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She snorts

I bite ree with her, which I’m tempted to do If this is the real Ivy--and not just a bitter exterior that she’s saved for h this pint, hot bartender or not "High school was a long tio, Ivy Maybe we can bury this hatchet you’re intent on sticking in et to know each other Who knowspause and a look around, she slides into her seat Tipping her head back, she downs the entire shot of whiskey in one gulp "I’ to need a fewto do with starting those rumors I swear!"

The flat look on her face tells me she doesn’t believe me "Well, I know that Bonnie did, because I confronted her about it and she said that she had a highly reliable source who saw htlike that, and I’d run off and tell Bonnie?" My mother didn’t even tell e private inforer who has no impact on my life at all?

Ivy sla ut It’s taken four rounds for Ivy to break out of her spiky shell and tell h school for her Shethe alcohol because she’s a lot louder and o

"Three weeks into h school, in a toe had just ht stab you’ Great reputation to have, right? I spent a lot of ti out with my little brothers, that first year" She keeps her eyes on our elasses as she balances theave me some lame excuse and broke it off Just like that" She snaps her fingers, her short nails painted with black lacquer "I knoe’d only been seeing each other for a feeeks, but it still hurt"

I groan out loud Why does everything in my life somehow lead back to ood looks and poor judgment calls And, of course the blowback would land on h "For what it’s worth, I never knew you tere ever a thing in high school" Jesse had a lot of "things" with a lot of girls and got bored easily I could never keep up, and by our junior year, I didn’t want to "And I can’t make excuses for my brother except to say that he was an idiot back then"

"An idiot who didn’t want a girlfriend that apparently sets houses on fire and tortures small animals I don’t blaured your dad demanded as much"

I snort "Please! If my dad told him to not date you, he would have proposed" A quick replay ofthat isn’t going to help heal Ivy’s deep wounds "I’s about you But it wasn’t onna try and convincethe side of Poppa’s Diner?"

There it is I knew this would coured out I was the one who reported her to the Sheriff "No That, I did do Poppa showed up at our ranch in his El Camino in tears Do you knoful it is to see an old man cry?"

"Funny, because when your dad hauledthe side of the diner, I did cry Your dad scared the shit out of me"

"What did you expect? You can’t cover walls with racial slurs and swastikas and get aith it"

She si est it "I didn’t do it, As open as I stare into those accusing black eyes, looking for the joke in them There isn’t one She’s serious "What?! You are insane!"

"Okay, finemaybe you didn’t actually paint the wall, but I know you were in on it Don’t sit here and lie to me, now After all these years You and your little posse of irls and dickhead boyfriends"