There had definitely been periods of rough, times when things had been really, extremely fucked up, but Kate had always been sort of weirdly optimistic about it. They could handle anything, the five of them, so long as Charmaine wasn't being a total bitch or her mom was being honest.

"Nah, there was a bunch of us," she said. "My brother, my dad, my aunt." Her grandparents pretended to help, but they mostly just made shit worse. "I mean, it's not even that big a deal. It just... is."