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PROLOGUE

Penny

You kno your grand nice underwear in case you were in an accident or so?

Yeah, I always kind of rolled ic

But had I known that things were going to go the way they went thatthat looked decent and not, say, the zebra-striped bra with purple piping and the totally not reen and white leopard-print panties I had slipped into, being the first two things I grabbed out ofout of

Still,only about a day and a half

It would be a ed to unpack within the month

I was just never the OCD type

The apartet, it was all I could afford And being that I bought it after only seeing it in flattering pictures on a website from several states aell, it definitely could have been a lot worse than it was

What it as a fair seven-hundred square foot space with a kitchen/dining co room with some nifty built-in bookshelves, a bedroom that could comfortably fit a full, but could le and had no plans on changing that status so the full was fine by , but narroith truly ugly wood-printed linoleum on the floor and an off-white shower, toilet, and sink cabinet The es that I found a little endearing, giving the entire space a little bit of character All the walls in the rest of the space were a fresh, eye-aching white The floors in the living and bed space were creanore the stains in The kitchen had more of the fake-wood linoleum

Again, not bad

And again, all I could afford

Well, that's not entirely true There was so in the area over by Fifth Street that looked like it was one strong gust away fro seen prostitutes on the corner, yeah, I decided I would fork over the extra three-hundred a month for a place that wasn't a literal stone's throay from a pimp

You can never be too safe, as randmother would also say

My grandmother hy I had uprooted my life in Florida and moved back to New Jersey She had broken her hip at hohbor dropped by, thinking it eird that they hadn't seen her It was a wake-up call for randmother had been five feet of concrete, wild, stubborn, spry I had literally never seen her sick or hurt inolder, that she was, despite what her personality said, fragile And within New York and too selfish to take her in, instead socking her away in soh was enough; I had to do soenuinely needed to be watched over, if herher and it was for her own safety But to put a loved one in a home just because they were old? Yeah, no Not on my watch

Especially given that I had spent every weekend froer hand in raising me than my parents did in a way

Hell, I felt guilty that I had to move away in the first place But Jersey had proven too expensive for er willing to give me a 'free ride' as they would call it So they kicked randhteen and interested in independence I didn't want soed and buzzed or if I brought a man home with me

So off to Florida I went, socking as rand, Christmas, and her birthday It wasn't much, but it was all I could afford

I didn't have theof lives in Florida either I had a decent apartment in a decent area where I worked nine-to-five in a hair salon then maybe went out every other Friday with coworkers who I called friends, but they were really just coworkers I occasionally shared a cocktail and bullshit with I had no fa to keep me rooted when I was very much needed elsewhere