Page 36 (1/1)

"You didn’t answer my question," I told him when I finally found the will to speak We’d already pulled up in front of , and I kneouldn’t answer anyway

"We don’t want anything with you" He bit his lip and looked over at me "We just want you to be one of us"

- 10 -

"What does that mean?" I know I looked terrified despite my best efforts, but he just smiled at"Get soht, like I can sleep after that," I et so daht or soot out of the Jeep When he drove off, I stayed outside for athe cold air seep intoI could feel it Everything about oing to become

For the first time ever, I woke up before Milo but not by choice I had been drea teeth, but by the tiether

My heart pounded horribly andIt had taken forever forof i doom

They wanted me to be one of them? What kind of horror movie crap was that? Did they expect me to marry into the family (and if so, was I supposed to? Was I expected to be so a shower, I tried to wash away htening occurrences, I couldn’t iine that Jack would ever hurt me Mae and Ezra seemed sincere in their unexplained affection for me, and even Peter had shown a reluctance to hurt me

All of it re rather unattractive girl clie of the most beautiful people she’d ever seen

Everyone in the entire toas absolutely perfect and arown bored with it Being perfect was ordinary, but all the things about her that ly in her old life made her stand out as beautiful and revered Everyone fell in love with her and had sex with her, and eventually she died of exhaustion and depression

The story had some kind of moral about how everyone used her for the way she looked, and being liked for the way you looked is worse than not being liked at all

That wasn’t what stood out to me about it now Jack and his fa Maybe they spent too eneral ho for them It was the only explanation I had for why they’d wantone of them? And ould they even want me to? Just what the hell did he even ot out of the shower, I had used up all the hot water I ed and said he didn’tto school had never seemed so much like a chore, but at least it was Friday I could stay out as late as I wanted tonight, and I would spend every second of the night interrogating Jack if that’s what it took I wouldn’t stop until he told ly fast, but that was in a large part because I slept ed Jack and asked hih he usually responded to me within seconds, he didn’t this time, but that’s what I had ht Still, I couldn’t help but check e of disappointot home, I turned the TV onto old Speed Racer cartoon reruns, but I didn’t even really pay attention to it My phone was on my lap with the volu htly overover to Jack’s tonight?" Milo sat on the couch, absently watching the cartoon He glanced over at me, and even in my distracted frame of mind, I noticed the pained expression on his face

"Probably" Then I looked down at hed "Maybe not"

"I could make us supper if you stayed in," Milo offered hopefully

Even though his voice had already changed, his face still carried all that baby fat that made hirow out of that Then it wouldn’t hurt sohi in this tiny apartet to the bottoht" I let hiently as I could, but his face crumbled anyway, and he looked away "Maybe we can another day this weekend"

"You’re gonna be out all night with Jack" Milo tried to keep it e "It’s the weekend, and you’re seventeen I really shouldn’t expect any different And pretty soon, you’ll be out on your own and have your own life and all that I should just get used to it now"