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Bren pulled his hand back from Arlo’s shoulder as Dustin’s voice came from the doorway. He gave them a once over and, when he clocked Arlo’s face, he rocked back on his feet.

“This a bad time?”

Bren shrugged but Nat said, “It is if you’re playing Chistery for Morgan.”

Dustin looked as confused as Bren.

Nat glared, but when she exchanged a look with Arlo, she sighed. “What do you want?”

Bren thought he was looking at Bizarro-world Arlo for a second as Dustin stepped closer with his eyes locked on the tops of his trainers. Before the similarities got too uncanny, he took a breath and looked at them.

“I just wanted to say sorry about last night. Morgan was way out of line.”

Nat mumbled something under her breath, but it was so quiet that Dustin wouldn’t have heard it.

“We broke up this morning,” Dustin said, like it was an afterthought.

“Sorry,” Arlo said, and Bren was sure he was thinking about Dustin’s feelings more than his own.

“Nah, we never really clicked anyway.”

“Probably because she’s a soulless fucking harpy,” Nat said like she couldn’t help herself.

“More like a siren,” Dustin said and, when no one said anything, he batted his eyes. “Lure you in with the sweetness, then hold you underwater till the bubbles stop.”

Bren and Arlo’s laughter was strained, and Nat glared at Dustin with her head tilted.

“So, uh, yeah. Just hope we can still be cool after this.”

Arlo nodded but didn’t say anything, which Dustin took as a dismissal. One of his size thirteens was out the door when a duo of orange Starbursts bounced off his back.

A twinge of jealousy rippled through Bren. After locking eyes with Arlo, Dustin scooped the sweets off the floor, but since Coffee Crisps weren’t involved, Bren supposed he could let it slide.

“OK, I have to ask now. Does that weird fabric patch at the back of your costume bug you too? Or am I just weird,” Arlo asked.

“Oh, you’re definitely weird, dude,” Nat replied as she got up, wrapping her thumb and middle finger around Dustin’s wrist.

“Uh, pot, kettle?” Arlo asked as Nat unwrapped more Starbursts.

Bren shuffled over on his step to make room for Dustin, but he sat in front of them, legs sprawled out.

“That’s the first thing I thought of when I saw my costume,” Dustin said, peeling the paper from his sweets. Nat snapped her fingers and held her hand out. After a moment of confusion, he leaned forward to drop the wrappers into her palm. “Like, what happened to old Dute that messed up his fur like that?”

“Robolad thinks catfight,” Bren said, rocking Arlo by the shoulder. He turned pink but his smile didn’t fade.

“Hey, I should use that for the character.” Dustin leaned forward to take a swipe at Arlo’s calf. “Nice one, bro!”

Arlo looked like he didn’t know how to compute being called Bro, but he must have crunched some numbers because he laughed.

“Overthinking. It’s what I do.”

They got a laugh out of that, even if Nat’s came out closer to a groan. Before it had faded, Dustin launched into a tirade about how few songs he got to sing, considering he was the lead. Arlo insisted there wasn’t any one lead in Cats, his face lighting up like he’d been friends with Dustin his entire life.

Overthinking isn’t all you do, lad, Bren thought. I just gotta get you to see that one of these days.

27

“It feels kinda wrong doin’ this without the lads.”