“I only have an hour left in my shift,” I say. “Why don’t you get a burger, and when I’m off, let’s get drunk.”

“A-fucking-men,” Steph says.

EMILY.

On the drive home, I watch pink and purple skies descend over strip malls and freeways, factory lights and Chinese food restaurants, the San Gabriel Mountains silhouetted against a neon-blue expanse. I can’t believe I got coffee with my dad like a well-adjusted daughter, then ran into Zoe.

It is dark by the time I merge onto the 5. At the Los Feliz Boulevard exit, a billboard catches my eye, fireworks over a burning house. The text says: PHANTASY: A FILM BY NICO NADLER. In the top corner it says: IN THEATERS NEW YEAR’S DAY.

Fuck. I didn’t realize Nico Nadler had a movie coming out so soon. Why the fuck didn’t I google this? God, I’m such a dumbass. My dad is culturally keyed in. He will surely become aware of the film and learn that I am not in it. Fuck!

When Thomas opens his front door, I wrap my hands around his neck.

“I’m very into this, Em,” he says, “but it isn’t the best time.”

I squeeze harder so he knows this is not a sexual flirtation; it’s a homicide attempt.

“You didn’t tell me Nico Nadler has a movie coming out next month,” I say, my voice trembling with rage.

“Whoa, whoa,” he says, trying to remove my tightening hands from his throat.

I shove him into his apartment and hit him hard on the chest, then the shoulder. I stab his bicep with his Volvo keys.

“What the fuck?” he says. “Calm down.”

“I can’t calm down,” I say. “Because I was finally getting along with my dad, and you had to ruin it by telling me to say I was in a movie that my dad is going to know I’m not in. He’s going to know I lied. He’s going to tell my mom. They’re going to know I’m a loser.” I am pacing and yelling.

“Everything okay?” A blonde emerges from the bedroom. She looks familiar, like one of the blondes from Beau’s Instagram.

“No,” I say. “Your fuckbuddy is ruining my life!”

“Slow down,” says Thomas. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re going too fast.” He puts his hands on my shoulders and I shove him off.

“Your little fuckbuddy …” I say to the blonde, who looks afraid of me, and for a second I’m high on inspiring fear. I feel like an actor in a horror movie. I’m an escaped mental patient about to kill them both. Hell, it could be a Nico Nadler movie. “… told me to tell my parents I am in the new Nico Nadler movie. To show them I matter.”