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Chapter 22: Spark of Hope

Aeon recuperated from the fact that his foot was amputated, but still slightly hung over the fact that he had allowed Crystal to be courted by another gorilla other than him. Seemed like Johnny hasn't made any big moves yet, after two full days of their little talk, so he made sure to make as much time to keep Crystal to himself until the day she's taken away from him. Honestly, that hurts more the more he thought about it. It scares him to no end. But she's still here nonetheless, albeit a little stressed out from looking after his sorry state.

"—alright, thank you very much, ma'am," Crystal ended the call from the third loan company, sighing at the stack of debt she'd piled for themselves. Not even the thought of a wedding with him can get her this exhausted on living at 7 a.m in the morning.

"Crystal, I can't thank you enough for everything you've done for me," says Aeon, "But I think it's high time you'd get some rest."

She ignores him and starts her own me time, scrolling through her phone for any messages from social media. The theater was cleaned up and claimed by the bank, the other contestants weren't cooperating for any interviews, and luckily some were held back outside the hospital to maintain peace for the two who had been reportedly injured.

Crystal then takes Aeon's advice to give herself a break, pulling up her hood to hide from the reporters waiting by the exits. She went to Meena's house to check on her best friend, and there she was, still a bit distraught about what had happened. Fate is just too cruel nowadays, especially when you're trying to break free from the clutches of your own self doubts.

Meena's mother left her to it, hoping that she could somehow lift her daughter's spirits again. Crystal sat on the side of bed, tipping it enough to make her presence known to the obviously wakened elephant, "Hey, Meena. Sorry it took two days to come over. I hope you don't mind the smell, I came from the hospital where Aeon is."

After a few seconds of silence, Meena speaks in turn, "It's fine."

Crystal never saw her this upset since third year level, her bubbly but shy best friend had done everything she could for that show, only for it to blow on her face. Quite literally too. She leaned on Meena's back, sighing and wondering about the next words to say, "You know... some things happen, and yeah, there's too little that we can do about it, but see it as a stepping stone. You've earned some courage while you were at it after all. If the theater didn't flood down, I'd assume you'd already be a star on the news."

"It's fate that's telling me it's impossible," she says, turning on her back to look at her darkened ceiling, "No matter what I tried, it always ends up on the short end of the stick. I've been thinking that maybe... maybe if I hadn't re-auditioned, then things would go completely normal like it was supposed to."

Crystal scoffs, getting more and more comfortable as her friend speaks her thoughts openly, "Even if you hadn't, that theater was as old as my great grandparents. It's destined to crumble from Mr. Moon's chaotic business managing."

"I suppose," Meena chuckles. "And speaking of chaotic, graduation's tomorrow. Are you readily packed to be even making time to come here?"

Oh, right. The graduation. Crystal was so preoccupied with her situation that she forgot she's not free from high school yet. And after that was the flight to Monquivan where she and Aeon was supposed to head off to. Even though she was against even having him aboard her freedom chapter of life, Monquivan isn't a bad place at all. In fact, it's the first place on her list of where she wanted to settle in away from all these mess. If he's her ticket for a peaceful life, then so be it. "No. Not at all. Thanks for reminding me."

Meena frowns at her friend's lack for enthusiasm, "We're still going to be friends even if we're far apart, right?"

"Surely will. And we'll always stay connected to each other."

"And even if you had a kid, just make sure to make me its godmother so I'd have a reason to come over every month."

"Jeez, Meena! That's way too advance for my liking," Crystal shook her head violently at the mention of children. "All jokes aside though, I'm not leaving until I see you get back on your feet. Should we do a karaoke today?"

"I hopped off the plane at L.A.X. with a dream and my cardigan. Welcome to the land of fame excess. Am I gonna fit in? Jumped in the cab, here I am for the first time. Look to my right and I see the Hollywood sign. This is all so crazy, everybody seems so famous," Crystal passes the mic to Meena.

"My tummy's turnin' and I'm feelin' kinda home sick. Too much pressure and I'm nervous. That's when the taxi man turned on the radio, and a Jay-Z song was on. And a Jay-Z song was on. And a Jay-Z song was on!"

Their faces mushed together and turned to the phone while they do their live as the non-famous random singers on Meowtube. "So I put my hands up, they're playing my song, the butterflies fly away. I'm noddin' my head like yeah. Movin' my hips like yeah. I got my hands up, they're playin' my song, I know I'm gonna be OK. Yeah, it's a party in the USA. Yeah, it's a party in the USA."

Crystal watched on as Meena continued the second verse by herself in this cramped dimly lit karaoke room. She exits her social media and instantly publishes their content. They were merely doing this out of randomness, so none were expecting to get anything out of it. But just as she goes in for her part of the lyrics, her phone suddenly buzzed with tons of notifications. She tried to set it aside, but it kept on vibrating on the sofa that she had to check what's all the buzz about.

"What the hell is this?" Crystal gripped the mic, accidentally tilting it to the side where the speaker is, which emitted a loud unpleasant screech of frequency.

"Crystal?!" Meena's ears shuts tight and comes over to take the mic away from her, relieving them both of torture. "What was that?!"

She continues to watch as more and more people started donating little by little. Comments flooded as well with the relation of the recent incident, some negative some positive, and a lot had just followed her account on Meowtube.