by Kelly Oram
“Music,” Pearl repeated, approval thick in her warm voice. “So you’re talented and creative, with an appreciation for the arts. That’s good. That will work well.”
She’d slipped into her own head again, as she had several times during our conversation. It was as if she were cataloging my personality traits. “Work well for what?”
Snapping from her daze, she smiled and waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, never you mind. I’m just a crazy, rambling old woman. You must have received the scholarship, if you’re here now.”
A flush crept into my cheeks. I’d had to write and perform my own song in order to be awarded the scholarship. I’d worked hard, and the competition was steep. The feeling I got when I’d won it was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.
Pearl grinned again. “And he’s modest, too.”
Her comment made my cheeks flame even brighter. “Yes. I was awarded the scholarship,” I mumbled, reaching for my tea mug so that I didn’t have to look at her.
“And your brothers followed you here after you told them about it.”
I nodded, even though it hadn’t been a question. “Chris found some special scholarship for triplets, and the sponsor just happened to be an NYU alumnus, so the next thing I knew I was unpacking my stuff, watching my brothers leg wrestle over who had to have the top bunk in our dorm. Just like with everything else, they took over and controlled everything, and now things are the same as they always were. Worse even, because I’m sharing a dorm room with them.”
“Nate?”
I choked on my tea, startled by Sophie’s voice.
Her eyes bounced back and forth between Pearl and me, until she finally settled her gaze on me and frowned. “Friend of yours?”
Sophie stared down at me, mystified, and my face heated up as I struggled for words. But, honestly, how did you explain having a tea party with a complete stranger? Pearl came to my rescue. “You must be Sophie. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Pearl. Nathan and I had a bit of an accident outside, and he was kind enough to buy me a cup of tea to replace the one I spilled all over him.”
Sophie glanced down at our mugs. “Oohkaay…” She stretched the word out as if she thought I were nuts. After an awkward pause, she forced a smile at Pearl that I’m sure she meant to look sweet, but which came across more as condescending. “It was nice to meet you too, Pearl, but do you mind if I steal my boyfriend now? I don’t have a lot of time, and we—”
“Have a seat, Sophie.”
I flinched, and Sophie reared back in shock. Pearl’s voice had been soft, but she’d definitely given a command. “Let Nathan finish his tea. He’s had a rough night and is just starting to relax.”
When Sophie looked to me, all I could do was shrug. She slumped down into the chair next to mine, and waited for some kind of explanation as to why we weren’t leaving. I didn’t have one she would like. The truth was, I’d been enjoying Pearl’s company. She’d done a great job settling me down.
Pearl interrupted our staring match. “Well, Sophie, you are every bit the beauty Nathan said you are.”
Startled once again, Sophie blinked at Pearl. “Thank you.”
Her annoyance was derailed by the compliment, and I smiled to myself. Pearl couldn’t have known, but if Sophie had a weakness, it was her vanity. She was beautiful. She had long blonde hair, crystal blue eyes, and a figure to rival a professional cheerleader’s. She knew she was hot, though, and she liked it when others told her as much. She wasn’t stuck up or mean, but she obsessed over her looks. It took her forever to get ready to go anywhere, and she lived for compliments. If she was ever mad at me, all I had to do was tell her how beautiful she was, and I’d be forgiven.
Pearl, seeing that she’d gotten her way, settled back in her chair again and smiled pleasantly. “So, Nathan was just telling me about how he snuck away from home to win a music scholarship without telling his brothers, only they followed him here anyway.”
I cringed. Fate really did just refuse to throw me a bone tonight. Of all the topics for Pearl to bring up. My scholarship to NYU was the sorest subject between Sophie and me. Almost. Chris and Tyler might have been a slightly worse topic. “Without telling his brothers?” she said. “Without telling anybody. I was almost too late to apply to NYU because he waited so long to tell me he was thinking of coming here.”
Pearl’s eyebrows flew up. The look she gave me made my cheeks burn. “You didn’t mention your choice of college to your girlfriend? Were you trying to escape her, too, like with your brothers?”
