Excerpt: Like Glitter

She’d seen a bright room behind herself, the wallpaper light yellow with a faint floral pattern. Candles were burning on small tables between freshly cut flowers set in vases. The people were laughing and talking, holding drinks and cigarettes as they moved across the room in slow motion. The men were dressed in suits and women in dresses, none of them modern but all of them visibly expensive and most likely being worn for the first time. The men were relaxed but cocky and the women held themselves precariously, as if the slightest misstep would send their reputation and their family tumbling. Which it most likely would have.

A young girl had been sneaking through the crowd, trying to be casual enough to not be noticed. Two women spared her a glance but she otherwise seemed to be succeeding. From the brief glimpse of her that Jennifer had seen, she was slightly chubby with dark hair and she was wearing a light colored party dress. Jennifer had only glimpsed the side of her face for a split second, but the girl’s expression was serious, not mischievous as Jennifer expected her to be, sneaking through a crowd at a party.