Chapter Six.
Jesse – Two Months Later.
“Where are you going? The Bradshaws will be here in twenty minutes.”
My mother’s imperious voice came from behind me as I headed toward the front door. I turned to see her standing on the bottom stair, perfectly coiffed and dressed for luncheon.
“We discussed this, Mother. Every day this week. The funeral is today.”
“And I told you that you couldn’t go.”
Anger bubbled up inside me again. I was nineteen. An adult. I would do what I damn well pleased.
“And I told you I would go no matter what.”
“That girl is a gold-digger, Jesse. She’s using you to get her claws into you.”
“Mother, I won’t listen to this. No matter what I say, or what proof I offer you, you won’t believe the truth about Lyrical, so I’m not wasting another minute arguing with you about this.”
I came home from my first year of college two weeks ago, thrilled to have a little over two months to spend with Lyrical, and hopefully spoil her rotten before I returned to school.
She was reluctant to leave her dad stranded since he couldn’t work, but I hoped I could convince her to come with me to Stanford in the fall.
I was moving into an apartment off campus, and even if she couldn’t take classes full-time, she could go to community college and work part-time.
However, life had other plans. I’d barely been home a week when she called, once again at a loss. She’d come home from work to find her father had taken his own life. No note, no explanation, no apology.
Today, I planned to stand at Lyrical’s side at a grave for her father. While in some ways this made my job of convincing her easier, she was still proud and would likely see my offer as a handout.
With two weeks to go until her high school graduation, at least she was eighteen and wouldn’t have to go into foster care.
Her teachers offered her the chance to skip her finals and the last days of classes so she could get a head start on finding her way through this mess, but she refused.
She insisted she finish her classes and her exams. I was so goddamn proud of her, even if I thought she was nuts for not taking them up on their offer.
She kept clawing her way toward the light.
One breath at a time. One step at a time. I’ve met no one so fucking strong.
With my parting shot to my mother, I turned and headed for the door again. I actually had it open and was about to step over the threshold when the threat came.
“I didn’t want to resort to this, but if you go through that door, Jesse, your father and I will no longer pay your tuition at Stanford, or any other school for that matter. Consorting with that girl is beneath you.”
I turned to look at her.
My twin, Jamie, stood at the landing of the stairs, looking down at us. “Mom! You can’t do that!”
She didn’t turn to look at him. Didn’t even flinch as she warned, “Stay out of this, James.”
My mother stared at me down, a cruel smile on her face. She thought she had me.
Ever since they assigned me that English project with Lyrical during my senior year, my mother kept harping on “that riffraff” I was hanging around with.
Witnessing just how cruel my mother could be was an eye-opener, and it embarrassed and horrified me we were blood-related.
Any affection I held for my parents died with her most recent argument.
Something had to give.
Exhausted with her and our endless arguments, I replied.
“Do what you have to do, mother,” I replied.
“You preach Christian charity for the less fortunate to all your friends, wearing your donations and charitable work like a badge of honor. Apparently, dressing up in designer clothes and paying five hundred dollars a plate for a charity ball to feed the hungry or help build a shelter is acceptable, but to actually assist someone you know in actual need is inappropriate.”
Once again, I turned to head out the door.
“Jesse!”
Ignoring her distressed call, I closed the door behind me and headed to my car. The house door opened and slammed shut quickly, and I looked up to see Jamie throwing his suit coat on as he approached the passenger side.
He raised an eyebrow at me. “You didn’t honestly think I was letting you do this on your own, did you?”
A rueful smile on my face, I said, “I hoped not. Lyrical needs all the friends she can get right now.”
The funeral was quick, small, and uneventful.
A few people from her father’s work showed up, but otherwise it was the funeral director, Jamie, myself and Lyrical.
Afterward, we took Lyrical for something to eat, but it was obvious she wasn’t hungry and not up for company.
I wanted to stay with her at the apartment, but she insisted I head home.
I left, but with the understanding that tomorrow I would be over bright and early with breakfast to help her sort through things and make plans to move forward.
When we arrived home, our parents were there, waiting for us. Based on their expressions, I knew I was in for another argument, and I already felt emotionally bankrupt.
Our father was apparently in charge of this conversation. “Boys, my office.”
Resigned to the argument ahead, I headed down the hall. Since we were little, we’d always called it The Lair. For nineteen years, our parents never allowed us inside unless we were in trouble, which didn’t happen often. Jamie spent more time there than me.
