They Called Me Worthless Until I Rose

2: 2

Once I said it, I picked up my chopsticks and just started eating. I had no interest in getting involved with Lillian's business.

My parents, on the other hand, spent the whole meal with their hearts in their throats.

"Bertie, your sister's out clubbing. What if she runs into some bad person?"

"Right, she's only nineteen. She's never seen how ugly the world can get."

I kept helping myself to food. "So what do you want to do? Go to the bar and find her?"

Neither of them answered. But I knew. Their silence meant yes.

After all, Lillian was the treasure they cradled at the very center of their hearts.

As for me, I wasn't exactly mistreated, but I only ever got what I was owed and nothing more.

Wanting anything beyond that? Not a cent.

That was why, four years ago, when the SAT scores came out, mine were high enough for a four-year university, and my parents said it was only a private for-profit school, the tuition was too steep, and I'd be better off at a public community college.

And now it was Lillian's turn, with scores that just barely scraped the four-year line, and suddenly she got to pay a fortune for the privilege of calling herself a university student.

I hadn't bothered to fight it back then. Either way… the outcome would've been the same.

I hadn't even finished my food when my mother couldn't sit still any longer and set down her bowl and chopsticks.

"No, I can't stand it. Let's go find her right now."

I sighed. "Is it really that urgent? At least let me finish eating."

She shot me a look, exasperated, like I was a hopeless case. I knew there was no getting out of it, so I put down my chopsticks and followed them.

The moment we reached the bar, I wanted to turn right back around.

I wouldn't call myself some model kid, but I'd always thought of myself as pretty obedient, and places like this, all neon and smoke, were places I went out of my way to avoid.

And now, of all things, I was setting foot in one for the first time to welcome my university-student sister.

My parents were even worse off, already covering their noses, bracing themselves over and over.

"Is Lily really in here?" my mother asked. "This place looks so seedy. Lily's a good girl."

My father sighed. "Maybe we heard wrong. Let's go in and look. Best case, she's not here at all!"

I was the only one shaking my head off to the side. That rock music blaring on the phone earlier, if not this bar, then some other one just like it.

I crept in behind my parents. The scruffy young crowd around us was blowing clouds of smoke, and someone actually held one out to my mother.

"Auntie, you're out clubbing at your age? Wanna try?"

She scoffed and hurried past, frowning.

We scanned the place. It was nearly impossible to spot one person in all that neon, but…

Today, Lillian was simply too hard to miss.

She'd bleached her hair blonde and stood in the most conspicuous spot in the bar, shouting into a mic.

"All my fellow university students! Tonight belongs to us, the university crowd!"

I covered my face. It was pure humiliation.

My parents kept opening their mouths and stopping, exchanging looks for a long moment before turning to me.

"Bertie, you should be the one to go get your sister down. This is too embarrassing."

I smiled and waved a hand. "I'll pass. A moment this glorious for the family, I'll leave to the two of you."

Too mortified to lift their heads, they edged sideways up onto the stage and grabbed hold of Lillian's clothes.

"Lily, come with us now. What do you think you look like!"

Lillian rubbed her eyes, and when she saw it was our parents, she burst out laughing.

"Mom, Dad, what are you doing here? This is a party for us university students. You and my sister, three community-college dropouts, showing up here is way too embarrassing."

The crowd of oddly dressed kids around her joined in, egging her on.

"Yeah, old man, old lady, we're all university students. You standing here is really 'a chicken among cranes,' isn't it?"

"Come on, there's an academic barrier between four-year and community-college folks. How could they possibly follow our refined conversation!"

"It's not that we look down on community college. It's just, the gulf between us is something a community-college student would never even notice."