“I knew you’d understand,” she said. “Look, I think Julie and Madi are here. Jae too.”

I took one last look at the stars, remembering me and Jack lying under the same night sky, before I swung my legs around, got up, and stretched as Elise waved them over. Jae brought drinks left over from the party Friday night. Once we were in the middle of the field, I scanned the place, looking for signs of the party—errant plastic cups, trash—but found nothing.

“We cleaned up,” Elise said, as if reading my mind. “Can’t get caught if we want to do it again.”

“Do it again?” I asked in a whisper, but she pretended not to hear me.

“So, what’s the plan?” Jae asked, pouring out a screwdriver for himself and passing the vodka and OJ to Elise. “Who are we going to fuck up?” he joked, taking a sip.

“No one,” she answered.

“What’d you want to talk about?” Julie asked, and as Elise began to describe her vision of a ragtag group of vigilantes, my phone buzzed.

Jack: Meet me after your thing?

I glanced up to see Elise still preoccupied and quickly typed back a response.

Me: I don’t think I can

Jack: If you need a ride, I could pick you up?

Then he sent a picture of him and Lola making puppy dog eyes, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Remy?” Elise said.

“Sorry, what?” I looked at them blankly.

“I was saying this could be a way to help people,” she said, a little annoyed.

“Yeah,” I said, confused by what she wanted me to say.

“Like what we pulled off with Jae’s ex and your ex, but on a bigger scale,” she continued. It annoyed me, the way she’d trot out our first prank every once in a while, like it was one of her signature achievements. That night was supposed to be special, but the way she brought it up cheapened the memory.

“There are a lot of assholes out there,” Julie said.

“And it wouldn’t be limited to exes,” Elise added quickly when she saw the reluctance on Madison’s face. “And it wouldn’t really be about revenge.”

Me: I don’t think I can

Me: I’m sorry

Jack: It’s okay, thought I’d ask.

Me: I’m sorry

Jack: Don’t be

Jack: Me and Lola will be here :)

Then he sent another sweet photo of Lola. I saved all the pictures he sent me in a new album, Jack & Lola. When I caught Elise looking at me, I put my phone away, sad I was here talking about pranks when I could’ve been with Jack.

“I’m in,” Jae said, with Julie agreeing soon after that.

But Madison hesitated. “I don’t know. How will this even work?”

“We’ll be like vigilantes,” Elise said. “Like with Mr. Dawkins. We’ll look for people who deserve to be brought down.” She set her cup down. “We’ll be like secret heroes, helping people who need us.” It was the conviction in her voice that cut through me, that raw pain. Any lingering resentment from earlier that night evaporated.