Page 88 of Black Hollow: Awakening

“Oscar!” a guy walking past called out at one point. “Four o’clock today?”

“Works for me,” Oscar confirmed. “See you then.”

“See ya!”

Will gave Oscar a questioning look.

“Elliot and I are doing a project for Tech class.”

“Ooh. Cool.”

“So who’d you end up with?”

“Blake,” Will replied gloomily.

Which reminded him that the deadline was fast approaching, and they had done absolutely nothing.

“Wow.” Oscar laughed quietly. “I think a lot of people would love to be in your shoes. Speaking of which, what stage are you guys at?”

“Uh… We’re at the stage where I was supposed to call him to set up a meeting.”

“Oh.”

Actually, he was supposed to call and beg for a meeting, which changed things considerably. He really didn’t feel like doing it. Besides, calling Blake didn’t bring back fond memories after everything that had happened. And Alden had his number, too. He could have been the one to take the initiative.

“I’ll try today, if I don’t forget,” Will said anyway, figuring one of them had to be the bigger person, and it would probably fall to him.

“Hey,” Oscar said suddenly, looking at something over Will’s shoulder.

“What?”

“It’s Dan.”

Will’s heart pounded. He turned and, sure enough, saw Danny pulling textbooks from his locker just a few feet away. Will started walking toward him. Dan looked good. Really good. He was clean-shaven, his hair was combed, and he was even dressed differently than usual, in a pressed shirt and new jeans. That probably meant he was doing okay, which didn’t lessen Will’s guilt at all.

“Hey, Danny,” he said softly, stopping next to him.

Dan slammed his locker door shut, and for a moment it seemed like he wasn’t going to answer, but finally, he muttered a terse, “Hey.”

“How are you? You were gone all week. I was worried something was wrong.”

Dan’s lips twisted into a sour smile.

“Charming.”

“Dan…”

“You kicked me out of the house right before the holidays,” Danny reminded him, his voice devoid of emotion as he finally decided to look at Will. “I think you lost the right to worry right then, but if you want to keep playing the concerned friend, be my guest.”

“I didn’t want to—” Will began, but Dan ignored him and started down the hall. Will fell into step beside him. “Aren’t you going to Lit class?” he asked with a frown, seeing the direction Dan was headed.

“No. I have Chemistry.”

“Since when?”

“Since now. I dropped some classes and signed up for others.”

“You can’t do that in the middle of the year.”