Kavya, meanwhile, insists on bringing my thoughts back to puking. “Don’t barf, don’t barf, don’t barf!” she chants, but thankfully she pulls off the road, tosses a twenty out her window to some person in a bright yellow vest, and screeches into a parking lot. The second we’re in park, the lock on the door pops up and I spring out of the car. I crouch to the ground and put my head between my knees, staring down at a chewed wad of bright pink gum and a crumpled Big Gulp cup.

Sean’s black Converse and Kavya’s yellow Nikes come into view, Kavya just barely missing the gum.

“So you get carsick, huh?”

“What would make you think that?”

My words have so much bite in them that I’m sure Kavya can actually feel it. But instead of getting upset, she just laughs.

Sean kneels down next to me and starts stroking my back. The motion of his hand moving back and forth, back and forth is like the tide coming onshore to wash a beach clean. It’s hypnotic, calming, and after a few minutes I finally feel well enough to stand up.

“I swear we would have biked here if we could,” Sean says. “But that would’ve taken, like . . .” He pauses, but after a few long moments of silence, he gives up and shrugs. “Days? You can’t get anywhere in LA without a car.”

He looks so worried about me, and for a second I feel guilty that I’m ruining his plans. How jealous could Dominic get if the person Sean’s dating is letting loose a tsunami of vomit? But when I look around, I’m not sure a bunch of puke could make this place any more gross than it already is. We’re in a dirty fenced-in parking lot that butts up against a grungy cement building. Outside the fence is an equally dirty sidewalk alongside a cracked asphalt street. In the distance I can hear sirens wailing, police, ambulance, who knows, but somebody is definitely in distress. The whole place has a very bleak vibe, like a bleached coral reef, but right here in the center of humanity.

“Where is here exactly?” I ask. “And why do you hate me so much?”

“I swear it’s not as bad as it looks,” Sean says.

Kavya’s eyes go wide and she yells, “That’s what she said, oooh!” She instantly cracks up, while I have no idea what she’s talking about.

“You can do better than that,” Sean says.

“Everyone’s a critic.” Kavya slips around Sean and grabs my hand. “Come on. You’re in LA for the first time, you’ve got to see Hollywood, baby. It’s where dreams are made even though it looks like a complete pile of shit.”