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They caught up with Annie out front, and Yulia drove them both out to Pino’s for lunch.

It was a horrible family-owned Italian American greasy spoon, with only two seats inside and an owner who yelled if you asked for substitutions.

Annie got marinara chicken fries, Yulia went for an eggplant parm burger, Hollis ordered mozzarella sticks, and they parked in a lot nearby.

Annie rolled down the window and flopped her legs out the door.

“I’m breaking up with Jorge,” she announced.

“What did he do? Breathe wrong?” Yulia didn’t like Jorge. She didn’t like any of Annie’s boyfriends; Hollis wasn’t sure if she liked guys at all. They didn’t talk about it.

“He’s too possessive,” Annie continued, biting a fry ferociously. “He keeps wanting me to go places with him that are clearly group hangouts and not talk to anyone else but him. What’s the point of going to a party if you only get to talk to one person?”

“That sounds like regular boyfriend stuff,” Yulia said. “That’s what having a boyfriend is like, probably.”

Annie groaned and kicked her toes a bit. “Why can’t a guy just act normal and hang out normally?”

Hollis gazed at the back of Annie’s neck through the slats in the car seat headrest.

He could act normal and hang out normally. But if Annie had wanted him, she would have done something about it. She’d asked out every boy she ever dated, and they’d already known each other for nine years.

It wasn’t going to happen.

“Did you try telling him to calm the fuck down?” he offered instead.

Annie scoffed. “Boys don’t listen to girls when we do that. Give me a mozzarella stick. Let’s trade.”

Hollis handed over one of his and took a chicken fry.

“Jorge was going to take me to Rose Town for that overnight sleep-in thing. But he had all these weird rules he wanted me to follow.” Annie put on a deep voice. “ Don’t go anywhere without me. You can’t be in a room with too many other guys. We’ve gotta be sleeping together alone. You can’t wear a nightgown. It’s fucking ridiculous.”

Hollis perked up. “I didn’t know they were doing that again this year. Last year was so crazy I figured the police would shut anything down.”

Yulia laughed. “The police haven’t gone into Rose Town after sundown since the 1970s. They’re not ‘equipped for haunted shit.’”

“They’re not equipped for regular shit either,” Hollis muttered.

Annie turned around in her seat to face him. “Why do you ask, Hollis? Do you want to go with me? I won’t be going with Jorge, and Yulia is too superstitious.”

“I don’t do ghosts and witches, anything spooky,” Yulia said, crumpling her empty takeout bag and tossing it into the back seat. “I’m avoiding the family business. You guys are on your own.”

Hollis didn’t know much about it, but Yulia’s father had deep tribal marks—slashes on his face—and was very tight-lipped regarding anything magic. Yulia followed suit. Hollis respected it.

Annie shrugged. “Figured as much. Anyway, it’s this Friday night, Hollis. My parents don’t own any sleeping bags—do you have some?”

Hollis felt his back prick with nervous sweat. “We only have one.”

Yulia pushed her seat back until her head was in Hollis’s lap.

“Bring that and some comforters,” she said, closing her eyes. “Use the sleeping bag like a bed and put the covers on top. I’m sure Jorge will love walking in on that.”

Annie laughed, but Hollis couldn’t bring himself to.

Yulia opened one eye and looked up at him. “Be careful. Don’t treat that place like a game.”

“I wouldn’t.”

Yulia opened her other eye.

“I won’t,” Hollis corrected.