Page 16 of Falling for My Best Friend's Dad
She smiles and hugs me. “I’m so proud of you, Kayla! So which one are you going to accept?”
My shoulders sag. “That’s the thing I’m trying to decide, Mom. What should I do?”
She sighs. “You’re a grownup, daughter. I can’t make decision for you. If I were you, I would choose the one I like. But you are not me.”
True. My mom and I are different. She follows her heart and I tend to listen to my head. “Thanks for not helping,” I pout.
She smiles and kisses my cheek. “Go to bed and get a good night’s sleep. I’m sure you’ll make the right choice.”
“Good night, Mom!”
Even though I try, I end up tossing and turning in bed most of the night. I linger in bed until I hear my mom’s car leaving the driveway. And then I get up and fix breakfast for the three of us.
“You’ve got puffy eyes, Kayla,” Maria says to me the moment she comes to the kitchen. “You want me to get rid of them for you?”
I roll my eyes. My little sister has recently become my beauty consultant. “No thanks. I’ll take care of it. Why don’t you hurry and eat your tortilla?” I say while piling the eggs and bacon onto the plates.
Leo has his nose in his cell phone. I snatch it away from him and order him to eat.
“Come on,” he complains. “You’re worse than Mom.”
“I don’t want to be late for work!”
I finish my portion quickly and rush to the bathroom to fix my puffy eyes.
They go to the same school, so that makes it easier.
“Leo, how was your last SAT test?” I glance at my brother from the rearview mirror.
“Bad,” he says without looking up from his phone.
“How bad?”
He doesn’t answer, but focuses on typing on his phone.
“Would you stop playing with your phone for a minute?” I chide. “This is about your future, Leo!”
He sighs and tosses the phone on his seat. “What do you want me to say? I don’t want to go to college, okay?”
I gasp. “What did you just say?”
“You hear me loud and clear, Kayla. I don’t plan to go to college,” he says defiantly.
“What are you going to do, then?”
“I’m going to find a job. There’re plenty of jobs that don’t require a college degree. There’re lots of people get rich without it, too.”
I can’t deny he’s speaking the truth, but I don’t give in. “What jobs do you have in mind, McDonald’s?”
“McDonald’s isn’t that bad,” he says. “But no, Victor says he’ll recommend me into SFFC.”
“Are you serious?” I cry after registering the meaning of his words. SFFC is a soccer and football club in the Bay Area. “Playing soccer is supposed to be the means for you to get in a good college, not a goal of your life.”
“Well, it is a goal for me,” he replies defensively.
“You’re out of your mind. What are your chances of making it into a pro? Less than one percent!”
“Yeah, but I could be the one percent,” he says, sounding angry.
