Chapter Thirty-Three
Dylan
When I returned home from work a few days later, there was a box of mail waiting for me. I guess Mr. Dean had dropped it off. That was important; I needed to see if I had any acceptances. Even if I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to go, I wanted to know I could go to college.
I hadn’t sorted things out with financial aid, but I would. I had to figure out how to make this work. I wasn’t going to stay in this trailer forever.
My phone rang. The caller ID read Helena.
“Hi.”
“It’s Taylor.”
A smile lit my face. That girl could always make me smile. “Hey.”
“I haven’t gotten my phone back, but Helena and I are doing homework. I wanted to hear your voice.”
“Nice to hear your voice, too.”
“Are you doing homework?”
“No, I just got home from work. I need to shower and then get started.”
“Are you keeping your grades up?”
“I am,” I assured her.
“I miss you.”
“I miss you, too.”
Clearly, she wasn’t going to listen to me about not keeping in touch. Taylor had her own mind and she was going to be an amazing woman when she grew up. She was already pretty cool. I did miss her. We’d begun to spend so much time together, I was almost having withdrawal symptoms from not seeing her.
“You still in uniform?”
“I am.” I stood in my bedroom. “I’m going to put you on speaker so I can get out of these clothes. They smell like gasoline.”
“Yuck.”
“Tell me about it. This trailer now stinks.”
“Do you have a washer and dryer?”
“No. It’s a trip to the laundromat for me.”
“How do you get there?”
“I walk. It isn’t far.”
“Damn, Dylan. That sucks.”
Tell me about it. I was the one who had to do the walking. Tomorrow, I’d have to do it. I had the day off from the gas station and after school would be laundry time. At least I could bring the laptop and get some homework done since the laundromat had Wi-Fi.
“Yep, but it is what it is.”
“I’d be pissed.”
“I think you’re mad enough for both of us,” I said.
She laughed “I guess so.”
“I’d love to talk, sweetie, but I can’t stand how I smell and I can’t take the phone into the shower.”
“Wow. You should send me a pic of you in the shower.”
I laughed. “You’re using Helena’s phone. I’m not sending her a naked picture of me.”
“Good point.”
“I need to sort through the mail your dad dropped off,” I said.
I’d noticed come college envelopes in there. Maybe they were acceptances.
“One more minute, Dylan? Please. Helena has to go soon,” she said.
“Okay, but we both have homework.”
“Why are you so practical?”
“I’ve had to be, Taylor. I’d love to be frivolous, but I can’t be. Life is serious now.”
She sighed. I knew that she was never going to really understand what I was going through. I almost hoped she’d get bored with me, that way she’d move on and I would have to see or hear her.
It hurt. Truly, it hurt. Maybe I was in love with her. I didn’t know. I was eighteen and suddenly had to grow up and take care of myself. She didn’t have to.
“I’m really sorry. I haven’t figured out a solution to our problem, but Helena is helping me.”
I sat on the bed in my underwear, sorting through the mail. “How was your day?”
I didn’t want to hear about a non-existent solution to this problem. I’d done this to myself, and I had to man up and deal with the consequences.
“It was okay. Barbie quit cheerleading.”
“What was her reason?”
“She said it was because of her grades, but I think it is her new boyfriend.”
Guess she’d moved on from me, not that I was hurt or surprised. The girl had the attention span of a toddler. I’m sure I’d only been a blip on her radar, despite the stink she’d made.
“Yeah, us guys distract you.”
I opened a large envelope from Penn State. It said: “Congratulations.” I scanned the letter while Taylor chattered on. When she took a breath, I said, “I got into Penn State.”
“Nice, Dylan, congrats.”
I was pretty stoked. It was number one on my list. I just needed to know what kind of financial aid they were going to give me. That was the key. I clearly couldn’t afford college on my own. I’d probably have thousands of dollars of debt when I got out if I didn’t get grants.
A problem for another day. The next two envelopes were acceptances also. So far, I’d gotten into every college that I wanted to.
Now to pay for it.
I sighed. Taylor talked on as I said non-committal things at the right moment. Guess that was enough. I was suddenly very tired. I laid down on the bed, missing the comfortable one at the Dean house.
“You still there?” Taylor said.
“I am. I have to get into the shower and get my homework done before I fall asleep. I better go. Thank Helena for letting you use her phone.”
“She’s a good friend, I know.”
“Yes, she is, Taylor. Keep her close.”
“That sounded ominous.”
“No. It isn’t.”
We hung up finally about ten minutes later. I wanted to close my eyes for a moment, but I knew if I did, the next thing I knew, it would be morning and my homework would not be done. That would be bad.
Now that I had tasted the good life, I wanted it. I was determined to make myself better and to get out of this trailer. I was never going to be poor again.
College would do that for me and I had to finagle a way to pay for it. If it killed me, I would graduate and make something of myself.
I would have that big house.