Enough

five

"Class dismissed," Lauren's English professor announced, "Except for you Lauren, stay behind with me."

Students filed out of the classroom, eyeing Lauren suspiciously as they walked by. She couldn't blame them. She'd turned up to class in her sleeping attire, with no bother to brush her hair or even her teeth.

Lauren had spent the night's entirety rearranging her apartment after her mother's company that day. She looked at her hands in disgust, small gaping sockets of skin covered her palms; Lauren hated labour.

"What's going on with you?" The professor asked distress and concern displayed horrendously obvious on her frail face.

Lauren could tell she looked awful, she didn't need the second opinion of her classmates or teacher's fretful stares. So she just continued staring at her hands, wondering how there was another splinter, she was certain she had extracted them all.

"We don't have to talk about what's going on in personal matters, but I will need an explanation for this exam." The professor gestured toward her laptop screen where Lauren's mark was displayed. She didn't even have to look up, she could see the red glow of the F engulfing the room.

"I tried to get an extension." Was all Lauren managed to utter.

"You didn't even attempt the exam, it says unopened."

"My laptop is... missing," She lied, "and I tried to come to campus last night, but the computers are down."

"I see." The professor contemplated. She couldn't possibly punish Lauren for the lack of equipment available to students in need.

Solid alibi, Lauren thought.

"There's nothing more I can do for your current grade," The professor revealed, "However, you will have to achieve higher marks on your future submissions in order to pass the course and keep your scholarship here."

"Thank you." Lauren stated without a hint of sincerity. She did not feel grateful for this agreement; not one bit.

After her dismissal, Lauren took to the hallways. She didn't quite feel up to creative writing so instead, she made her way to the cafeteria. Food fixes everything. And since her apartment was void of any, this was all she could manage to think about.

Once seated, Lauren opened up the web on her phone. Since she was dismissed at her prior workplace, she had been living off of her redundancy payment which grossly crept closer to zero.

Lauren was able to live off of a week's worth of shopping for a whole month however, now she had to start from the bottom, and she couldn't afford it.

Within an hour, she had applied for several vacancies across the city; within walking distance of her home. And in that same hour, she'd gotten a reply. The email read as follows:

Good morning Ms Jauregui,

Upon reading your resume I am pleased to say we have a position for a casual retail associate. We have an interview set up this afternoon at 2 PM, please join us.

Signed, Sally's Pawnbrokers

Perfect, Lauren thought.

The pawn shop happened to be only a couple of blocks away from Lauren's complex. Her day began to feel as if it were turning around. She glanced at the clock which read 10 AM, Lauren was thankful she had time to spare before the interview.

After finishing her meal in the cafeteria, Lauren decided she would head home to begin preparation for the role. Of course, her strategy was interrupted.