Old Ink (Get Ink'd Book 3) - Ali Lyda

Channing

If anyone is ever interested in procrastinating on a large talk that you're overly worried about, might I suggest making a PowerPoint presentation? Because that was what I'd just finished. I clicked through the slides, each laying out my case for extending my college career and adding the criminal justice degree. At first I'd been planning to minor but after some thought... I wanted to double major. Social work and criminal justice with a focus on juvenile crime and impoverished areas. Do it all at once, and do it right.

My cheeks were puffed and I blew a slow, steady breath out. While my talk with Reagan had helped me believe that telling my brothers would be fine, it hadn't erased my concerns about how upset they might be with me over this.

Ultimately it came down to money and maturity. Having grown up poor, I still struggled with the comfortable life Christian led. Of course, he worked his ass off for it, but not wasting a dime was ingrained in my bones. It was difficult not to imagine his disappointment at thinking he'd been throwing away money on me.

Maturity was a big part of it, as well. A large part of me recognized that I was only twenty-one. But I'd been fending for myself since I was twelve. There's a maturity that is born early in kids like me, the ones who have to figure out how to survive before they can learn to drive a car, but it's a different kind of maturity than what's needed to get by in life on the right side of the street.

So I'd been striving to prove I was a capable, mature adult in the eyes of the men in my life. Able to make tough choices and handle difficult circumstances. Doing something like changing my school trajectory, then, felt like it could be interpreted as wishy-washy. What if they thought I was trying to stay on campus as long as possible, living on their dime and goodwill? Or a fickle child unwilling to confront adulthood or decide what I wanted. Both of those things were far from the truth, but—

Breathe, you ding dong.

There was nothing to do but bite the bullet. I gathered my laptop and headed downstairs, hoping I'd catch Christian and Dane in a good mood. They were at the table eating a late breakfast. It never ceased to delight me to see them together: Christian, with his black hair smartly cut and trim body, looking as proper and esteemed as could be with the straight back that came from being educated in private schools. Dane, across from him, shirtless, his brown hair sticking up all over the place and some of the most ridiculous tattoos on view for anyone to see. Not all of his tats were funny. Instead, the clever or ridiculous ones were hidden between gorgeously inked ones, a reward for those willing to look. The man never, never stopped laughing or joking.

They looked up when they heard me come into the room.

"Uh, hey," I managed. Already off to a confident start there, Channing. Way to go. "I was wondering if I could talk to both of you about something. It's...important."

Christian set his mug on the table and sagged in relief. Dane muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "fucking finally."

"What—" I started, but Christian waved me off.

"We've been waiting all summer for this. Something was clearly bothering you, and it has been absolutely awful not pestering you to tell us before you were ready." He pointed to the coffee. "Do you need a caffeine boost before you lay this on us?"

This was... not going the way I'd expected it to. "Uh, no? No. Thank you. I...well, I guess I'll just get to it, then." Any confidence I'd mustered had flown out the window at their reactions. I set the laptop on the dining table and sat, pulling up the presentation I'd worked so hard on.

I cleared my throat. "I'd like to talk about school and graduation."

Click. The first slide showed my current degree, the remaining requirements, and my current official graduation date. "As you know, I've been working on a social work degree. I took courses over the summers in the hopes of graduating early. If I were to stay on this track, I'd graduate in the fall."