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again. This, he and Laney being in love, made that gap feel even bigger.
    They had been dating casually for almost four months and in that time I had carefully ignored their relationship. Dad was hoping it was a simple summer fling, just two kids having some laughs before Kellen left for college, but mom and I knew better. I was in denial but she had her eyes wide open. Laney was ridiculously into Kellen and he couldn’t look away from her. I wasn’t really surprised that he’d said he loved her. I’d seen him struggle to keep his hands off her when my parents were around. My dad had several times had to cough pointedly at him when he was caught staring beside the pool. Laney was a knockout, there was no denying it, and even Kellen with all his confidence and cool wasn’t immune to it. She didn’t make it easy for him either. My sister was a bit of a tease.
    “Did you say it back?” I asked.
    Laney nodded enthusiastically. “Of course I did! Well, actually I said it first and he said it back, but he still said it.” She flopped back dramatically onto my mattress. “Oh my God, the girls are going to die! I can’t wait to tell them.”
    Of course. Laney had hung the fact that she’d landed Kellen over the head of every girl in her very large clique all summer. This was her crowning moment. Her coup de gras. The moment she’d put them all out of their longing, lusting, conniving misery and claim Kellen fully and forever as hers. It didn’t matter that he was already graduated and gone from their school. He was a legend that would live on in their minds forever.
    I slipped back down under my comforter and kicked at my sister’s dead weight.
    “Then go text them all about it and let me sleep.”
    She slapped at my feet, asking angrily, “Aren’t you happy for me?”
    I sighed. “I am.” And I was. Sort of. “But I’m also tired and there’s not much else to say is there? You said you loved him, he said it back. That’s awesome.”
    “It is. Afterward we made out for an hour in dad’s car. He’d be so pissed! Did I tell you he’s getting a motorcycle?”
    “Dad is?”
    “No, stupid, Kellen is.”
    “That suits him.”
    “I guess. I’m hoping he gets one of those really hot street bikes. Like a Ducati or something. Ellie’s brother has one and it is so sexy. I’ll take a picture of it and send it to him the next time I’m over there.”
    “Is that the kind he wants to get?” I asked, dubiously.
    I couldn’t see him on a small sport bike. He was too much for that. Too big, too bold. Classic somehow. I saw him on an old Harley, leaned back with his arms stretched out to the tall handlebars. Not crouched down on a gleaming crotch rocket.
    “No, he wants something used,” Laney said, sounding annoyed. “Something big and ugly.”
    “Mom will flip.”
    “Right? She’ll hate it. I guess he’s talked to dad about it. He wanted to find out what insurance and everything would be. I think he just doesn’t have the money for a Ducati but dad would totally help him buy it if he’d let him.”
    “But he won’t.”
    “No,” she admitted. There was that annoyed tone again. “He is so weird about money.”
    “He’s weird about taking money. And I don’t think he’s weird about it, Lane. I think he just doesn’t like charity.”
    “But it wouldn’t be charity! He never lets mom and dad give him anything, not even for Christmas or birthdays. No one even knows exactly when his birthday is! It’s so weird.”
    I knew. August 8 th . But I’d never tell.
    “It’s just how Kellen is. He’s proud.”
    “He’s stubborn.”
    I grinned against my pillow. “Yeah, he is.”
    “At least I know if he’s getting a bike he won’t be having sex with college girls in his car the way we just did in dad’s.”
    I sat up sharply. “I thought you said you made out in dad’s car.”
    She grinned slyly at me. “Did I? Well that’s what I meant then.”
    “Laney, have you had sex with him?”
    She