"You're seventeen, why do you work so much?"
Is what most people say,
When they learn how I spend every day
Working one job or the other, after/before school.

What I want to say is,
I work
To
     Pay dad's medical bills
His rent
       & mom's utilities
My phone bill
  & his

what I actually say is
"It's to spend money on things I don't need,
like other seventeen-s!"
I let people have the illusion that,

      "Money gives me freedom!"

          "I love making my own money"
or

"I'm saving up for a car."
                            
                              ­           When I don't even have a real savings account.


I'd never say

                                *Help me,
                                      I'm burning out.