Page 9 (1/2)

I jerk my eyes away and rise to ht? I was really worried"

She bites at her bottoot out of hand and I think I ht have overreacted"

"Overreacted?" I question "About what?"

"U a jerk I mean, he totally tried to put the moves on me, which is fine--I’m used to it But I really wasn’t in the ht have seen hi" I point over id and her eyes enlarge "What was he doing?"

"Staring at h the subject is a little twisted "What exactly did you do to hiht? Break his heart into pieces?"

She shakes her head, gazing off across the street "I didn’t do anything to him He was the one who tried to push ?" I ask, watching crisp autumn leaves blon the street "Because he pushed you too far?"

"Pushed too far…" She pulls her hair into a bun and secures it with an elastic off her wrist "Look, Eht, but I swear it isn’t what you’re thinking No one slipped ht"

We jump back from the curb as the sprinklers turn on "Then as that talk about seeing death?"

"What are you talking about?" she asks as we throw our are of the driveway, out of the reach of the sprinkler Our shoes and the botto out ht"

She wipes the water froum out of her pocket, and pops a piece into her mouth "I did?"

"Yeah, and you wereout"

She pops a bubble, trying to reht Or u about death, but I was upset because this really hot guy totally wasn’t that into me, so I wandered off with Laden because he was interested"

"I’ve never seen you that upset, except for once" Right after she found her mom "Guys are disposable to you How could you be so upset because one blew you off?"

"Okay, first off, he didn’t blow me off" She tosses her hands into the air and bobs her head with attitude "He was just distracted And besides, that’s not the only reason I was upset Laden left "

I gape at her "How did you get home?"

"I walked," she explains nonchalantly "We were just on the bridge, so it wasn’t that big of a deal"

"It seeht," I point out

She sighs and sits down on the curb I sink down beside her and we stretch our legs out into the road as the warht shines down on us "Remember e used to sit here and wait for ive her a s so for us, like a candy or Play-Doh"

She laughs at the memory and her eyes crinkle at the corners "God, he always seereat dad, but he turned out to be a total jerk, bailing on his kids like that"

"It wasn’t your fault he left" I stare at the jack-o’-lanterns on the porch of the house across the street, re when Raven’s dad helped us make one that looked like a cat It was one of our rare perfect entle autu habit" She pauses, her jaw taut "How did we end up with such crappy parents?" Her eyes widen "Oh crap, I didn’t uy He just had soazing up at the clear sky

"I said I was sorry… Look, I’ht and I don’t even knohy I’nat off "

She rubs soloss over her lips "What’s up?"

I knohat she wants uy?"