I giggled as Brian tried to eat the smoke around his head. In an odd voice, he said, "Chicks cannot hold dey're smoke! That's what it is!" he said, looking between Claire and I.
"Do you know how popular I am? I'm so popular; everybody loves me so much at this school." Claire said, touching her chest.
"Poor baby." Bender said sarcastically.
"How do you survive?" I asked her, shaking my head. Brian ended up on the floor, somehow. Up top, Andrew came out of a smoke filled room, it began flowing out. "Yeah, Andrew!" I cried while he began dancing around. I cheered when he took off his sweater, and clapped with everybody else when he went back.
"I'm a walrus, man!" Brian tried to convince Andrew and I. We laughed, and leaned back. When our laughs had finally toned down a bit, Andrew spoke again.
"No no man, no; you got a middle name?" I looked at Brian and waited for his answer.
"Yeah, guess…"
Out of nowhere, all we heard was, "Your middle name is Ralph, as in puke…" I frowned at her. "You're birthday is March 12th, you're five-nine and a half you weigh a hundred and thirty pounds and your social security number is 049380913." She smirked at us.
"Wow! Are you psychic?" Andrew said in amazement.
"No." she shook her head.
"Well would you mind telling me how you know all this about me?" Brian said in exasperation. Allison went into her bag.
"I stole your wallet." She said, smiling widely. I smirked at that.
"Give it!" Brian yelled, reaching over.
"No!" she said, keeping it out of reach.
"C'mon Allison. Just give him his wallet!" I said, putting my hand out. Slowly, she placed the wallet into his palm. He immediately began looking through it.
"This is great…you're a thief too, huh?" Brian said frantically.
"I'm not a thief!" Allison defended herself.
"Yeah, not a thief!" I added on. Brian simply looked at me, then back down.
"Multi-talented!" he said sarcastically.
"Hell yeah, I already nabbed your money that was in your backpack." Brian's eyes widened at me.
"What's there to steal? Two bucks and a beaver shot!" Allison yelled at him.
"A what?" Andrew and I said together.
"He's got a nudie picture in there! I saw it, it's perverted!" Allison cried.
"Alright let's see it!" Andrew said. I leaned forward.
"Ew, Brian. What would your mother think about this picture?" I asked, taking it out, and holding it by my fingernails.
"I…I don't know what she would think. I'd think she would be kind of disappointed." He shrugged. I looked at the picture, and back at him.
"I think it's hot."
"You do?" Andrew said, knitting his eyebrows together.
"Sure. Why not? He's a teenage guy! All teenage guys have some sort of nudie picture in his wallet." I put out my hand. He simply looked at it.
"What?"
"Lemme see your wallet." I rolled my eyes. He hesitantly reached into his pocket, and put it in my palm. "Ah-ha! Here's Andrew's nude!" I said, showing it to everybody.
"Oh, lemme see that!" Brian took it out of my hand. Andrew took Brian's wallet, and began looking through it.
"Man…this is the worst fake ID I've ever seen." Andrew said, shaking his head in shame. Brian and I chuckled once. "Do you realize you made yourself sixty eight?" Andrew raised his brows. I looked up at Brian.
"Oh, I know…I know, I goofed it." He explained.
"What do you need a fake ID for?" Andrew asked.
"Seriously-you're like…possibly the most boring person on Earth." I asked him, sitting up so I wasn't leaning on his arm anymore.
"It's so I can vote!" he said obviously.
"Oh…because 'voting' is so important." I cheered sarcastically.
"You wanna see what's in my bag?" Allison said out of the blue.
"Yes." I said while Brian and Andrew cried, "No!" Allison glared at them, and poured everything onto the couch behind me. I jumped, and sat on the coffee table.
"Holy shit! What is all that stuff?" Andrew exclaimed.
"Are you planning on starting a store?" I asked sarcastically.
"Do you always carry this much shit in your bag?" Brian asked.
Allison grinned widely, "Yeah…I always carry this much shit…in my bag. You never know when you may have to jam…" she shrugged.
"Maybe I should start doing that, then." I said, picking up her scarf that I had been eyeing all day.
"Are you gonna be like a shopping bag lady? You know like, sit in alleyways and like talk to buildings and wear men's shoes and that kinda thing?" Brian asked her honestly.
"I'll do what I have to do." She said simply.
