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There was a knock at the door before he could threaten Rory again.

“Dude, are you wearing clothes?”

Bren’s brow furrowed.

“Uh, yeah?”

“Underwear?”

Bren glanced down even though he knew he’d put some on that morning.

“The fuck?”

He slid the laptop off his lap and was on his way to the door when it flew open. Nat was standing on the other side, holding a metal serving spoon with her arm extended in front of her.

“These,” Nat said, waving the small black briefs on the end of the spoon like they were radioactive, “were in the dryer.”

“They’re clean, you lunatic,” Bren said, snatching them out of the air after Nat fluttered them towards him.

He wadded up the one-size-too-small jocks and stuffed them into his back pocket. Of course it had been that pair. That’s what he got for trying to make Arlo blush.

“It’s cool you wanna be sexy for A.J. and stuff, but keep it in the back of your drawer like a normal person, OK?”

“What’s in the back of your drawer?”

Nat, who was looking at the spoon like she couldn’t decide if she needed to throw it out, shrugged.

“Hunting knife.”

“That ’cause of me?”

It looked like Nat had decided the makeshift flagpole wasn’t lost to the world because she let it dangle at her side—though she was taking care to point the end of it away from her.

“I’ve had it since I was ten.”

Bren raised an eyebrow.

“My grandma’s an interesting lady.” She waved the spoon in the air as she turned to leave. “She taught me how to use it, too. So keep your sex-underwear in your room, please. And I better not find a pair of assless chaps lying around anywhere.”

“We’re in Canada not the Wild West if you hadn’t noticed,” Bren said. “And anyway, all chaps are assless. You didn’t have to specify, like.”

Bren wondered if he should get a keep-out sign as she pulled the door shut behind her. That was a thing siblings did, right?

RedBullBren69: I miss being an only child

Merlin.Pendragon: How very feline of you.

Bren groaned. Why did he have to talk to Rory back in primary four?

RedBullBren69: No more cats m8. How’s school? See what you’ve driven me to?

There was a lull where Bren was sure Rory was deciding which TS Elliot poem to quote at him, but in the end he relented.

Merlin.Pendragon: Glenbridge continues to be Glenbridge. Teachers remind us at least twice an hour that we need to be studying for the Certs.

Bren was typing his reply when another message pinged.

Merlin.Pendragon: Tadhg hasn’t shown up once. Everyone thinks he’s doing home study.