Kat jumped, kicked off the bricks for extra height, and backflipped on the grass, burning off some of her nervous energy.

This had been her first social activity in months that hadn’t gone horribly; no panic attacks, no mention of weird hobbies like painting deer skulls or collecting pencils chewed by celebrities. She hadn’t even shared something super gross about Tasmanian devils or managed to get hurt.

Her insides buzzed inexplicably.

 “Can I explain what happened yet or NOT?” Cami huffed.

“Alright, what happened?” Kat wrangled her focus back to the present. “Did you and Mr. Walker have another fight about rent? Because I did pay-”

“Kiddo, ‘fight’ is an understatement,” Cami groused, lifting her nose. “Do you know what that middle-aged creep did today, Kat?” She jabbed her lit cigarette towards Mr. Walker’s office window.

Kat waved away the drifting smoke and winced. It wasn’t a cigarette at all but a joint. “Cami, I know he’s a grump, but please don’t get us kicked out. Your name is the one on the lease, and there are no good apartments near-“

“The weirdo must have been sniffing right outside our place because as soon as Nate and I lit up, he was there, banging on the door, freaking out, and saying he was going to report me to the police again!”

She broke into another stream of vibrant language, and Kat looked around anxiously. The last thing they needed was Mr. Walker overhearing Cami’s acidic rant.

“Of course, I laid into him! Like I’m gonna sit there and let him act as if I’m some idiot who sits around with more than four ounces... that absolute perv! I’m not a moron, I don’t sit around with crack in my purse! Yeah, we had a fight. I ran into him again just now and laid into him. If he doesn’t back off, so help me, I’ll MAKE him back off.” Cami mimed swinging a bat. “Grade A creep deserves to get his face beaten in.”

Kat shut her eyes and slowly counted to five before she answered. “That must have been super stressful. Do you think he’s actually going to call the cops?”

“Nah, I doubt it.” Cami sniffed. “He doesn’t have the guts. And I reminded him that without me, you wouldn’t be here.”

“Me?” Kat repeated blankly. “What does that have to-“

“Oh, kitty Kat. You’re his best tenant,” Cami said, turning sugary sweet. “And he knows it. You do half of his job for him around here, and when neighbors ask for help, you help them because you’re a pushover. What, you thought I hadn’t noticed?”

Kat frowned, indignant. “Because I changed a couple of light bulbs for the Tennysons? I knew where they were in the supply closet, so I just went and got them. Mr. Walker said I could.”

Cami stared at her until she began to squirm.

“What?” Kat demanded.

“You’re proving my point, Miss Goodie Two Shoes.” She reached over and patted Kat on the cheek, and she twisted out of range.

“Remember how you unclogged the drain last week? That’s his job, not yours, kiddo. Also, it was disgusting. Let him handle the disgusting stuff, at least,” Cami said.

“The one at Grandma’s house needed it all the time, so I knew how to use,” Kat waved her hands, mimicking the tool, “that drain snake thing already.”

“Uh-huh. I know. Repeat: Goody Two-Shoes. Anyway, no, no cops, and not getting kicked out. And I hate that middle-aged son of a—“

“Right. Okay.” Kat pinched the bridge of her nose. “Does Nate have a place yet? Might be safer to hang out there next time you two want to light up.”

Cami looked away. “No.”

Kat sighed, trying to work out a solution. She could only placate Mr. Walker by doing yard work and maintenance chores for so long, especially if Cami was going to keep smoking or getting blackout drunk. In the past, Cami might have simply smoked in her car, but she’d either sold it, or it’d gotten impounded; Kat still wasn’t sure which.

“I think there’s some scented candles on the fridge,” she said after a minute of thinking. “We could buy some incense or essential oils and a diffuser, and keep them next to the door. Or you could use the roof. That way, he can’t sniff it out as easily.”

She stooped to pluck a few dandelions from the cracks in the sidewalk. It wasn’t much, but anything extra she could do to placate Mr. Walker was worth it. Plus, it’d look better when Darius came by tomorrow.

Cami looked at Kat thoughtfully, then nodded once. “That’s a good idea. I’m not using the roof, though. Walkerman said there might be raccoons nesting up there. And I’ve tried candles—they don’t cut it. I’d better hit the hard stuff.”