"Why do you have to do anything?" Brian asked. She looked at him.
"My home life is un…satisfying."
"So you're saying you'd subject yourself to the violent dangers of the Chicago streets because your home-life is unsatisfying?" Brian asked.
"Allison-before my mom died…she took me away with her, and we lived on the streets. It's not pretty." I threw in. She looked at me, then looked at the windows upstairs hopefully.
"I don't have to run away and live in the street…I can run away and, go to the ocean, I can go to the country, I can go to the mountains. I can go to Israel, Africa, and Afghanistan." She said. I saw Brian lean over to Andrew and whisper in his ear. Andrew got a serious look on his face, and looked at her.
"Well everyone's home lives are unsatisfying…if it wasn't; people would live with their parents forever." He explained to her. Brian muttered something in his ear again.
"Never mind. Forget it! Everything's cool!" she said, throwing all her crap into her bag.
"What's the deal?" Andy said, leaning forward.
"No! There's no deal, Sporto. Forget it, leave me alone." She growled at him.
"Wait a minute, now you're carrying all that crap around in your purse. Either you really wanna run away or you want people to think you wanna run away."
"Eat shit!" Allison said, and got up.
"Allison!" I cried, though was too late. Brian stood up.
"The girl is an island, with herself. Okay?" Andy added on before Brian walked away. I got up as well and plopped myself next to Andy. He slowly looked at me.
"Hey!" I smiled. He smiled slightly.
"Hey." He said back.
"Can I be completely honest with you?" I asked, sitting so my chest was facing him. He nodded. "I…" I hesitated, and sucked in a breath. "I want a kitten. And I want to name her Truffles." I finally said, breaking down.
"I have a cat." He said, looking at me. I smiled widely.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah…" he nodded."She's a total bitch." I giggled.
"She can't be that bad?" I asked.
"No…she is-trust me." Andy shook his head.
"That's mean." I sat back down.
"It's not mean if it's true." Andy said, shrugging.
"Hey guys! We're going upstairs! Let's go!" Bender said, and walked up the stairs.
"What's going on?" Andy asked. I grabbed his hand, and pulled him up.
"We're going upstairs!" I said, smiling.
Turns out, Claire wanted to talk. So we were sitting in a circle, and talking about…whatever. I guess truth or dare questions Claire asked with her friends at sleepovers. "Okay…Andrew-what would you do for a million bucks?"
"What would I do for a million bucks?" Andrew asked. "Well, I guess I'd do as little as I had to…" he shrugged.
"That's boring." Claire said, clearly exasperated.
"Well, how am I supposed to answer?"
"The idea is to like search your mind for the absolute limit. Like, uh, would you drive to school naked?" I smirked at that, and looked to Andy for his answer.
"Um, would I have to get out of the car?"
"Of course!" Claire cried.
"In the spring or winter?"
"It doesn't matter…spring."
"In front of the school or in back of the school?" Andrew asked.
"Either one." Andrew smirked at the floor.
"Yes." He said simply.
"I'd pay to see that." I giggled, high-fiving him.
"I'd do that!" Allison cried. "I'll do anything sexual; I don't even need a million dollars to do it either." She said proudly. Claire let her jaw drop.
"You're lying." She said simply.
"I already have…I've done just about everything there is except a few things that are illegal…I'm a nymphomaniac!"
"C'mon…really?" I asked.
"Lie." Claire said simply.
"Are your parents aware of this?" Brian asked her.
"The only person I told was my shrink…"
"And what'd he do when you told him?" Andrew asked her.
"He nailed me." She said proudly.
"Why do you sound proud of this?" I asked her.
"I don't think that from a legal standpoint what he did can be construed as rape since I paid him." She smiled.
"He's an adult!" Claire said crazily. Allison smiled more.
"Yeah…he's married too!"
"Do you have any idea how completely gross that is?" Claire said, her eyes widening.
"That is kind of gross, Allison." I chimed in. But she couldn't hide it that easily, I was an emotion reader, she was lying.
"Well, the first few times-"
"First few times? You mean he did it more than once?" Claire asked.
"Well, sure." Allison smiled innocently.
"Are you crazy?" Claire asked her in an exasperated voice.
"Obviously she's crazy if she's screwing her shrink." Brian said in a 'duh' tone.
"Have you ever done it?" Allison asked Claire.
