Yeah, adults were up to some shit, including having fries and jewelry and alllll kinds of things that you could absolutely get just by being cute and over-familiar. But that wasn't the point he was making, as glad as he is that someone did indeed turn out to have looked out for his rowdy ass all along.

"No, no no, I mean." He squints. He's really gotta nail this, for some reason. "I mean, sometimes your whole, your shrinking violet, wallflower act, whathaveyou, that was a good strategy too." He knows it wasn't so much a strategy, but whatever, he's giving her this for her birthday. And the lack of premeditation hadn't ever made it less effective, so who cares.

"You told some fool you liked her bracelet, I'm surprised she even heard you, and she just gave it to you." People with things are idiots, and that's why their things often become the twins' things. That's just math. Unfortunately, that particular gambit requires a much less urchinly look than they tended towards as time went on, but oh well.

"It was garbage anyway. We pried the stones out and said they were magic." Said, pretended, same thing. Not like they could both wear it anyway.