“It is, but it’s boring.” I glanced from him to Mom. “Think about it. Both of your jobs bring you something different every single day. You go to work and you don’t know what’s going to happen. Even when you have a schedule and all of that, new things pop up. There are no accounting emergencies that are exciting.”
“That’s true,” Mom said as she set her glass on the table. “John, that’s something both of us love about our jobs. We get such a variety of issues that it keeps us on our feet.”
“I know that,” he snapped. When Mom raised an eyebrow, he held up a hand in defeat. He knew he’d done something wrong. Mom and Dad didn’t fight. They disagreed. They debated. But they never yelled at each other.
“So what are you going to do with that?” he asked instead.
This was where I was nervous. “Well, the morning DJs have brought me into the studio a couple of times.”
“Oh, I’ve heard her,” Delaney said with excitement. “I heard you talking about Daisy Thompson a while back.”
“I loved it. It was so exciting and fun. I want to do that.”
Dad’s eyebrow shot to the moon. “You want to be a radio disc jockey?” he asked. I nodded. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I’m not.”
“You’ve definitely got the personality for it.” Delaney winked and gave me an encouraging smile. “I think you’ll be fantastic.”
“What does Aunt Jurnie want to do?” Lily asked.
“I’ll explain it to you later,” Delaney whispered so Lily would stop asking questions.
“What does this mean for school?” Mom asked while Dad stewed.
“Well, I can still graduate on time with a broadcast journalism degree. It’ll take a lot of work and I’ll have to do eighteen credits each semester next year, but I can do it.”
“You already have this all planned out, don’t you?” Mom tapped her finger against her chin as she often did when she was thinking.
“I wouldn’t be telling you all about it if I didn’t.” Yes, I was a rule follower, but I also made sure to have all my ducks in a row before doing something. I didn’t dive headfirst into anything, other than, apparently, Bonham.
“Why would you do this, Jurnie? We’ve given you the best education we possibly could.” Of course Dad would think this had something to do with him. “Is it because of this boyfriend? We still haven’t finished discussing you spending the night with him.”
“And we’re not going to.” I remained calm because I knew this was what I wanted and not talking about Bonham was also something I wanted.
“We haven’t met him.” Dad wasn’t going to give up.
“I have.” Delaney raised her hand. I knew she’d be supportive of whatever I did. “He’s incredibly hot.”
Dad rolled his eyes. “That’s obviously what we’d want to hear about our daughter’s boyfriend. What kind of man is he?”
“A good one,” I said so automatically that I didn’t think he’d believe me.
“What’s he do?”
This was the conversation that I didn’t want to have with them. “First, it has nothing to do with Bonham. This is what I want to do with my life. You and Mom should feel safe knowing that you raised me to be the person I am and I want to be her. Not a pod person who is just going to do what you tell me to.”
Dad’s fist hit the table with a loud bang that caused all of us to jump, including Lily.
“John,” Mom chastised. Dad wasn’t an angry guy. He didn’t show his anger physically outside of what he’d just done. He barely yelled. Though part of that was because Delaney and I were good kids for the most part and he didn’t need to.
“Hey, Lily,” Delaney said softly. “How about we take your dinner downstairs tonight? You can eat in the living room and watch TV.”
“Yay,” my niece said, then she hopped off her chair. Delaney went with her, but I knew she’d be back. She’d never leave me alone, but she had to get her kid settled.
An uncomfortable silence hung between my parents and me but luckily Delaney was back at the table before anyone of us broke it.
“Jurnie.” My mom’s voice was much calmer. Maybe it was the fact that she had to remain calm in court or that she was used to tense situations. I wasn’t sure which. “There just seems to be a lot of changes with you recently and the only reason why seems to be this boy.”
“It’s not that,” I told her as Delaney joined us again. “It’s not him. Yes, he’s new. Yes, I’m developing feelings for him.” My sister raised an eyebrow. She knew exactly how deep my feelings were going, but it was better not to put that out there for my parents yet. “But I’ve been figuring myself out for a while.”
“It’s true,” Delaney added. Dad’s gaze slid to her as if she weren’t supposed to be in this conversation, but we never had anything happen in this house where we weren’t all allowed to be involved. “Jurnie has been talking to me about things for a while. She’s not happy in accounting. Do you want her to be happy with her life?”
Mom nodded then took another drink of her wine. “I did wonder how you could love accounting when you declared your major.”
“I thought it was the safe choice,” I told her. “I wanted to be safe, but now I know I’d rather be happy. Will radio work out for me? I have no idea, but I’ll figure it out. I want to do this.”
“We can’t make these decisions for her.” Mom wasn’t talking to me anymore. “So what does this entail? What do you need from us?”
My stomach tightened and I set my fork down on my plate. I wasn’t going to be eating any more tonight. “Well, I’m going to drop my current class because I don’t need it anymore. Nothing I do need is open, so no
