As Ga Ling slides under the water, Wai Lan marvels at her tolerance for the heat. Ga Ling rests there, eyes and mouth pressed into a calm smile, her arms folded serenely over her chest. Ha, thinks Wai Lan. You’re too trusting. As she considers tickling Ga Ling out of her complacency, contemplating whether to go for her ribs or her throat, she is struck by the sight of her friend’s naked body under the bright water. It looks so puffy and lifeless, unnaturally pale except for the tiny green veins trickling over it like weeds. Seeing her like this makes Wai Lan remember that they are already seventeen, alive but growing older with every moment. “We need something better,” she whispers.

In their time together, he had felt such a strange combination of ease and anticipation: a desire to know her and an eagerness to reveal himself to her. And he’d felt something of this from her, too, even if there were moments when she seemed to turn parts of herself away from him. Perhaps she regretted telling him her secrets—though he’s sure she kept many more to herself. Perhaps she’d been on some kind of quest, and he’d merely been some kind of a distraction. Well, at least I’ve been that for her, he thinks.

They first get the idea for the parties from the boy Ga Ling starts dating. He picks her up Saturday afternoon and is there the next morning eating pork buns straight from the steamer with his shirt off while Ga Ling makes tea. He is tanned, scrawny, and tightlimbed, with a childish face. His name is Kit. On his third Sunday at the apartment, he asks Wai Lan why she doesn’t ever go to the clubs with them. Wai Lan tells him she’s better off staying home with a book. Ga Ling laughs. Wai Lan says she isn’t a gambler because she isn’t stupid. Even if men bought her drinks all night and she got in for free, she isn’t about to risk an entire shift’s pay on the tables.

“Sounds like you could use a little extra income,” says Kit.

“Hey—” Ga Ling pinches his arm. “I said I’d ask her myself.”

“What?” says Wai Lan.

Kit explains about throwing a get-together.

“People do them all the time, all kinds of people,” he assures her. “I already told Ga Ling that I’ll run it for you ladies if you split the profits fifty-fifty.”

Wai Lan, thinking she has nothing to lose, agrees.