Page 91 of Never Have I Ever
“Grayson,” I say, trailing after him.
“Go to class, Rosie,” he tells me.
I don’t want to go to class. Not now. Not when he’s about to finally tell me something real about himself. Ever since he told me about selling assignments, I’ve been racking my brain as to why he would need to. His tuition is probably paid off, and his parents probably gave him money, so why?
“I’m not going anywhere until you talk to me.”
He shakes his head, letting out a bitter laugh. “Why are you doing this? I don’t owe you anything. We aren’t together.”
I flinch, stepping back from him. I know that. He hasn’t stopped saying it. But it doesn’t stop me from wanting to get to know him, to know everything about him.
“Just tell me,” I whisper. “I’ll leave right after. I promise. Just tell me.”
I knew this had to end sometime, and it sounds like Grayson’s already there. I don’t want to be a burden on him, I just want to know him.
He sighs, dropping his head forward. “Because I want to get out of here,” he finally says. I scrunch my brows, waiting for him to continue. “My tuition is paid, but I don’t have any money. You have a trust fund, right?” I nod. “Mine comes with stipulations. I only get access to it once I graduate.”
That makes sense, I guess. Most parents wouldn’t want their child to get their hands on money and blow it before they even turn twenty-one because they have no idea what to do with it.
“I get where they’re coming from,” I tell him. “If you don’t know how money works—”
He snorts. “I was doing my uncle’s taxes by the time I was ten. I’ve always understood the value of money, how people don’t have what we did growing up. That wasn’t the problem.”
“Then what was the problem?”
“Drugs.”
I frown. “Drugs?”
He nods, dropping his head. “My parents think I’m a drug addict, so they don’t want me to have access to money because they think I’ll shoot up.” He lifts his head and looks at me. “The reason I sell assignments is because, if I ever want to leave this shit hole before I graduate, then I need money.”
He lifts off the sink and turns his body to face me. “I’m not asking for a million dollars or anything. I don’t want that life. I want to start over somewhere new.” He shrugs. “Open a garage of my own and work on cars. Away from everything and everyone I know.”
I bite my lip, not knowing what to say to him. I have a trust fund, I have financial freedom, and he wants that.
“I don’t want to be near my parents,” he continues. “If I graduate and accept the money from them, I will always have ties attached to them, and I don’t want that.”
“I get that,” I tell him. I understand what it's like to be a part of that life. You feel entitled to do anything that they ask of you because you took their money. I took their trust and still feel indebted to my mother, which is why I attended that event and talked to the guy she was trying to set me up with.
“Why do your parents think you’re a drug addict?” I remember him being so adamant about not taking drugs, and he made me promise I would never do it again. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but now that he’s mentioned it, it gnaws at me.
He groans, wiping a hand down his face, and heads into the shower. “Go to class, Rosie.”
That’s all I’m getting from him, it seems. I don’t know what to think when he shuts the bathroom door, and I hear running water a minute later. I find my jeans and tug them on, picking up my stuff and heading out of his place.
30
Secrets come out eventually
Grayson
Rosie’s avoiding me.
Ever since she left my house two days ago, I haven’t heard from her. I text, call, and she doesn’t answer. I don’t know if she freaked out by what I told her, but she asked me.
I don’t want her to know how fucked up I really am. This whole arrangement was about her, so why does she care if I go to class or not?
I panicked when she told me she’d leave and told her the reason why I needed the money. At least it started off that way. During freshman year, I came to Redfield full of anger, wanting to get rid of every memory I had of New York.