"Yeah-I'm sure we'd all like to know, Claire." I said, shrugging.
"I don't even have a psychiatrist." She defended.
"Have you ever done it with a normal person?" Allison asked.
"Now, didn't we already cover this?" she asked, looking at everybody uncomfortably.
"You never answered the question." Bender said, finally speaking.
"Look, I'm not gonna discuss my private life with total strangers." Claire said angrily.
"It's kind of a double-edged sword, isn't it?" Allison asked, raising her eyebrows slightly.
"A what?"
"Well, if you say you haven't…you're a prude. If you say you have…you're a slut! It's a trap. You want to but you can't. but when you do you wish you didn't, right?" Allison made her point.
"Wrong." She asked.
"Or are you a tease?"
"She's a tease." Andrew and I said in unison.
"Oh why don't you just forget it…and why would you know?" she asked me.
"Because all girls like you are teases!" I said.
"No, no, no-she's only a tease if what she does gets you hot…" Bender pointed out.
"I don't do anything!" she said, getting flustered.
"That's why you're a tease." Allison smirked.
"Okay, lemme ask you a few questions!" Claire suddenly said.
"I've already told you everything!" Allison claimed.
"No? Doesn't it bother you to sleep around without being in love? I mean, don't you want any respect?" she asked.
"I don't screw to get respect…that's the difference between you and me."
"Not the only difference, I hope." Claire said, crossing her arms.
"Face it, you're a tease." Bender shrugged.
"I'm not a tease!" Claire said, looking at him with her eyebrows knit.
"Sure you are! You said it yourself-sex is a weapon, you use it to get respect!" Bender said.
"No! I never said that, she twisted my words around!"
"Oh then what do you use it for?" Bender asked her.
"I don't use it period!" she cried, blinking her eyes so she wouldn't cry.
"Oh, are you medically frigid or is it psychological?" Bender then asked her. Claire snapped her hands on her thighs.
"I didn't mean it that way! You guys are putting words into my mouth!" she cried.
"Well, if you'd just answer the question…" everybody began telling her to answer the question, telling her it was no big deal.
And then she blew up. "NO! I NEVER DID IT!" she yelled. It was silent for a while.
"I never did it either. I'm not a nymphomaniac…I'm a compulsive liar." Allison grinned.
Claire's mouth dropped when she said that. "You are such a bitch! You did that on purpose just to fuck me over!"
Allison was quiet when she spoke, "I would do it though. If you love someone, it's okay." She said, looking straight at me.
"Don't bring me into this." I said. "It's not my choice."
"I can't believe you, you're so weird. You don't say anything all day and then when you open your mouth…you unload all these tremendous lies all over me!"
"Shut-up, Standish!" I groaned, and let my head drop back.
"She's just pissed-off because Allison got her to admit something she didn't want to admit to." Andrew explained.
"Okay, fine, but that doesn't make it any less bizarre!" Claire complained.
"What's bizarre? I mean, we're all pretty bizarre! Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all." Andrew looked between us. Claire looked at Andy dead on.
"How are you bizarre?" she asked. He was about to answer, but I bounced in.
"He can't think for himself." I told them.
"She's right, you know…do you guys know what, uh, what I did to get in here?" we waited for him to speak, "I taped Larry Leter's buns together." He said. Claire laughed.
"That was you?" Brian asked with wide eyes.
"Yeah, you know him?"
"Yeah, I know him."
"Well then you know how hairy he is, right? Well, when they pulled the tape off, most of his hair came off…and some, some skin too."
"Oh my God." Claire and I said together. I turned to face him and put a hand on his shoulder.
"And the bizarre thing is, is that I did it for my old man…I tortured this poor kid, because I wanted him to think that I was cool. He's always going off about, you know, when he was in school…and all the wild things he used to do. And I got the feeling that he was disappointed that I never cut loose on anyone…right? So, I'm…I'm sitting in the locker room, and I'm taping up my knee. And Larry's undressing a couple lockers down from me. Yeah…he's kinda-he's kinda skinny, weak. And I started thinking about my father, and his attitude about weakness. And the next thing I knew, I uh, I jumped on top of him and started wailing on him and my friends; they just laughed and cheered me on. And afterwards, when I was sitting in Vernon's office, all I could think about was Larry's father. And Larry having to go home…and explain what happened to him. And then humiliation…fucking HUMILIATION he must've felt. It must have been unreal…I mean, I mean-how do you apologize for something like that? There's no way…it's all because of me and my old man. Oh God, I fucking hate him! He's like this…he's like this mindless machine that I can't even relate to anymore! 'Andrew, you've got to be number one! I won't tolerate any losers in this family! Your intensity if for shit! Win. Win! WIN!' You son of a bitch…" he shook his head. I watched as he wiped his tears which were rolling down his cheeks. "You know, sometimes, I wish my knee would give…and I wouldn't be able to wrestle anymore. And he could forget all about me." He explained. I wrapped my arm around his waist and gave him a sad smile. He sniffed and smiled down at me weakly.
