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You know who Mr. Darcy is?"
"I exist, therefore I know who Mr. Darcy is.
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Cath Crowley (Graffiti Moon)
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I escaped onto the wall, a painted ghost trapped in a jar. I stood back to look at it and I knew the sad thing wasn't that the ghost was running out of air. the sad thing was that he had enough air in that small space to last him a lifetime. What were you thinking, little ghost? Letting yourself get trapped like that?
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Cath Crowley (Graffiti Moon)
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Go along with it, Ed. I am begging. I am on the ground begging you." "You're standing at a urinal about to take a piss." "Don't make me get on the ground. Do you know how many germs there are in a toilet?
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Cath Crowley (Graffiti Moon)
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Youβre not like other girls, you know that, right?β Ed asks.
βIβve been aware of the problem,β I tell him.
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Cath Crowley (Graffiti Moon)
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Right now, I'd be willing to kiss Ed through a bag. So it's true what they say about teenage hormones. It seems I'm raging out of control. It's not very Jane Austen of me but it feels pretty good.
The problem is, Ed's acting all Jane Austen on me and he won't stop talking. Shut up, I want to say. All talk and no action is really kind of frustrating.
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Cath Crowley (Graffiti Moon)
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I asked him what it was like to have a dad. He said he didn't think it mattered who you had as long as you had somebody good.
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Cath Crowley (Graffiti Moon)
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I come out of the bathroom and the first thing I see is Ed. Okay, it was a long shot, but I was half hoping he would cease to exist while we were gone.
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Cath Crowley (Graffiti Moon)
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I look over at Ed. He's staring out the window giving Leo the thumbs-down. I wait till he's looking at me, then I give him two fingers up. He gives me two fingers back. I give him the middle finger. He gives it back to me. I don't know any more signs, so I make up one. Three fingers. Take that, mister. He sticks up four. I call your four and raise you five. He skips straight to ten and does something with his thumb that disturbs me. I bounce my hands on my lap. Ed bounces his lap right back.
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Cath Crowley (Graffiti Moon)
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I can't believe you're still mad at me," Ed says.
"You grabbed my arse."
"You broke my nose."
"You broke his nose?" Jazz asks. "You grabbed her arse?"
"It was two years ago-"
"Two years, four months, and eight days," I tell him.
"-and I was fifteen, and I slipped and she broke my nose."
"Wait a minute. How do you slip onto someone's arse?"
Jazz asks.
"I meant slipped up. I slipped up and she broke my nose."
"You're lucky that's all I broke," I say.
"You're lucky I didn't call the police."
Leo, Dylan, and Daisy slid into the booth. "Did you guys know that Lucy broke Ed's nose? Jazz asks.
Ed closes his eyes silently and bangs his head on the wall.
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Cath Crowley (Graffiti Moon)
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Ed gives him a dirty look. Leo grins. Dylan twitches. It feels like something's going on, I think loudly, and I know that Jazz hears my thought because she gives me her serious look and blows a chewing-gum bubble in my direction.
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Cath Crowley (Graffiti Moon)
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Edβs breath wanders over me, and he spotlights that freckle on my neck with his eyes and the heat of the night is sharper than ever and it feels like weβre hanging from the sky or the ceiling. Swaying around each other without our feet on the ground. If we touched I wouldnβt be surprised to hear chiming.
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Cath Crowley (Graffiti Moon)
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Ed? Are you alive?β
βYes..and thatβs genuinely surprising
since your bike went over me about
halfway down. Youβre a very dangerous
girl to date.β
'Weβre not on a date.
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Cath Crowley (Graffiti Moon)
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There's one near Hoover Street Station. A picture of me, grass growing out of my heart while I'm talking to her.
She looked at the wall but she didn't see us.
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Cath Crowley (Graffiti Moon)
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I took the money and passed the box across the counter and said politely, βYour choice of colour
really lacks style.β I smiled and Beth laughed and the guy asked to see my manager.
I got Bert and he leant over the box and looked at the paint and said, βEd was being polite. Your
choice of colour is shit.
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It isn't the smallness of this place that bothers me. It's the grey that's worked its way into the walls. It's the stains on the carpet from some other life that came and left before ours. Bert always said he'd give me a good deal on paint but some places take burning down and rebuilding to make them shiny."
-Ed, page 10
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Cath Crowley (Graffiti Moon)
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Ed looks at me like he wishes I'd disappear and if I had the choice I'd grant that wish; I'd turn into smoke and blow away. I want to sit on the other side of the table from him so he doesn't think I'm interested, but there's no room on the other side so I sit as far away from him as I can and try to have an out-of-body experience. This couldn't get more awkward if we all tried.
"How about we get some air?" Leo asks Jazz, and they walk outside. Daisy follows them and Dylan follows her. Okay, it could get more awkward if we all tried.
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Cath Crowley (Graffiti Moon)
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We've got secrets coming out our arses and you want to take them to a clairvoyant?
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So I saw Beth today. She asked me how you were doing. Sounded like she wants you back."
"We were over months ago."
"You mind if I ask her out, then?"
"You mind if I spray a piece on the side of your gran's house?
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We decided. We said that we weren't telling anyone. We said it was for art's sake. We said the more people who knew, the more chance the cops'd pick us up. We said it was you and me, no crew."
"Are you sure I didn't say it was to score girls?"
That actually sounds a whole lot like something Leo woud say.
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Cath Crowley (Graffiti Moon)
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Why do want to find him so bad?β I ask after a while, but sheβs not listening. I watch her a bit
longer. βWhy do you want to find him so bad?β I ask again.
She blinks and comes out of her dream. She flicks the band on her wrist. βI just do.β - Ed Skye
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Art like that doesnβt need words. That painting tells you something by pulling you into it and pushing you out and you know what itβs saying without words being spoken. ~Ed
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Cath Crowley (Graffiti Moon)