"I-" I stopped, realizing I was finally getting a chance to be a kid. Like I was meant to. Steve was talking about work and I was going to tell him what I did when I wasn't at the beach and it was a nice thing to realize none of it was particularly serious. None of it was worrying about Peter. I still thought of Charlie and Sal all the time, but even that was a little different.

"I've been riding bikes a lot," I said. "With Eddie and Beverly. Except she's dating this guy named Peter, so sometimes it's just me and Eddie. And I have to do homework to catch up before school starts."

I sounded like I belonged here.