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Tuesday evening, my mom let me go out. I think she was tired of me moping around the house and wanted to make things up between us. I went out partying with Lori three nights in a row, which mostly involved going to Alley's place and getting drunk. On Thursday, Chelsea was over there, and it was like old times, hanging out with the girls. We talked about the things we used to do, the fights, and all the trouble we got into. Talking about it that way made it seem like it happened a long time ago, but it wasn't; it was the previous fall. I guess we had all changed some. Alley had her own apartment and had pretty much dropped out of school, and Lori wasn't all high on coke like she used to be—now she was just kind of a drunk. I guess whenever you change a lot, a few months seems longer than it really is. I know I'd changed. I think I'd settled down a bit. I remember feeling like that school year was the longest year of my life because so much had happened. Thing is, we still had about three months to go.