I turned and shook my head, smiling at her as I did. "It's fine," I assured her. "I was just thinking...I don't know if that table gets wet when it rains." That had popped into my head as I grasped for something to tell her besides the truth. "You might not want to leave your cigarettes out here. Or your lighter."
She took another drag and nodded as I spoke. When she blew out the smoke, she chuckled, "Yeah, that would suck. These things are expensive, too. If I can quit, I might just pay off my student loans with the money I'll save."
I can't recall now what else we talked about, but I remember laughing quite a bit. Now that my sister had her "fix" and calmed down, she was really funny. We stayed out there and talked for half an hour or so, and she had a second cigarette before we went b
