“Yeah, she sleeps there sometimes. Usually when—” He broke off, but my mind filled in the blanks for him. When she’s been drinking. “Anyway, no worries. Thanks for asking. Send me a text if anything tries to eat you.”

“Likewise. But I just want a text with their address. So I can send a thank-you card.”

“Rude. ’Night, Phillips.”

“’Night, Alexander.”

Character Analysis:

Alexander Brougham

Is complicated.

FOURTEEN

Spotify gave me recommendations after you put that song on in the car. I’m learning about your culture.

HAHA ok I’m worried. What did spotify suggest?

Umm so far we’ve had run to paradise, bow river, the boys light up, khe sanh, the horses …

THE HORSES!!! Why didn’t I show you the horses? That’s the REAL national anthem

Am I Australian now?

You’re Australian when you instinctively yell “Alice? Who the fuck is Alice?” and “No way, get fucked, fuck off” at the right moments at the pub. Until then you’re a welcome visitor.

I am … so confused right now

Good

“Do you think we should be more involved in the school?” I asked Brooke after the final bell as we hovered in the halls one Tuesday.

Brooke tugged on her skirt—today’s was a very short tan cord that showed off every slant of her thighs. She’d been really pushing the boundaries on what she could get away with within the uniform policy these last couple of weeks; I guessed she was planning on making Ray jealous through the power of raw sexuality. That’s not the advice I would’ve given her if she’d come to the locker for help, but she hadn’t. Not that I blamed her, after the advice she’d gotten last time.

“Really?” she said as we moved through the crowd of navy. “More involved? I’m already doing Q and Q Club and student council.”

“Yeah, no, I don’t mean formally,” I said. “Just, you know, around the place. Like, when’s the last time we went to a sporting thing?”

“Like a football game?”

“Yeah, exactly. Or, like, a swim meet.”

Brooke’s sharp eyes snapped onto me. “Is this a Brougham thing?”

“No! Not exactly. But when he was talking about swimming yesterday I realized we never go to any of that stuff.”

“Right,” Brooke said. “Because we hate it.”

“Do we?”

“Darcy!”

“I’m just saying, we’ve never talked about it. I didn’t think it was active avoidance.”

Brooke gave a melodic laugh, pulling me against the wall by one arm so we were removed from the crowd of students. Funny. Only a month ago this would’ve made my knees buckle and sent a shiver up my arm. Today, it only caused a mild stirring in my chest. It wasn’t nothing, but it wasn’t an overwhelming longing like it’d once been.