Page 22 of The First Time
Kit: Didn't have it when I was using.
Piper: That must be hard, knowing you can fix something that messes with you every other night.
Kit: It can be.
Piper: Does being on the road make it harder to stay clean?
Kit: In some ways. In others it's easier.
Piper: Like...?
Kit: If this is a game, it's my turn.
Piper: Okay, go for it.
Kit: You could mooch off your brothers if you wanted. A lot of celebrity's siblings do that. You ever consider it?
Piper: Never. I'm getting my own place as soon as I can afford it.
Kit: What's stopping you?
Piper: Rent around here is more than I made at my old job, at this little cafe. I had to quit last semester. My grades were slipping. I couldn't juggle both.
Kit: School should come first.
Piper: Says the what— high school graduate?
Kit: College dropout.
Piper: Says the college drop out rock star?
Kit: You want to wait tables your whole life?
Piper: No.
Kit: I quit to play bass. I knew that was what I wanted to do.
Piper: Your parents must have been furious.
Kit: You'd be surprised.
Actually, I wouldn't. Our parents bailed days after Mal turned eighteen. They're home a few weeks a year. They send cards and money at birthdays and Christmas. They call once a month.
That's the full extent of their parenting skills.
They aren't technically deadbeats. They have big, important jobs as research scientists. They're off doing fieldwork, not getting high.
But what's the difference? Either way, they aren't here. They don't show an interest in us.
I'm stuck in angry thoughts of mom and dad when my phone buzzes with a call from Rory. I haven't texted her aboutGilmore Girlsyet. She must have gossip to share about her boyfriend.
Shit. I missed the call.
A text from her flares on my phone. Something about an emergency.
The selfish part of me hopes her boyfriend ended things— Carter is a burn out and he hogs Rory's time—but I push that aside. She's my friend and I want her to be happy.
Even if it means I'm losing time with my oldest friend.
