1: Prologue

"Think about the - the - effect on the economy. This is about more than just a broke college student with-"

"What if it were me?" My voice wavers, struggling between my simultaneous feelings of rage and heartbreak.

He pauses, and for the first time, he seems caught off guard.

"I... would-" he opens his mouth, closes it, and opens it again. "Pay for it myself."

"Oh, fuck off." I laugh bitterly, resenting the scalding tears I felt pooling beneath my eyes. "Hypothetically, we'd never met, and I was a broke college student with two dead parents and nine-thousand dollars to my name. Still think I should rot with cancer until I breathe my last in my Art History class?"

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Ben Shapiro and Cali Miller (fictional)