"I think your old man and my old man should get together and go bowling." Bender suggested. He chuckled.
"It's like me, you know, with my grades…like, when I, when I step outside myself kinda, and when I…when I look in at myself you know? And I see me…and I don't like what I see. I really don't." Brian said. I looked at him.
"What's wrong with you? Why don't you like yourself?" Claire asked him.
"I like you." I said, and cautiously grabbed his hand.
"Because I'm stupid. Because I'm failing shop. See, we had this assignment, to make this ceramic elephant…and um, and we had eight weeks to do it. And we're supposed to, and it was like a lamp. And when you pull the truck the light was supposed to go on…my light didn't go on. I got an F on it. Never got a F in my life…when I signed up, you know, for the course-I mean. I though I was playing it real smart, you know? Because I thought: I'll take shop. It'll be such an easy way to maintain my grade point average…" he shrugged.
"Why'd you think it'd be easy?" Bender asked him. Brian's jaw dropped slightly.
"Have you seen some of the dopes that take shop?"
"I take shop…you must be a fucking idiot!" Bender growled.
"What? I'm a fucking idiot because I can't make a lamp?" he exclaimed.
"No! You're a genius because you can't make a lamp!"
"What do you know about Trigonometry?" Brian asked him.
"I could care less about Trigonometry!" Bender growled.
"Bender, did you know without Trigonometry there'd be no engineering?" Brian said, his mouth hung open slightly.
"Without lamps, there'd be no light!"
"Okay so neither one of you is any better than the other one!" Claire interrupted them.
"I can write with my toes! I can also eat, brush my teeth…" Allison trailed off.
"With your feet?" Claire asked.
"…play Heart & Soul on the piano…" she grinned and leaned back.
Next to me, Brian said happily, "I can make spaghetti!"
"What can you do, Dot?" Brian asked me. I smiled, and thought about it for a second.
"Я могу говорить 3 Языки." I smiled.
"What?" Claire asked, laughing.
"I can speak seven languages…one of them is Russian-what you just heard, of course… 'El otro es espanol…' Spanish…and 'et en francais…which is French for and French. I also speak ancient Greek, German, Portuguese, and the ancient language of the Aztecs." I smiled at them. "I can speak them fluently, by the way…" I bragged. "Qu'en pensez-vous?" I asked Andy. He looked at me strangely. "What about you?"
"Oh…I can, uh, tape all your buns together." I laughed at that.
"I wanna see what Claire can do!" Bender asked.
"I can't do anything." She shook her head.
"Now, everybody can do something…" he said, looking at her.
"There's one thing I can do…no, forget it. It's way too embarrassing." She smiled, and shook her head again.
"You ever seen Wild Kingdom? I mean…that guys been doing that show for thirty years." Bender smirked at her. Claire laughed, and shook her head again.
"Okay, but you have to swear to God you won't laugh…I can't believe I'm actually doing this…" she smiled, and took lipstick out of her purse. She laughed while she uncapped it, and put it between her breasts. Her head leaned down, and her head moved slowly. We all watched, and tried to get a closer look at her. She finally looked up with a proud smile. Her lipstick was perfect.
"Oh! That's disgusting!" I cried, laughing-but still clapped nonetheless.
"All right, great! Where'd you learn to do that?" Andy chimed in.
"Camp, seventh grade." She smiled.
"That was great, Claire…my image of you is totally blown." Bender said cruelly. I glared at him.
"You're a jackass." I growled.
"Yeah you're a shit! Don't do that to her! You swore to God you wouldn't laugh!" Allison cried.
"Am I laughing?" he asked.
"You fucking prick!" Andrew yelled.
"I can't believe you're doing this!" I added on.
