“I was looking at off-campus options for housing for junior year, and this was listed. Not my style or my budget, but apparently, it’s a big deal. Supposed to provide residents with everything they need. Clothing stores, farmers market, bars, restaurants, art. You could probably live there and never have to come out.”

“That sounds great to me,” Theo said cheerfully.

“Sounds like jail to me,” Sol said. Zed couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.

“This is a haven. No one builds their own jail,” Kai said, shooting Sol a smile.

“Pablo Escobar did,” Apollo said, dryly. Zed rolled her eyes. Since the first bombing, Apollo had been oddly militant, delving headfirst into the biographies of lionized dissidents: Malcolm X, Pablo Escobar, Vladimir Lenin, Huey Newton, Assata Shakur. He was now overflowing with facts, mundane information that was uttered with bizarre reverence. It mattered, Apollo insisted.

“It was still a fucking jail,” Sol retorted, walking away. Everyone laughed, even Apollo. They continued down Ponce, hitting a left on Glen Iris and heading south. Small talk came and went as the city bustled around them, cars screeching-stopping-going, people running, walking, biking. The heat was amplified by their harried pace. Rolling hills greeted them as they trekked past modest houses on the right and gleaming high-rises on the left. Zed resented the faux-rebellious wheatpastes featured on some of the houses, images of shadowy faces captioned with bland slogans: fight the power, green power, power to the people. If there was any paint remaining at the end of the night, she would be doing some throw-ups.

“Why didn’t we park closer?” Kai asked, shimmying to the front of their procession where Zed was still leading.

“I didn’t want our night to be too functional. We can be commuters when we’re thirty,” Zed said. Kai beamed, skipping a few steps ahead. Kai loved it when she was sassy. Zed liked it too, sometimes.

Theo joined her, leaving Zed alone, flanked by Apollo and Sol, who were uncannily chatty. Zed continued along by herself, watching Kai and Theo interact. They looked peaceful, but something was off. Theo hadn’t complained about the heat a single time, and he’d been smiling since he stepped out of the car. Zed slowed her pace to allow Sol and Apollo to catch up.

“What’s up with Theo?” she asked them, surprised to see that they were visibly annoyed by her interruption.

“I think he’s happy to see us,” Apollo offered, shrugging.

“I think he realized that pussies don’t get pussy,” Sol corrected him, also shrugging. A laugh rollicked Zed, catching her midstride, her legs nearly noodling beneath her.

“If you really believe that,” Apollo said, unaffected by Sol’s joke, “Let’s invite him out tomorrow. At least this time around, he’ll know what we’re getting into.”