“I mean, it’s not a big deal or anything. I was just at this bookstore the other day and they had a recommended shelf with a bunch of, like, feminist theorists and stuff on it, and I recognized one of the names you mentioned when we were talking the other day. I grabbed you something. I haven’t read it. I don’t know if it’s good.”

This is so cute Lulu wants to die. Instead she looks down at the book in her hands to give Cass a moment to recover. The Argonauts, it’s called. A pull quote across the cover reads: A meditation on the seductions, contradictions, limitations, and beauties of being normal.

“I see,” Lulu says. “You’re trying to reading-list me out of being a JAP?”

“I want it on record that I have never called you that,” Cass says. “That’s all you, Lulu.”

“I’m reclaiming my slurs,” Lulu says. That’s a phrase Naomi taught her, reclaiming my slurs, when she and Lulu got into a heated argument about whether or not Lulu could call someone a bitch.

Cass rolls her eyes. “C’mon,” she says. “Speaking of slurs, let’s go find Ryan and his random skank.”

Only they don’t find Ryan, or a skank. Instead, they run into Owen.

“Whoa,” Lulu says. “I mean. Hi.”

“Hi,” Owen says. “Ryan texted me this morning to invite me over. Which was nice, I thought, since clearly you weren’t going to.”

Oh god. Lulu can’t believe she forgot about her promise to Owen that she would bring him back here next time she came. In that moment, she assumed that he’d be on her mind, and that she’d want to hang out with him. It’s a surprise to realize that, in fact, that hasn’t been the case. And now she’s mostly annoyed that he’s here, interrupting her conversation with Cass.

“I’m sorry,” Lulu says. “Um. Owen, you remember Cass?”

“Of course,” Owen says. “And Cass, I don’t know if you’ve met Kiley?”

Fuuuuuuuuuuuck.

“Hey guys,” Kiley calls up from the bottom of the swimming pool. “Ryan’s teaching me how to skateboard!”

“Fun for Ryan,” Cass says. She sits down at the edge of the pool, feet and legs dangling into the emptiness below. Lulu joins her.

“This is quite a development,” Cass says.

“Yeah,” Lulu says. “There are five of us now.”

“This is the first time Ryan’s ever invited anyone over to hang out,” Cass says. “Anyone but me, I mean. He’ll bring girls back here sometimes, for the night, but they’re usually gone in the morning.”