Page 105 of Black Hollow: Awakening

“As it happens, I’m legal now,” he announced smoothly.

“You had a birthday?” Liam asked, surprised.

“Yep. January twenty-eighth.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“God, I hate that question. What was I supposed to do? Walk up and say, Hey, you know what, it’s my birthday today. Where are my presents? Come on.”

Liam chuckled.

“I wish you’d said something like that to Blake.”

“Because he would have gotten pissed?”

“Yeah. And he’d have given you a long lecture about how birthdays should be a day for expressing gratitude to your parents because they’re the ones who brought you into the world. And that you should be giving them presents. It’s actually pretty funny.”

Yes, the image was funny. Funny enough that Will chuckled, forgetting for a moment that he was having a totally shitty evening.

“Where’s Mr. Surfer?”

Will shrugged.

“He didn’t come.”

“Are we heading inside?”

“You go, I’m out of here,” Will muttered, starting to walk away, but Liam wrapped an arm around him, pulling him back.

“No way! We have to drink to your birthday.”

“My birthday was two weeks ago,” Will reminded him indulgently.

“Then we have some catching up to do.”

A faint smile appeared on Will’s lips for a moment, but it quickly vanished.

“Not today,” he said firmly, and seeing Liam’s questioning look, he admitted, “I had a fight with Norma. I don’t want to go back in there.”

He expected Liam to ask what it was about, but instead, he said, “Then let’s go somewhere else.”

“Where?”

“Somewhere. You can drink anywhere.”

Will agreed. He had nothing better to do anyway, and few things could lift his spirits like Liam’s presence, so he couldn’t have asked for better company. They took a bus into town. They wandered around for a bit, eventually ending up in a low-key bar. They each ordered a drink.

“It’s weird that Norma didn’t know about your birthday,” Liam said suddenly. Will raised an eyebrow. “She’s always the most informed person. She has an account on all those sites.”

“Well, I don’t. I mean, I used to, but I deleted it.”

“Why?”

“The embarrassingly low number of online friends?”

Liam snorted with laughter.

“Seriously?” he said in disbelief.