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Jesus fucking Christ, you couldn’t have let him whale on us for a few minutes? I’m not that good at fighting! Why did you do that?!

Not now, Hollis.

Walt was practically running for the front door. He pushed open the screen and stepped over to the side of the porch, Jorge’s lighter already out, flicking it madly.

Hollis winced at the acrid smell of cigarette smoke. But Walt jammed the thing in his mouth.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

Walt groaned shamelessly into the night. He let Hollis’s head loll back on the house’s siding, rolled his eyes back, euphoric.

Hollis was horrified.

Come on, man. Can’t you be quieter?

No, I can’t. Just let me enjoy this.

In the privacy granted by Walt’s distraction, Hollis dug himself deep inside, into that dark place from when they first met and ran through the feeling of Walt punching Jorge. Over and over and over again.

The way Walt relaxed a bit before he did it, how he shook his hand off just once when it was done. The way he moved Hollis’s body with casual violence, a natural threat, like it was common for him. Reconciling this moment with the one they had earlier, crying in the rain, made Hollis want to push his face against a wall and gasp for breath. He had never been this horny in his entire goddamn life.

Hollis used everything in him to make sure Walt couldn’t feel what he was feeling right now. But he could still access the wave of joy Walt was getting from Jorge’s stupid cigarettes, and it was making the situation worse.

It was easier when he’d thought Walt was a demon, but he was a person , and he was spectacular . Hollis thought, deliriously, about what Walt would have looked like if Hollis saw him from the outside. What it would feel like to see the curve of his shoulders as he bent down to rifle through Jorge’s pockets.

Hollis muffled his emotions as best he could and then: he wondered if Walt’s knuckles had calluses.

The door banged open.

“Not a good idea, bro. He looks like he wants to be alone,” Timothy was saying.

James jogged down the porch stairs and stopped in front of Hollis, breathing hard.

“How did you do that?” he demanded.

Walt growled in irritation just for Hollis to hear, but externally he opened his eyes to slits and gazed back at James.

“I was well motivated,” he said.

James seized Hollis’s arms and pushed him back against the house. To Hollis’s mounting horror, Walt breathed in, preparing to blow smoke directly into James’s face.

GIVE ME MY MOUTH.

Hollis turned his head at the last minute and blew the smoke into the corner.

“Dude, stop.”

James let go of him and backed away, eyes wide.

“Why didn’t you do that to me?” James asked. “Why... didn’t you do that to me... ?”

Hollis shook his head, while Walt folded their arms and tapped the ash off his cigarette.

“James, we don’t have any problems with each other. It’s fine. Just, I don’t know, make sure Jorge keeps his promise.”

“If we could do that, we woulda done it,” Timothy said. “Jorge was our friend, but he’s been acting out of hand. Has been for a while. We think he’s on steroids or something.”

Yikes.

Walt shrugged their shoulders.

“So. What now?” Hollis said.

James looked conflicted. He glanced over his shoulder at the party, then turned back.

“You’re good,” he said.

At Walt’s blank expression he continued.

“Your form, I mean. Do you train anywhere? You move like someone who practices boxing or something like it. When you’re being serious, I guess.”

See! This is what I was talking about!

Walt took another drag and blew the smoke up at the moon.

“I don’t like fighting,” Walt said. “If it happens, it happens, but I don’t like to do it on purpose—”

“And Jorge pushed you up against a wall,” Timothy finished. “I get it. Makes sense.”

It was quiet after that.

Neither Timothy nor James seemed to know what to say, but they weren’t walking away either.

“Sorry for breaking your nose,” Timothy mumbled eventually.

Walt shrugged.

“Water under the bridge,” Hollis said. “Wasn’t even mad the day after you did it.”

“You.” James paused. He looked angry. “You shouldn’t let people toss you around. Stop provoking people for a beating. That... that sounds like self-harm... to me.”

Walt’s fondness filled their chest with warmth. He shrugged again.

“I don’t think anyone is going to try again after tonight, anyway.”

“But don’t do it after you leave here either,” James said, and he was serious. “People are talking, yeah. Things might not be the same, and you might not be able to goad people at school into it anymore. But that’s a habit you gotta break, and it’s not going away when we graduate and you’re not with us. You’ll be surrounded by people who don’t care. A lot of guys at the gym get into it for that reason. I’m not one of them, but I’ve seen it. If you don’t practice or have a coach, there’s probably no one around to tell you to stop. And Hollis, man, I know we’re not fucking friends, but I’m telling you to stop.”

Timothy looked down at James, pleased, then turned back to Hollis.

“You’re an all right guy though, Hollis.” Tim smirked. “Didn’t expect to learn that today.”

Walt put out his cigarette on the stairs.

“Well. I hope Jorge and steroids have a happy ending. He comes my way again, I’ll knock him out flat again. He gives you guys trouble, send him to me. I don’t have a scholarship to keep.”

James opened his mouth to reply, but the door slammed wide. Clementine was standing in the rectangle of light. She threw Hollis’s coat down at him hard and stormed back inside.

Timothy grimaced.

“Yeah, you should probably leave. Will’s freaking out, and he probably told Clementine about the fight. You know that’s his sister, right?”

Walt snorted; he pushed his arms into Hollis’s coat. “No, I did not.”

“You can’t catch a break, man.” Timothy laughed. He slapped Walt on the shoulder, friendly and rough. “Have a good night.”

James nodded and followed Timothy back up the stairs.

“Hollis,” he called.

Walt and Hollis looked up.

“You can change that, you know,” he said.

Hollis had never seen James smile, but James’s eyes crinkled at the sides like he wanted to. “Scholarship and all,” James finished. “It’s not hard if you try. See you around.”

The door closed behind him.