Private School Playboys novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Acceptance

I opened it standing on the balcony in Jude's shirt, with the cold coming up through my bare feet.

The first line was congratulations.

The second line said my financial package covered tuition, room, board and books, for four years, with a summer research stipend.

I read it twice.

Then I sat down on the stone floor and put the letter over my face.

Roisin started screaming, and Jude, who had been asleep, sat up in the bed so fast he hit his head on the lamp.

"What? What happened?"

"She got in!" Roisin yelled. "She got in, she got in, she got in!"

I felt Jude's arms come around me and lift me off the floor, letter and all.

"Roberta."

"I know."

"You got in."

"I know," I said, and finally I was crying, hard, into his neck.

My mother came on Saturday.

She took the early bus from Hartford and walked up the Hollis drive in her good wool coat.

She carried a Tupperware of baked ziti in each hand.

I ran down the gravel and nearly took her off her feet.

"Baby," she said into my hair. "Let me see you. You're too thin."

"I'm size fourteen, Mom."

"You're thin in the face."

She held the letter at arm's length and read it with her lips moving.

She read the last line, and the first line, and then she sat down on the stone bench and pressed her hand over her mouth.

"Nobody in my family," she said. "Nobody."

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