“It’s just a fun little game,” Trudy had told her. “You have to play a game at a sleepover, right?”

Isla had kept her mouth shut. She didn’t want to sound rude to her new stepsister… Or, rather, she did, but she didn’t want her stepmother to find out about it, which would almost certainly happen.

Did she blame Trudy for that? Not really… Francesca was a very stern, strict woman, and Isla couldn’t imagine what it had been like to have to grow up with her constantly there, as the only parents most of the time, judging and guiding and disciplining as she saw fit. If Isla had gone through that, and her mother had taught her to be a tattletail, she’d probably still be one at nineteen, too, just like Trudy.

It wasn’t a sleepover, though. Even putting aside the question of whether the two of them were…

Life sucked.

That was all Nicole could think about as she stood behind the counter at her crappy paying job that just barely paid enough to keep her from going hungry. Between her student debt and rising inflation, Nicole was firmly stuck in a hole that was only getting deeper and deeper by the day.

Still, she smiled a little as an old lady stepped up to the counter, a regular of the store named Claudia who always made Nicole feel a little better, even on her worst days. However, that happiness was shortlived as Nicole remembered that Claudia was moving today, and this would likely be the last time she ever saw her.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” Claudia asked as Nicole rung up her items, noticing the sad look in the girl’s eyes.

“I… I’m going to miss you,” Nicole replied, just barely keeping from bursting into tears.

“Me too…”…