Daniel checked his email one last time. No response back from the professor. It’s not like she can say no, since it states in her syllabus that death in the family is the only viable excuse for extensions on papers. ‘This dead dad thing has its perks’ Daniel thinks, before realizing how dark that really is.

He packs away his computer and shuffles to the front of his dorm room. With two desks, two dressers, and two beds shoved into the same small dorm, there wasn’t much space to move around. Daniel’s roommate lay on his bed with his laptop.

“Hey, remember that one time you got angry and punched a hole in the wall, and I took the fall for it?” Daniel asked as he collected his duffel bag from the floor. His roommate nodded but clearly wasn’t listening.

“Yeah, well, last night, I drank your energy drink from the fridge without asking. Anyway, I have to go now, bye!” Daniel fled the scene, duffel bag in tow.

Just before the dorm door clicked shut he heard his roommate yell, “Oh hell nah! I’m gonna kick your ass Danny!”

Luckily, Danny was out of ass-kicking distance by then.

Daniel stood outside the main entrance to his university with the phone to his ear. Jamie picked up in a matter of seconds, and the noise of an airport crowd echoed through to Daniel.

“Hey Jamie. If I catch a ride to the airport, would you give me a ride to Dilley from there? I could be there in forty minutes?” Daniel was desperate not to blow all his bar-tending money on paying Uber bills. If he knew an easier way home, Daniel would take it.

“No car yet, huh?” Jamie’s response was mocking, but in an overt way. College was expensive, and scholarships were just barely keeping his desperate ass from drowning in loans. The last thing he needed was for a car to make it ever harder to stay afloat.

“Not even close.” Daniel told her truthfully. Jamie and Daniel were the closest out of all their other siblings. They were relatively the same age when they were booted from the “Shawford house of values”, and knew how to survive on their own. Jamie already had a gig in the U.S. court, and was headed for the Olympics at the time. Daniel… not so much. But he didn’t envy his sister for the cards she had been dealt in life. After all, Daniel and Jamie were signed up for the same tennis team in first grade, and Jamie was the only one who chose to pursue it further.

“Well, I guess it’s no problem. I’m renting a car so it’s not like it affects me much.” Jamie told him. Daniel wonders what it’s like to have that kind of money. To just buy a plane ticket two days before and then rent a car on the dime. It felt like he’d never make it to that point in his life. He was living off his roommates energy drinks and cold pizza every night.

“Thanks, I’ll see you soon.” Daniel said.

“Oh, that’s me. We’re boarding. See you soon, kisses.” Jamie hung up the phone without another word from Daniel. He was always so impressed by how feminine she always seemed to be. He hadn’t even noticed until senior graduation, when he- no she- came out to everyone.

Daniel ordered an Uber and waited by the curb. This weird feeling came over him. A calm relaxed state that said everything would be okay. Everything would turn out just fine. From the bottom of Daniel’s heart, he knew his brothers and sister would be okay, and his essay would get finished. Eventually. 

Their dad was in the grave, where the only thing he could hurt was worms. Daniel contributed this odd sense of contentment to one word. 

Freedom.