Happy After All

by Maisey Yates

“No, I’m always exhausted,” Elise replies. I look at my friend and her perfectly done makeup, her hair in a neat ponytail. “I feel like I have to be everything. I don’t ever want Emma to struggle, you know? Just because I chose to be an idiot who had unprotected sex with a loser, that’s not her fault. It’s not her fault her dad sucks.”