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"Wait He said ‘riffraff’?"

"It ht have been another word"

"Oh" I rubat the ancient carpet "How’s Dad handling it?"

Moives me a rueful smile and reaches for another stack of napkins "I think you can probably guess"

I stand up and start pacing around the tables "Crap," I o there, Julia?"

I stop pacing and look at her "I had to tell Sawyer so He’s the one who knockedany

"He knocked your pizza over? On purpose?"

"No! Nothing like that It was an accident"

"What kind of hooligan would do that? We should be the ones slapping a restraining order on him," she says

Oh, hey, there’s a way to ruin my life even ht"

"Well, that’s great" I get up and grabto bed"

I stomp into the kitchen just as Trey pulls a pizza out of the oven "Is that the one I messed up on? They still want it, this late?"

"Yep," he says He cuts it, grabs a box and slides it in, then

I’m so frustrated I want to punch the wall "Okay, awesome," I say "I’ll be back in twenty ot it," he says "Go upstairs"

I bite my lip He makes me want to cry I know I should object, but I don’t "You won’t believe what I did," I say

"Probably not" He srabs his coat and keys, then the pizza, and he’s out the door "Wait up, we’ll talk It’ll be fine," he calls as it closes

"Thanks, Trey I will," I say, but he’s gone All I can hear now is Dad slinging crap around upstairs I head out of the restaurant as Trey’s taillights disappear, and startmy way upstairs to deal with Dad

Seventeen

When I enter the apart At first, he just looks atdisappointment without a word, and it works The irony here is that he’s standing in the ht be a table and some chairs somewhere, but they’ve been loaded with piles and piles of his junk for the past nine years Yet nobody ever calls him on that