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Nat threw back the rest of her drink and bounced off the bed, holding her hand out for his glass.

“Want a Glinda this time, bitch?”

He glanced at the signature-covered Cats poster that hung next to something Nat would deny if ever asked about—a picture of the two of them and Yu from grade eleven. She’d done it for art class when they’d spent a unit working with charcoal, and even though she insisted she hated anything without colour, A.J. thought it was one of her better works.

A black-and-white Bren was rendered on a separate piece of paper, tacked up next to A.J.’s forever-smiling face, eyes bright like he’d just said something gas.

Some of the tension left his shoulders as the warmth Nat had captured before she’d even met Bren filled his heart.

“I think I just wanna sing. Sweeny Todd?”

“Hey,” Nat said, eyes gaining a misty, far-off quality, at odds with the evil grin that spread across her face. “Maybe Ireland has its own Mrs. Lovett running a shop somewhere.”

A.J. wondered if Niamh might be interested in moonlighting with a barber. He hopped off the bed and pulled the DVD from the collection next to Nat’s boxy old TV, and attempted what he thought was a decent Cockney accent. “What I calls ‘enterprise’.”

“Poppin’ bigots into pies,” Nat said, equally bri’ish.

She headed through the door to dispose of the evidence of their underaged drinking as he slid the disc into the player.

Still four months until he saw Bren, then another month of anxious stomach knots until the trial started. But at least he had good company in the meantime.

46

“You sure you’re OK if I go?”

Bren let the oven door bang shut as he set the last of the late-night jam-jams with the others. Nothing like an ocean’s worth of distance to put a dampener on what should have been the best news since he’d gotten accepted into the exchange program last summer.

“I’d be offended if you didn’t. It’s a cause worth celebrating, right?” Arlo said.

If there was one thing worth celebrating in 2008 it was Arlo telling him that Tadhg and Luke were destined for the detention center in Cork. Fourteen months for Luke and ten for Tadhg, with the chance of a suspended sentence given their progress towards rehabilitation.

It was a lot less than Bren thought they deserved, but Arlo said he was happy with it, so who was he to complain?

“Yeah,” Bren said, dropping a biscuit back on the tray when the stupid thing burned him for his crime of trying to sandwich it with jam. “But it feels wrong. You not bein’ here.”

Arlo made a twee sound, and Bren used his shoulder to hold his phone in place while he arranged biscuit halves. “Do I wanna know?”

“It’s just cute how you kind of turn into me when you’re worrying about me,” Arlo said, sounding way too pleased with himself.

“Beep boop.” He thought he’d be able to leave it at that, but the roiling magma in his stomach wasn’t having it. “Don’t you think they should have gotten more than that?”

Bren could have kicked himself in the silence that followed. A bit of worry on his end and he’d gone and handed it off to Arlo.

“I just want them to get better. I don’t think they need to be locked away forever for that to happen,” Arlo said.

It was more than either of them deserved, but Bren wasn’t about to make Arlo second guess himself, even if he did hope he’d take a stronger stance when it came to Cian.

“And, really, Bren. Just throw some googly eyes on the stereo and call it a day. I’ll be with you in spirit.”

Would the Arlo from that first day even recognize the one from 2008?

“Okay, but how do I get you here in person?” Bren asked, sitting at the rickety table to stare into the dreg of tea that had gone cold. “I’ve got needs a stereo can’t really fulfill.”

It was a mark of how far Arlo had come that he didn’t stammer. Although Bren hoped that he was at least blushing back in Moose Jaw.

“I’ll send a little picture when we’re done here. That’ll hold you over until August.”

The mug would have shattered on the linoleum if he hadn’t caught it. He made sure his voice sounded casual when he said, “Jeez, Arlo. I was talkin’ about cuddlin’. Bein’ alone in Canada’s made you real randy.”