Receipts and Revenge

Summary

My mother’s favorite hobby is playing the rich housewife.

Freshman year of college, she sent me exactly two hundred dollars a month. Rain or shine, never a penny more. But to the outside world? She claimed she was wiring me two grand a month.

Whenever people asked why I dressed in thrift store finds despite my "generous" allowance, she’d sigh and say, "Oh, Summer is just so frugal. She saves every penny for a rainy day."

Then came my little cousin Tyler’s birthday. Mom bragged to the whole family that I was going to chip in two months of my "allowance" to give Tyler a massive surprise.