uh, well, my dad’s running for senator and he likes me to be
discreet about who I date; about everything, actually.”
Danica’s forehead creased at that, but otherwise her face
remained impassive, and she said nothing.
Emily went on, even though her stomach was churning with
the sick sensation of something that felt close to panic. The
room seemed to be closing in on her, the air too thick and hot.
“Anyway, they want me to go to law school. My mom said
that if I don’t start applying, and she’ll check everything over
before I send it, then they’re not going to pay for the rest of
my degree, so I won’t be able to finish it. They’ll try to cut me
off just because they can. They won’t disown me or anything,
but they’ll take away my funding so that I basically have to
listen to them.”
Dani shrugged, like that was supposed to answer
everything. “You could just lady up and go to law school,
become a lawyer, then do your art. Give them what they want,
but turn the tables on them. They want you to be a lawyer, but
they never said you had to practice. You could become one,
work for a few years, do your art on the side, then drop the shit
you don’t want to be doing for the shit you do.”
It seemed like solid advice. Good advice, really, but Emily
didn’t want to accept that. “I can’t see myself going to school
for two years. It’s not easy. It would be even harder if I hated
every minute of it.”
Dani actually laughed at that. She threw back her head, and
even though her laugh was pretty, it was the kind of laughter
that said Emily didn’t know the first thing about the world.
“So, you really do think I’m spoiled and don’t know what
real problems are.”