Owen repeated. But this wasn’t the movies, he reminded himself. Despite the unbelievable words that he was about to say, this was every bit of real life---Oliver’s real life. He opened his mouth, and the words that came out sounded so strange, so unreal. And before he knew it, he was weaving a tale so grand that he almost didn’t believe it himself. But it was true, all of it course. He started with Clarence, detailing every encounter he’d had with the unpleasant boy, to cheers of “Yeah, get him!” from Alex in the background. As he moved into the terrible part of the story, the room grew quiet, and it was clear that everyone was sitting on pins and needles. When he delivered the terrible final blow, Gabriel gasped. Then, with a rush that felt strangely like power, Oliver stood up and looked around the room at his audience. They were hanging on to his every word. No one had ever listened to him so intently in his life before. It was as if he were writing their very stories, that they could not finish their own lives until Oliver told them how.
