And soon, he’d become so much more.
A few months after I met him in our kitchen, he ended up staying with us over a holiday weekend and just never left. His mom’s boyfriend didn’t like having a kid around, and she was more than happy to let him stay with us.
He ended up living with us for almost a year.
Hollis fit into our family seamlessly. My younger siblings loved him like a brother. My parents loved him like a son, and I?—
Well, my feelings were slightly more complicated.
When his mom’s boyfriend dumped her and subsequently kicked her out just weeks before his graduation, she showed up demanding we give him back.
He was just shy of eighteen and therefore still a minor, and according to my parents, there was nothing they could do. So he left.
That was the last I saw or heard from Hollis Beck.
Until now.
And he thinks he can just text me out of the blue like nothing happened?
Well, I’ve got news for him…
HOLLIS
It’s been ten minutes since Pres figured out who I was.
Ten minutes of complete radio silence.
I can’t decide if that’s a bad thing or not.
She could just be busy. It is a weekday, after all. Normal people work on Thursdays, right? Since I have no fucking clue what she does for a living, she could be one of those people. She could be in a sales meeting or seeing a patient…
Yeah, that doesn’t sound like her at all.
I get up and walk out of my office. I can’t sit still any longer. I need to do something, so I head into the kitchen and?—
My phone starts to ring.
I look down and, oh holy fuck. It’s her.
Who answers a text with a phone call?There are rules, Pres…
My palms start to sweat as my phone buzzes, waiting for me to make up my mind.
“Answer the damn phone, asshole.”
I swipe my thumb across the screen and lift it to my ear, but before I can open my mouth to greet her, she’s already speaking.
And it’s loud…andanimated.
“I haven’t heard from you in twelve years, Hollis. Twelve years! And that’s how you decide to reach out? By acting like some creepy scammer? And then, after all of that, all you have to say is, ‘Hey, Pres.’”
The way she mimics my voice by dropping her own is priceless. I can’t help the tiny grin that tugs at the corner of my lips.
“I was going to follow up with ahow are you, or maybe awhatcha been up to,but it’s kind of hard to get a word in with all the yelling and such.”
“I am not yelling.”
“Not now, no. But a minute ago, it was getting a little shrill. I think I heard one of the neighbor’s dogs howl in response.”
