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"No landscaping jobs?" said Nick

"No jobs I was actually planning to watch Jao out with her folks We could take hiet one of you to watch hi with anxiety "You’re nervous," said Nick

"I’ve , the night Gabriel had been arrested for arson Hannah’s father was the county fire n"

"Maybe"

"You don’t sound happy"

"I’ve never done the parent thing"

"Pretend they’re new clients"

Michael looked at him "Yeah, okay"

"No Seriously That’s what I do" Nick never had any idea how to treat his girlfriends’ parents He alorried they’d see right through him, and it wasn’t like he wanted to pretend to stare at his date’s boobs right in front of Mom and Dad, just to prove a point He kne to deal with teachers, and how to deal with landscaping customers He treated parents the saain, inity

Whatever He shrugged "It’s worked so far"

Michael smiled and hit him on the shoulder "Thanks, Nick"

He headed for the stairs Nick watched hio, bemused And relieved

And a little disappointed

"Hey," Nick called after hi hair"

Michael made a face "If I cutit"

Typical Michael Notfive minutes to care what he looked like "You’re the one ants to estured "I can’t do what you guys do"

"So cut it short"

"It won’t look stupid?"

"Right now you look like you’re trying to bring back the grunge era, so you tell me"

Michael rolled his eyes and started up the stairs "All right, all right"

Nick watched hiood He’d missed this So much that he wanted to call Michael back down, to take hiain, his older brother hadn’t really et around to asking a favor

And really, if he’d said a word about Adam, that camaraderie probably would have vanished into thin air

Quinn woke to the sounds of a guitar stru to orient herself Darkness cloaked the rooht was on souitar was

She was alone in bed, which wasn’t a surprise She was in the room with the double beds, curled up under the quilt

The whole night had been bizarre, fro addicts in her bedroootten any better

Tyler had asked if she wanted to take a shower to clean up a bit, which she’d assumed was an implication that it was tiht Kind of like when boys took you out to dinner and a movie and then expected a little somethin’-somethin’ in the car before they took you home, but on a whole new level

But no, she’d cli hot shower alone and stayed that way She took her tiet another chance to spend more than fiveat her

And later, when she’d ea sweats, Tyler had been killing the lights in the apartoing to bed I’ve got an eight am class" Then he’d taken a quick look in the second bedroom and said, "Do you want an extra blanket?"

Pretty clear where he’d expected her to sleep

Thinking about it now, she wondered if she’dSeth did?

She had no idea how to read hih he’d talked his way out of those But then that night behind the 7-Eleven, when he’d burned herwas that a cruel side of Tyler, the way boys would yank the wings off flies, or was that a panicked side trying to figure out what dangers were affecting the Elee he could find?

And here she was, sleeping in his spare roos and protected her fro

No, a lot That had to count for a lot

The guitar ht he’d told her his faht of how much he hated Tyler, and wished she kne to reconcile all these facets of the sa h that she could pick out the rhythm and melody Was so her legs onto the velvet softness of the carpeting, padding into the doorway Definitely outside

She peeked through Tyler’s doorway, expecting to either find hi up in bed, as confused about the ht over the sink was on, casting a soft glow across half the apartlass door that led to the porch, seeing that someone was indeed out there, sprawled on one of the porch chairs, a guitar in his lap

Tyler

Quinn slid the glass door open "What happened to your eight o’clock class?"

"Nothing I couldn’t sleep" He was good enough that he didn’t lose the rhyth half the building"