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When we finally pulled up to the house, Jere out on the front porch I leaned over Steven and honked the horn twice, which in our sus, stat Conrad was eighteen now He'd just had a birthday He was taller than last summer, if you can believe it His hair was cut short around his ears and was as dark as ever Unlike Jereer, so he looked a little shaggy but in a good way--like a 1970s tennis player When he was younger, it was curly yellow, almost platinum in the summer Jeremiah hated his curls For a while, Conrad had him convinced that crustssandwich crusts, and Conrad would polish theh, his hair was less and less curly and more wavy I el, and he used to look like one, with his rosy cheeks and yellow curls He still had the rosy cheeks

Jereaphone with his hands and yelled, "Steve-o!"

I sat in the car and watched Steven auys do The air sht rain seawater any second I pretended to be tying the laces on my sneakers, but really I just wanted a moment to look at them, at the house for a little while, in private The house was large and gray and white, and it looked like most every other house on the road, but better It looked just the way I thought a beach house should look It looked like hoot out of the car then too "Hey, boys Where's youra nap," Jere out of the house the second our car pulled up

My ged the was as firm and solid as her handshake She disappeared into the house with her sunglasses perched on the top of her head

I got out of the car and slungover my shoulder They didn't even notice me walk up at first But then they did They really did Conrad gave lance-over the way boys do at the mall He had never looked at me like that before in my whole life Not once I could feel my flush from the car return Jeremiah, on the other hand, did a double take He looked at nize me All of this happened in the span of about three seconds, but it felt ed et too close He'd just gotten a haircut, and the skin around the nape of his neck looked pink and new, like a baby's He smelled like the ocean He slasses," he said, his lips close toI shoved him away and said, "Well, too bad My contacts are here to stay"

He sets in His sot a fe ones," he said, tapping me on the nose He kne self-conscious I was about my freckles and he still teased rabbed me next, and he alrowed up," he crowed

I laughed "Put hed loudly "Sa at me like he wasn't quite sure who I was

He cocked his head and said, "So looks different about you, Belly"

I braced ot contacts" I wasn't colasses either My best friend Taylor had been trying to convince rade, and I'd finally listened

He smiled "It's not that You just look different"

I went back to the car then, and the boys followed me We unloaded the car quickly, and as soon as ere done, I picked up ht for my old bedroom My room was Susannah's from when she was a child It had faded calico wallpaper and a white bedroom set There was aballerina that danced to the the from Romeo and Juliet , the old-ti about my room was old and faded, but I loved that about it It felt like there ht be secrets in the walls, in the four-poster bed, especially in thathim look at rabbed the stuffed polar bear on ed him close to my chest--his name was Junior Mint, Junior for short I sat doith Junior onso loudly I could hear it Everything was the sairl, not just somebody's little sister