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he short?”
    “No, he’s a bit taller than you.”
    “You know I’m still growin’, right?”
    “Why are you going so fast?”
    “I don’t know. I just like to ride this way sometimes!”
    I’m not jealous, I’m not that guy, and my legs are on fire, so I squeeze the brakes and skid to a stop. I’d like to change the subject off of this a-hole who’s moving in on my girl, so I just turn around and look her in the eyes. As she steps off the pegs to yell at me for stopping too fast, I give her a hard kiss that shuts her up. She may think another Carter is cool, but she’s my girl.
    A bolt of lightning shoots through my body as my forgotten bruises collide with her open mouth. “Yeaow, awesome, cool!” I say, pulling away from the pain.
    She asks, “What’s the matter with you?”
    She seems confused when I reply, “Nothin’. Y-Y-You wanna go down the rocket-ship slide?”
    My face is hot from riding hard, so the embarrassment shouldn’t be that obvious. My lips are throbbing with pain. I grab her hand as we stroll past the swing sets. I’m trying really hard to pay attention while Abby explains how all of this land was part of the Saur mansion until the nineteen sixties. She tells me why nothing ever gets fixed in this park. She thinks it’s because the newer suburbs have sucked up all of the money, but that’s part of why Merrian is perfect for shooting this movie; it looks the exact same way as when C. B. lived here.
    The sun is almost gone as I set my bike down and we climb the rickety spiral stairs to the top of the old rocket-ship slide. I’ve been up here a thousand times but never noticed how beautiful the view was. The slide is on top of a hill that overlooks most of Merrian. It all seems pretty small from up here. You can see the top of the Saur mansion and my school and the pool. The streets make sense when you’re this high, and I can just make out Grey Goose Lake in the distance. I feel stupid for thinking it was so far away and for getting lost going out there. Abby tells me that this revelation is called “perspective” and that sometimes stepping away from something can give you a better look at it. I had no idea Merrian was in a valley. I was always too busy catching my breath from sprinting up the stairs in order to beat my sister or EJ to the top. The slide is super fun, long, twisty, and fast as hell, so I was always a little dizzy and too stoked about sliding down again to worry about perspectives or topographical appreciation. Or maybe it’s just that I’ve never been up here with Abby before.
    We stare at each other for a while before I pull her close. Pain shoots through my face again as she feels the romantic situation and kisses me. Dang it. I pull back after a few seconds and look into her eyes. I’m begging her to stop with my gaze, but she must think those tears in my eyes are sexy, because she comes in for more. Whoever invented the phrase “love hurts” must have dealt with something like this. I pull away again and roll my head to the side. She kisses my neck, and I moan a sigh of relief like I’m a guy who’s really into getting his neck slobbered on. I grab her boobs because they’re there, and who wouldn’t? We’ve already established that boob is cool, but I’ve yet to try for more since our breakup/blowup last fall. Going up her skirt in a movie theater caused an uproar that rocked my school with scandal and wrecked my life for months, but I’d do it all over again in a second! I hope this rocket ship’s rusty bolts can hold it down, because Abby and I are commencing the launch sequence! I slide my hands down her torso and unbutton the top button of her shorts as she cleans out my eardrum. I pause to make sure a slap isn’t on the way before I go after the zipper. I give it a nervous tug and am halfway home when she aborts the launch and gives a chop block to my trembling hand.
    She whispers, “My period . . .” and rebuttons her shorts before