Alice frowned at him, curious yet skeptical. All Theo needed was her curiosity. Continuing to talk her up, he led her away from the DJ table, his eyes secretly meeting Apollo’s whenever she took a hearty swig from her beer. By the time Apollo had performed his black magic, Alice was already soliciting bodily contact, her frequent laughs now entailing light taps on Theo’s chest or shoulders. Apollo quickly spirited Theo away. This wasn’t a night for full Bond.

“I could really see myself with her,” Theo confessed with regret as they walked into a large kitchen with slick marble floors and a prairie’s worth of counter space.

“You’ve just got scarlet fever, dude,” Apollo said.

“You’d know about fevers, wouldn’t you?” Theo joked, picking up a pair of chopsticks from the counter and crudely tapping an Asian riff on the counter. “Scarlet fever, jungle fever, yellow fever. Nothing wrong with getting a little hot. It’s been a weird day.”

Apollo didn’t answer, refusing to take the crudely packaged bait. Theo always got a little cocky when they pulled a Q and Bond. Kai would put him back in his place.

° ° °

Zed sat up in her poolside chair and scanned the backyard, her eyes sweeping over swaying bodies and immaculately cut grass. Every time Apollo and Theo hijacked a party, T.I.’s “Be Easy” was the first song on their makeshift playlist. Apollo didn’t even like the song, but he liked the humor of telling the victims of his petty piracy to be cool about it. Zed found the gesture to be even more obnoxious than usual.

Zed tracked Kai to a circle of skaters standing thirty feet away, circulating a quickly evaporating joint. She looked happy. Zed found Sol on a luxurious inflated chair, lying on her back as she drifted around the pool, her glossy weave shimmering in the moonlight. Both Kai and Sol were thoroughly occupied. Good, Zed thought, rising from her chair and heading toward the house. Despite feeling full of purpose, she still managed to walk aimlessly, the party’s ambient idleness seeping in. She knew Apollo and Theo would be in the kitchen, which was accessible from the pool, but she took a roundabout route, wandering through the labyrinthine house. All of the doors were locked. Confined to the home’s endless hallways, Zed began to wonder if there were more passages than rooms, more arteries than chambers.

One door was completely ajar. Zed slinked in, gawking at the lavish gold-trimmed molding that lined the floor. In the center of the room, some kids crowded around a computer screen. They eagerly beckoned her over.

“Have you seen this?” a tall white girl asked excitedly.

“Seen what?” Zed replied.