"What do you care what I think, anyway? I don't even count, right? I could disappear forever and it wouldn't make any difference. I may as well not even exist at this school, remember?" I looked down at the floor while he spoke, tears filling my eyes, "Yeah? Well the same thing applies to you, Nikky!"
"You're a jerk." I told him. He ignored me, though, and turned to Claire.
"And you…don't like me anyway!"
"You know, I have just as many feelings as you do and it hurts just as much when somebody steps all over them!" Claire yelled at him.
Bender began getting angry…well, angrier, was more like it, "God! You're so pathetic! Don't you ever…EVER! Compare yourself to me! Okay? You got everything and I got shit! Fucking Rapunzel, right? School would probably fucking shut down if you didn't show up! 'Queenie isn't here!' I like those earrings, Claire." Claire looked away and blinked hard.
"Shut up…" she muttered.
"Are those real diamonds, Claire?" he continued.
"Shut up!" Claire yelled, glaring at him.
"I bet they are…did you work for the money for those earrings?"
"Shut…you're…mouth." She growled.
"Or did your daddy buy those?"
"Shut up!" she cried once again. Tears began coming out of her eyes at a fast pace.
"I bet he bought those for you! I bet those are a Christmas gift! Right? You know what I got for Christmas this year? It was a banner fucking year at the old Bender family! I got a carton of cigarettes. The old man grabbed me and said 'Hey! Smoke up Johnny!' Okay, so go home and cry to your daddy. Don't cry here, okay?" I put my hand hesitantly on her shoulder, and then hugged her comfortingly.
"My God. Are we gonna be like our parents?" Andy asked. Claire pulled back and looked at him.
"Not me…ever." She growled.
"It's unavoidable. It just happens." Allison shrugs.
"What's happens?"
"What are you talking about, Allison?" I asked her. She looked around at us.
"When you grow up…you're heart dies."
"Who cares?" Bender said.
Allison looked at him through teary eyes, and said, "I care…"
"Yeah. I know what you mean." I said, fighting back tears myself.
"Um…I was just thinking, I mean. I know it's kind of a weird time, but I was just wondering…um…what is gonna happen to us on Monday? When we're all together again? I mean-I consider you guys my friends…I'm not wrong, am I?" Brian said out of the blue.
"No…" Andy said, looking at all of us.
"You're my friend, Brian." I smiled, and patted his hand.
"So, so on Monday…what happens?" he asked.
"Are we still friends, you mean? If we're friends now, that is?" I nodded in answer to her question. "Do you want the truth?"
"Yeah, I want the truth." Brian said.
"I don't think so…" Claire said, looking at all of us through a new set of tears.
"Well, do you mean all of us or just John?" Allison smiled a bit.
"With all of you…" Claire said, instantly crushing the mood.
"That's a real nice attitude, Claire!" Andy yelled at her. I kept my head down, looking at the floor.
"Oh, be honest, Andy…if Brian came walking up to you in the hall on Monday, what would you do? I mean picture this: You're there with all the sports. I know exactly what you'd do. You'd say hi to him and when he left, you'd cut him all up so your friends wouldn't think you really liked him!"
"No way!" Andy yelled.
"It's true, Andy! What would happen if I came up to you? You'd tell the guys you felt sorry for me! Wouldn't you?" I yelled, the tears falling down my face now.
"What if I came up to you?" Allison asked Claire.
"Same exact thing."
"You are a bitch!" Bender yelled suddenly.
"Why? Because I'm telling the truth? That makes me a bitch?"
"No! Because you know how shitty that is to do to someone! And you don't got the balls to stand up to your friends and tell them that you're gonna like who you wanna like!" he cried.
"Do you?" I yelled at him.
"Stay the fuck out of this, Nico!" he pointed his finger at me.
"Okay, what about you? You hypocrite? Why don't you take Allison to one of your heavy metal vomit parties? Or take Brian out to the parking lot at lunch to get high? What about Andy for that matter? What about me? What would your friends say if we were walking down the hall together? They'd probably laugh their asses off and you'd probably tell them you were doing it with me so they'd forgive you for being seen with me." Claire said honestly. I wiped the tears out of my eyes.
