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His eyes unfocused and Bren knew he was up in that weird Arlo-y part of his head.

“You doin’ OK there, Robolad?”

“Your Certs!”

“What about ’em?”

“What the heck’s a Cert?” Nat asked.

“They’re, like, the whole point of school in Ireland. Like the SAT’s on crack, times ten. With a knife!”

Arlo was looking at him with such an impossibly concerned expression. Why did it make him want to pull the lad into a caretaker’s cupboard?

“Give your man some credit. I got a plan for all that.”

Arlo blushed but didn’t look convinced.

“I’m gonna be here till May, fly back home to sit the Certs, boss it by the skin of my teeth, and then fly back and walk across the graduation stage with you.”

“Bren, that’s . . .” Arlo chewed at his lower lip, brow furrowed like they were already in Maths.

Nat and Yu had shuffled a few steps away, but they were listening hard.

“You let me worry about that, Robolad. It’s all sorted,” Bren said, poking him in the chest.

“But that’s, like, an insane amount of work.”

Bren shrugged. “And the craic’ll be ninety gettin’ another year with you, like.”

Arlo blinked back at him like he didn’t understand what he was saying.

“You’re worth it, Arlo. So don’t try and tell me you’re not, yeah?”

Nat chirruped from their left, and Bren thought he saw Yu elbow her in the side. He knew his face must be red but couldn’t be arsed to hide it.

Arlo looked like he wanted to say more when the bell rang. There were still a few people hanging around the hall like they didn’t have anywhere better to be.

“So, is everyone late now?” Bren asked.

“They are,” Arlo said, nodding at Nat and Yu who grinned like idiots. “Everyone else probably has second period free too.”

Bren was about to ask why that made it ok for everyone to still be in the hall when a light flashed behind Arlo’s eyes.

“Oh! So, a free period over here is different. It’s like free free.” Arlo said, and when Bren raised an eyebrow, he added, “We can even leave campus since we’re past grade ten, but second period frees suck because there’s not really enough time to actually go anywhere.”

The thing that Bren hadn’t been letting himself feel since laying eyes on Arlo stirred. Maybe they didn’t need to wait for last bell after all.

“Alright, so if we aren’t leaving the school, where are we gonna go?” Bren asked, trying not to let too much of what he was feeling leak into his words.

He must not have done a very good job because Arlo’s cheeks flushed.

Yu snapped a photo and shoved his camera into his bookbag before Arlo could protest.

“Alright, let’s get to history, Natalie.”

Nat gave Arlo a knowing smile but let herself be led away, leaving Bren, for the first time in nearly two months, alone with his boyfriend.

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