Page 25 (1/2)

Twister is brought out, and only then does Moest that Ray to keep reen, the other six drunken adults gather around the coffee table to play Bullshit with six sticky decks of cards, and I go in search of Millie, who disappeared about a half hour ago

I find her bundled up on the back deck, changed into a sweater and jeans, reading on her iPad She has the thick comforter from her bed wrapped around her, and has found one of Dad’s wool caps to pull over her , and as soon as the door inside closes, the quiet falls like a hush over the deck The vineyards stretching out ahead of us are an invisible sea of black

“Hey, you” I sit in the lounge chair to her right, facing her “You’reto Moirlfriend, the fire breather fro, “You can only hear that story so many times before it’s just another story, you know?”

“What’re you reading?”

Millie tilts her iPad toward me “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark”

“My adorable true criood”

I want to talk to her a bit about the conversation we had before dinner, but feel like I should leave her to the book She turns back to the iPad and I stretch out on the chaise, crossing my feet at the ankle I like it out here—it’s quiet and crispand relaxing Millie is so cal in front of the fireplace I pull outthe IRL app to see whether I have any new es In fact, I have two One from Daisy, and another from Cat, to whom I’d mentioned my ambivalence about a weekend at home with my parents

From: Catherine M

Sent: 11:43 prade, I had about seventy pounds of hardware in et over the lisp from it I mean, it was a terrible, cartoon-level bad lisp

There was a girl, Tessa, as an enormous asshole about it She would raise her hand in class to answer a question, and do it with a lisp, and the entire class would fall apart laughing It finally bothered ave me these “replies” I could use when she was ht away: They were terrible They were, like, “Tessa, I really don’t appreciate it when you ht think it’s funny to s” Iboth of these sentences with a lisp just send her into further hysterics, but these comebacks would not ured my dad was just terrible at cos that Mo, and went straight to my room, and about an hour later I heard his voice downstairs, and it got louder and louder until I finally heard him yell, “Look, I don’t know if you feed her sand, or you make her sleep in a small, dark closet, but just keep your duhter froain in person”

Needless to say, Tessa never bugged ain

I’m not really sure what my point is, but sometimes we think our parents are la awesome I hope that this weekend is like that for you

C

I read it again, laughing, and then type a quick reply:

Frohed out loud reading this We’re actually having a pretty good time Mom made ribs and mashed potatoes, and only mentioned The Woman Down The Street about seven hundred tiot her drunk so that she won’t be mad when they run naked in the vineyards later It’s chaos in the house, but I’m outside with my best friend, which always lad I caht

I hope it doesn’t sound too forward for ht

More soon

R

I open the e from Daisy

Fro I bet it’s so pretty up there! Happy birthday! Mine is in July It always sucked to have birthdays in the summer because no one was around! Let’s definitely plan a tiether when you’re back! Have theto find a thread of anything I can reply to here Granted, I tend to overthink things, but having conversations with Daisy online is a little like playing Candy Land I know soet that sense fro, and then delete it Honestly, I could just decide to not reply, right?

I look over at Millie, whose screen looks like she’s also reading a e on IRL, and with a faint se of jealousy is back, but I press in on it, forcing it to collapse into nothing

Finally, I settle on a sireat weekend!—and hit SEND just when Millie stands andover me, with the comforter cocooned around her shoulders, cap low on her head