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What would happen if they found out?
She laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “My mother would say I’m wasting my brain. My father wouldn’t speak to me for a week. And then they’d lock me in my room until I applied to early decision.”
“What do you want?” I ask her as the bar begins to fill for the evening.
Lily has been accepted to three pre-med programs. Her deposit for State University is due in six weeks. The same week, Marcus has offered her a paid Friday night residency at The Velvet Note —her name on a little chalkboard sign and everything.
For the next five hours, she sings.
The guilt is a physical thing. I watch her press her palm against her sternum as she reads the messages.
She looks at the empty stage. The single spotlight. The piano bench where she’s spent the happiest hours of her life.
The next day at school, he passed her in the hallway. Their eyes met. She braced herself.