Page 124 of The Corruption of Hollis Brown

We’ll see, he answered, aching. I think we’ll figure it out.

When the song ended, the band switched to something slow. Walt wiggled his eyebrows at her, but Yulia wanted to go back to Annie.

She know how to dance?

She’s not too bad. Band kids got to miss PE sometimes, so she’s not as good as Yulia, but I don’t think that’s the point of this.

Hollis stepped them back into the crowd and watched as Yulia tried to get Annie on rhythm. It took a bit longer than he’d thought, but they figured it out and started to sway.

Can we go somewhere after this? I want to talk.

Where do you want to go?

Ride

“Come by mine tomorrow, I have what you need,” she said, hot into the shell of their ear.

Hollis’s heart sped up, and Walt shivered.

Yulia and Annie scampered away, and Hollis watched them go, feeling warmer than he had in months. They turned to grab one more thing from Hollis’s parents’ stall.

“Hey!”

Timothy jogged over, James not far behind him. “Hollis, man, what’s up! You heading to Clementine’s after this? They’re doing some kind of Christmas rager.”

Hollis shook his head. He didn’t even know that was happening.

“Absolutely not. Clementine hates me, and she definitely didn’t invite me.” He grimaced. “But since you’re here I might as well give you your gifts. I don’t know if I’ll see you again before break.”

“Gifts?” Timothy looked startled.

“Don’t get your jock in a twist, it’s nothing big,” Hollis said. He rummaged in the baskets behind his parents’ stall and pulled out the pencils and chalk. “I’m not wrapping them either so—”

Timothy held the pencils in both hands for a moment, then looked over his shoulder at James.

“Hey, man, you gotta—now is a better time than any.”

James flushed and cleared his throat.

“I’ve been thinking . . . ,” he started. “I was gonna leave my car here when I went to school and I was going to just give it to Tim, but we talked about it and decided it might be nice if you wanted to share it and carpool together. Just so you have some more job options in case you don’t wind up working where your old man works. You guys don’t have to get along or anything, but no one in this town is a stranger to sharing.”

Wow.

Hollis shook his head. “That’s too much, James.”

James shrugged and looked a little awkward. “No, it’s not. It’s just an old shitty car, and I’m not using it anyway. Can’t even sell it, it’s worth so little. I know we’re not friends or anything and you’re not really a part of what happened with me, Tim, and Jorge, but it did have an impact. No one ever thanked you for helping Jorge when he was in bad shape. When everyone else was too chickenshit to think of anyone but themselves. I doubt his parents are good enough to admit they were wrong, so I bet they didn’t apologize either.”

Hollis still felt uncomfortable.

You don’t have to use it, just let it go. They’re trying to make it up to you, you deserve that.

Not this much.

“It’s probably too soon to tell,” Timothy continued with a grin. “But I think Jorge calmed down on using gear after you knocked him flat too. He’s still an asshole, but he’s not flying off the handle all the time like a maniac. Embarrassed the shit out of him. You just about saved that boy’s life twice and saved me the stress of worrying. Sharing a few rides until we can both buy better than James’s old Toyota isn’t that big of a deal.”

“Okay, okay, fine,” Hollis said, embarrassed. “I didn’t do any of that on purpose; I wasn’t even thinking about him.”

James shrugged. “Who cares. The means justifies the end. I’m sure Jorge will be thankful too in a few years.”