Page 200 of Men in Shorts

“Extending my internship through the autumn term. When I told you I was going to Russia after Nigeria, you acted like I did it just to hurt you.”

“Wait, that isnotwhat I said.”

“You implied. Heavily. More than once.” His stomach twinged, like it always did when he stood up for himself. “More than twice.”

“But I never?—”

“’Scuse me for a wee minute.” Garen, the Jingle Bell Rocks coordinator, sidled between them and grabbed the marker from the draw sheet’s easel. “This needs updating before I forget. Great games, lads, by the way.”

“Thanks.” Duncan gave Brodie one last glare, then focused on Garen. “Belter of a job with this event.”

Garen’s face lit up like he’d won the lottery. “Really? You think it’s going well? That’s such a relief.” He took off his reindeer antlers, then slipped them back on again, the headband pulling his shoulder-length sandy hair out of his eyes. “It’s my first time organizing anything more complex than a takeaway order, so I am freaking the fuck out.”

“It’s all for fun and charity,” Brodie told Garen, trying to keep his own stress out of his tone.

“Aye…” Garen chewed on his lower lip as he studied the draw sheet, then wrote the names of Duncan’s team and their opponents into the slots for their next games. “I think that’s right.” He frowned at the brackets for an uncomfortably long moment. “Probably?”

Brodie looked at Duncan over Garen’s head. “I should go and broomstack now.”

“Me, too.” Duncan’s eyes were wide with plaintive hope. “But we’ll talk later?”

“Definitely, we’ll…we’ll make things right. Today. Promise.” As Brodie turned away, he attempted a wave that felt more like a muscle spasm.

He wove through the crowd back to his table, where he sank into the seat between John and Heather.

“Sorry, mate.” Heather slid a pint of ale in front of Brodie. “I got you one of these.”

“Thanks.” Brodie took a sip to be polite, glancing over at All Through the House’s table. Duncan’s parents were surveying him from afar with the same car-crash-witness look as John and Heather.

The Harrises had been like surrogate parents to Brodie, and most of his pals were also Duncan’s. Their lives were enmeshed in a way that made any disharmony ten times as awkward. But that shared community of family and friends also made it hard to simply give up and walk away.

Especially at Christmas.

* * *

At the endof his slide, Duncan released the stone and gave it an extra push, though the last thing it needed was more speed.

“No!” called Ellie, who was now the skip. “No no no!”

A familiar refrain regarding his throws. The stone was going too fast for Mum and Dad to keep up with it, much less sweep it. At least this time he’d not fallen over.

His stone reached the house and crashed into one of their opponents’ stones, then another. Both yellow rocks flew out of the house while his red one spun to a stop in the center.

Whoa.

Ellie jumped up and down, waving her broom. “Yaaaas, ya dancer!” His parents shuffled over and wrapped him in a double bear hug.

“Is it over?” he asked. “Did we win?”

“Not yet,” Mum said with a laugh, “but it’s a lot more likely now, thanks to you.”

He headed back to the hack to fetch his broom, sporting what felt like a delirious grin.

“You smashed it!” Luca gave him a high five. “Almost literally. I’m shocked those stones didn’t explode on impact. How did it feel?”

“Amazing.” That word didn’t do it justice. A double takeout wasn’t as thrilling as scoring a goal, but it was pretty close.

If only Brodie could have seen it. But he was all the way over on Sheet A, near the opposite wall.

---