Quiet falls between them. Lulu holds herself very still to keep from doing what she wants to do instinctively, which is lean her head against his shoulder. Her body is so convinced that it knows how to be with him.

“Are you just going home?” Owen asks.

“No.” Lulu doesn’t want to tell him about Cass, but she wants him to know that he’s not the only thing going on in her life anymore.

“Found a cooler scene?”

“Wasn’t hard to do.” Lulu smirks.

Owen laughs at her.

Lulu laughs at herself.

“I know I can’t, but I sort of wish I could go with you,” Owen says.

Impulsively, Lulu asks: “Why can’t you?”

“Oh,” Owen says. “I mean, I guess I figured you wouldn’t want me to.”

Lulu wants to ask about Kiley and can’t.

“It would be pretty weird,” she says. She can’t quite picture Owen—solid, comfortable, easygoing Owen—in the dark, strange space of The Hotel.

But it would also be a place she could show him. That the two of them could have together. One last secret, even if they aren’t going to be together like that anymore.

One more thing no Kiley can ever take from her.

“I should be getting back,” Owen says.

“You can,” Lulu agrees. “You should. But you can also come with me if you want.”

CHAPTER SIX

IF CASS IS pissed about Lulu inviting someone to join them, she doesn’t act like it. Lulu figures she’s relieved, probably. This way there’s no third-wheeling worries: just two girls, two boys, an abandoned building, and the night. Exactly the way it’s supposed to be.

Right?

The Hotel seems darker than it did last time. The fairy lights strung through the trees along the entryway aren’t on, and the moon is waning, turning thin in the sky. Owen makes a joke about being a kidnapping victim and Cass laughs politely.

“Lulu made it out okay,” she says.

“Lulu was the bait,” Owen says, straight-faced. “I’m the real prize.”

Cass throws a look over her shoulder at him in the back seat. For just an instant she’s razor sharp, as if a mask has fallen away, leaving the slice of her judgment raking over him. “No you’re not,” she says. And then, just as fast, she’s smiling again. “I mean, I hear Lulu’s the one with five thousand Flash followers.”

“That does seem to be the fact of the day,” Lulu says. “Also, currently, five thousand and one.”