He laughs. "Maybe. Who knows? Maybe there's somebody you fit with and they live in China and don't speak English and you're never gonna meet."

"I think my ability to fit with someone who doesn't share a language with me is probably pretty limited."

Trouble shrugs. "Yeah, so's your ability to fit with somebody you're never gonna talk to in the first place. If you had an Ethan who didn't speak English and he found you somehow anyway, he'd learn it."

Bella laughs. "Now that would be flattering."

He giggles.

"Well," she amends, "it would be flattering if it were based on some translated or non-linguistic facet of my personality. I wouldn't be meaningfully flattered if someone learned English because they thought I had pretty eyes."

"Yeah. But that wouldn't be an Ethan."

"Yeah. It's possible I should hang out with them more to see how they work, it sounds interesting."

"Maybe you should," he laughs.

"What do they even do together? If Ethan were picking up an instrument for Robin's sake I'd expect to see him over at ours more, playing with her and Andi."

"Talk, play cards, make out, talk..."

"What do they talk about, though? And - I thought they were just friends? Is Ethan just the kind of person who acquires friends with whom he then incidentally makes out?"

"Maybe. Or maybe he just happens to have picked up two."

"Bit of a coincidence, I don't think it's typical," shrugs Bella.

"Sure. But coincidences happen."

"That's true."

Trouble grins.

"Does anyone but your mom and stepdad know the thing I know now?"

He shakes his head.

"Right. Okay."

"You gonna spill?"

"No. I just wanted to know how thorough the required silence is." She hefts her notebook a little. "I'll write about it, but it's all encoded, nobody but me can read this stuff."

"Okay."

"Caught Andi reading one of them back when I wrote plaintext."

"And that's bad?"