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Travis took another hit off the joint "You want sos

"No thanks," Emma said stiffly

Travis finally exhaled "Sweet little Eood, are you?"

Emma craned her neck up at the sky and paused on the Moain Farther down the horizon was a star she’d recently na closer than usual to the En Perhaps this would be the year she’d meet her perfect boyfriend, someone she was destined to be with

"Shit," Travis whispered suddenly, noticing so inside the house He quickly stubbed out the joint and threw it under Emma’s chair just as Clarice appeared on the back deck E tip--nice of Travis to try to pin it on her--and covered it with her shoe

Clarice still had on her work uniform: a tuxedo jacket, silky white shirt, and black bow tie Her dyed blond hair was slicked into an iht fuchsia lipstick that didn’t flatter anyone’s skin tone She held a white envelope in her hands

"I’ two hundred and fifty dollars," Clarice announced flatly The empty envelope crinkled "It was a personal tip fro to put it in hed syleaned about Clarice was that she was absolutely obsessed with celebrities She kept a scrapbook describing every celeb interaction she’d ever had, and glossy signed head shots lined the wall space in the breakfast nook Occasionally, Clarice and Emma ran into each other in the kitchen around noon, which was the crack of dawn for Clarice after a bar shift The only thing Clarice ever wanted to talk about was how she’d had a long conversation with the latest winner of Aht before, or how a certain action film starlet’s boobs were definitely fake, or how the host of a dating reality shoas kind of a bitch Eued She didn’t carean investigative journalist Not that she ever told Clarice that Not that Clarice had ever asked anything personal about her

"The money was in this envelope in my bedrooht at E you want to tell me?"

E with his BlackBerry As he scrolled through his photos, Emma noticed a blurry shot of her at the bathroom mirror Her hair et, and she’d knotted a towel under her ar, E about it," she said in the most diplomatic voice she could ht know"

"Excuse me?" Travis’s voice cracked "I didn’t take any money"

Emma made an incredulous noise at the back of her throat

"You knoouldn’t do that, Mom," Travis went on He stood and pulled up his shorts around his waist "I kno hard you work I did see Eh"

"What?" Emma whirled around to face him "I did not!"

"Did too," Travis shot back As soon as he turned his back on his mom, his expression lower

Eo through your ainst the table, twisting her ht "Travis did that?"

"No, I didn’t" Travis pointed accusingly at Eirl"

"I don’t need money!" Emma pressed her hands to her chest "I have a job! I’ for years Before the roller coaster, she’d had a job as Head Goat Girl at a local petting zoo, she’d dressed up as a toga-robed Statue of Liberty and stood on the street corner to advertise a local credit union, and she’d even sold knives door-to-door She’d saved rand and stashed it in a half-empty Tampax box in her bedroom Travis hadn’t found the money yet, probably because the taainst creepy boys than a rabid pack of Rottweilers

Clarice gazed at Travis, as giving her a sickening, pouty smile As she creased the empty envelope back and forth in her hands, a suspicious look crossed her face It looked as if she h Travis’s facade

"Look" Travis walked over to his mom and put his arm on her shoulder "I think you need to knohat Emma’s really all about" He pulled his BlackBerry froan to fiddle with the click wheel

"What do you ave her a sanctioing to talk to you about this in private But it’s too late for that now"

"Talk tothe citronella candle in the center of the table wobble

"You knohat" Travis tapped away on the keyboard with his thumbs A mosquito buzzed around his head, but he didn’t bother to flick it away "You’re a sick freak"

"What do you mean, Travis?" Clarice’s fuchsia-lined lips pursed worriedly