She shook her head, though she didn't mind the assumption. She should still be taking classes, that much was true. Had she been a little more studious, she might have earned a scholarship... but as it was she hadn't qualified for anything other than state-sanctioned financial aid, which was barely enough to buy books. Sure, she could have taken out student loans... those were always available. Somehow, spending twenty years in debt seemed a lot worse than not having a Bachelor's. Especially since she hadn't been majoring in anything that would have guaranteed a job, like a hard science. Nobody was impressed by a humanities degree.
"Work," she told him. And then because she didn't want to seem like the kind of person who had no work ethic whatsoever (after all, the guy looked like he might be in charge of someone) she said, "But I have a manager who doesn't believe in the human need for regular breaks, so this is my last chance for a meal."