Chapter Fifty Nine:
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“I’M SIXTEEN,” Lauren whispered to the mirror in her bedroom. “I’m finally sixteen.”
The day was windy and still cloudy, but she didn’t care. Tonight was her party. A birthday party on the beach, or it would be if she could call the mud around the lake a beach. Her father had borrowed picnic tables from the Baptist church and ordered a big cake. He’d dug out a pit six inches deep and three feet around and banked it with rocks for a big bonfire.
He’d even offered to decorate the tables, but she decided she’d do that herself. In two hours people would start arriving. It wouldn’t be a huge party like Reid Collins had last month, but that didn’t matter. Her dad planned to let everyone roast their own hot dog and she’d made sure she’d bought all the toppings.
She’d i
