“Oh, fireworks!” Marie yelled, pointing up at the bursts of light popping in the sky above. Cheers and whoops echoed around the neighborhood.

“Happy New Year!” Natalie and Jason kissed and tumbled to the ground in each other’s arms.

“Holy Toledo,” Jeremy said from the porch. He took a big swig of champagne. “We fucking made it.

Marie nudged me again. “We made it through 2020.”

“Yes we did,” I said, still watching the fireworks burst above us.

A strange relaxation flowed down my back, and a sense of relief pooled warmly in my stomach.

“Of course we did,” I said. “We weren’t going to be trapped there forever.”