Cat is dropping you off. She was going to take you back to the treehouse, but time is short. Also short: your phone’s battery. You text lexy the address, the random corner, you’re being dropped off at so she can pick you up. “One thing I like about LA,” you say to Cat, “is it has something New York doesn’t for me anymore— Strangers. In New York, if I go out one day, I’m going to run into a bunch of people I know. It’s not private anymore. In LA,” you say speculatively, because you haven’t YET really been out- this will be your first time out alone, unattended in LA- “I only know like six people. I can walk the streets alone.”

She drops you off. You walk up the stairs at the corner into a courtyard.

Sitting there is Ram Bergman, having lunch.

“Ram.”

“Ronen!!!”

In your pocket, your phone dies.