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“Is his man gonna keep him warm if he asks real nice?”

The sight of Bren trying hard to suppress his shivers was quite possibly one of the most endearing things he’d ever seen, but A.J. tried to keep his voice steady as he pulled Bren closer.

“You saying you need a big strong Canadian man to make it through the winter?”

Bren’s face scrunched. “Think I should ask Dustin, then?”

A.J.’s snow-numbed fingers found the base of Bren’s spine and the shiver that followed warmed the smuggest part of his soul.

“Okay, fine,” Bren said, rushing his words as he pulled away from the chill. “You’re the manliest lad in town. Now can we go inside? I wanna warm up.”

A.J. offered his arm like a regency gentleman and Bren shoved him.

“Someone’s eager.”

Desire clouded Bren’s face, but it had passed through shock to get there. A.J. smiled. It was nice, having the homefield advantage like this, but was it something he wanted forever?

32

“I know! It’s tragic, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Scattered grumbles tore through the room as Mrs. Tremblay sat back at her desk. The rounded shape of the 82 staring up at Bren would have been a minor miracle a year ago, but now it set his teeth on edge.

With Mam’s hurdle cleared, Bren’s mind had latched onto the looming shadow he’d been doing his best to ignore all year. No matter how you sliced it, he had to learn enough in Canada to scrape the passes he needed to put the Certs behind him.

Too much mucking about would blow any plan of spending his college years with Arlo out of the water.

“You could just not give us homework right before finals,” Levi Miller said from the back row, and there was a general murmur of ascent.

Mrs. Tremblay shook her head. “I’m sorry! I want you all to pass your finals.” She leaned back in her chair and threw her hands up. “I’m a monster, I know.”

Levi and a couple of other lads groaned, but the bulk of the class laughed with her.

“So, one to forty-two, odd, on page two twenty-six and twenty-seven. As long as you didn’t bomb the last test,” she scanned the room in a way that left no doubt that some of them had done just that, “that should be all the studying you need.”

The bell rang and the kids rose.

“Oh!” She called over the tail end of the chime. A couple of people hurried in their pursuit of the door. “If you’re not too afraid of the ghoul who gives you homework, I have order forms for senior shirts here.”

Arlo, who looked adorable in the hoodie he’d stolen from Bren last June, met Nat’s eye and then picked up forms for the three of them. Bren was about to ask what the hell a senior shirt was when Mrs. Tremblay said, “Bren, could you stay behind for a second?”

He didn’t know what the feck he could have done, but he gave Arlo a look before walking against the flow of his fleeing classmates.

She smiled. “Is everything alright?”

Bren opened his mouth to speak, but all he could do was blink at her with his gob open. He was pretty sure the last time a teacher had asked him if everything was alright, it had been over a skinned knee back in primary school.

“I don’t want to pry. I just noticed that you looked pretty upset when you got your test back.”

Bren’s thumb and index finger were halfway to the bridge of his nose before he stopped himself. If teachers were noticing he wasn’t keeping it as together as he thought.

“I was just hopin’ for a ninety,” he said, as neutrally as he could.

Mrs. Tremblay pursed her lips and flipped through her grade book.

“I was a little surprised when I graded you. You’ve been doing so well all semester.”

She wasn’t the only one. With the musical behind him he’d been expecting things to get easier, or at least that he’d get caught up on his sleep. His body seemed hellbent on keeping his rest shallow enough that he woke a half dozen times most nights, though.