My father sat behind his desk, and my mother stood at his side, one hand resting on the back of his chair. No seats were available in front of the desk, so we stood before him, like supervisors at his company about to be taken to task.
“Jesse, your mother and I have been discussing your friendship with Lyrical Mewes.”
I kept my face blank, staring him in the eye.
“This obsession has gone on long enough. Your mother presented you with our offer, as you blatantly disregarded her wishes by attending the funeral. We are offering you one last chance to come to your senses. If you see this young woman again, I will not be forwarding your tuition payment to Stanford tomorrow.”
A double bluff? Possibly.
“All because I’m friends with Lyrical? A girl who had the misfortune to be born in poverty. Who works her ass off to make herself a better person and deserves none of what life has dealt her?”
“You are correct, Jesse. She can’t control the circumstances she was born into. But you were born into different circumstances than she was, and it’s inappropriate to lower yourself to her level.”
“Inappropriate to lower myself?” Seriously?
Beside me, I felt Jamie vibrating with anger.
Of the two of us, he was the rebel twin, constantly called on the carpet for his inappropriate behavior.
His, however, was more of “boys need to sow their wild oats” type, and they believed he’d straighten out with age.
However, my actions stemmed from progressive ideas about mixing social classes, and apparently, society did not permit that.
It was something to be stamped out rather than grown out of. Not that I ever would.
“Yes, Jesse.”
I’d never been someone to rock the boat. I was about to do so now.
“Then I guess you have to do what you have to do, Dad. I’m not afraid of hard work. I’ll take the year off, get a job, and then apply to the local state school next fall. You don’t need you to pay my tuition.”
“Then you won’t be living here, either.” My father stood up from the desk, buttoned his suit coat, and pushed a piece of paper across the desk at me, turning it right side up. “If you insist on traveling this path, you will do it alone.”
“What is this?” I asked.
“I’m effectively disinheriting you. This is the codicil to my will, which I’ve just drafted and had witnessed while you were out.
Beginning tomorrow, you will never receive a penny from me if you have any contact with this girl.
Everything we’ve provided for you will be forfeited.
You will leave this house with nothing.”
My jaw tensed. I felt a tic in my cheek. “Fine. I choose Lyrical. I don’t need your money.”
“Think about this long and hard, Jesse,” my mother added. “We’re not bluffing.”
“Neither am I, Mother.”
I turned, left the room, and went upstairs to my bedroom.
When I got there, I thought long and hard about my next steps.
If they treated people like this, I didn’t want to be like them, and that’s what might happen if I stayed.
And if my parents were willing to disown me so casually over this, they weren’t people I wanted to claim as my own either.
I cataloged the items in my room. Things I paid for with my own money I packed. If I couldn’t recall, it stayed here. I wasn’t taking the chance.
I’d been at it for about twenty minutes when a knock came on my door frame, and I looked up to see my twin. “Do you have a plan?”
Sighing, I replied. “For now, I’m grabbing a bag of stuff that’s mine and getting a hotel room.
Then I’ll go to the bank. I’ve got money from grandpa that’s mine outright, and they can’t keep it from me.
I’ll move it to another bank. Then I’ll go get a new cell phone and laptop.
Once those things are done, I’ll start figuring the rest out. ”
He leaned against the doorjamb. “Almost ready?”
I looked around my room, one last glance at my nineteen years as a Forbes golden child. Sadly, I didn’t think I’d miss it all that much. Would it be a change? Sure. Would I wonder occasionally if it were worth it? Undoubtedly. But I knew in my heart I was doing the right thing.
“Yeah. I’m ready.”
As I walked past him, he picked up a backpack and followed me downstairs. I stopped when we got outside. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going with you.”
Jesus. My brother, for all his faults, was the best brother a guy could ask for. “You shouldn’t do this, Jamie. It’s my problem. My choice.”
“Fuck that noise,” he growled. “College was never what I wanted, anyway. I was only doing it because I didn’t know what else I wanted to do.
But I know I don’t want to do that.” He nodded back toward the house.
“That’s never been me, even more so than you.
We face this shit together. Let them hold on to their pride and snobbery together.
We obviously don’t fit the mold they tried to put us in. ”
We started walking down the street.
“You gonna tell Lyrical?”
“Not yet. I want to help her get settled first. I need a plan so she’s not freaking out and trying to force me to go back home, or do something drastic like disappear so our parents get what they want by default.”
“Probably smart. If you’re okay with it, we can pool our money. Stick together.”
Unable to speak for fear of losing control, I simply nodded. It was my brother and I, together against the odds. We’d be fine.