Page 50 of Black Hollow: Awakening

“To my internship.”

Will felt a wave of discomfort wash over him.

“Don’t internships usually start in January?”

“Mine starts now. They’re gonna pay me for it, so it’s not a problem, right?”

The conversation ended there, as Dan started getting ready and then left without a goodbye. They started at the same time today, so normally they would have walked to school together, but apparently Danny still didn’t want to see Will. Will, in turn, had no desire to trail behind his roommate, so he waited a few minutes before leaving the house.

Or rather, he’d intended to wait a few minutes. He was so angry that everything kept slipping from his hands, and in the end, it probably turned into more than ten, because when he got to school, the bell had already rung.

He was walking down the deserted hallway, wondering if he should just skip first period, when Blake suddenly emerged from around the corner. Will bristled at the sight of him. He had a feeling what he was about to hear, and he was right.

“Have you done it yet?” Blake asked.

Will walked past him without a word.

“Did you hear what I asked you?” Alden followed him, sounding irritated. “Did you tell him to move out?”

“No, and I’m not going to,” Will replied coldly. “He’s my friend. I’m not going to leave him homeless.”

“It’s for his own good. Don’t you really get that?”

“I’ll handle it.”

“You can’t even handle yourself, let alone fucking KC!” Blake seethed. “You’ll bring trouble on yourself. And not just on yourself.”

Will gave a pitying laugh.

“Stop pretending to be concerned and just say you’re worried about your own ass,” he retorted harshly. “At least then you’ll be believable.”

“Listen to—”

Blake grabbed his arm, probably intending to stop him, but at that moment, a violent jolt of energy shot through Will’s body, shocking Blake and throwing him several feet back. Blake landed on the floor, looking confounded.

“Don’t even try it,” Will hissed, stepping closer to him. “We’re not friends, and you made it clear that’s not going to change, so don’t throw around empty threats disguised as good advice, because it won’t do you any good. You don’t get to tell me what to do. Especially when it involves people I care about. Got it?”

Alden was probably too shocked to react in any way, which Will used to make a hasty retreat. Instead of going to class, he basically made one big loop and left the school.

At four o’clock, Will met Oscar at Mirrors.

“Hey.” Oscar walked up to the table where Will was sitting. He hung up his jacket, then sat down across from him. “I wasn’t sure you’d come.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Will asked. “We had plans.”

“Norma told me that Blake told her you weren’t in class,” Oscar said, and Will barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes. God. They were such a pain in the ass. “She asked if I knew anything. I thought maybe you felt sick and it wasn’t going to happen.”

Will felt an almost uncontrollable urge to tell Oscar that he often thought the exact same thing about their relationship, and not just about a single date. In the end, though, he decided that taking his anger out on innocent people, especially Oscar, was a terrible idea, so he let it go.

“Is everything okay?” Oscar asked.

“Yeah,” Will replied as usual, forcing a smile, but his expression immediately fell. He was tired of pretending. And tired of treating Oscar like they were distant acquaintances who sometimes saw each other in passing and exchanged a few words out of politeness. “Actually, no. Things are totally fucked.”

Oscar raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised by this unexpected display of honesty.

“What happened?”

“First of all, my best friend is starting to hate me.”