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You know, just in case I really want that sense of sha

Why should I feel shaht in his tiny twin bed? We didn’t even do anything

It’s after washing my hands that I bother to check ht asking me where I am, as well as a missed call from my dad That’s it Just one call and one text That’s the extent of

I should probably get home, but not on account of my parents and their half-assed attempts to reach me I just feel really weird suddenly and don’t think I can act norht to be his protector or whatever

What is it about the ht, my dad used to tease me every ti et it from hiht

I really hate s

There’s a fist against the door “Toby, I need to pee,” co in there for so long, anyway? Jacking off?”

I whip open the door

A tall, broad-shouldered troll in a threadbare black tank top and blue boxers falls back a step at the sight of ates just opened to the seventh circle of Hell “What the—?”

“It’s all yours,” I announce to the du past him on my way out

But an easy exit is the last thing I get Standing in the living rooly beautiful woman—blonde, thin arched eyebrows, slender, a look of sharpness in her eyes that shows both strength and a sense of keenness A dishtowel hangs from her hands, likely because she was drawn at once from the kitchen by Toby’s stepbrother’s little outburst When she peers at aze, which slowly drags downa private thought, she estive, I-wouldn’t-dare-to-call-it-flirtatious voice, “Why hello and who are you, mister …?”

“I’m Vann”

Her eyes are hovering on my chest for some reason “Oh I’m Marlene Are you a friend of Lee’s?”

“Hell no, he ain’t,” blurts the stepbrother, whose urgent need to pee apparently isn’t so urgent after all, hovering in the hallway as he is, as if he’ll need to protect his erous me

“Oh So you’re a friend of … of Toby’s, then? Fro her eyes from my chest to my face, but finally does