Two girls started dancing on the other side of the armrest. Chamberlain?” Emira sat down at the edge of a couch.

“I just don’t want her to see the police.” “I’m so sorry to call you this late,” she said. Chamberlain’s voice was calm and strangely articulate, as if she were delivering a baby and saying, Okay, mom, it’s time to push. I just need to get Briar out of the house.” Mrs. “Peter accidentally-we had an incident with a broken window and. She made a disgusted face in Emira’s direction and mouthed, Eww, is that your boss? On the other side of the table, Shaunie placed her head on Josefa’s shoulder and slurred, “Does this mean I’m old now? Is twenty-six old?” Josefa pushed her off and said, “Shaunie, don’t start.” Next to Emira, Zara untwisted her bra strap. She set her drink down on a low coffee table and stuck her middle finger into her other ear. After a night of twenty-dollar entrées, birthday shots, and collective gifts for the birthday girl, Emira Tucker could really use the cash. Under the veil of two strong mixed drinks, the intersection of these spaces almost seemed funny, but what wasn’t funny was Emira’s current bank balance: a total of seventy-nine dollars and sixteen cents. Chamberlain, at 10:51 p.m., waiting for Emira to say yes. It was almost astonishing that Emira’s daily babysitting job (a place of pricey onesies, colorful stacking toys, baby wipes, and sectioned dinner plates) could interrupt her current nighttime state (loud music, bodycon dresses, lip liner, and red Solo cups). “Is there any way you can take Briar to the grocery store for a bit?” Mrs. Emira turned the volume up on her phone and asked Mrs. It was a Saturday night in September, and there was a little over an hour left of Shaunie’s twenty-sixth birthday. In a crowded apartment and across from someone screaming “That’s my song!,” Emira stood next to her girlfriends Zara, Josefa, and Shaunie. Chamberlain called, Emira could only piece together the words “.

A fun age