Free Reluctantly Famous by Heather Leigh

contract.
    “ Sorry!” he cries out.
“Geez, I was just sitting here.”
    “ Well go sit somewhere
else, Garrett. We’re talkin’ some sense into yer brother.” My dad
doesn’t have to tell Garrett twice. He jumps up from the table and
disappears to his room.
    I flex my hands under the table, gripping my
knees so I won’t be tempted to make a fist.
    “ I don’t understand,” I
say to them. “All I want to do is earn enough money to help out so
you can retire someday. Maybe fix up the house or move to a nicer
one. This is the fastest way to do that.” Actually, all I really
want is for them to be proud of me. I thought giving them a lot of
money might actually work since nothing else I’ve ever done
has.
    “ Son, do yer think we got
where we are by takin’ the fast way?” my dad asks. “We came from
Ireland with nothin’. Worked night and day to make a life here. To
raise yer kids right. Honorably. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with startin’
from the bottom.”
    So now he’s insinuating I haven’t worked
hard.
    “ I didn’t say there was,
Dad.” I grit my teeth together, my words hissing out between
them.
    Why am I bothering with this? They’re so old
school. They’re never going to see things my way. I would have just
gone to New York and lied about my job if I didn’t think someone
they knew would see the ads and tell them about it.
    “ Declan, I never thought
I’d see the day I was disappointed in ya, lad. But thar’s a time
for everythin’ I guess.”
    My heart feels as if someone is squeezing it
in my chest. Disappointed. I’m a disappointment. As if my dad
wasn’t always disappointed in something I did. He never said it,
but I got the message loud and clear. If I got an A, why wasn’t it
an A+? If I hit a triple in little league, he’d mutter that it
should have been a home run. I chose to go to UPenn and I should
have gone to Harvard. Nothing was or is ever going to be good
enough for him.
    It pisses me off that every decision I made
in life was to make my dad proud, to hear him say it. Not once, not
one single fucking time has he ever done it. Why I still care is
beyond me. I’m sick and fucking tired of caring.
    I stand up, my chair scraping loudly when I
shove it back. “That’s bullshit. All I’ve ever done is work hard to
prove myself to you. Straight A’s in school, a full scholarship to
UPenn, bust my ass to get my degree in three years instead of four…
all while working almost forty hours a week.”
    The anger builds inside, bubbling up from my
gut and churning until it has to explode out of me. Twenty-one
years of anger, about to spew out at once.
    “ Now, I finally have a
chance to make money, a lot of money, and you disapprove of it?
Fuck that and fuck you!”
    The last thing I see is my parents’ shocked
expressions before I turn on my heel and storm out the door.
     

Chapter 9
     
     
    Allie – now
     
    “ Okay Patty, I’ll talk to
you later and we’ll finalize the details for the silent
auction.”
    “ Bye.”
    I hang up the phone, exhausted. Every year I
tell myself I’m going to let the Grady’s handle the Fourth of July
fundraiser without me, and every year I end up taking on way too
much anyway. It’s my own fault, I love parties, I love Inpatient to
Learn, and I love everyone who’s involved in the charity. It’s only
natural for me to want to pitch in and help. Unfortunately, I never
say no, which leads to massive amounts of stressing out.
    No sooner do I hang up my phone than it
rings again. I’m about to let it go to voicemail, but decide to
look at the display in case it’s Dex. He’s flying in from L.A.
tonight, and I don’t want to miss his call.
    The number isn’t one I recognize. It’s not
Dex.
    “ Hello?”
    “ Allie. How are
you?”
    “ Beth? I’m good. How did
you get my number? Not that I’m mad or anything, but I’ve changed
it at least three times since leaving school.” Each time because
someone found out about Drew and