‘Joel Motherfuckin’ Lin. Long time.’
I slap his hand then yank his arm, forcing him into a hug, then apologise as he winces a bit. Jade smashed Joel’s hands back in the day for leaving 2HC, I heard. Ripped the nails out. Sensitive fingers, I guess.
Joel’s family come to the door, a clutch of dark brown kids with Joel’s lips and the straight black hair of Joel’s missus. They appear in the gaps between his body and the doorframe, peering through his armpits and crotch.
‘Bezuidenhout,’ he begins, ‘Come in.’ He begins unloading years of pent-up bro-politics in the doorway. ‘That thing with 2 Hard Corpse, Jade Slattery beating you up and all that … I still feel bad, like, you came from a real good house, and it changed, like, the whole direction of your life? DUDE.’
It wasn’t hard to find h