Sophie shot eye daggers at Pearl, then fixed her glare on me. “No,” I promised them both. I had to reassure Sophie one more time. “I wasn’t.” I frowned across the table. “Come on, Pearl. I thought we were friends now—bonding over tea and all that. Why are you throwing me under a bus?”
Pearl frowned. “I’m not throwing you under a bus, Nathan. I’m just trying to understand. You told me you two have been seeing each other since the summer before your junior year of high school. Two years is an awfully big commitment not to include your girlfriend in your plans for college.”
Sophie pounded the table and then threw her hand out toward Pearl. “Exactly!”
“Soph…” I sighed. I did not need this tonight. “I’ve told you a hundred times. It’s not that I didn’t want to tell you.” My defenses were up enough that I may have glared at the nice old woman I’d just had tea with while she watched me argue with my girlfriend. Though, I was beginning to rethink the “nice” part. “I didn’t tell anyone because I was…scared.” I cringed. Man, I hated admitting that.
“Afraid?” Pearl asked. “Of what?”
“I don’t know, a million things.” I reached up to rub my temples again. My headache was coming back. “When I said I wanted to go to school to be a singer/songwriter, everyone laughed at me. Nobody took me seriously, and nobody thinks I’m going to make it. They all think it’s a stupid waste of time.”
Sophie sighed. “I never said it was stupid. I know how passionate you are about your music, and I love that about you. But you have to admit, the odds of making it in the world as a musician are dismal at best. It’s not a good plan for your future. It’s not a stable career choice.”
“And that’s why I didn’t tell you about the scholarship. I wasn’t sure I’d get it, and I didn’t want to have to admit to you that I’d tried and failed.”
Sophie’s face softened, and she met my eyes with the utmost sincerity. “Nate. You don’t ever have to be afraid to tell me anything. I won’t think any less of you if the music thing doesn’t work out. You know that. I’ll always love you. No matter what.”
She meant to be comforting, but I still felt a sting from her words. She wouldn’t think any less of me because she expected me to fail. My music was my life, and while Sophie was supportive and enjoyed hearing me play and sing, she didn’t understand how much it really meant to me. It was cute to her, and nothing more—a silly hobby of mine that she indulged because I was talented and she could brag about it and show me off to her friends. I knew she loved me, but I swear, sometimes I felt as if I was nothing more than her trophy boyfriend.
“Yeah, well, it might not matter anymore anyway if I can’t get my computer fixed. My laptop is destroyed. Everything I’ve been working on all semester is gone.”
Sophie gasped. “Your laptop is destroyed?”
I held up my broken phone. “This too.”
She gaped at the phone and then at me. “What happened?”
“What always happens?” Raking a hand through my hair, I blew out a breath.
She understood from the irritation in my voice. “Your brothers did this?”
“Well, not this,” I admitted, toying with my phone. “This was collateral damage from my collision with Pearl. But my laptop, yeah. Chris and Tyler were…being Chris and Tyler, and they spilled coffee all over it. The thing practically exploded. My project is gone.”
Sophie blinked at me a few times, and then her face turned b
right red. “Those idiots. What were they doing?”
“Just messing around, like always.” I wasn’t about to tell her they were trying to force me to go on a date with another girl. Sophie and my brothers got along about as well as Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. What’s done is done.” I slumped back in my chair.
“That’s it?” Sophie’s face flushed with anger and she shook her head. “How can you not be more upset about this?”
“I am, but getting angry isn’t going to solve my problem. Can I borrow your phone? I need to find a place that will help me recover the files from the hard drive. If I can’t retrieve my work, I’m screwed.”
Sophie started to hand over her phone, but then pulled it back and slammed her fist down on the table. “Your project isn’t the problem. Your brothers are the problem.”
She may as well have punched me in the gut. “Gee, thanks for the sympathy.”
