"Mom, Weston sent a reminder about tuition and fees. It's due by tomorrow night. Eight thousand dollars total. Can you just transfer me thirteen hundred first? I want to secure my dorm bed."

Just thirteen hundred.

I didn't dare ask for more. I was afraid she'd hang up on me.

I sent the message and stared at the chat window, counting the seconds.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Five minutes.

The typing indicator appeared on her end.

My heart rate spiked. My fingers tightened around the phone without thinking.

Then the indicator vanished.

Three more minutes passed before her reply came through. A single line.

"Once I transfer money, who knows what you'll actually do with it. Don't think I don't know your deadbeat father's broke again. Are you trying to scam money out of me so you can secretly funnel it to him?"

I closed my eyes.

"Mom, this is tuition. It has nothing to do with Dad."

"Then have the school send me an invoice. Show me an invoice and I'll transfer it."

I took a deep breath. "The school uses a centralized online payment system. There are no paper invoices."

"No invoice, no transfer. How am I supposed to know if it's even real."

After that message, she stopped responding entirely.

My finger hovered over the screen. I had no idea what else to say.

Then my phone rang. It was my academic advisor.

"Queenie, why haven't you paid your tuition and fees yet? The system shows you're the last student who hasn't paid. The deadline is ten o'clock tomorrow night. Do you understand what that means?"

"Your admission gets revoked. This isn't a joke. What's your situation right now? Can you get the payment in tonight?"

My throat clenched. My fingers dug into the phone case so hard the edges bit into my skin.

I forced the sob back down before it could surface. My voice came out shaking.

"I'll figure something out tonight. I'll have it in before tomorrow."

I hung up and sank into the chair, burying my face in my knees.

Outside the window, the streetlights flickered on one by one. Orange light spilled across the floor and stretched my shadow long across the room.

Eight thousand dollars.

My mother transferred twenty-five hundred to Brody every month just for gaming top-ups.

But I couldn't scrape together eight thousand for tuition.