“Did they exile you to the corner as well?” she whispered with a tired laugh. I told her that I apparently did not fit the desired profile for the main tables and she replied that at least nobody at this table was pretending to be someone else.
I sat there for the next hour handing out juice boxes and drawing a massive dragon for the boy whose name was Parker. From my seat in the shadows, I could see my brother acting like he was the king of the world while my parents beamed with pride at his success.
They had spent years looking down on me and asking if I was still writing things on the internet while they praised Jeffrey for knowing how to climb the social ladder. They never understood that while Jeffrey talked constantly, I was the one who listened and turned those observations into powerful words.
By the time I was twenty-six, I had signed secret contracts with some of the most influential people in the country who were happy to pay for my voice. I earned more money than my family could ever imagine, but I kept my success quiet and they never bothered to ask the right questions.