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CHAPTER ONE

When I was a child, I’d sit for what see into an open flaht it was a peculiar pasti at the end oforange as the fire climbed the paper

The house was crowded, so full of sweaty, stu drunks and debauchery that a deep breath wouldn’t en had been sucked from the room My bones were saturated with the sounds of the bass dru to buy a can of beerthe six-pack of Mike’s Hard Lemonade they’d just consumed

I sat back in Mother’s favorite overstuffed i at home

Daddy was convinced I was a good girl, so it was easy to be a witness to bad behavior without guilt, even if I occasionally participated

A politter lotion and a purple dye job held out a roach—just an inch of azed into her eyes for less than a second to assess if the joint was laced before accepting I exhaled toward the ceiling, watching as the s the span of vast space that was our gallery, uests, not the drunken blue-collar locals ere rubbing against paintings and knocking over vases

I iainst the sofa cushion As recreational cannabis goes, Colorado was one of three states that qualified asa holiday The fact that my parents kept a vacation home in Estes Park made it my number one

“What’s your name?” she asked

I turned to face her cherubic splendor, unsurprised that she was at a packed party without knowing the host “Ellie,” I said, barely paying attention to her sleepy, red-rimmed eyes

“Ellie Edson? Are you Ellison’s sister?”

I sighed This wasn’t the conversation I felt like having “I’m Ellison”

Her eyebrows turned in as confusion shadowed her face “But … Ellison’s a dude, right? The guy ns this house?” She giggled and rested her cheek on her ar?”

I leaned back, grinning as she spontaneously ran her fingers through , dark hair One of her arms had been inked with various sizes of black-lined skulls and bright blue roses; the other was a blank canvas

“No, I’m Ellison, the dude ns this house”

She giggled loudly at my joke, and then kneeled on the floor in front of e”

“How long have you lived here?”

“What makes you think I’m a local?” she asked

She was focused one was more than just beautiful; she wore hope the way she carried her sad stories—out in the open, for everyone to see, vulnerable even when her heart had been broken too many times to repair

I held out the roach “Your eyes are absent of a lifeti limitless resources”

She giggled “I don’t knohat that means”

“Exactly”