The Perfect Escape (The Perfect Escape #1) - Suzanne Park Page 0,83

one I wanted to celebrate this victory with because she made it happen. Because I was in love with her. God, where was she?

Through the bustling crowd, familiar faces appeared, but they weren’t hers. My dad, mom, and sister elbowed their way over to me, a mix of anger and worry etched on their faces.

Mom yelled first. “You were supposed to be at friend house! We worried sick! And you take my car!”

Then Dad. “You are grounded. Until you are graduated! Maybe longer!”

And Lucy. “I told them you leaved out of the house!” Her eyes cast toward my filthy boots. “I’m sorry you’re in big trouble.”

I squatted to her eye level. “Asking you to keep that secret was wrong, Lucy. That was all my fault. But when we get home, remind me that I have a gift for you.”

She squirmed her way between Mom and Dad and hugged me. “A gift? For me?”

When she let me go, I cupped her face and squished her cheeks with my thumbs. “I missed you, kiddo.”

I did. I missed her a lot.

I loved being her older brother.

“Can you come to my class tomorrow, Oppa? It’s share day. I want to show everyone your medal and trophy!”

“Sure, I owe you that much.” At least someone in my family was proud of me.

Standing up again, I found it hard to look at my parents’ disappointed faces. “Mom, Dad, I’m so sorry. I should have just been honest with you about where I was going. I wanted to make you proud of me. The good news is I have enough money to make a big payment on the house. I know you lost your job, Dad, and that’s because Pete Haskill got his dad to fire you, because of me. That was one of the main reasons I did this competition.” I turned to my dad. “And now we have enough to hire someone to fix the leaky roof.”

My parents exchanged looks. It wasn’t a look of joy, like I’d expected. More like complete confusion with a trace of melancholy.

Dad said, “I don’t need your money. I hate that job anyway and needed change. And I have good job now.”

“Wait, you do?”

Dad smiled. “I start tomorrow. A start-up company hire me. Can you believe this old man will be working with so many young people?”

Okay, so Dad had a job now and the house was safe. “Mom, I’m going to buy a new car for you then.”

She shrugged. “But I like my Honda.”

“But now you can get a new Honda,” I protested.

She crossed her arms. “But I don’t want new Honda.”

Surely Dad would get why she needed a new car. My eyes pleaded for him to help.

He shook his head. “Your mom like her car. I try to get new one. We test-drive new Accord every year, but she keep old one. She feel safer. She say new car with all electronic gadget thing make her nervous.”

I shook my head and sighed, like how I did when Lucy frustrated me so much that I wanted to punch a hole in the wall. Kim family rule, don’t argue with them, Nate. “Okay, fine. But we can still get someone for the new roof, though.”

This time, Dad snorted like a bull ready to charge. “I learn at Home Depot how to fix. I buy better tarp and better sealant this time.” A second snort, this one more sarcastic. Like a snort-cough. “If you know how to do yourself and workers come to fix, you know if they cheat you.”

Unbelievable. Here I was, an ATM dispensing free money, and they didn’t want any of it.

My dad gripped my shoulder. “We work hard, but we like our life.”

I said in a whinier voice that I’d have liked, “But I want your lives to be easier.”

The Zeneration PR spokesperson popped her head over my shoulder. Her perfect blond bob didn’t move, even in the wind. “Nate, we need to steal you away in about five minutes,” she said,