Crystal

chapter 03

"Cryst..." Crystal's mother called her when she saw her daughter was getting out of the laundry room. Crystal wanted to go to her room after she finished with the laundry and her mother wanted to go to the kitchen. She stopped and saw her mother. She wanted to know why she had called her.

"There's a letter for you in the living room." Diana, Crystal's mother, pointed at a table in the living room when her daughter stared at her.

"Letter?" Crystal asked her mother to make sure that she didn't miss hearing.

"Yes, a letter." Diana said while continuing her activity, walking to the kitchen.

Crystal walked to the table in the middle of the living room, there was a dark blue envelope. Crystal was curious who sent her that letter. She grabbed the envelope and then walked to her room. She turned up and down the envelope while walking to her room to find the letter sender. She opened the envelope after closing the door. It was a notification letter that the scholarship which she had proposed had been approved. She forgot about proposing a scholarship at that university and she didn't expect it would be approved. Because that university was in her town and she really wanted to get out of her town, so she forgot about it. Crystal was in a dilemma. It was a good opportunity, but that university was in her small town. It was a private university and the scholarship that she just got was from a foundation that oversees the university.

"Huft..." She threw her body on the mattress and the letter was still in her hand. Suddenly she got up and walked to the kitchen to find her mother.

"Mom, did you receive another letter?" She asked her mother when she saw her mother was standing in the kitchen. She hoped at least she had gotten a letter from a university outside of her town.

Mars and her father were still chatting at the dining table. Mars glanced at her, he saw Crystal was holding a dark blue envelope in her hand. He wanted to know what kind of letter she had been waiting for. Of course, he could not ask her and it a little bit annoyed him. A question was running in his mind, 'is she having a long-distance relationship?' He thought maybe because of that he never saw any boy or man coming looking for her. It was not because she was not in a relationship, but because she was having a long-distance relationship.

He turned back his eyes to look at a man in front of him, Crystal's father, his boss. It woke him up from his daydream to want her. He thought that his feeling about missing her was killing him slowly. It was sweet at the beginning and became worried and hopeless at the end.

"No." A short and clear answer from her mother broke her hope. She turned back to her room. She didn't know if her question made a heart was fighting in its own battle. The letter made two young people have worries in their minds in different ways...

Mars was so hopeless with his feelings, he really wanted Crystal to be his, but his condition held him. He also didn't know about her feelings. Meanwhile, Crystal was hopeless about how she could study outside of her town that year.

Crystal came back to her room with a dilemma. She wanted to start her studies at university that year but she also wanted to leave her town. She threw the letter on the table and then threw her body on the mattress. She was still in a dilemma. She couldn't let that good oportunity but she also sickened when she imagine that she must through the next years in that house. She regretted that she didnt't give a lot of attention to getting a scholarship when in high school. Her focus was separate between studies and helping her mother at that time. And her parents didn't care about her education, her mother drowned in her routine and her father really didn't care about her.

She got up and took her phone on the table, and wanted to check her email box. She hoped she would find at least an announcement email that she had gotten a scholarship at the university outside of her small town. Her eyes opened wider when her eyes caught the word ‘scholarship’ in her email box. She opened the email, but that email had come from the same university which had sent her a letter with a dark blue envelope.

“Huff.” She exhaled and threw her body on the mattress again. She looked at the ceiling, feeling hopeless, and the dilemma about the scholarship she had just got crawled into her mind again. She was indecisive about taking that scholarship or not. She wasn’t indecisive if the scholarship from the university was outside of her town. She would pack her stuff and go that day if they wanted her to verify her scholarship without hesitation. But her scholarship was for the university in her town and she was sickened with her small town. Actually, it was not because of the town, but because of her family condition, her father’s treatment. She needed a new atmosphere to keep her sane and to know the world wider.

The dilemma about the scholarship was dominating her mind, ‘take it or leave it... take it or leave it... take it or leave it...’