Sophie shook her head. “Are you honestly surprised that something like this happened? I hate to say I told you so, but how many times did I warn you about rooming with your brothers?”
“Why did you agree to room with your brothers?” Pearl asked suddenly. I’d gotten so caught up in my argument that I’d forgotten she was there.
Before I could respond, Sophie muttered, “Because he’s a pushover when it comes to them.”
I rolled my eyes and tried to explain as best as I could to Pearl. “It’s not that I’m a pushover.”
Sophie scoffed at that, so I conceded. “Okay, maybe a little,” I agreed, then looked back at Pearl. “But it was more complicated than that. My brothers went behind my back and made the housing arrangements. They had to get special permission for all three of us to be in the same room because the residence hall was out of the bigger rooms. It was kind of a hassle. And by the time they told me, Dad had already paid the deposit. They did it as a surprise for me. Because they love me and they didn’t want to be separated. They were so excited.”
I turned to Sophie with a pleading look. “What was I supposed to do? Yeah, I didn’t want to room with them, but I couldn’t hurt their feelings. Believe me, if I’d had any clue what it was really going to be like sharing a dorm with them, I’d have said no and found my own place.”
Pearl set her tea mug down and folded her hands primly on the table in front of her. She looked serious as she smiled. “You have a good heart, Nathan.”
Pearl’s compliment drained Sophie’s anger. She gave me an apologetic smile and then rested her head on my shoulder. “Yeah, he does,” she told Pearl. “He’s the least selfish person I’ve ever met. That’s the problem, though. He never does anything for himself. He lets his brothers rule his life, and though they cause him so much trouble, he loves them anyway, even when they don’t deserve his loyalty.”
Sophie shut me up with a look when I started to argue. “You know they don’t. They don’t respect you, they don’t appreciate you, and they never consider your feelings or what you really need. I hate to be a grouch, but I’m so tired of them ruining everything for us.”
“Ruining everything for us? What have they ruined for you?”
“This year, for one,” Sophie said. “This was supposed to be our time. You and me. Instead it’s you, me, Chris, and Tyler. They’re in our business more now than they were back home. They’re constantly stealing you away from me and trying to get us to break up. You know how they treat me. When are we going to be free of them?”
We’d had this argument a hundred times since my brothers had made our college rooming arrangements. I wasn’t in the mood to have it again, but I couldn’t resist fighting with her. I was in a horrible mood, and she was only making it worse. “They’re my family, Soph. My brothers. I’m kind of stuck with them.”
Sophie slumped back in her chair with a huff, folding her arms tightly over her chest. “Well, you don’t have to encourage them. You shouldn’t have agreed to room with them. I told you it was a nightmare waiting to happen. But would you stand up to them? No. You just gave in to them, like always. Stop letting them control—and ruin—your life.”
I’d had enough. “I don’t have time to deal with this right now. Unlike you, I actually care about saving my project.” I stood up and shoved my broken phone back in my pocket. “You’re as bad as my brothers. You don’t care about what I want, either. You’re only thinking about yourself right now.”
Sophie slammed to her feet. “That’s not true! How can you say that? I’m thinking about you right now. You need to get away from your brothers!”
“If you were really thinking about me right now, you wouldn’t be lecturing me; you’d be trying to help me fix my computer. This project was a big deal to me. Getting into the showcase is my shot. And you don’t care at all.”
“Of course I do! I would love to see you get your dream.”
“But you don’t think I will!”
We stopped yelling at each other when Pearl stepped between us to break up our fight. “You two have a problem,” she said. “Lucky for you, I can help.”
She was watching the two of us as if we fascinated her. And she was smiling that knowing smile again. There was something mischievous in her expression, calculating. I felt as if I were Lindsay Lohan in Freaky Friday, bickering with Jamie Lee Curtis. If Pearl pulled a fortune cookie out of her purse, I was seriously going to make a run for it.
