Eighteen Years Of IOUs, One Day To Pay Them All Chapter 01

Eighteen Years Of IOUs, One Day To Pay Them All Chapter 01

For all eighteen years I’d lived under my parents’ roof, I’d been signing IOUs.

In our house, no one got a free ride.

If my older sister, Tessa Bennett, wanted concert tickets, all she had to do was sweep the floor once for Mom.

If my brother wanted a gaming room, a quick shoulder rub for Dad was enough.

But whenever I needed anything, I had to sign an IOU.

By eighteen, I had an entire drawer stuffed with them, enough paper to make a thick ledger.

Having to ask my parents for money was humiliating every single time. Eventually, I learned to spend as little as possible.

This summer, I worked three jobs and scraped together enough to cover my first college tuition bill.

By the time I reached the bus stop, I realized I’d left my dorm key at home.

With no other option, I called Mom.

“Mom, I left my dorm key at home. Could you bring it to me?”

She paused. “I’m making Tessa a pot of chili. I don’t have time. I’ll mail it to you in a couple of days.”

A couple of days turned into seven.

On the seventh day, the package finally arrived.

I opened it and found my key inside, along with a note.

[Rowan Bennett owes Diane Bennett $8 for shipping, due by the end of the month.]

She had even thoughtfully left a blank line at the bottom for the date.

I held the note in my hand as tears blurred the words.

After a long while, I unlocked my phone and messaged my faculty advisor.

Me: [I’ve decided to accept the study-abroad opportunity. Please submit my scholarship application.]

Once I paid back every cent they said I owed, I could walk away clean and finally live a life that belonged to me.

***

I sat on the edge of my bed and emptied the entire drawer of IOUs.

The entries went on and on: $5 for a notebook, $20 for a study guide, $360 in school fees.

I stacked them one by one and totaled everything on my calculator.

The final amount was $9,840.

My phone buzzed. Tessa had just put up a new Instagram post.

She’d uploaded a photo dump, and one picture immediately caught my eye.

A black Chanel bag with gold hardware sat on a white couch beside a cup of coffee and an open book.

The caption read:

[One goodbye kiss and Mom caved. Thanks to the best mom ever!]

My chest tightened as I opened the comments.

Someone asked, [That one costs over ten grand now, right?]

Tessa replied, [🤭 Just over $12,000. Mom said I should take it to campus and show it off.]

I looked down at my stack of IOUs and suddenly felt ridiculous.

Still clutching my phone, I did nothing more than tap Like.

Only a few seconds later, Mom called.

A small, private flicker of hope stirred inside me.

Had she noticed that I was hurt? Was she calling to comfort me?

I answered.

“You got the key?” Mom asked.

“Yeah.”

Her tone remained perfectly calm. “Shipping was $8.60. I knocked off the sixty cents, so just send me eight.”

Something inside me went cold.

I stood by the window, fighting to keep the tremor out of my voice.

Tessa’s post had already cut deep. The hurt sat so heavily in my chest that I could barely breathe.

I swallowed back my tears and tried one last time.

“Mom, I put all the money I have into my dining account. I don’t have anything left outside of that. Could you just cover the shipping this once?”

There was a pause on the other end. I heard a spoon tap against the side of a pot.

A few seconds later, Mom said, “Oh…”

A little warmth crept back into my chest. For one foolish second, I thought she was going to say yes.

Instead, her voice stayed as detached as ever.

“Then I’ll take eight dollars out of this month’s allowance. Family or not, everyone pays their own way. We can’t make an exception for you.”

Then she hung up.

I stood there frozen in the silence after the call ended.

A second later, a transfer alert popped up on my screen.

$482 from Diane Bennett.

She had actually done it. She had deducted the eight dollars.

The bitterness of it left me speechless.

That worked out to sixteen dollars a day for thirty days: I stretched twelve dollars across three meals and set aside two for laundry and toiletries.

The two dollars left had to cover everything else, down to the cheapest pack of tissues I could find.

It wasn’t as if I hadn’t tried to hint that my allowance was too low.

But whenever I brought it up, Mom would pat me on the shoulder.

“You worked over the summer, didn’t you? Tessa and your brother already cost us so much. Rowan, you’ve always been the considerate one. You wouldn’t want to make things harder on us, would you? If you still think it isn’t enough, we can do what we always do. Sign an IOU.”

Eventually, I simply accepted that my monthly allowance would always be less than a third of what Tessa and my brother received.

I wiped away the tears I couldn’t hold back, and my phone buzzed again.

It was a message from my faculty advisor.

My advisor: [Rowan, your scholarship application has been approved. The funds will be released within three days. Send me your paperwork for the study-abroad program once it’s ready.]

I read the message, then locked my phone.

Mom was right about one thing.

Family or not, everyone pays their own way.

Three days from now, once I paid off the entire balance, I was leaving this city for good.