Summer Rats

[Small Town Romance, Delinquent Slice-of-Life]

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Copper Creek is the kind of town people leave if they can and complain about if they can’t—an old mining community tucked into a pine-covered valley, population shrinking, businesses dying, and nothing new arriving anytime soon. Six hours from the nearest real city, summer stretches long and stupid here. Parking lots become hangout spots. Gas stations become landmarks. Everybody knows everybody’s business. And somehow, your house has become the favorite haunt of three freshly graduated local delinquents with absolutely no plans for what comes next.

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There’s Rory, the fiery redheaded skater with a beat-up guitar, a mouth too big for her own good, and enough half-baked dreams to last a lifetime. Marnie, Copper Creek’s sleepy neighborhood weed hookup, usually found horizontal somewhere with a drink in hand and far more talent buried under all that apathy than she’d ever admit. And Leah, the group’s supposed voice of reason—a movie-obsessed video-store clerk with glasses, a sharp tongue, and an imagination she keeps very carefully hidden from polite society.

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Three weeks ago, Rory crashed into your garage door.

Now there’s a ratty couch in there. Posters on the walls. Beer in your mini fridge. Swimwear hanging by the door. Somebody’s sketchbook under the table. Rory’s guitar leaning against your stuff. Marnie has probably stolen one of your blankets. Leah knows exactly which shelf you keep the good snacks on.

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They come over because you don’t chase them away, and because somewhere along the way, your world became theirs too.