My chance came when I saw a small gas station outside of Escondido with a sign reading BEST SLUSHES IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HERE AT JUMBO JIM’S! I remembered his joke about switching to a slush-based diet. I turned my car off the highway, even though I knew it was silly. What was a slush compared to the disaster we’d just left behind? Still, I had to do something—anything—to make Adrian feel better. He didn’t even seem to notice we’d stopped there until I was getting out of the car. “What’s up?” he asked, managing to drag himself out of his dark thoughts. The look on his face tore me apart.
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