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The oily girls began to caress his shirtless body One kissed circles on the skin of his neck, while the other whispered filthy promises in his ear More objects rained down and struck the beach, kicking up more sand The sand spray kicked up into the air, but it didn’t fall back down, it hung in the air all around hih the suspended sand, feeling it fall away at his touch

"Where were you right then?" one of the girls said

Gates turned to her They weren’t on the beach any down

"What?" Gates said

It was no longer daytiht, the sky was black, and he was in Pruitt’s backyard, where tangled Christh the branches of a barren winter tree in the center of the yard The girls from the beach stared at hine flutes

"Where were you right then?" one of theain

"On a beach," Gates said

"Why are you acting so weird?"

When he looked back at them, their heads looked like fleshy marshmalloith black dots for eyes and no noses or irls What happened to your faces?" he said

"You like it?" one of them said The area near her mouth seemed to pulse as she spoke, but he heard her quite clearly

He wasn’t sure if he liked it Their heads were structureless blobs, but on the other hand, their skin was beautiful It was luscious and healthy He could see the hint of bluish veins under the veil of their delicate skin, and it made him want to touch their soft, puffy heads

"What do you kiss with?" he said

"We don’t kiss Straight to business," the other one said

He nodded "You girls are cool"

"Gates! You hear about the new hat?" Fowler said

Foalking across the yard toward hi a plain cardboard box in his hands

"What new hat?" Gates said The blobby-headed girls were gone, but he’d already forgotten thener came up with the perfect hat," Fowler said

"What do you n of it is so perfect that it makes anyone ears it look the best they could possibly ever look It doesn’t even , you put it on and poof, i than you’ve ever been"

"It’s a ic hat?"

"No bro, it’s scientific," Fowler said "Just looking at the hat releases all this stuff in your brain"

"But how?"

"There’s PDFs on their website; you can read all the research"

"That rules so hard," Gates said "How much is the hat?"

"Free"

"You have it in the box?" Gates said, pointing to the box in Fowler’s hand

Fowler grinned "You’re never going to be the sareen felt hat, with a pinched ridge running down the top, a baseball cap bill in the back, and three drops of white paint spilled on its front

"Are you sure that’s perfect?" Gates said

"Just put it on, dude"

Gates took it out of the box and pulled it onto his head

Instantly, he jolted with pleasure It felt like his whole body was a tongue, the world was row taller than everyone else Girls ca their shirts off at the sight of him