The house looks pretty normal—two stories nestled on a little hill with a stone walkway leading up the porch. Drew leads me around and into the backyard, where people are already hanging out on a gorgeous stone patio lined with little sparkling string lights. Ariana Grande floats down around us from the speakers embedded in the patio overhang.

The crew consists of eight people, most of them holding little red cups or cigarettes. Six mascs, two femmes, probably all cis judging by the jock vibe they’re giving off.

“Yo, Drew!”

The guy waving us over is really friendly looking, big muscles under a black T-shirt and man bun. “What’s up, man?”

Drew fist-bumps the guy. “Not a whole lot. Trying to get away from work.”

“Dude, you’re so fucking old.”

Drew bumps me with his shoulder and says, “This is Noah. Noah, this is Freddie. We graduated together.”

I freeze, my eyes widening. “Wait, how old are you?”

“Oh, shit!” Freddie says, turning back to the other partygoers. “Drew’s going to jail!”

My mind spins as the reality of my situation falls over me. I can’t believe in all the excitement, I hadn’t even thought to ask his age. I mean, shit, he could be thirty with three college degrees and two ex-wives. Okay, probably not the degrees.

Drew rolls his eyes and turns back to me. “Eighteen,” he says. “We graduated last month.”

I let out a breath. Drew’s only eighteen, and really, I’m sixteen, so it could be worse. It’s not even technically illegal. It’s basically the perfect line between dating a college boy and dating a high school boy.

So, old enough that I probably won’t clue Brian in on it, but nothing to worry about. Really, what I should be worried about is how we’re going to pull off this first date, which I’m only seventy-eight percent sure is actually the first date, but I can’t just pretend this is the second date when we don’t have a first date foundation. No, the stars may have aligned to get us this far, but if we’re going to keep hitting all the marks, I can’t just sit back and leave it up to chance.

Drew wraps an arm around my waist and says, “You want a drink or something?”