Page 93 of Black Hollow: Awakening

“Eat as much as you can, sweetie,” she said, before kissing his temple.

Wade nodded. He sat with them for a while but barely touched his food. At one point, his eyelids drooped. He swayed precariously. His mother immediately jumped up from her seat, catching him in her arms.

“Wade, honey!” she called, shaking him lightly.

Wade opened his eyes.

“Come on,” his mother said softly, helping him stand up. “I’ll take you to your room. We’ll put on some cartoons, okay?”

“Okay,” Wade whispered, following her. “Will you come see me later, Ozzie?” he asked before they left the room.

“I will,” Oscar promised.

Will followed the boy with a worried gaze.

“What’s wrong with him?” he asked quietly.

“They don’t know,” Oscar whispered.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s very weak. He’s anemic, so that makes sense. They kept him in the hospital on an IV for a long time, but it didn’t do much. His body doesn’t seem to absorb certain nutrients properly, and despite running a lot of tests, no one could figure out why. They couldn’t even say if it was the cause of his poor health or just a consequence of some other illness. A lot of different doctors looked at him, and in the end, they all just threw up their hands. And he’s getting worse. Just a few years ago, he had enough energy to play outside, and now…”

Oscar trailed off, shaking his head.

“I’m sorry,” Will said quietly.

The tension in Oscar’s face eased a little, until a smile finally returned.

“Come on,” he said, taking Will’s hand.

They went upstairs to Oscar’s room. It was quite spacious, bathed in shades of blue and white. It looked almost like something out of a magazine, if not for the poster hanging on the wall of a half-naked Tommy Masterson—a fairly well-known actor in his forties. The poster wasn’t particularly provocative, but it wasn’t hard to guess that Oscar had a thing for Masterson. Older, muscular, handsome as hell, and self-confident…

Will felt inadequate all over again.

“Your birthday’s coming up soon, right?” Oscar asked.

“How did you know?” Will asked, surprised.

“You invited me to your party last year, at the end of January. It just stuck in my head.”

“The twenty-eighth,” Will specified. He remembered wanting to use it as an excuse to see Oscar, but in the end, nothing had come of that either.

“That’s really soon. I need to think of a gift.”

“You’d better,” Will joked.

Oscar chuckled, then moved closer to Will and placed a long kiss on his lips. He started to press against him, pushing him toward the bed until they both landed on it.

“Your mom’s downstairs,” Will reminded him nervously.

“Good,” Oscar replied, biting his lip in a playful smile. “Would you rather she were here?”

“No.”

They both laughed, then went back to kissing.

Will felt happy.