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"What he ," Jeremiah said Then he stood up and pulled off his shirt "Pretty nice, huh?"

Susannah threw her head back and laughed, andthe loaf of bread at him like a sword

"What do you think, Belly?" he asked h he wasn't

"Pretty nice," I agreed, trying not to smile

"Now it's Belly's turn to show off," Conrad said ly

"Belly doesn't need to show off We can all see how lovely she is just looking at her," Susannah said, sipping her wine and sht," said Steven "She's a lovely pain in my ass"

"Steven," my mother warned

"What? What'd I say?" he asked

"Steven's tooto understand the concept of lovely," I said sweetly I pushed the bread to him "Oink, oink, Steven Have so off a crusty chunk

"Belly, tell us about all the hot friends you're gonna set me up with," Jeremiah said

"Didn't we already try that once?" I said "Don't tell otten about Taylor Jewel already"

Everyone busted up laughing then, even Conrad

Jere too, and shaking his head "You're not a nice girl, Belly," he said "There's plenty of cute girls at the country club, so don't worry about inal plan was for both Jereuards Conrad had done it the suh to do it with hied his mind at the last minute and decided to bus tables at the fancy seafood buffet instead

We used to go there all the tier could eat there for twenty dollars There was a tier My er than twelve As, like, principle Every ti I wished I was invisible It wasn't that the boys evendeal out of it, which they easily could have, but it was the feeling different, like an outsider, that I hated I hated it being pointed out I just wanted to be like theht off the bat, the boys were a unit Conrad was the leader His as pretty much law Steven was his second in coht, Conrad decided that the boys were going to sleep on the beach in sleeping bags and make a fire He was a Boy Scout; he knew all about that kind of stuff

Jealously, I watched theraham crackers and marshmallows Don't take the whole box, I wanted to tell theh--it wasn't my place It wasn't even ht," Conrad directed Steven nodded quickly I had never seen hiht months older; it had always been that way

Everybody had so butterscotch sundaes withrooet the cards," Conrad added, rolling up a sleeping bag