And then, suddenly, he starts gasping for air.

‘Kellen!’ I choke through tears as I grab him and pull him into me.

His whole body is trembling.

‘Zach …?’

‘Yeah,’ I say, squeezing him. ‘It’s me.’

‘Did I … die?’ he says. ‘Zach, did I just … die?’

‘You’re OK,’ I say, letting him go to give him some air. ‘You’re OK.’

‘Kellen …’ Rhys says. He looks like he’s seen a ghost.

‘Rhys …’

Rhys rushes forward and throws his arms round Kellen.

‘I love you, Kellen. I love you so fucking much.’

And there it is. It only took his boyfriend dying to get him to say it.

‘Are you sure you’re OK?’

‘Yeah,’ Kellen says, though he still sounds shaky.

We’re back in Miss Madzikanda’s office, having already explained that this is a Huckleberry Situation.

‘You need a hospital,’ she says. ‘Just to be on the safe side.’

‘You know I can’t leave,’ Kellen replies. ‘Besides, what’s a doctor going to do? They can’t treat me for an accident that hasn’t happened yet!’

‘We can’t die,’ I say, repeating Kellen’s words back to him. ‘You’re such an idiot. I can’t believe you thought we couldn’t die …’

Madzikanda digs her fingers deep into her Afro. ‘Of course you can die! Why the hell do you kids always think you can’t die?! I swear to God, I could kill you both myself!’

‘For the record, I always thought we could die,’ I say.

‘Well, did you think of telling him?’ She points at Kellen. ‘What the hell happened?’

‘Prom caught fire.’

‘Again?!’

‘What do you mean again?!’

‘Prom always catches fire! Every bloody year! In my year, it happened twice.’

She reaches into her desk for the yearbook, the weight of it slamming down in front of us.

‘Why do you have that out of its case?’ I ask. ‘Harrington’s going to flip.’

‘Oh, let him.’ She dismisses the idea with a wave of her hand. ‘I need you to see this.’ She leafs through until she lands on 1978. ‘Look,’ she says, pointing to one of the entries.

‘“To a scorching-hot prom,”’ I read aloud.

‘Well, that’s just in bad taste,’ Kellen says.

‘So which one of you idiots was it then? Who’s the pyro out of the two of you?’

‘That would be me,’ Kellen says. ‘I cut the power and –’

‘Why would you cut the power?’

‘Because it was Zach’s birthday! We were doing candles!’

She looks across to me. ‘It’s your birthday?’

‘Yesterday was my birthday.’

Madzikanda shakes her head. ‘Yesterday as in today, or yesterday as in yesterday?’

‘Yesterday as in five days’ time.’

‘I don’t follow.’ Madzikanda sighs. ‘Every year I think I have this figured out. And every year you kids find new ways to surprise me.’

‘Why didn’t you tell us before that prom always catches fire?’ I ask. Kinda seems like an important detail that she somehow failed to mention?