I hate Canada. As Alice sat alone in the cold night air, that phrase seemed to be the one thing her mind kept coming back to. It had turned out to be one hell of a disaster of a weekend. It had been great just five or six hours ago. The whole family, well, almost the whole family, had come together for Shane’s wedding. Alice was amazed at how well everyone had been getting along over the past few weeks. It was unexpected, but planning Shane and Carmen’s wedding really had given them hope. And now…well, now Shane had disappeared, Carmen was left at the alter, Bette was missing with Angelica, Tina was freaking out, Helena was poor, and Alice was alone. After Lara broke the news about the job in San Francisco, she had found a secluded bench where she could be alone to commiserate. Maybe it was crazy to blame the country for what had happened, but it was certainly more convenient than blaming the people who were responsible. If she were to do that, then she’d have to blame every single one of them for something. Whether it was being too trusting, panicking too easily, or just expecting your friends to give you hope when you’ve lost it yourself, they’d all made mistakes that helped create this situation. I fucking hate Canada. It was just easier.

The worst part for Alice had nothing to do with any of the events as much as it did with the timing. She had honestly believed that, after Dana’s death, they would all finally get a little bit of happiness. She had never believed in God, but, deep down, Alice always thought that there was something, some mysterious force that would balance everything out. You lose your best friend and your other best friend gets married. That seemed like a halfway fair trade-off. On the other hand, you lose your best friend, then your other best friend leaves her fiancée at the alter, while another of your best friends kidnaps her daughter and your other best friend loses all her money. Christ, you’d think when you have four or five best friends, at least one of them would have something good going on. If there is a God, he fucking sucks.