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She reached up to touch her bruised face when it dawned on her what he meant "I fell"

"You fell? If you don’t wanna tell me, say so No need for a bullshit response"

"Honestly, I fell! I tried to, uhI was"

"You don’t have to explain It’s none of my business, anyway"

"But I did fall," she insisted He still didn’t look convinced, but she wasn’t sure what else she could say She pointed to his bandage "What happened to you?"

He touched his injury like she’d done and shrugged "I fell"

"Did you really?"

"No," he said, laughing as he disappeared down the stairs

She frowned "But I did"

When Carht holy and tail chopped off It infested the house with fleas and clawed up the furniture Teeks later the cat disappeared Carmine never asked what happened to it Frankly, he didn’t care

When he was fourteen, it o dogs The first was a little ankle biter with kinky yellow fur and three legs It pissed all over the house before chewing up Vincent’s favorite shoes It didn’t last a week The second dog was a pit bull with one eye and deformed ears His father tied it up in the backyard, and it barked all night, keeping them awake Carmine could barely function in school the next day, and when he got hoone

So Carirl, but he wasn’t He figured he was just picking up strays again But Car was different, and he didn’t knohat to s He hadn’t even bought the last dog any food

That fact weighed heavily on him as he strolled down the stairs He told hihts, but the truth was, in just one day, the strange girl had gotten under his skin He couldn’t pinpoint why or what to do about it, but he didn’t like the nagging feeling in the pit of his sto, like a tiny little ha conscience

He paused on the second floor in front of his father’s office "Hey, do you want me to--?"

"No"

Vincent’s sharp voice made Caronna ask--"

"I don’t need you to finish," Vincent said, relasses low on his nose "I don’t want you to do anything for me"

"But what about the--?"

"Don’t worry about it" Vincent laughed humorlessly "Not like you’d actually worry about it You don’t care about anything that doesn’t benefit you"

"That’s not true I care about--"

"No, you don’t"

"Christ, can I get out a full sentence? I’ to help"

"I don’t need your help," Vincent said, shaking his head "I asked you to do one thing, and you couldn’t do it Lesson learned, son I no I can’t count on you"

Ouch The list

"I forgot," he said "I’ll make it up to you"

"It’s too late I already asked soriirls need, since she is one"

With so a crack about Jen’s age, but he couldn’t hold back his opinion entirely "If by that you mean they need birth control and a heavy dose of penicillin, I agree"

Vincent shot hiiven the company you keep"

"True, but I’m not exactly role ?"

"Absolutely not," he said "You’d coer than dental floss"

"And you think Jen won’t? She doesn’t even wear underwear"

Vincent glared at him "Aren’t you late for school?"

"Whatever"

He turned to walk away, but his father called after hi you can do"

Carlanced back at him "What?"

"Stay out of trouble"

"I’ll try, but I’enes, Dad"