Cass notices that Lulu hasn’t moved. “We aren’t going to get in trouble,” she says. “I promise.”

“I don’t know what kind of girl you are,” Lulu says. “But breaking and entering, that’s really not—”

“You aren’t going to get in trouble,” Cass repeats.

“How can you be so sure?”

Cass rolls her eyes. “We’re not breaking to enter. I had that code, didn’t I?”

Lulu gets out of the car.

This is what she’s been craving: something completely new. The night air is cold on her skin, sharp and shivery, and even with the moon it’s surprisingly dark. She’s out here alone in a place she’s never been with a girl she doesn’t know.

Anything could happen. Anything at all.

Lulu turns to Cass. “This is your favorite place in Los Angeles?”

“Shhh,” Cass says. She holds an actual finger to her lips.

Lulu pauses.

“Hear that?” Cass asks.

Lulu shakes her head.

“Exactly.”

“You like that it’s quiet?”

“I like that it’s private,” Cass corrects. She takes a step forward and starts to say “Look—” but that’s as far as she gets before a light on one of the balconies flips on, flooding them both in buzzing fluorescent bright. Lulu’s heart spasms in her chest. She ducks instinctively.

When she looks up, Cass is still standing, an arm thrown over her eyes. “Ryan!” she yells. “Fuck! That light!”

On the balcony there’s a figure in silhouette—a boy, Lulu thinks. He drags something heavy into place and stands on it, fiddling with the base of the lamp that’s hung there. “Sorry,” he calls down. “Sorry, Cass, I forgot about the motion sensors.”

“I thought you were going to turn those off!”

“I did in Three,” the boy—Ryan—says. “But then I fell asleep in Four.”

“Why don’t you turn all of them off?”

“Then what if some random creeps came sniffing around?”

“Are you just hoping to blind them to death?”

“The security cameras, Cass. Can’t record a creep you can’t see.”

The light finally flicks off, and the dark that follows seems to swallow them all.

“You still there?” Ryan calls.

Cass scuffs the toe of one of her flats in the dirt. “Be hospitable, you asshole,” she says. “I brought someone with me. Come meet your first real guest.”

“Come up,” Ryan says. “It’s fucking freezing out.”

Cass looks at Lulu. She’s shy, suddenly, for the first time all night. “We don’t have to,” she says. “I just wanted to show you— I didn’t mean to— You don’t have to—”

“What kind of boy is Ryan?” Lulu asks.

“Nice,” Cass says. A smile steals across her face: small, secret. Oh, Lulu thinks. “A nice one.”

“I like nice boys,” Lulu says. “And, whatever. What else am I doing tonight?”

“Good point.”