No one had responded to Ilanka’s text about tomorrow’s handoff, and probably it was his job to. He was sort of hoping Eden would prod him—like check in just to make sure he was able to deliver the device to Ilanka tomorrow. Then they’d have an excuse to move past the awkwardness of her forced confession and text of apology. He decided to just reach out to Ilanka directly.

He texted: Hey it’s Marwan. Send me your address and I’ll be there just before noon.

She responded right away with the information. Then added, Don’t be late.

He went to do the backpack reset, and the device was displaying a message: The police have received an anonymous tip involving the egging.

“You sent it?” Marwan whispered.

The device answered in a genderless whisper, “Yes,” then went dark.

Eden

EDEN

“You want to, like, play video games?” Mark said.

“Just Dance?” Eden said jokingly.

“Oh god, remember how into that we used to be?” He smiled and shook his head. He’d gotten cute over time, but he was always going to be more like her cousin.

“We were obsessed,” she said.

“We were young and foolish,” he said.

“It was pretty fun,” she said.

“I sort of miss it.” He got up off the couch and turned on the Xbox. “I’m sure it’s still in here somewhere,” he said, digging around in a drawer under the TV.

“I’m a worse dancer now than I was then, and that is saying something,” Eden said.

“Give yourself a little credit,” he said. “Also, there’s no one here to notice how awful you are.”

“There’s you,” she said.

“But I already know!” He held up the cartridge. “Victory!”

“We’re really gonna do this?” she asked.

“We’re really gonna,” he said.

They’d had pizza for dinner upstairs with just the moms. Dan—the dad—had gotten stuck at work and texted apologies. So now it was just Eden and Mark in the basement, and the moms upstairs, drinking wine.

They danced, first, to “What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction.

“I’m sorry,” Mark said. “But this song holds up.”

“It really does,” Eden said, winded when they were done. She plopped onto the couch. “I need to catch my breath.”

“What should we do next? Oh, remember the one with the panda?”

“ ‘Timber’!”

“Yes! ‘Timber’! OMG. The best.” He collapsed onto the couch, too. They sat there breathing for a minute. “I think about your dad a lot,” Mark said.

“You do?” Her face felt hot.

“Why do you sound surprised?”

“I don’t know. I guess it makes sense.”

“He’s like the closest person to me who … died.”

“Yeah, well, me, too,” she said.

He slapped her on the leg with the back of his hand. “Quit being funny.”

“I’m really not trying,” she said.