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“No fucking way,” a voice called as I stood just inside the glass doors, surveying the rows of junk food that had beenup If the Lucky Corner Market didn’t carry it, I didn’t eat it Which hy I’d never had broccoli as a kid Or etables I subsisted almost entirely on chips and popcorn and sweets

My head whipped over toward the check-out counter with its sun-faded signs and cigarette carding countdown calendar

And there was a face I was sure I’d never see again

Velle

The son of the owner of Lucky Corner Market

Our neighborhood hosted people frorounds and nationalities, but Velle and I had been the only two Middle Eastern kids in the school We’d becoe

I likely owed ness to letfor days on end

Velle had been tall and beanpole thin when I’d left, a fact that made his head seem like it didn’t fit his body, but the years had packed some angly to a real knockout

He had his black hair longer on top so that it sort of flopped to one side and had grown a pretty decent beard His honey-brown eyes seemed more dominant than they’d been when I’d left

He’d never grown out of his teenaged fashion choices, though, so he had on black jeans, a white tee, and an oversized zip-up hoodie over it, left open in the front And because of that, I could see the hint of a gun in his waistband

“Holy shit Velle!” I said, s despite my shitty mood and horrible situation

“Girl, I never thought I would see your surly ass again,” Velle said, shaking his head as I made my way toward the counter “Where you been?”

“Jersey,” I said, nodding

“Got so hopeful Because it didn’t et out of the neighborhood and “make it” somewhere

“I do,” I said, nodding “How are you? Where’s your dad?”

To that, Velle’s face darkened

“Eight o, he had a robbery”

“Ugh,” I grumbled Because I’d heard that story too h I understood that level of desperation, all I could think was that if they kept getting robbed, the store would have to close And then how ry? “Is he okay?” I asked, not liking the way a muscle ticked in Velle’s jaw

“No He’s alive,” Velle was quick to add “But he got shot Suffered nerve dae Can barely walk”