Chapter 2
Georgiana
“Maybe the reason why people we want to be with don’t end up staying with us,” he said, tears starting to form in his eyes. “Is because there’s someone out there who deserves to be with us, who are a much better person for us,” he said.
Jake looked up at his ex-girlfriend after he said those words, and Meredith felt like he had stabbed her in the heart.
“Maybe they never meant to stay, so they did the one thing they had to do,” Jake continued, shutting his eyes tight and trying to endure the pain in his chest.
“They let us go.”
“George, what the hell are you doing?”
I slammed my notebook shut and got up, looking at my brother, Darcy, innocently. He scowled and crossed his arms in irritation.
“I’ve been calling your name since five minutes ago. Were you lost in your little world again?” he asked. I pouted at him.
“No, I was just purposely ignoring you so you’d get annoyed at me,” I fibbed, keeping a straight face. Darcy rolled his eyes, and hit me upside the head before walking out of my room.
“Dinner’s ready! Get your ass down here, George!” he yelled. I groaned, and slumped over my notes. I didn’t like to be disturbed whenever I was in a writing mood for fear of losing my momentum, but my family never gets it, no matter how many times I told them.
You would think that being the daughter of two prolific authors of this generation, and they would understand the pains of writer’s block and whatnot, but nope. Once they summoned you, you had to drop everything you were doing and grace them with your presence.
“Georgiana Elizabeth Pratt, if you’re not sitting in the dinner table in two minutes, we are cancelling your Owl Crate subscription!” my mom shrieked, and I sighed. I got up and closed my bedroom door, and climbed down the stairs towards the dining area where Dad and Darcy were already sitting, and Mom was placing the sushi platter at the center of the table.
“You know you didn’t have to go that far to get me to come down,” I pouted, taking a seat across from Darcy, who chuckled.
“Actually, I find Mom’s quirky threats to you very funny. It’s even funnier when I see how effective they are,” Darcy enthused. I crumpled my eyebrows at him as I reached for the pitcher of iced tea.
“What do you mean quirky threats?” I asked.
“Most teenagers are threatened with cancelling credit cards, grounding them, no shopping sprees,” Darcy enumerated.
“Well, that’s because common threats wouldn’t work on your sister,” Dad remarked. “Because for starters, she doesn’t own a credit card, and second, she doesn’t shop unless it’s to buy books. But I wouldn’t consider that shopping,” he said.
“And grounding her would be more of a reward than a punishment, because all she ever does is stay in her room,” Mom added, looking at me with a sly grin on her face.
“Well, why don’t you try threatening me to go outside next time?” I bluffed.
“Maybe I will,” Mom replied. I snorted.
“Sure, you would,” I countered, my tone drenched heavily with sarcasm. “You and Dad would lose it if I was fifty feet away from home, unless I was at school. You wouldn’t intentionally ask me to go outside even if someone put a gun to your head,” I said.
“She’s got a point,” Darcy agreed, his mouth a cross between a wince and a grin.
“Proper parenting methods and punishments aside,” Dad said, looking at each of us sternly, silently commanding us to drop the conversation. “We were actually hoping to discuss another topic with you, Georgiana.”
I groaned at the use of my complete first name. I didn’t hate the name, “Georgiana”, per se, but it’s just that it’s too old-fashioned and prissy sounding to me. It’s a new millennium and not a lot of women my age are named Georgiana, unless they’re an heiress to a multimillion dollar corporation or something.
For the record, my parents didn’t name me that way because they wanted to show off the millions they earned from selling their books. They named my brother, Darcy, and I, Georgiana, because my mother was a huge fan of Jane Austen, particularly her book, Pride and Prejudice. Darcy after the male lead, and me after the male lead’s sister. Though if we were to be really specific about the details, Darcy, is Georgiana and her older brother’s last name. The guy’s first name is actually Fitzwilliam, but fortunately for my brother’s sake, my father put his foot down and settled on Darcy, because no offense to the dude or Austen’s taste in names, Fitzwilliam is a sissy name, and would’ve set my brother up for humiliation the rest of his life.
