The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet Read Online Free PDF Page B

her face, I could tell she was wondering if she should know what kind of food he likes.
    “Well, let me know when you do,” my mother said. “I want to practice recipes before he comes over for dinner.”
    “Whoa—Bing’s coming over for dinner?” I asked.
    “Well, no—not yet,” my mother conceded. Then she gave Jane a coy, teasing look. “But sooner or later he’ll be eating here. Dinner. Breakfast.
Thanksgiving.”
    All I wanted to do was slap my forehead and beg my mother to pull up on the reins, but Jane just gave a little laugh, and shook her head, before waving good-bye on her way out the door.
    I remind you, Jane and Bing met three days ago. All they have done since is text a little. And my mother is ready to welcome him into the family.
    I wonder what Jane is thinking. Is she being biased by Mom? Mom, who is so eager to love a rich potential son-in-law that she’s blind to all his faults (whatever they may be) and pushing
her daughter into a currently nonexistent relationship?
    It makes me wonder what would happen if we were not forced to live at home.
    “Forced” is perhaps too strong a word, but circumstances certainly require it. Jane doesn’t make enough money at her entry-level job to take her student loans out of deferment,
let alone pay rent and utilities somewhere. She’s lucky she makes enough to keep her junker of a car running.
    And I moved back when, after four years of living on my own for undergrad, I got accepted to the grad school with the best communications program . . . within driving distance of my
parents’ house (luckily, my car is less of a junker—I bought it off of Dad when I went away to college with three years’ worth of summer job money). Considering the student loans
I had already amassed, I traded in my independence for some small relief.
    I have another year left before I have to start paying off the stellar education my penchant for studying and learning bought me, and the prospect of it scares me to bits.
    Since Lydia only goes to community college, her expenses are admittedly less, but she still doesn’t have any money coming in—just money going out. (She also doesn’t have a car,
and has to share with Mom and beg rides off of everyone else.) In some parts of the world, we would have been left to our own devices the second we turned legal, so it’s actually really good
of our parents to let us continue to live at home.
    But if we didn’t? If we were able to be as adult in reality as we are in age . . . maybe Jane wouldn’t be taking the prospect of Bing so seriously. Maybe she’d be able to keep
it casual with him, without the constant reminder of our mother’s expectations. Without the pressure cooker of five adults living on top of one another with only one bathroom, and being
unavoidably mixed up in each other’s business at all times.
    Sometimes it feels like a prison. But it’s the prison I know.
    Hence the merciless teasing of Jane in my last video. (I can be passive-aggressive at times. I do get some things from my mother.) I really should apologize. I really should try to be more
open-minded about Bing. Jane knows what she feels, right?
    But then again, Jane is a lot stronger than she looks. When I teased her about Bing, she started teasing me about Darcy, and now that’s all the commenters want me to talk about. They think
I “met” someone at the wedding. Someone that my mother may one day invite over for dinner, breakfast, and Thanskgiving.
    Ha ha, no. Sorry, viewers. I’ll simply have to tell them about what he said to Bing about me, and put his prickishness front and center. That will get them off the scent. And no, I’m
not at all worried about impugning the character of a douchebag on the Internet. After all, I’m just going to say what actually happened.

S ATURDAY , A PRIL 28 TH
    Comment from *****: Lizzie your impression of Darcy is hilarious! More please!
    Comment from *****: Darcy can’t be that bad. Come on.