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“He came by to pick you up.” Sebastian looked in the direction of Eli. “Sounds like a date to me.” Sebastian high-fived Eli.
“This is Hollis,” Patrick said but didn’t look at his dad. “That’s my dad.”
Patrick’s dad held his hand out for me to shake, and I felt no shame in clasping it hard and giving it my death-grip shake.
“Hello. I’m William Dawson,” Patrick’s dad said. It irritated me how he tried to make himself sound calm and decent. He was a complete fake.
“Hi,” I greeted. I didn’t bother saying shit like it was nice to meet him. This was the biggest prick I’d ever met.
“Firm handshake, Hollis,” his dad said and smiled.
This was way too creepy. Patrick’s often defensive and short-fuse moods were suddenly making perfect sense to me. I couldn’t imagine taunting or teasing Morgan or Chase like this, especially in front of one of their friends. Mom and Dad would kill me for behaving like his brother and friend were.
“Dude, this is Hollis? The guy’s name you were moaning?” Sebastian said as he laughed.
“I was not!” Patrick yelled. When he leaned forward and shoved Sebastian, his dad grabbed Patrick by his bicep.
“Watch it, boy,” he hissed.
“See? You always defend him!” Patrick shrugged out of his father’s grip. “Let’s go,” Patrick mumbled and turned to walk down the path toward my SUV.
I glared at each of them before I followed Patrick. Patrick was quiet until I started the SUV and pulled away from his house. I wasn’t sure what to say or how to act right now. I’d never encountered a parent or sibling like that of any of my other friends.
“I’m sorry about that, Hollis.”
I huffed out a laugh.
“There’s nothing to apologize about. That’s not your fault. It hasn’t been very long since my dad and I dropped you off at your house after jiu-jitsu. What happened?”
“I was trying to keep an eye on the clock and head outside when you pulled up, but then Sebastian and I got into it and then his fucking friend, Eli, made things worse. Then Dad and I started arguing. He lets my stepbrother get away with murder and doesn’t do anything to stop it. My dad just wants to make Sebastian’s bitch of a mom happy, so I’m not to create problems.”
“That’s fucking ridiculous. My parents would have killed me if I acted like your brother did in front of someone.”
“Stepbrother. Thankfully we don’t share blood. He’s a fucking creep. Your family seems different. You come from a good family.”
I purposely drove slowly to my house because Patrick seemed stressed. I noticed his eyes were red, and I figured he’d been crying. I was apprehensive to bring it up and ask him because I thought he might be short on patience and it would set him off.
“Hey, congratulations about everything with TCF. That’s really awesome you’ve already been recruited and have a future,” he said.
I was really excited about the prospect of being a TCF fighter, but the weight of what I just witnessed Patrick go through at his house made me feel guilty about being happy. I tried to accept the change in topic as his way of trying to move past his homelife crap and try to enjoy himself.
“As long as I work hard, it sounds like things with TCF will work out.”
“Of course they’ll work out. You want this. Dude, you bust your ass every day before and after school working out. You’re going to go places, Hollis. You’re going to be fine.”
I wasn’t going to leave his ass behind.
While we were at the stoplight before my neighborhood, I glanced over at Patrick’s hand as his fingers tapped his jeans nervously. His knuckles were red, and one of them looked cut.
“I don’t mean to pry, but what happened?”
“Don’t you ever argue with Morgan and then shove one another around?” Before I could reply, he started talking again. “It’s just brother crap. We shove each other around and then eventually one of us gets pissed and then really takes a swing.” He turned his head to look out the window. “And I never moaned your name, Hollis,” he said without looking at me.
“I don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me.”
He nodded but still didn’t look at me. It was obvious to me that Patrick’s father and stepbrother teased him about me being his date and he’d gotten defensive about it. It could be because he worried how I’d react if he said he were gay or bi. Truth of the matter, I didn’t care what he was. It didn’t affect our friendship. And maybe he was scared of losing me as a friend if I knew.
Maybe this was one of the reasons he didn’t have friends. Either because of fear of losing them or how they’d react to him or being embarrassed by his family.
