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pushing into her mouth. It tastes like strawberry frozen yogurt. When they part, Lana says, “That was good. You’re getting better at it.” She walks toward the bus stop, swinging her ponytail from side to side. Lily feels her feet carried up by a wave, but this time she stays suspended, rocking on the surface of the water. She can’t believe she just kissed that girl, in the blue dress and the high ponytail, in the middle of this parking lot.
    For the next couple of days Lily tastes strawberry frozen yogurt in everything. “Lily and Lana,” she mouths to the orange striped sheets at night. “Lana and Lily,” she whispers to the bugs crashing against her walls. But after three days of not seeing Lana, her feet hit the ground with a thump. Lily starts to wonder why Lana never comes to the window, why she never invites her over. Why she acts as if nothing has happened.
    One afternoon, when Lily goes for a walk with her camera, she sees Lana sitting on a street bench in the park with Igor. They’re laughing. Lily is about to wave, but then Igor leans forward and kisses Lana, and Lana wraps her hand around his neck. Lily freezes; she stands and watches them. She wants her feet to move, to take her away, but they’re stuck.
    At night Lily wakes up to yelling outside her window, a bottle smashing. She slides the shutters open. A man is standing in the ring cast by a street light, wobbling, yelling in Russian toward entrance C. Shards of glass glitter on the asphalt around him. Talia comesto the balcony to look, sits on Lily’s bed and leans on the bars. “Not again.” She yawns. Lily squints and recognizes the man from the mall. Lana’s dad. A few windows rattle open, lights turn on in buildings across the street. A woman’s head pokes out of a window above entrance C. She yells back.
    Lana steps out in shorts and a T-shirt. Her hair is down. She talks to her dad quietly, tries to touch his hand, but he flings it away from her. Her mom calls to her, but Lana ignores her. Her father continues yelling at the window, and then he swipes his hand across Lana’s face. She falls to the ground, palms down. Lily gasps. “Lana,” her mother cries. From a balcony across the street a man shouts, “Leave the girl alone!” Lana looks at her hands, bleeding from the shattered glass, and then up at the spectators. She sees Lily and Talia. They both duck.
    When Lily looks out again, Lana is gone. A neighbour is talking to her father, a police siren in the background.
    The next day Lily calls Lana from downstairs, but Lana doesn’t come to the window. In the evening, she sees her from the balcony and quickly opens the shutters and calls her name. Lana hurries inside.
    It’s the last Friday of August and school is just about to start. Earlier in the day Ruthie took Lily to see her new school and walked her through the empty hallways. There were no lockers; students carry their books from home, stay in the same classroom for the entire day.
    Ruthie and Lily walk back from the bus stop, carrying bags of books and school supplies, when they see Lana leaning on a car across the street, chewing gum. She’s wearing her blue straplessdress and silvery sandals. She looks like she may be going to the beach, without Lily. Lily pauses at the entrance. “Go.” Ruthie waves her on, taking the bags from Lily’s hands, and disappears into the dark stairwell. Lily crosses the street. Lana’s mom heaves suitcases into the trunk of a car. “Where are you going?” Lily says.
    “To stay with my aunt in Rishon for a while,” Lana says. She doesn’t look Lily in the eye.
    “For how long?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “What about school?”
    Lana shrugs.
    “Are you okay?” Lily says. “I’ve been worried about you.”
    For the first time, Lana looks up at her.
    Lana’s mom turns and says something in Russian, and Lana answers without looking at her, sounding annoyed. Her mom sighs and walks across the street and into the building. Lily