They Charged Me Rent to Breathe, So I Cut Them Off

The SATs were over, and my mother gave my brother a new phone.

She hugged him tight, her eyes red:

"My precious boy, you finally made it through."

My father gave him a motorcycle and said grandly,

"Once you're at college, go wherever you want, have fun anywhere you like."

Then it was my turn, dragging my heavy luggage inside, and my mother held out a QR code like she was ringing up a stranger:

"Luggage-moving fee, five hundred. Storage fee for your things, five hundred."

"From now until you leave for college, a room fee for staying here, two thousand."