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“Nope.” Too pissed off to give him a lecture on his lungs, I stepped inside. “As predicted.”

“Bad luck, lad,” Feely said as both he and Hughie followed me into the school.

“Ah, it’s not all doom and gloom.” Taking one last drag of his smoke, Gibsie tossed the butt away and fell into step beside us. “At least you’re down to the one crutch.”

“Go, me,” I bit out, ignoring every smile, wave, and “Hey, Kav” and “How’s it going, Johnny?” as I stalked through the hallway on my way to my locker.

“Just give yourself time,” Feely replied calmly. “Everything will work out.”

“Exactly,” Hughie added, patting my shoulder. “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

“Yeah, well, Rome needs to hurry the fuck up, lads,” I muttered, leaning heavily on the crutch in my left hand. “Because I’m a little short on time.”

“You still have two months, Cap.”

“I have forty-six days,” I corrected, agitated. “And counting.”

“At least they’re letting you work out again,” Hughie offered, tone optimistic.

“Upper body only,” I muttered. “That’ll be handy when I need to run a fucking drill, won’t it?”

“Jesus, you’re a moody bastard,” Gibsie quipped. “There’s no pleasing you.”

“Well, lad, if you spent your morning with three old dolls feeling you up while your da was in the room, you wouldn’t exactly be shitting rainbows.”

Gibsie scoffed. “If I had three women feeling me up this morning, I can guarantee you that Iwouldbe shitting rainbows.”

Hughie and Feely laughed.

“Trust me, you wouldn’t,” I grumbled.

Gibs arched a brow. “When you say old…”

“I mean geriatric old,” I barked, stopping in the middle of the hall to glare at him. “Mrs. Lovellold.”

Gibsie paled. “Lad.”

Encouraged by the sympathy in their eyes, I continued with my sorrowful rant. “Think up the best possible sexy nurse fantasy you have.”

He grinned. “Got it.”

I nodded in approval. “Now swap that nurse with your granny.”

All three of my friends groaned in sympathy. “Fuck.”

“Yeah,” I confirmed grimly, walking again. “‘Fuck’ is right.”

“Did you at least get your cum card?” Gibsie asked then, and not quietly, when we reached the fifth-year locker area. “Surely, you got the green light for—”

“You had to do it, didn’t you?” Hughie sighed, resting against the locker next to mine. “You always have to go that little bit too far, Gibs.”

“I’m worried,” Gibsie shot back huffily. “I’m being aconcerned friend.”

“You’re being a freak,” Feely offered dryly.

“I got the cum card, Gibs,” I decided to say, knowing that if I didn’t tell the eejit, he wouldn’t give me a minute’s peace. “It’s all good.”

“You did?” His eyes danced with excitement. “Then what the fuck are you doing at school, Johnny?”

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