked and then let herself out of
the dorm room, leaving me alone with my parents.

“Do you guys want to go out to lunch?” I
suggested. “There’s a nice little bistro right on the corner.”

“That sounds like a wonderful plan,” my
mother said and my father nodded.
“Our treat.
You work
hard, after all, and you deserve a break.”

*
         
*
         
*

I nodded, gritting my teeth, as I picked
up my bags and led my parents down and out into the street. This was
not
going to end well.

Ten minutes later the three of us were
sitting at a table, under an umbrella, waiting for the food to be served. My
mother drank a Malibu Bay Breeze, my father had a beer, and I nursed a Shirley
Temple.

“So tell us about school, pumpkin,” my
father said and put his elbow on the table. “I heard from your professors; they
all said you are doing very well. I hear that you’re going to be on the Dean’s
list.”

“All in your first semester too!” my
mother cooed.

I stared at them dumbfounded.

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Your father’s friends with some of the
professors and they did some looking into it for him.”

I balled my hands into fists under the
table. My parents were checking up on me? They called my school to find out my
grades? I felt…
Violated.
I thought going away to
school was to get out of the scrutiny of my parents.

I should have known that they would do
something like this. They never were going to think I was old enough to make my
own decisions or let me do what I want without checking up on me.

“I’m glad to find out,” I said, trying
to keep myself calm. “But I don’t like that you guys are calling my professors
to check up on me.”

“We aren’t checking up on you, pumpkin,”
my father said. “We just want to make sure that everything is going as planned.
We want to make sure that you’re not drifting off the path.”

“The path?”
I hissed. “You
mean the plan that
you
created for
me?
The one that
you
want to see me accomplish?
You mean the plan that I had no say in?”

“Don’t start, Lily,” my mother said as
she sighed. “Your father and I are just looking out for you.”

“Yeah,” my father agreed. “We want the
best for you, you know that.”

The problem was that I
did
know that. I knew that, deep down,
my parents cared about me. They wanted to see me succeed and make something of
myself. But they wanted me to make something of myself in a way that they
agreed on. If it wasn’t something that they themselves didn’t think of then
they didn’t tend to back the decision. It was vicious circle.

“I know,” I said.

There was no use fighting with them.

“I’m sorry. I’ve been under a lot of
stress lately and I guess I’m just a bit tired.”

“It’s okay,” my father said as he patted
my hand.

The waitress returned with our food,
handing it out, and then disappeared. My mother picked at her food, stabbing
her fork into the chicken only to move it to the other side of the plate. My
father, on the other hand, gobbled his food up as if he hadn’t eaten in days.
He barely looked up from his plate as he shoveled bite after bite down his
throat.

“So tell us about the rest of college,
dear,” my mother said. “There are no boys around, right? You aren’t running
around at all hours of the night, are you?”

I bit my tongue and discreetly looked at
my watch.

Only six hours
and twenty-five minutes until they leave.

I only had to survive a little longer
and then they would be gone.

*
         
*
         
*

I had finally made it through the next
six and a half hours with my parents and was happy to lie down on my bed and
relax. Sabrina and Elizabeth had gone to the mall so I was all alone and felt
great to have peace and quiet. Before I knew it I had fallen asleep.

I probably could have slept all
afternoon and night. A knock came from my door. I opened my eyes and rubbed
them, trying to come back to reality. I laid there for a few seconds but
someone continued to knock so I got out of bed and opened the door.

Standing in front of me was Turner and
the red haired girl from the bar that was talking to Nash. I stood there
speechless, not able to say anything. I knew Nash had lied to me the instant
that I saw Turner with this girl. I could not believe it

“Hey Lily, this is my sister.”

Nash lied to me.