Reggie and Bekah

H'S

reek felt like a cage. There was something always falling apart-

ready to collapse. The walls were thin, barely keeping out the sounds of t

the street looked dead by day and alive only with drunks by night. This

to be there either. He would sit in the corner of the sitting room with worn out

ome with a lot of cash. What he does for a living was un

the nothing we had. She worked late, came home smelling of smoke a

her eyes glazed over, and then she would be back- back to the woman who pushed food in front of me and to

stay trapped in the same cycles: cycles of poverty, shame and misery. There were no opportunities, no futur

money I had put together wouldn't pay for my college acceptance fee talk more of getting a space where I would lay my head, so I appli

ory. The machines droned on. Thier constant hums filled the factory as I wiped the dripping sweat from

urs, just two more hours before my shift was over. I always couldn't wait to get

y a reminder for my next shift or some random spam message, but something made me check. My

a message from Pan

I unlocked the phone. No, it couldn't be what I thou

accepted in Pan Western Universi

usion. What? I read it again, then again and again. Accepted. A

Bay View City had just offered me a fully funded scholarship. The noise

et. And then, out of nowhere, the tears came. I didn't even try to stop them.

care. I couldn't stop it. It was happening.

ow... Now I had it. I was going to leave. I was going to le

e kind that felt foreign to me that it almost scared me. I checked the message again, jus