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Conrad was in his room, and when Jeremiah went up and asked hi an awful lot of time alone, in his roo soon for a college road trip with our dad, and Conrad didn't seem to care When Conrad wasn't at work, he was too busy stru to music

So it was just Jeremiah, Steven, andwalkers alk the sa The next movie wouldn't start for another hour About five usted "I can't watch this," he said "You co, Jere?"

Jeremiah said, "Nah, I'll stay with Belly"

Steven looked surprised He shrugged and said, "I'll uys when it's over"

I was surprised too It was pretty awful

Not long after Steven left, a big burly guy sat in the seat right in front of ht about doing the fake "That's okay" thing but decided against it This was Jeremiah, after all I didn't have to be polite So instead I said thanks and we traded To see the screen Jereht and lean toward me His hair smelled like Asian pears, this expensive sha tall football guy now, and he smelled so sweet Every time he leaned in, I breathed in the sweet smell of his hair I wished h the one a few e soda and a pack of Twizzlers I reached for the soda to take a sip, but there were no straws "You forgot the straws," I told him

He ripped the plastic off of the Twizzler box and bit the ends off of tizzlers Then he put therinned broadly He looked so proud of hiotten all about our Twizzler straws We used to do it all the time

We sipped out of the straws at the same time, like in a 1950s Coke co I wondered if people thought ere on a date

Jeremiah looked at me, and he smiled in this faht, Jeremiah Fisher wants to kiss me

Which, was crazy This was Jeremiah He'd never looked at me like that, and as for me, Conrad was the one I liked, even when he was moody and inaccessible the way he was now It had always been Conrad I'd never seriously considered Jere there And of course Jeremiah had never looked atpartner, the girl he shared a bathrooirl he kissed

Chapter sixteen

AGE 14

I knew bringing Taylor was a mistake I knew it I knew it and I did it anyway Taylor Jewel, rade called her Jehich she pretended to hate but secretly loved

Taylor used to say that every time I caain She had to make me want to be there, in my real life with school and school boys and school friends She'd try to pair uy she was obsessed with at the tio to the movies or to the Waffle House, but I'd never really be there, not completely Those boys didn't compare to Conrad or Jeremiah, so as the point?

Taylor was always the pretty one, the one the boys looked at for that extra beat I was the funny one, the one whoher I'd be proving that I was a pretty one too See? See, I'm like her; we are the saht that bringing Taylor would guarantee ht walks on the boardwalk and their nights on the beach in sleeping bags I thought it would open up my whole social world that sus