Meanwhile, across the city, Krystal was having a hard time.
Her life had changed so drastically that sometimes she didn't recognize it anymore. She had been expelled from college. The official letter had arrived on a gray Tuesday morning, cold and formal, stamped with the university seal. No appeals, no second chances offered. Just a single sentence: Your enrollment has been terminated effective immediately.
She had read it three times before the words sank in.
Now she stood in the tiny kitchen of her new apartment, staring at a pile of bills she couldn't pay. The place was small, one room with a cramped bathroom and a kitchenette that barely fit a stove and a sink. The walls were thin, the paint peeling, the windows drafty. The rent was cheap, but even that was a struggle.
