Page 232 of Heart So Hollow

Bo always keeps a couple of black hair bands around his wrist for his hair that he wears in a long fade. But one day, in calculus, I’m pulling my hair back and my band snaps. It happens all the time because my hair is so thick. Not five seconds later, I feel a tap on my arm and, when I turn around, Bo is holding a beige hair band between his index and middle fingers. At first, I think it’s pretty convenient, because I only wear beige hair bands.

But when I look at Bo’s wrist, all of the hair bands are beige instead of black.

Is Bo my friend now? That doesn’t seem right. Because now he’s doing subtle things that go beyond what my actual friends do. It’s a slow burn, like a candle that takes forever to melt down, and then one day you realize it’s spilled wax everywhere and you’ll never be able to wash it out of anything it touches. Suddenly, everything is different. One day, I wake up and realize that Bo is different.

He’s my friend now—I guess—and we do things like walk out to the senior parking lot together after calculus.

He leans against the fender of my white Civic and takes a long drag on his cigarette, “Want to be my shotgun on Saturday?”

My eyes go wide with surprise, “Like, ride with you?”

“Yeah?”

I’ve never been anyone’s shotgun before. Because riding with someone while they drive fast is not the same as riding with someone while they’re racing. I throw my yellow leather tote bag across the console into the passenger seat and spin around, “Hell fucking yeah!” It’s not even a question.

Bo grins at me with amusement, “You can ride with me all the time if it gets you that excited.”

“I’ve never ridden with anyone before,” I admit with a shrug.

Bo pushes away from my car with a roll of his eyes, “I’ve got a lot of work to do on you, Maguire,” he winks as he steps past me, sending a wave of butterflies through my stomach.

“Hey,” I call after him, “who are you racing?”

“Be there and find out,” he calls back over his shoulder.

It doesn’t take me long to find out who he’s racing. I know as soon as I text Col and ask if he’ll also be at Leland’s. And then I conveniently leave out the part where I’m riding with Bo. That is, until Saturday, when I get out of Col’s car at Leland’s.

Fucking Colson…

And then after the race, he proceeds to almost knock the shit out of Bo—again.

“That was really dirty,” I say to Bo as we circle back to Canaan at the overpass at the creek, “Col could’ve gotten arrested.”

“I wouldn’t want to tarnish golden boy’s reputation,” Bo mutters, “he’ll get over it. But, hey,” he shifts and shoots over the bridge, sending a rush deep through my stomach, “look in the console. I brought you something.”

I furrow my brow, “Me?”

“Yeah, you,” he laughs.

I pop open the center console and, sitting right on top of a pile of charge cords, lighters, and a few packs of Marlboro Lights are two tickets. When I pluck them out to read them, my heart almost stops. They’re two general admission tickets to an Evanescence concert at the beginning of July.

I could absolutely die. Or maybe I’ll just start crying instead because I need to be alive if I’m going to have a chance at being that close to a stage with Amy Lee.

“Bo!” I shriek, jerking my head up, “You have tickets to Evanescence? I love Evanescence!”

“No shit, E,” he shoots me a sideways glance, “I know you love them, why do you think I got them?”

My mouth falls open and I press the tickets to my chest, “You want me to go with you?”

“Of course,” Bo smiles, “who else would I go with?”

I don’t know…someone else. Anyone else. Bo and I don’t do things together—not really. He might do things with Hildy and I, especially now that she’s dating Jay, but it’s never just me and him.

Until now.

Bo guns the engine, flying past the same police SUV parked under a catalpa that probably chased him across the county line less than an hour before. Col probably will get over what happened tonight. But I still don’t text him until I get to Hildy’s house and we’re safely in her living room playing Call of Duty on the sofa.

Col didn’t get arrested, he didn’t smash Bo’s face in, and he doesn’t sound angry. And that’s all I really care about. But he did kiss me. And I really liked it. And that’s probably really wrong because he was only trying to stop me from riding with Bo.

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