When Kat looked alarmed, Cami rolled her eyes and laughed.

“Not drugs and alcohol, kitten. Perfume and incense and junk, like you said.”

“I knew that,” she said quickly.

“You sure didn’t. Hey, I’m doing laundry later, if you bag up your stuff, I’ll take yours, too.”

Kat perked up. “Really? Yeah, I’ll go get it ready.”

“No rush. I’ll go out at eleven. Go crash. You look dead on your feet.” Cami looked her up and down critically.

“...Thanks, Cami.” Kat put in the door code and pulled the door open to the building.

“Oh, and about Mr. Expensive Jacket.”

Kat paused with her palm on the doorframe and braced herself for more teasing. “Oh, Darius?”

“If you two ever need to schedule some alone time or need some fun supplies-“

“We won’t. Goodnight!” Horrified, Kat hurried inside.

Cami’s hearty laugh chased her through the door. Kat shook her head as she wiped her feet on the mat, then trotted up the stairs to the second floor. She inserted her key into the lock, opened the door, and was hit by a wave of odors from the apartment.

No wonder Mr. Walker had come banging on the door. Kat slipped her shoes off, entered her room to collect her laundry, and found the window open. Kat forgave Cami for trespassing in her space. Better a cold room and a mild invasion of privacy than headache-inducing fumes.

While she filled the laundry bag, it clicked why Cami was offering to take it to the basement; to get the smell out of her clothes and of Kat’s.

 She scooped up the rest of her dirty clothes, set the bag by the door, then closed the window. The latch clicked and slid without resistance as she tried to lock it. Peering closer, she saw the little mechanism inside was broken.

“Nice, Cami,” Kat mumbled and then felt guilty. Cami was... well, Cami was Cami. She smoked a lot of things, drank a lot of things, had a lot of ‘friends’ over for late-night visits, occasionally vanished for days at a time, and then surprised you by cleaning up or getting you a super over-the-top dessert ‘just because.’ Kat didn’t understand where she got the money. Recently, Cami had lost her job and started pouring all her time and energy into becoming a social media influencer. Kat had no idea how well that had been going, but this was the second month in a row that Mr. Walker had badgered her about rent not being paid in full.

Kat could survive working extra hours to cover for her cousin until she got another job but couldn’t afford to find another place to live. Cami could complain about Mr. Walker and tease her about helping out around the building all she wanted, but she was getting a percentage knocked off of rent because of it, and it encouraged Mr. Walker to be more lenient with Cami’s ‘hobbies.’ Yes, Mr. Walker was strange, patrolling the halls at odd hours doing odd jobs, but Kat felt this was preferable to having a landlord who never did anything.

She plopped onto her bed, gathering energy to begin her nightly routine. She’d vaguely planned to vacuum the apartment and review some of her textbooks, but after the unexpected dinner date, those plans had gone out the window.

She got up, washed her face, brushed her teeth, took a sleeping pill, and curled up in bed with a novel from her favorite fantasy series. Try as she might, she could not keep her mind on the story. She’d have to talk to Mr. Walker about the fight that had happened tonight. Queasiness bubbled in her gut. He’d be leaning on her to keep Cami in line, would warn her again that Cami was going to get herself arrested again.

Kat halted her train of thought and forcibly corrected it. Things would work out. She’d just... work harder and smooth things over, like always.

When she’d been with Darius, she hadn’t been stressing about all the problems that needed solving.

Talking to somebody friendly with zero expectations had been shockingly enjoyable.

Her few other acquaintances seemed to have about as much spare time as she did lately, practically zero. And none of them were interested in her random animal and nature facts, even if some were polite enough to pretend to be.

But Darius was. She’d had his full attention the whole night, and while that was somewhat intimidating, it was also refreshing to feel seen without demands being made of her.

It really had been a long time since she’d let loose and had fun.

She’d read the same page three times. Kat set her book to the side and went to plug in her phone, only to notice that her charger had been ‘borrowed’ again.She groaned, too tired to hunt for it. Instead, she hit the lights and let her medication pull her to sleep.

A shy smile crept onto her face. Radiant, he’d called her.