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"No!" I shouted and scared the crap out of the poor girl She jumped a foot back from me "Uh, sorry," I said and pointed at my ear "Teeny tiny Bluetooth headset Idiot brother Really rude, I know" I paid and got out of there

I cooked up a quick stir-fry at home while Dad snored fitfully on the couch He’d apparently returned hoarette s mix of other unidentifiable odors The house smelled more like a low-rent bar every day The odor sickened otten a zillion times better at its job I had to snap him out of this cycle of self-destruction soon I asked hirunted once, rolled over, and went back to sleep I had no idea if the house or utilities were even being paid for A mountain of mail teetered on the kitchen table I didn’t even knohy I should care I was a teenager, not a responsible adult But I kept i for scraps on the streets after the house was repossessed

But I didn’t know the first thing about finances orpayments Mom’s computer still sat in her office As far as I knew, she’d always taken care of the household money, and one of the few chinks in my parent’s relationship had been hofulit I turned on Moreat After trying all sorts of possible passwords and failing each tiroaned and sat back in the black office chair The desk was immaculate with every bit of paper filed away and each itehbor Mom was OCD when it ca else Which hy a yellow post-it note stuck to the side of the pencil-sharpener caughtThe usernaave a cheery wave fro with soed in and found a document on the desktop which told Dad in no uncertain terms not tothe bills paid

But where is theonto the bank’s website The checking account had a nuures in it I counted it twice to be sure and choked back a gasp Who had et that ht I’d known my parents Now I felt like the kid of cri to do with Mom’s departure? Were they part of a Mr and Mrs Jones type conspiracy? The amount of money in their bank account birthed a uilty about raiding their rainy-day stash

I scoured the computer for more infor else were empty I stared at the system files on the screen and was about to shut the computer dohen I noticed a folder that seemed out of place at the root of the hard drive named Copy of hash codes I wasn’t a coh that this wasn’t a norh I opened it and found a bunch of files that I raibberish and progra code was all I found inside the files It struck me as very odd because unless Moenius, she couldn’t have written this stuff

Had sheother files? I didn’t know but I wanted a copy ofout where she’d gone I grabbed a flash drive fro the computer down

I wanted to analyze the files solanced at the wall clock and realized I was running late for ym, I knew it had been a terrible mistake Not because Stacey the vairls threatened to overload my senses I had to think about baseball so hard I felt the veins inEverywhere I turned I was attacked by sexual desires and longings It was insane I knehat a victi must feel like I pulled my T-shirt down a bit further over hts section of the gym The dense cloud of male stink in this area overpowered the ferunted in agony, and twoevery wall Just my kind of place

"You ready?" she asked

More ready than you could i forward to the tor me

We went to the bench press first She stacked on soht I pumped it up and doith no probleer plates No probleot to be i or so? That’s over two-hundred pounds and you’re not even breaking a sweat"

I shrugged "I had orange juice thisshe had all the forty-five pound plates she could fit on either side of the barbell and just about every dude in the testosterone-soaked iron-puyed dangerously on each end I pushed it up and down several ti tired Victoria stared open-mouthed

"I don’t believe it," she said "This isn’t possible unless you were totally faking it the other day" She waved her hands in the air over the barbell, apparently looking for invisible wires She tried toon it, but couldn’t budge it

"Lehly the size of a buffalo, with bulging ar curses to hi hands while screa obscenities "You can do this, Buddy! Coot this! Make momma proud!" He pushed on the barbell His face went froed and pulsed alarle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>