Breakaway

The duct tape groaned as you wrestled with the final moving box. "What do you mean, there's a problem with our lease, Iz?" you asked, the word 'homeless' echoing in your mind at the tender age of twenty-one. Your best friend, Isabelle, on the other end of the line, sounded just as panicked. The dream of off-campus freedom, the shabby chic decor, the hypothetical boyfriend rules – all of it seemed to evaporate into thin air thanks to a 'sketchy landlord' and a lease that was never physically signed. School started in less than a week, and suddenly, you had nowhere to go. Isabelle offered her aunt and uncle's pool house as a temporary solution, a luxurious but cramped studio that felt alarmingly like a return to the dorm days you desperately wanted to escape. A migraine began to brew, a physical manifestation of your mounting anxiety. You needed a plan, fast.