The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks Page B

flowers, if that’s what you mean. Or vandalized anything.”
    “You’ve never stuck your brother’s head in the toilet? Or crashed the car? Or shaved the cat or something?”
    Ronnie gave a small smile. “No.”
    “You’re probably the most boring teenager in the world.”
    Ronnie giggled again before taking a sip of her soda. “Can I ask you a question?”
    “Go ahead.”
    “Why didn’t you go home last night?”
    Blaze took a pinch of the salt she’d piled up and sprinkled it over her fries. “I didn’t want to.”
    “What about your mom? Doesn’t she get mad?”
    “Probably,” Blaze said.
    Off to the side, the door to the diner swung open and Ronnie turned to see Marcus, Teddy, and Lance heading toward their booth.
     Marcus wore a T-shirt emblazoned with a skull, and a chain was attached to the belt loop of his jeans.
    Blaze scooted over, but strangely, Teddy took a seat beside her while Marcus squeezed in next to Ronnie. As Lance pulled up
     a chair from an adjoining table and flipped it around before sitting, Marcus reached for Blaze’s plate. Both Teddy and Lance
     automatically grabbed for the fries.
    “Hey, that’s for Blaze,” Ronnie cried, trying to stop them. “Get your own.”
    Marcus turned from one to the other. “Yeah?”
    “It’s okay,” Blaze said, pushing the plate toward him. “Really. I won’t be able to eat it all anyway.”
    Marcus reached for the ketchup, acting as though he’d proved his point. “So what are you two talking about? From the window,
     it looked intense.”
    “Nothing,” Blaze said.
    “Let me guess. She’s telling you about her mom’s sexy boyfriend and their late night trapeze acts, right?”
    Blaze wiggled in her seat. “Don’t be gross.”
    Marcus gave Ronnie a frank stare. “Did she tell you about the night one of her mom’s boyfriends came sneaking into her room?
     She was like, ‘You’ve got fifteen minutes to get the hell out of here.’”
    “Shut up, okay? That’s not funny. And we weren’t talking about him.”
    “Whatever,” he said, smirking.
    Blaze reached for her shake as Marcus began eating the burger. Teddy and Lance grabbed more fries, and over the next few minutes,
     the three of them devoured most of what was on the plate. To Ronnie’s dismay, Blaze said nothing, and Ronnie wondered about
     that.
    Or actually, she didn’t wonder. It seemed obvious that Blaze didn’t want Marcus to get mad at her, so she let him do whatever
     he wanted. She’d seen it before: Kayla, for all her tough posturing, was the same way when it came to guys. And generally,
     they treated her like dirt.
    But she wouldn’t say that here. She knew it would only make things worse.
    Blaze sipped her milkshake and put it back on the table. “So what do you guys want to do after this?”
    “We’re out,” Teddy grunted. “Our old man needs me and Lance to work today.”
    “They’re brothers,” Blaze explained.
    Ronnie studied them, not seeing the resemblance. “You are?”
    Marcus finished the burger and pushed the plate to the center of the table. “I know. It’s hard to believe parents could have
     two such ugly kids, huh? Anyway, their family owns a piece-of-crap motel just over the bridge. The pipes are like a hundred
     years old, and Teddy’s job is to plunge the toilets when they get clogged.”
    Ronnie wrinkled her nose, trying to imagine it. “Really?”
    Marcus nodded. “Gross, huh? But don’t worry about Teddy. He’s great at it. A real prodigy. He actually enjoys it. And Lance
     here—his job is to clean the sheets after the noontime crowd rolls through.”
    “Ew,” Ronnie said.
    “I know. It’s totally disgusting,” Blaze added. “And you should see some of the people that go for the hourly rates. You could
     catch a disease just walking into the room.”
    Ronnie wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so instead she turned to Marcus. “So what do you do?” she asked.
    “Whatever I want,” he answered.
    “Which