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i'm going to try to write something coherent. bear with me. it might take a while.

the phone rings late at night, and i panic. a friend is in the hospital, so i naturally think the worst. oh, even better. it's my dad.

his speech is delayed for a few seconds. everything has an ellipsis in front of it.

"...hi. k?"

"oh, hi dad."

"...so. i sent the money today."

"ok, great. i didn't go to the bank..."

"you should go to the bank and check."

(i grit my teeth. here come the questions.)

dad begins his interrogation with confusion. "now, i sent you this last month, and the month before that. you told me you needed this much...so how much have you paid on the tuition?"

time to lie. lie, LIE! "uuuuhhh...about $200." did i mention that this is a lie? i've paid NOTHING. i have a balance of $1,800...and rising! "yeah, well, i needed to 're-arrange' the funds since i needed money in my account for all those dentist's bills."

technically, i also needed money to exist, but that's beside the point. that doesn't factor in to these calculations.

"so $200? well, how much are the dentist's bills? i haven't received the forms yet..."

"yeah i will send them tomorrow..." (or never, never, never, and the day after that)

"how much is that?"

"ohhh, about $800." damn! are my calculations going to betray me?

"well, those won't be reimbursed 100%..."

"uh huh."

how can i end this conversation? i make the same promises of responsible action over and over, and it seems to buy time, for now.

no doubt i will be receiving phone calls every night of this already harried week.

(did i mention that this is the man who really, really, really doesn't want me to go out there, get a job, and start taking care of myself like an adult?)