Page 60 of Margo's Got Money Troubles

Becca smiled. “No, I can tell just from looking at you.”

“What about you?” Margo asked.

“I’m... okay,” Becca said, laughing nervously. “School is a little yucky, not gonna lie. I didn’t get cast in any of the shows, which, like, last year I was a freshman, so I didn’t expect to be, but I guess I was hoping as a sophomore? And it’s fine. It’s a change, though, to go from being cast in every show because you’re a senior to suddenly you don’t even get to act anymore when that’s the whole thing you came there to do.”

Margo nodded. She had not realized Becca was that serious about acting. She’d acted in high school, but Margo thought that was purely for the social scene.

They talked on this way for almost an hour until their barnyardal tea was cold, and gradually Margo got the picture of Becca’s life in the city: hookups with a guy studying jazz saxophone where she got her feelings hurt, doing blow with a girl she didn’t like very much in the East Village, spending half her food money on vapes and alcohol and making up for it by eating nothing but on-sale vegetarian hot dogs on Wonder bread. The grades she’d gotten weren’t as good as she’d hoped. Some of her classes were easy, some of them were hard, and sometimes her professors were kind of mean. Or rather, they did not see Becca or care about her or feel any kind of native sympathy for her.

“I don’t know why I’m crying,” Becca said. “I’m not sad! What time is it? I didn’t even mean to talk this much. I came here, actually, because Angie Milano is having a party at her parents’ house. Wanna go?”

“Oh,” Margo said, taken aback. “Gosh, no!”

“Seriously?” Becca asked. “Too good for your old high school friends?”

Margo didn’t know what to say. But yes, the idea of spending time in Angie Milano’s parents’ darkened living room making small talk with people she went to high school with sounded terrible.

“Sebastian will be there,” Becca sang, trying to tempt her.

Margo still felt some tenderness toward Sebastian. But seeing him was the last thing she wanted. She felt so far away from who she’d been and with no easy way to explain who she was now. Jinx appeared with Bodhi. “He’s getting fussy, would you mind nursing him?”

Margo took him and whipped out a boob without thinking about it.

“Oh, wow,” Becca said. “You’re not gonna go in another room?”

Margo stared at her.

“No, it’s fine!” Becca said. “Sorry, I was just surprised.”

Without a word, Jinx tossed Margo a swaddling blanket to use as a cover-up. She draped it over Bodhi as he nursed, though of course he continually tried to claw it off. Who wants to eat while being smothered by a blanket? It occurred to her that Becca had not asked a single question about Margo’s life. She didn’t have to lie about OnlyFans because Becca hadn’t even asked what she was doing for work.

“Come on, I know you wanna go,” Becca said. “And if it’s boring, we can ditch out.”

“I don’t want to leave Bodhi,” Margo said. “And I don’t know, the idea of drinking, like, Smirnoff Ice and asking people about college, ugh.” Margo actually shuddered.

“What, like college is so terrible to hear about?” Becca asked, clearly offended now. All the warmth between them evaporated so quickly, Margo could still sense it as a vapor in the air.

“I just feel like, you know, I’m on a different track now.”

“Why, because you’re a mom?”

“Well, yeah.” Margo shrugged.

“You think you’re so fucking special,” Becca said with a venom that surprised Margo.

“Becca,” Margo said, exasperated. “It’s not about being special, it’s literally that it’s painful for me to hear about college. Do you think I didn’t want to go to NYU? Do you think I wasn’t jealous?”

“You didn’t even apply!”

“Because I couldn’t afford it!”

“You could have gotten financial aid. You chose not to go. I begged you to apply with me,” Becca said.

“What I could have gotten was thousands of dollars in debt with no way to repay it. How would I have even gotten to New York? You think Shyanne would buy me a plane ticket? I mean, honestly, Becca, do you not know? Like after all this time, do you not know?” Margo was aware of Jinx listening in the living room. She didn’t care.

“Know what?” Becca snorted.

“Your parents are rich. That’s the difference. That’s why you went to NYU, and I didn’t.”

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