"Don't you ever talk about my friends! You don't know any of my friends! You don't look at any of my friends! And you certainly wouldn't condescend to speak to any of my friends so you just stick to the things you know-shopping, nail polish, your father's BMW and your poor-rich-drunk mother in the Caribbean!" Claire sobbed, and kicked his leg-he didn't budge. "And as far as being concerned about what's gonna happen when you and I walk down the hallways at school, you can forget it!'Cause it's never gonna happen! Just bury your head in the sand…and wait for your fucking prom!" Claire cried. My tears ran silent along with her. I pulled her in for a hug.
"I hate you…" she told him when we pulled back.
"Yeah? Good!"
"You know it'd be true, Bender! What would Mikey say, huh? 'Oh? She a good lay? Mind if I give it a try?' Just like he asked when he was talking about me! You're an asshole, and a hypocrite! Because you'd do the same thing Andy would do to Brian, and Claire would do to Allison!" I yelled. He stayed silent at that.
"Then I assume, Allison, Nico and me are better people than you guys, huh? Us weirdos…" he looked at me. "Do you, would you do that to me?"
"You're one of my best friends." He looked at Allison next.
"Would you do that to me?"
"Nico's my only friend…"
"Well, if you had more other than Nikky?"
"No…I don't think the kind of friends I'd have would mind." Allison smiled at us.
"I just wanna tell, each of you, that I wouldn't do that…I wouldn't and I will not!'Cause I think that's real shitty." Brian informed us.
"Your friends wouldn't mind because they look up to us…" Claire said. Brian laughed.
"You're so conceited, Claire. You're so conceited. You're so, like, full of yourself. Why are you like that?" Brian asked her. She began sobbing again. I didn't pull her in for a hug this time.
"Yeah Claire? Why are you so conceited? Why can't we hang out after school?" I asked her.
"I'm not saying that to be conceited! I hate it! I hate having to go along with everything my friends say!" she whined.
"Then don't!" I said at the same time Brian said, "Well then why do you do it?"
"I don't know, I don't…you don't understand. You don't. You're not friends with the same kind of people that Andy and I are friends with! You know, you just don't understand the pressure that they can put on you!"
Brian put his hand on his chest in shock. "…I don't understand what? You think I don't understand pressure, Claire? Well fuck you! Fuck you!" he cried, and hid his arm in his sleeve. When he had finished, he sat up. "Know why I'm here today? Do you? I'm here because Mr. Ryan found a gun in my locker…"
My jaw dropped, as did everyone else's. Andrew was the first to speak, "Why'd you have a gun in your locker?"
"I tried. You pull the fucking trunk on it and the lights supposed to go on…and it didn't go on. I mean, I…"
"What's the gun for Brian?" Andrew asked.
"Tell me, Brian." I ordered him.
"Just forget it!" he said, looking away.
"Hey, you brought it up, man!" Andrew said angrily.
"I can't have an F…I can't have it. I know my parents can't have it! Even if I aced the rest of the semester, I'm still only a B. And everything ruined for me!"
"Oh, Brian…" Claire said sympathetically. He pushed a chair over, and I nearly hopped over Claire's lap.
"So I considered my options, you know?" Brian shrugged.
"No! Killing yourself is not an option!" Claire yelled at him.
"Definitely not an option!" I cried, and flung myself at his neck.
"Well, I didn't do it, did I? No, I didn't think so!" I pulled back and smiled softly at him.
"It was a hand gun?" Allison asked him.
"No, it was a flare gun. Went off in my locker." He said pitifully.
"Really?" Andrew said, trying to contain his laughter. He eventually couldn't hold it. I gave him a stern look as Brian said, "It's not funny…"
Soon, we all couldn't stop laughing, especially Brian. "Yes it is…fucking elephant was destroyed!" he laughed.
"What did Nicholetta Moore do that earned her a place in today's detention?" Bender asked, crossing his arms. I smirked.
"C'mon Nico…what?" Brian nudged me when I didn't speak.
"…I kicked Richard Vernon in the balls 8 times this week." I smiled. They all gasped.
"Way to go, Nikky-baby!" Bender cried, and gave me a high-five.
"You wanna know what I did to get in here?" Allison asked. We paused to listen to her story, "Nothing…I didn't have anything better to do." We all began laughing once more. "You're laughing at me…"
"No!" Andy cried. Allison laughed too.
"Yeah, you are!" she said happily.
"Can you blame us?" I asked with my head in Andy's lap.
"No, no I can't!"