Her smile softened from that amused, knowing grin to something grandmotherly and affectionate. “Perhaps it was fate that we ran into each other, after all. I know someone who needs a roommate. The apartment is very nice. You’d have your own bedroom and bathroom. Rent is really cheap. Jordan is a student at the university, same as you. I think the two of you would be a good match for each other.”
I was nearly as shocked as when I’d watched my laptop drown in coffee. “You’re telling me about an apartment for rent?”
Sophie gasped. “Nate, yes! Oh my gosh, that is perfect. You have to do it. Get your own apartment. Move out.”
Her excitement startled me. “Just move out? Ditch my brothers?”
Bouncing with excitement, she grabbed my hands in hers and squeezed them. “Yes! We could be free of them. Finally.”
“But—”
“Baby, don’t think about it; just do it. Do it for us. I mean, look at us. We’re fighting in a café, having to be mediated by a complete stranger. We need this. I’m sorry I was insensitive about your project. Of course I feel awful that you lost it. I know how hard you worked on it. I do know how much it means to you. I just get so upset about your brothers. They’re tearing us apart, Nate. We need time to ourselves this year, away from them.”
Maybe she had a point. Our relationship had been pretty strained this year, and my brothers definitely didn’t help anything. But could it really be so easy? “I can’t just move out, though.”
“Why not?” Pearl and Sophie asked simultaneously.
Pearl shifted so that she was standing next to Sophie. They were facing me as a team now, both trying to convince me that I needed this. I fell back into my chair with a heavy sigh. “Moving is complicated. And expensive.”
Sophie and Pearl both sat back down as well. “But it’s doable,” Sophie said. “You have all that extra money since you received both the music scholarship and the one you share with your brothers. Why not put that money toward living arrangements? That’s what that money is there for. I’d move with you if I weren’t stuck in a signed contract with my roommates for the year. But since your brothers will still have your room, you’re free to leave it. Spend this year on your own, and then this summer we can look for a place together.”
“What?” If I’d still been drinking tea, I’d have spilled it all over myself. Luckily, the empty mug was safe on the table in front of me. I didn’t mean to freak out so much, but I was only thinking of maybe moving away from my brothers. How did that turn into Sophie and I living together?
I glanced from Sophie to Pearl and suddenly wished I
hadn’t. The old woman was watching me very carefully, as if she knew how much Sophie’s suggestion scared me. Something twisted in my stomach as I waited for her to call me on it like she’d done earlier. Her lips twitched, but she said nothing.
Taking a deep breath, I focused on Sophie again. At least she hadn’t seen the way the blood drained from my face. Thankfully. She was too excited, too busy planning out our entire future to notice anything. “Think about it, Nate. We’re in college now. We’re adults. And we’ve been together for over two years. Moving in together is the next logical step. I mean, we know we’ll get married eventually. Why wait until we graduate to start our life together?”
Married? She was talking about marriage? What? “Whoa, Sophie, wait a second. Marriage? We’re only freshmen. We’re not even nineteen yet. We have plenty of time before—”
She waved off my concern. “Well, of course I know that. My parents would kill me if I got married before graduation. But we’re old enough now to be serious about this relationship. You’ll figure that out just as soon as you can get away from Chris and Tyler. They’re the ones still stuck in grade school. They’re the ones holding you back. Those two are never going to grow up. You need to move out or they’ll just keep dragging you down with them. They’ve already ruined your big project. What’s next?”
All that tea in my stomach was starting to churn. Sophie was right that my brothers weren’t going to grow up anytime soon, but she was trying to grow up too fast. I didn’t feel like a kid anymore, but why did I have to be a full-fledged adult so soon? Why couldn’t college be a transitional time?
As if she’d read my thoughts, Pearl gave me an encouraging smile and said, “You’re a bright young man, Nathan. I think you already know what you want, deep down. Don’t be scared to go after it. It’s your life. It’s time for you to take charge of it.”
“She’s right,” Sophie said. “Take charge, Nate. Call this Jordan guy. At least go meet him and see the place.” Holding up her phone, she looked back at Pearl. “What’s his number? We’ll call him right now.”