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61 " I looked over at him, felt the snake constrict again, and could only say, “Shut up.”“God, Alex, I am so sorry,” Tucker breathed. “I never thought this would happen—I thought it would die soon. . . .”“Do you even have a club in that closet, Beaumont?” Miles growled.“No! Of course not! You seriously think I have friends?” Tucker shot him a glare over my head. “You have a club. I have a python. You can stop rubbing it in my face now, all right?”“Both of you! Shut. Up. "
― Francesca Zappia , Made You Up
62 " Tucker and I think we can figure out what McCoy’s master plan is, but we need your help.”“With what?”“We’re going to break into his house.”Miles brought out the Magnificent Quirked Eyebrow, which made me feel better. That expression meant that things were at least kind of okay.“Are you sure that’s what you want to do?”“Tucker said if we’re going to find anything incriminating, it won’t be at school, and he’s right. It’ll be at McCoy’s. While I’m sure I could just John McClane my way into his house by shooting down the front door, I figured you might be able to do the job a little more discreetly.”“So basically you’re saying if I don’t agree, you’re going to go anyway, but you’re pretty sure you’ll get caught.”“Basically.”“But you know I don’t want you to get caught.”“Yes.”“So you’re blackmailing me.”“Yep.”He narrowed his eyes. “I can get behind that,” he said. “When?”“I don’t know. Are you sure you won’t mind it if Tucker’s there? Can you two play nice?”“Maybe.”“Would it help if I told you this was Tucker’s idea?”Now both eyebrows were up. “Well, fuck me.”“I’ll take that as a yes.”He leaned over and kissed my temple. The times he kissed me were so few and far between, I couldn’t help but smile.“I’ll meet you by the track,” he said, walking away without further explanation. "
63 " My mother had removed my intestines and used them to tie a noose around my neck. She just hadn't kick the stool out from under me yet. "
64 " Was everything made up? Was this whole world inside my head? If I ever woke up from it, would I be inside a padded room somewhere, drooling all over myself? Would I even be myself? "
65 " Everyone’s interesting if you stare at them long enough. "
66 " FUCK IT, I’M BORED.”“Here he comes.” Theo didn’t even look up when Miles rounded the corner and tossed his notebook onto the counter. “I don’t think cursing is going to help,” she told him.“Maybe it fucking will.” Miles seethed. “I hate everyone in that gym. Pick someone.”“No, I don’t want to play.”“It won’t take that long.”“That’s why I don’t want to play.”“Can I do one?” I raised my hand. “It might actually take you more than five questions, too.”Miles quirked his eyebrow. “Oh, you think so?”“If you get this in five, I’ll be thoroughly impressed.”He leaned over the counter, looking eager. Weirdly, weirdly eager. Not like he wanted to rub my face into the floor. Not like he knew he was going to beat me. Just . . . excited. “Okay,” he said. “Are you fictional?”Broad question. He didn’t know me as well as he knew Theo, so it was to be expected.“No,” I said.“Are you still alive?”“No.”“Are you a leader?”“Yes.”“Was your civilization conquered by a European nation?”“Yes.”“Are you . . . a leader of the Olmec?”“How’d you get there?” Theo blurted out, but Miles ignored her.“No,” I said, trying not to let him see how close he’d come. “And the Olmec weren’t conquered by the Europeans. They died out.”Miles frowned. “Mayan?”“No.”“Incan.”“No.”“Aztec.”“Yes.”The corners of his lips twisted up, but he said, “Shouldn’t have taken so many guesses for that one.” Then he said, “Did you found the Tlatocan?”“No.”“Did you reign after 1500?”“No.”Theo watched the conversation like a tennis match.“Are you Ahuitzotl?”“No.” I smiled. This kid knew his history.“Tizoc?”“No.”“Axayacatl?”“No.”“Moctezuma I?”“Nope.”“Itzcoatl?”“No.”“Chimalpopoca?”“No.”“Huitzilihuitl?”“What the hell are you saying?” Theo cried.He’d cut off a chunk of the Aztec emperors and whittled them down until there was only one remaining. But now he had three questions left—two he didn’t need.Why hadn’t he cut it down again? Surely he could have shortened his options and not guessed his way through all the emperors. Was this some kind of test? Or was . . . was he showing off?“You’re Acamapichtli.”There was a fanatical gleam in his eye, another smile playing on his lips. Both were gone as soon as I said, “Almost twenty. Not quite, but I almost had you.”“I’m never playing this game again,” said Theo, sighing and returning to her homework. "
67 " My parents didn’t grow up here or anything. They chose to live in this nowhere town. Why? Because it was named after Hannibal of Carthage. Their basic train of thought was this: Hannibal’s Rest? And we’re naming our child after Alexander the Great? MARVELOUS. Ah, the history, it tickles.Sometimes I wanted to beat my parents over the head with a frying pan. "
68 " My mother let me get ten steps inside the front door before bombarding me with questions.“Who was that?”“What happened to your bike?”“Did you forget you have work tonight?”And my personal favorite, “Do we need to have the talk?”I cringed. I did not need to think of Miles in that way. I was plenty confused about him as it was.“No, we do not need to have the talk, Mom. I understand how boy and girl parts work. Yes, I have to go to Finnegan’s. No, I don’t know what happened to Erwin.”“Who was that in the truck?” She waved her empty coffee mug around. I couldn’t tell if she was angry or excited—her zealotry managed to cover pretty much all the emotional bases.“That was Miles. "
69 " What’d you have to do, kill someone?” I asked. “Did you have to hide a body, too?”They glanced at each other. Tucker pulled on his collar. “Not exactly.”“Don’t worry about it,” Miles said at the same time.I decided to leave that one alone. "
70 " I grabbed Finnegan’s Magic 8 Ball from behind the cash register. My thumb went for the red scuff mark on the back of the ball, trying to rub it out like I always did whenever I got bored. Tucker was now preoccupied with lining up a pepper shaker cavalry across from a hostile regiment of saltshaker footmen....While Tucker stepped out back for his break, I commandeered his condiment armies. Gus’s cigarette smoke wafted toward the ceiling, pulled into the vent. The oscillating fan on the wall made the papers on the employee bulletin board flutter.Halfway through my recreation of the Battle of the Bulge, I shook Finnegan’s Magic 8 Ball to find out if the German saltshaker would be successful in his offensive.Ask again later.Useless thing. If the Allies had taken that advice, the Axis would have won the war. "
71 " She’s cute at first,” I said, “but trust me, it wears off once she crowns herself the pope and declares the bathroom ‘religious grounds.’”“She’s done that before?” Miles asked.“Oh yes. Several times. Last time I tried to take a shower, in fact. You could hear her screaming about blasphemers all the way down the street. "
72 " Was that Blue Eyes?I grabbed the Magic 8 Ball and rubbed the scuff mark as I looked down into its round window.Better not tell you now.Evasive little bitch. "