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Lennon pretends to think about this "She needs a lot of space, and we’d be sad if we couldn’t see her every day If you like lizards, a better pet would a green anole or a leopard gecko They are pretty easy to take care of, if your lances at the mother, who shakes her head firmly Lennon quickly says, "Or, you could just cohtfully while the ives Lennon an enthusiastic thumbs-up His face relaxes into a war time It’s sweet and boyish Unexpectedly, a hollow ache wells up insideridiculous, I tellthehter toward the turtle area of the store When Lennon is alone, I approach the cage with trepidation

"Hey," I say

He swings around and spots lances around, as if hidden cairl was about the possibility of an iguana bite "What’s up?"

"I was on my way back from lunch and saw your car," I say, as if this is a totally norh I haven’t refused to walk on this side of the street forinto hi chest "Sure you aren’t here to serve ?"

I wince inwardly "My dad is--"

"A dick?"

"Anxious"

Lennon snorts "So that’s e’re calling it"

"Look, you’d be stressed too, if the business you built was going to hell because all your clients were scurrying away faster than rats on a sinking ship"

He h the screen, scattering s to the inside of e truck trundles down the road You can’t see it, but you can feel it, and that , actually," he points out "The original phrase was, ‘When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert it’ "

"Yeah? Well, you better actually hope that doesn’t happen, seeing hoe’re all stuck in the sa," I say, suddenly irritated with his know-it-all factoids "If we fall down, the rubble hborhood perverts buy their butt plugs?"

"Gee, I don’t know" He braces his hands on the wooden frame of the habitat and leans down until his face is at ainst the screen between us A clean, sunny scent wafts from his clothes, one that’s painfully fao to the same store where your dad buys the sticks that are stuck up his ass I think it’s next to Adulterers Are Us"

Fury bubble ups "You," I start, and then realize how loud I’ I lean closer to the screen and lower my voice "You cannot tell anyone about that photo book"

"I think anyone with a working bullshit "

"My mom doesn’t!" I shout-whisper at his stupid face

Sharp eyes lock with e"

"Because it will break up their e," I whisper "I can’t do that to my mom It would kill her"

Lennon doesn’t respond Just studiesto ure out what to do, you need to tell your moms to keep quiet about it too"

"I can’t control what they say to your mom If you recall, they were once all friends Come to think of it, so were the two of us, before you decidedup the social ladder was more important"