Stevie and I drove in silence to the school. Most of the snow had melted overnight—there were just patches of it here and there. Teri had taken her own car, and we’d lost sight of her almost immediately, due to Stevie’s geriatric driving style. For once, though, I didn’t mind it. I was tempted, as Stevie passed by the entrance ramps for I-95, to tell her to just turn onto the highway. We’d drive north, pass New Haven, and finally try Mystic Pizza. Or south, back into the city. We could pick up bagels on the way, go to Columbia and find Matty and his friends. Or see if Cary was working a shift at Maverick. We could go to Dumbo and get Brad from Margaux, take him on a walk down by the water. We could stay in the not-knowingness a little bit longer.

“Eric didn’t say anything,” Stevie said again, even though we’d been saying variations of this to each other ever since the texts on the group thread had come through. He was the one who’d spotted the list when he’d been on a bike ride this morning. But he hadn’t included a picture of it, or any takes on the casting, just the information that it was up. No exclamation points, no emojis. And then the thread had gone quiet as everyone had jumped into their cars and sped over to the theater.

“What do you think that means?” I asked. A day ago, this would have been all-consuming. I would have been desperately trying to get any information that I could, and would have been playing out all kinds of scenarios, and trying to get Stevie to drive faster, to get there sooner. I would have been convinced that this casting, this part, this theater department, was the only thing that mattered—it was all everything had been leading up to. And now?

Now I wasn’t so sure.

“I guess we’ll find out,” she said, her voice quiet. Maybe she was also trying to grapple with the fact that on the surface, nothing had changed since yesterday. But absolutely everything felt different.

The school was deserted—not that surprising, since it was nine o’clock on a Saturday. Stevie parked in the senior parking lot, and we headed over together to the theater building. I could see the group crowded around the door, everyone looking at one piece of paper.

The list was up.

As we got closer, Stevie reached down and grabbed my hand, gave it a squeeze. I smiled without looking at her and squeezed her hand back.