A light came on, and a woman opened the door just as Ava launched her rock straight at the doorway. We heard a scream, and the woman’s hands flew up around her face. We froze momentarily, then ran.

As we raced through the neighborhood, the evening air and our adrenaline filling us up like lifeblood, I shouted at Ava, “What the fuck, dude? A rock?”

She looked guilty for a second, then shrugged. “I’m sure she’s fine. She’s Justine’s fucking mother; I’m sure she had it coming too,” she said, her face suddenly cruel. Another kid, one I hardly know, high-fived her, and I realized there were more people with us than I thought, running through the streets causing shit in the name of justice … or something.

We hurtled around corners and ran through the streets like radical children, following Dee as she ducked into a walkway near the school. We leaned against the walls, gasping, out of breath and full of purpose. Everyone was talking at once, and Dee looked around at everyone, her face flushed and glowing like some unreal thing. She pulled a can of red spray paint out of her backpack, and I watched them watching her, thrilled that there was more. She shook the can and drew a large heart on the wooden wall of the walkway and scrawled HEATHER under it. Everyone whistled and clapped, chests heaving in excitement.

Dee lifted her chin up and howled at the moon, and they all chorused after her. I stood quietly, feeling like I’d lost a hold on something.

*   *   *

Tonight we are going up to the Ridge, high above our dreary town, to have a campfire. Antar is going to pick Dee and me up at my house in his perfectly run-down old beater of a car, then push it to its limits in the steep climb up the hill, where whoever else can make it will meet us for a night of cozy bonding as the sun, weighed down by the burden of its job of cheering every bored and hardened adolescent, sinks below the horizon in exhaustion.

Dee and I sit on my porch, and she lights a cigarette, coughing as she inhales. The days are getting so long now that even though it’s evening, it feels like there are still hours to go before the streaky sky will darken. Dee moves her hand behind her bent legs to keep the smoke out of my face. She knocks her knee into mine and smiles.

“So,” I say, not looking at her, but at two little sparrows who are squabbling on a low branch on a tree near the road.

“So …?” She laughs.

“So, I’m … I just wanted to say that I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you came. Like, in general, not tonight. But that too.” I feel my face get hot.