Free The Fake Boyfriend Experiment by Stephanie Rowe

Being tortured. Having no friends and no life.” I glared at my mom and Miss Jespersen. “Being told I’m a failure fifty times a lesson. I’m not a loser and I’m sick of you trying to convince me I am!”
    “Of course you’re not a loser, or a failure,” my dad said, looking genuinely surprised. “Why would you think that?”
    I pointed at Crusty. “Because she tells me that all the time.”
    My parents looked at Miss Jespersen and her sweet old lady look vanished. She narrowed her eyes and shot me a hostile look that definitely increased the odds of my parents believing that she was a demon in disguise. I smiled at her. “And Mom backs her up,” I added.
    It was my mom’s turn to look shocked. “I love you, Lily! I don’t criticize your piano!”
    Seriously? Did she really believe that?
    “Lily, I’m merely trying to push you to be the great pianist you can be,” Miss Jespersen said. “I wouldn’t be doing you any favors if I complimented you when—”
    I covered my ears and scrunched my eyes closed. “Shut up! Just stop it! I can’t take it anymore!”
    “Lily!” My mom looked horrified. “Apologize to Miss Jespersen immediately!”
    “No!” I stomped my feet in frustration. Why wouldn’t they listen to me? “I used to be talented, okay? But I’m not anymore. I stink at the piano.” I ran over to the piano and held up a stack of sheet music. “Do you see this? I can’t do it!” I hurled it across the floor, and the papers scattered across the carpet.
    My mom sucked in her breath, and I felt like cheering, because that meant she’d actually heard me. “Lily—”
    “I’m never going to live up to my potential, even if I practice until my fingers turn into bloody stumps! I can’t take all this pressure, and I’m tired of not being able to have a life! I hate it!” Tears were streaming down my cheeks, but I didn’t care. Let them see what they were doing to me.
    My dad narrowed his eyes and looked thoughtful, while my mom went crazy on me, telling me I didn’t appreciate the opportunities I’d been given, and Crusty started talking about getting me counseling to handle the stress of being a child prodigy.
    My chest heaving with sobs, I stared at my dad and he looked at me, both of us ignoring my mom and Crusty. My dad didn’t usually get involved in the piano stuff. It was my mom and Miss Jespersen’s deal.
    “Do you want to quit the piano?” he asked me quietly.
    My mom and Crusty shut up fast when I nodded.
    “Are you sure?” he asked.
    “Yes.” Was he really going to let me do it? Could I really become normal? My throat tightened at the thought of not having any more pressure, of never facing the threat of failure again. Oh, God. Was it really over?
    “No,” my mom whispered in horror. “She can’t quit.”
    Miss Jespersen said nothing, but she was looking at me with the strangest look on her face, like she’d never seen me before.
    “Why haven’t you mentioned this before?” my dad asked.
    “I do! I tell Mom all the time.”
    We both looked at her, and her face paled. “But this is your dream,” she said. “I’m just trying to support it.”
    “No, Mom. It’s your dream.”
    “Lily!” My mom looked ill. “What are you saying? You love the piano!”
    “I used to. I hate it now.” I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my voice.
    “Lily, go upstairs,” my dad said gently. “We need to discuss this.”
    Grateful for the reprieve, I nodded and bolted for the door.
    * * *
     
    Erin and I spent the next two tortured hours on the phone trying to predict the outcome of the summit meeting in my living room while we waited for my sentencing.
    Finally someone knocked on my door. “Lily?” my dad called out. “Are you still up?”
    I jerked upright. “They’re here,” I whispered.
    “You have to call me back as soon as they’re gone,” Erin ordered. “No matter what time. Swear?”
    “I swear.” I hung up and shoved the phone under my pillow.