nails at Bennett and beaming at her with equally red painted on lips. Up close Bennett can see that she’s haphazardly slapped on a pair of fake eyelashes and teased her ponytail into a pouf three times anything resembling a natural size.

“Mary Beth! Wow, you look great!”

Mary Beth scoffs at Bennett. “Please, as Dolly Parton always said, ‘it takes a lot of money to look this cheap!’” She guffaws and reaches out to envelop Bennett in a hug that smells like layers upon layers of man-made scent. 

Mary Beth had sat next to Bennett in eighth grade band class, both of them trying like hell to make a saxophone sound good and neither one succeeding very much at it. Bennett had always thought Mary Alice was kind, and that counts even more now th...

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