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"Normal people would be bothered that everyone thinks they’re crazy and an asshole and an outlaw, but you’re more than happy to live in your sick world of whatever you say goes"

"It’s a family, and it’s your family"

"We are not related!" A wildness strikes her eyes as tears line the edges "I don’t want to be a part of your fa her that her father died when a pickup hit hi without a helmet, I breathe deeply "Our family is the type that fixes tires and offers help Co your brother with me He looks like he needs a damn meal"

"I’er fourteen and I’m not a follower like all of you I don’t listen to you and ask how high when you say juo for the truck "Razor is the oldest of us He’s the leader"

"You’re wrong," she calls out "It was you we followed, but I stopped and Brandon’s going to stop and soon it’ll all stop"

"You don’t make any sense"

"I do You know I do"

She doesn’t and I continue walking so I won’t chew her out for breaking the heart of uilty for welco the club’s help I chased snakes out of the barn with her ere seven At eight, with Chevy’s help and a baseball bat, we scared away the monsters under her bed

Me, her, Chevy and Razor--ere tight

Were is a son-of-a-bitch word

Chevy watches us from the front of the truck and Stone stands in the bed with his hands resting on the roof of the cab

A twig snaps behindinto the driver’s side and Eood sense to stay silent as Chevy opens the passenger side He offers his hand to Violet to assist her up the two-foot lift

Instead of accepting, she grasps the console and hauls herself up with a struggle Chevy waits, but the stone set of his face tellsa few beers back soon in the interest of forgetting Violet’s name

Once she’s in, Chevy closes the door and joins Stone in the bed of the truck Two taps on the roof and I rev the engine

With a fourteen-year-old in the back, I ently jostles fro into ainst mine instead of the aard, heavy silence