Indebted Read Free Page B

for a friend, so I made maybe not the most macho choice for a six-year-old boy, and nodded.
    We’ve been inseparable ever since.
    Chloe has been there for me through everything. My coming out to my parents at fifteen, getting accepted to the University of Chicago for premed, and most of all, she was there for me when I got the desolating news.
    I hear her calling out her good-byes, so I go to meet her. Reaching out, she grabs my hand and squeezes it. Without saying a word, we head to her car.
    The ride to her house is quiet. Not one for silence, she turns the radio on. I see her peeking over at me from time to time, but I don’t say anything. We’ll get to her place soon enough, and there will be no more avoiding it.
    I feel my chest tighten as she pulls into the driveway of her little bungalow. Putting the car in park, she gets out, and I just sit there.
    After a moment, she comes around to my side and opens the door. “Come on, Junior, let’s go inside.”
    “Don’t call me that!” I snap at her, but seeing the hurt in her eyes, I quickly change my attitude. “Oh God, Chloe, I’m so sorry.”
    Then I break and start to cry.
    Reaching over, she hugs me to her chest as she comforts me. “Shhh, I know. Let’s go inside so you can tell me what the hell is going on. I can’t take this waiting anymore.”
    When we get inside, she sits me down on the couch and leaves to quickly change out of her uniform.
    She sits facing me when she returns. “Alright, Aaron, I’ve had enough, out with it. What’s going on?”
    I decide to man up and jump right in, so I tell her about this morning….
    Dad called me early, asking me to come over. When I got there, he was a mess, and it appeared he hadn’t slept in a couple of days. He told me he was so desperate for money, he’d gotten an advance from some loan shark called “The Machine.”
    While working with him at Quinn Advertising, I had watched my dad begin to unravel slowly. The last few weeks had been the worst. I was still shocked, though. I never thought he would do something like this.
    Talking to me in a cold, detached tone, he said, “Aaron, I don’t have the money to pay him back. I tried to reason with him, but he just laughed at me. Mr. Sandoval said if I don’t have his payment by twelve today, he’s going to hurt me—possibly kill me.”
    I gasped. “Dad, what are you going to do? Are we going to—”
    He raised his hand to stop me. “Let me finish. As I was saying, I’m running out of options and time. I heard from a reliable source this Sandoval fellow is gay like you. So I’ve decided you are going to go over there at noon and offer your services to him for the weekend as this month’s payment.”
    Stumbling backward, I caught my shoe on the coffee table leg and fell onto the sofa, shaking my head. “No, Dad, there’s no way I can do that. How can you even ask that of me?”
    He slammed his fist on the table. “You have the audacity to tell me no! I’m not asking you, boy, I’m telling you. You’re going to do this. This is all your fuckin’ fault. I wouldn’t even be in this position if you hadn’t had to go to that fancy, expensive medical school. Then you had the nerve to flunk out. No… nuh-uh… you’re doing it. End of discussion.”
    Sitting there, shaking, I’d felt the guilt overwhelm me. In a fog, I’d replied tightly, “Okay, Dad, I’ll do it.”
    A huge pressure formed in my chest with those words. I’d felt like the room was closing in on me, and I vaguely heard him tell me to take the note he handed me to the appointment with this guy.
    I jumped up, grabbed my coat, and headed for the door, desperate for air.
    Focusing back on Chloe, I see she looks madder than hell.
    She stands up and shouts, “You have got to be fuckin’ kidding me! How can he possibly blame his bad financial planning and stupidity on you?”
    Sighing, I reply, “If I hadn’t gone to med school, this wouldn’t be happening. Then I washed out, to