A silence falls between them. Lulu breathes in the air, sweet with desert plants—sage, she thinks, and something else she doesn’t recognize—and tries not to think about whether she’s chewing too loudly.

“It’s kind of random that Dylan wanted to watch this now,” she says when she’s swallowed. “Does he know Ryan?”

“Nah. We haven’t been friends for that long. It’s always weird to remember that.”

“Yeah, I was wondering.”

“About me and Ryan?”

“About, why—about how—you guys both seem like you’re, I don’t know—”

“We don’t make friends easily,” Cass says. “We’re the same that way.”

“How did it happen, then, I guess?”

“We were in English together freshman year. We were both new to Lowell—I mean, he knew people, kind of, because he’d grown up here, but we were both new. He was nice to me.” She smiles. “I know. It’s hard to imagine, right?”

“He’s not that bad.”

“He’s not easy. Not for most people. I don’t know. He’s always been easy with me.”

“Do you know why?”

Cass is gazing off into the distance. Her eyes are unfocused, and her voice is soft. “I think Ryan is scared of people,” she says. “He grew up in this weird, isolated world, all private tutors and his parents terrorizing him about not getting kidnapped or used, or—I don’t think he really understands how to make friends, or play the kinds of games people play at these schools.”

These schools are the waters Lulu’s been swimming in her whole life. She knows what Cass means, kind of, but then not really. Isn’t this how everyone is?

“I don’t either,” Cass says. “It wasn’t like that—high stakes like that—where I went to middle school, in Santa Cruz.”

He likes you because you’re innocent, Lulu thinks. But also, He likes you because he thinks he can manipulate you. Which is ungenerous. There’s plenty about Cass to like. She knows that way, way too well.

“Anyway,” Cass says. It’s clear she’s had enough of that subject. “I mentioned Bluebeard to Dylan at the end of this summer, and he got kind of obsessed. He’s majoring in film, so now he’s thinking he’s going to write his thesis on it or something.”

“I’ve actually been looking into it too,” Lulu admits. “After Ryan mentioned it to me that first time, I got curious. You know. About the legacy. And”—she pauses, makes sure she sounds a little overdramatic—“the curse.”

Cass rolls her eyes. “It’s not a curse,” she says. “It’s just a thing that happened.”

“What’s the difference?”

“A curse keeps happening. It stays alive in a place. You’ve been to The Hotel. Does it seem like it has ghosts to you?”

“Not angry ones.”

“Exactly.”