“Mom, call me ‘George’. Georgiana is too long and doesn’t exactly fit my personality, you know?” I asked grumbling.
“George is man’s name,” Mom answered primly. “And that is not what we wanted to talk to you about.”
“Then what is it?” I asked, my annoyance meter quickly filling up.
“We wanted to talk to you about your college plans,” Dad said.
“What about it? I’m all set,” I said, shrugging.
“Your mother and I thought it would be best if you just stayed here at home, and take your courses online,” Dad said very carefully. The expression on his face cautious, like he was watching a lion that was seconds away from taking a chunk out of him.
I think a vein in my temple burst right then and there.
Darcy, to his credit, shook his head and muttered, “Oh shit, now they’ve done it,” he squeezed his eyes shut with a wince, bracing himself for my explosion.
And then I let it rip.
“What?!” I cried, looking at my parents like they’d lost their minds. “Are you freaking kidding me right now?”
“Language,” my Mom chided, but I ignored her. Seriously? She was more concerned with my ‘language’ than with my quality of education? And ‘freaking’ wasn’t even a hard-core swear word!
I took a deep breath, my chest rising, and my abdomen pressing in tightly before I blew the air out slowly, forming my lips in a small ‘O’, and making my cheeks puff out. I did this twice more in an effort to contain myself.
“Let’s not delude ourselves any further, because we all know what I was going to answer before you even asked the question,” I said, my eyes closed, as I refused to look at my ridiculous parents. “But just for the sake of it, I’m going to go ahead and say it: Why?” I asked, finally opening my eyes to look at them with the tiniest bit of exasperation.
“You’re father and I just think that there’s no reason for you to be so far away just to attend college. And you said so yourself that everything can be done through the internet these days,” Mother said. I sighed at her poor reasoning. Was that really the best they got?
“The writing center at UNC has a hell of a lot more comprehensive program than what any writing course online can give me,” I countered.
“If you’re dead set on going to college, why not just go to the community college downtown?” Dad tried, and I scoffed at him, disgusted.
“No offense to the community colleges in the world, but I’m still going with my plan,” I said. “Also, community college would mean I’d have to stay here instead of a dorm, and one of my main reasons for going is to gain independence,” I said. From you, I mentally added, but the words didn’t come out loud.
“But you don’t need to get it all the way in North Carolina!” my mother cried, using the back of her hand to slap the edge of her forehead, and making that ‘woe-is-me’ expression you mostly see in 18th century period movies.
“Like I said, I applied for a lot of colleges,” –all of them away from here—“And from among those that accepted, I chose the one I thought was best,” –and the farthest.
“Well, if you’re so dead set on disobeying us, young lady,” Dad said, his eyes glinting in that way they always did when he was about to pull out the ace in his sleeve. “Let’s see how you try and pay for your college tuition,” he declared, folding his arms in front of his chest, his bottom lip jutting out smugly in victory.
I smirked at him, fully expecting this blow, and opening my mouth to deal my own. “Well then, it’s a good thing I’ve got a full ride scholarship, huh?” I said, effectively wiping the smug look on my parents’ faces.
“You can’t afford the plane ticket,” Mom blurted out, the desperation clear in her eyes.
“Already got that covered,” I fired back, rolling my eyes.
“Regardless, you won’t get our permission,” Dad said, standing up and putting his hands on the table, palms down. “So good luck trying to feed yourself over there.”
“Irregardless, I’m going,” I said. That was the only hitch in my plan, and I had hoped my parents weren’t cruel enough to cut me off but, since it’s come to this, I’m just going to have to look for some part-time jobs once I get there. Like hell they would keep me hold up in here.
“Irregardless isn’t a word,” Mom shrieked.
“Actually, it is. It’s a conversation ender. You should look it up in Webster’s. It’s under the letter ‘I’,” I countered. I watched patiently as Darcy opened up his phone and did as I asked.
“She’s got you guys again, Mom,” Darcy said, nodding thoughtfully. I looked over at my parents with a smug smirk on my face. I made a grand show of taking another bite out of my dinner, then wiping my mouth daintily with a napkin, before I stood up to leave, but not without one last parting shot.
“And you call yourselves writers.”