Next Stop Funnel Cake by Heidi Champa Read Free Book Online

don't know. You're not a doctor."
    "I am, actually."
    "Right. Forgot about that whole PhD. thing."
    "All that time in school had to count for something. You don't have to go that far, Travis, unless you really want to. Start with the Bachelors and see what happens."
    I felt myself tense at the mere mention of school. I'd hoped to avoid the topic for at least a couple of days, but it seemed no matter what I did, it kept coming up.
    "I told you we could talk about all that later," I said, squirming away from him a bit, but he didn't let me go far.
    "It is later."
    "You know what I mean."
    "When you say later, you really mean never."
    "Not never. Not right now."
    "Why?"
    "I already told you why."
    "No, you told me why you left school and gave me a half-assed answer about why you don't want to try again. So how about you try some of that honesty we talked about and give me the real story."
    I stared at the ceiling and trying to think of a way out. I could run to the bathroom, or to the kitchen for the drink I said I didn't need. Having sex again seemed out, considering we'd already done it twice. I was trapped.
    "Fine. Like I said before, my parents' divorce got out of hand. At first, they were going to sell the house, split the money and go their separate ways. Neat and easy. Then my mom hired a lawyer who told her she could get more because she had proof my dad cheated. When my dad found out, his lawyer told him that he could fight it all because my mother had slapped him a few times during their arguments."
    "Jesus."
    "Oh, wait. It gets better. Not only did they fight over the house, they fought over everything in the house. Each item was up for grabs, and each time they talked to their lawyers about anything, it cost more money. They ended up selling the house and splitting the money anyway. But they burned through the proceeds arguing over furniture and..."
    "And, you?"
    I swallowed hard remembering some of the custody hearings. Since I'd been old enough to have an opinion, I'd gotten to hear more than I ever bargained for.
    "That got really ugly. They both wanted full custody, which was completely ridiculous. If they'd only agreed to a sane shared custody schedule, it would've saved everyone a lot of trouble. I begged them both to do it, but it didn't seem to matter."
    "Why didn't they?"
    "Because they were more concerned with hurting each other than what the whole thing was doing to me. They both wanted to win."
    Andrew held me tighter, but didn't say anything. I'd come this far, so I figured I'd finish the story.
    "They were still at it six months before my eighteenth birthday, when it became a moot point. When I left for school, I thought things were finally okay again. Then, halfway through spring semester sophomore year, my mom calls and tells me that there's no money for next year. It was all gone. By this time, both of them were living in crappy apartments, and my dad had a new girlfriend with three kids of her own. I saved everyone the trouble and moved in with Nick when the semester ended."
    Andrew kissed my temple, and I could hear him breathing in my ear.
    "I'm so sorry, Travis."
    "Yeah, me, too. I do want to go back to school. More than you know. I don't like talking about it because it hurts too much. Until I can get the money and do it on my own, I figure what's the point of dwelling on it?"
    "There are other ways, you know."
    "I told you, there's no sense in getting loans I'm never going to be able to afford to repay."
    "You don't know you wouldn't be able to."
    "You're right, but I'm not willing to take that chance. Not right now."
    I could hear the ticking of the clock hanging in the hall and a steady drip of water from the faucet in the bathroom. In my apartment, the silence was always punctuated by the fights our upstairs neighbors got into on a regular basis. I could get used to this kind of quiet.
    "And Nick?"
    "He's offered more times than I can count."
    "Then let him help."
    I let out a deep breath and