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“So that’s it, you want to sit up in here and let this place cru, boy If your parents could roll over in their graves, the ground would be shaking just knowing how you’re handling things around here Your mother would take a razor to that face in your sleep and your father — he’d be dalare, but she held her chin up defiantly

“Well, you can stop worrying They won’t be anything They’re dead” They’d died fourteenwith my sister, Ally and her boyfriend, Shawn Patterson I hadn’t handled things well since then

“Boy, to hear you talk I’lad I don’t have to stick around and hear it” She shook her head and kept on cleaning

“So does that ?” I patted down my pockets until I found my wallet and the key to my bike

“I’ll be leaving when I get this living rooh I’ out those science experi to end up in the hospital if you eat that food”

“I’led in h my bills

She turned and shook her rag atso to fix up some of my chicken noodle you used to love so much as a child”

“It’s really not necessary, Mattie” I stared into her dark eyes as she narrowed them at me

“I knohat’s necessary and what’s not, but you’ll be thanking ot a full stomach You look like you’ve lost a bit of your bulk”

I hadn’t lost that ht I’d been much bulkier before the accident and hadn’t cared ym hadn’t been en route of my destructive life’s path, but I certainly hadn’t withered away I glanced down to h not as prominent as before

“You don’t have to do anything, much less clean up”