“Drinking and passing out to where a hot biker had to save her,” Karmen continued.
Alice threw her hands in the air.“Are we really just going to list everything I did?Let’s just throw dead mom in there, too.”She pointed at Karmen.“You’re the one who started all of this.”
Karmen shrugged.“I mean, I don’t think any of you can hate me for falling for Nickel.”
Cora, Mayra, and Raven raised their hands.“Amen!”
“And that is why we need to make a girls’ night with blow-up costumes a big deal,” Penny chirped.
“I second that,” Clove added happily, scrolling again.“Okay, listen.I’ve got options.”
“If they are cow or cow-adjacent, I have them already,” Alice reminded them.
Eden was perched cross-legged on the rug in front of the couch, phone in both hands.Her eyes were bright and excited, though it seemed the excitement made her stutter a little worse.“I-I f-found s-s-so many,” she said, flipping her screen around so we could see.“L-like… okay, l-look at th-this one.”
She tapped it, and a picture popped up of a blow-up unicorn costume.The kind that made the person wearing it look like they were riding the unicorn while also being the unicorn, which was confusing and hilarious at the same time.
Clove gasped like it was art.“That’s incredible.”
“That’s terrifying,” Raven said.
“That’s both,” Adley agreed.
Eden giggled, then stuttered through, “A-and there’s a-a d-dinosaur one that m-makes you l-look like you’re g-getting e-eaten.”
Wendy leaned over Eden’s shoulder.“Show me.”
Eden did, and the whole room erupted.
“Oh my God,” Cora wheezed, clutching her stomach.“Why does that one look so realistic?”
“Because it’s trying to haunt your dreams,” Raven said.
Clove swiped dramatically on her own phone.“Okay, okay, but hear me out, sumo wrestler.”
She shoved her phone toward me, and I burst out laughing before I could stop myself.The costume looked like someone had inflated a human marshmallow and then dressed it in a diaper.
“That’s… not flattering,” I managed.
“That’s the point,” Clove said, delighted.“Girls’ night is about freedom.”
“Freedom from dignity,” Raven muttered.
Eden lifted her phone again.“W-wait, w-wait.Th-this one is my f-favorite.”She tapped, then held it up.
A blow-up alien abduction costume.A little green alien looked like it was carrying the person away.
I made a sound that was half laugh, half snort.“Okay, that one wins.”
Clove pointed at me like I’d just made a sacred vow.“See?Star gets it.”
I did get it, actually.
For the first time in a while, I wasn’t thinking about bruises or headaches or fear.I wasn’t thinking about whether my body was going to betray me with exhaustion.I wasn’t thinking about the men in church or the guys who’d hurt me or the fact that they still hadn’t been found.
I was just… here.
Laughing.
