“Because my heat was too full of appreciation for what my friends-- my real friends-- had done for me.”

“And then, little by little, the reality of what I had just done sank in: I had just killed my boyfriend’s dad!”

“Susannah." My dance partner's breath was soft against my cheek. "Susannah...."Yeah. In my dreams.In real life, the voice calling my name wasn't a bit masculine. That's because it belonged to a twelve-year-old boy.”

“Chaz looks me dead in the eye and says, 'Why yes, Lizzie. I’m manically depressed because the girl I’ve finally realized I’ve always been in love with, and who I was beginning to think just might love me back, turned around and got herself engaged to my best friend, who, frankly, doesn’t deserve her. Does that answer your question?”

“Kill her for me," she said in that whiny little-girl voice.Diego took a step toward me, wearing an expression that told me he was only too happy to oblige his lady love."Oh, what?" I said. I wasn't even scared. I didn't care anymore. The numbness in my heart had pretty much taken over my whole body. "You always do what she tells you? You know, we have a word for that now. It's called being whipped.”

“Yeah,” Nicole said, her straw noisily hitting thebottom of her Gut Buster. “Well, I would haveappreciated it if you guys had wrecked a little lessstuff. Because my house smelled like smoke formonths. And construction on the Tarantinos’ newgarage starts at eight on the dot every morning, andit’s still going on, and you know how I get if I don’thave my full ten hours of beauty sleep.”“So that’s what happened to your face,” Cody said.“I was wondering.”

“It was around then that the phone rang. It was my friend Cee Cee, wanting to know if I cared to join her and Adam McTavish at the Coffee Clutch to drink iced tea and talk bad about everyone we know.”