Free Shifting Gears: The Complete Series (Sports Bad Boy Romance) by Alycia Taylor

what’s best for you, but we
can’t do anything if you won’t tell us what’s going on with you.”
    “What is going on with me, Dad?” I ask. “I’ve
been your perfect little girl my entire life, and you’re really going to go off
on me for leaving work early one time?”
    Actually, it was twice
that I left work early and I went out with Eli both times. I don’t think either
of those facts will be of much help to me here, though.
    “Honey,” Dad says before
hesitating.
    “Would it really be the
end of the world if I started seeing someone?” I’m tempted to tell them simply
out of spite for keeping me locked up, thinking I just wasn’t the “fun-loving
type” for the last twenty years or so, but I think better of it.
    “So, you have started
seeing someone,” Mom says. “Do you have any idea what it takes to become a
doctor?”
    “I’d say I know that
better than most,” I start.
    “ Constant dedication,” Mom says. “Would you want someone digging around inside you if they were off with
boys while they should have been studying?”
    “First off, I’m not
interested in boys, I’m interested in men,” I counter. Both my parents’ faces
go red, but I’m already in it, so I may as well keep going. “Second off, if I was seeing someone, I don’t think I’d
tell you about it because I know how the two of you are. If it’s not about
being a doctor, you’re not interested. You think you’re so much better than
everyone else!”
    “Go to your room!” my dad
growls, rising to his feet.
    “Honestly, how old do the
two of you think I am?”
    “It doesn’t matter how
young or old you are,” Dad says. “While you’re living under our roof, you’re
going to be respectful and mind your mother and me. You’re grounded !”
    He doesn’t appreciate me
laughing, but this is just absurd.
    “Whatever,” I say and
walk out of the room.
    It’s been a while since I
was sent upstairs to my room, but I’m not staying there. Tonight is way too
important.
    Tonight, Eli’s taking me
to my first race.
    I showered at the
hospital before coming home, so all I really have to do now is get changed and
get some makeup on and I’m ready to blow this place. By blow this place, of
course, I mean sneak out for a few hours and then sneak back in, hoping neither
of them decides to come upstairs to talk to me during the interim.
    This is what being a
teenager must feel like to other people.
    I get changed, but when
it’s time to start on the makeup, I get nervous. If my parents come in here
right now, I’ll be fine. I wouldn’t have to explain to either of them why I
would want to change out of my hospital clothes.
    If I start with the
makeup, though, they’re going to know something’s out of place.
    “Screw it,” I say to
myself and grab some foundation just as there’s a knock on my door.
    I set the small bottle on
my vanity and walk to the door, but I don’t unlock it.
    “What do you want?” I
ask.
    “Dinner’s ready,
sweetheart,” Dad answers.
    I scoff. “I’m not
hungry,” I tell him.
    “You’ve got to eat
something.” There’s a lilt in his voice that wasn’t there when he was sitting
next to Mom. Of my two parents, Dad would be the good cop.
    “Maybe I’ll order some
pizza and see if they’ll deliver it to my window,” I counter.
    He lets out an uneasy
chuckle. “Well, they might have a little trouble getting it up to you on the
second floor.”
    “We’ve got a ladder,” I
tell him.
    If I’d known I’d come
home and turn into Rapunzel, I would have set it up beneath my window before I
entered the front door.
    “I don’t like arguing
with you,” he says. “And you’re right: you are still my perfect little girl.
Your mother and I just worry about you. That’s all. There are a lot of things
your generation has to deal with that we never had growing up.”
    “Like cellphones? If it
makes you feel any better, I’ve never had one of those, either. I’m pretty