Adrianne pulls Mak’s phone closer to her face for a better look. ‘I think frolic works.’

‘Will somebody please hold this picture up so I can see?’ Chets calls from his corner.

‘I want to see, too,’ Trent’s voice blasts through the intercom.

Mak shrugs and lifts the phone above the table so Chets can see.

‘Definitely frolicking,’ Chets says. And that’s it, we all totally lose it, even Mak. I laugh so hard that I can’t breathe. I laugh so hard that it really, really hurts. And I look at the others rolling around and holding their bellies, and it makes me laugh even harder. We keep going for about five minutes, until we ache, and tears are running down our faces, and then we finally pull ourselves together.

‘Not fair, I want to see,’ Trent whines. ‘You guys suck.’ And it sets us off all over again.

‘Are you upset about breaking up?’ Kat says, when she’s able to speak again.

‘I was at first. Well, for quite a while, really, but I was starting to see the positives. Like I used to 250 have to message her all the time, and if I didn’t like her posts within ten minutes of her putting them up, she got mad at me. So it was nice not having to deal with that. Also, we didn’t really have anything in common. She wanted me to be supportive of her interests, so I had to do her stuff all the time, which was mostly making TikToks and watching shows about drag queens. I mean, they were alright, but I would have liked to have watched something different once in a while. So before you turned up, I was starting to realise that I was actually a bit relieved about it all, and it made me see things differently. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure she even liked me that much. She was annoyed with me, like, eighty per cent of the time.’

‘Oh Mak.’ Kat rubs his arm. ‘I’m glad you’re OK.’

‘It’s not your fault,’ he says. ‘I wanted to let you all know, but after totally breaking bro code and ditching you all for months, I was scared.’

‘We would have been here like a shot, man,’ I say.

‘I know. And I’m glad you’re here now, even though we’re trapped by alien Chets.’

251 ‘This Georgia-Rae.’ Trent’s voice rings out again. ‘Can I have her number?’

We all groan.

‘Anyone else want to share something with the group?’ Karim says. ‘Cos I feel like we’re really bonding.’

‘Can I ask a question?’ Mak says. ‘Why do you carry a man pouch everywhere? The word at school is that you’re carrying something you shouldn’t be, but now I’m thinking it’s full of styling products.’