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"You won't win anything by standing around. Finish getting changed and get down to the court." "One day I want you to look up 'insensitivity' in the dictionary," Matt said, annoyed. "I'm sure it'll do your ego wonders to see your picture printed there beside it."
Andrew didn't try to wiggle free but stared at the phone in his hand like he'd never seen such technology before.
"Renee and Andrew are sparring partners," Matt said.
It obviously didn't sound as ridiculous to them as it did to Neil, but aside from flat-out asking what a sweet Christian girl was doing fighting the unofficial sociopath of the team, Neil didn't know what to say. He
Neil wanted to tell them death was no reason to hold back, but he found their humanity interesting. He just hoped they got over it before first serve on Friday night.
them out. It was probably the most badass thing I've ever seen." If his words were supposed to
An orange bandana got his hair out of his face
"How are you doing?" Neil drained both cups before answering. "I'm fine." Nicky fist-pumped in triumph. "Thank you for being so predictable, Neil. You just scored me ten bucks with two words." Matt looked up. "Are you serious? Who the hell bet against you?" Nicky jerked a thumb at Kevin. "There's a sucker born every minute."
"Why did you pay for stalls, Coach?" Wymack lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "Maybe I knew you'd need them one day." Andrew smiled around the mouth of his bottle. "Neil is a walking tragedy." "You're a pretty pathetic sob story yourself," Wymack said.
"Did you know Coach has been waiting for us to fix your wardrobe since, like, June? He threatened to sign us up for a marathon if we didn't do something about it. A freaking marathon, Neil. Guys like me aren't supposed to run that far. Do me a favor and don't argue about it." "There's nothing wrong with the clothes I have." "Can we go back to the part where I said not to argue? I remember it pretty clearly considering it happened just five seconds ago."
"What is that dinosaur?" Nicky asked, dismayed. "No one put money on a flip phone, Andrew. You ruined a really good pot." Neil idly wondered if there was anything his teammates wouldn't bet on.
Andrew took his own phone out of his pocket and set it down beside Neil's. His was black but otherwise seemed to be the same model.
watch your back. Give me one good reason why you'd make that difficult for me."
"What I'd like is to put this phone through your teeth." "See, that's more interesting." "I'm not here for your entertainment," Neil said. "But, as expected, you are talented enough to multitask.
"On that day you're not going to run. You're going to think about what I promised you and you're going to make the call. Tell me you understand."
Neil's phone went off the next morning and startled five years off his life expectancy.
He opened the message anyway and found a two-character smiley staring back at him. Neil waited to see if anything else came through, but that appeared to be it.
Seconds later Dan was back with "bout time thought u'd never get one". Neil considered asking her how she was doing in her English classes but took the higher road of silence.
"our plan has unlimited txt. we can't use them up. man i try tho :)".
Kevin claimed he had something Andrew wanted. Neil didn't know what it was, but it had to be something big if Andrew was willing to defy the Ravens and work around all of Neil's problems. Neil made a mental note to talk to Kevin
Wymack pulled a bottle of vodka out of the bag and put it down beside Kevin. "You have ten seconds to inhale as much of this as you can. I'm timing you. Go." It was alarming how much a man could drink when he needed an emotional crutch. Wymack had to pry the bottle from Kevin's desperate fingers afterward.
Andrew held out his hand and Jean was foolish enough to take it. Andrew's knuckles went white as he crushed Jean's hand. Jean couldn't hide all of a flinch, and the smooth look
Face the facts. Your pet is and always will be dead weight. It's time to—" "What?" Andrew turned a wide-eyed look on Kevin. "You have a pet and you never told us? Where do you keep it, Kevin?"
Kevin and I talk about your intricate and endless daddy issues all the time." "Neil," Kevin said, low and frantic.
"Dan, I said please. I tried to be nice."
"He is not a Fox!" "Funny," Neil said in French. Jean wasn't expecting him to understand them and shot Neil a startled look. "I'm pretty sure the contract I signed said Palmetto State University."
Kevin couldn't seem to manage words, but he gestured for her to follow and started for the door. Abby took a step after him, then hesitated, torn. "Go, Abby, go." Andrew shooed her with both hands. "Bring him back when he's drunk. We've got Neil. Right, Neil?"
Running wasn't easy, but it was easier than trusting Andrew. But Neil remembered the weight of a key in his palm, its metal soaked through with another person's body heat. He remembered Andrew's promise to see this year through with him.
"Oh, Coach." Andrew tossed his hands up in a helpless shrug. "You can't even imagine how much fun we are having right now. It's overwhelming. Give us a minute to catch our breaths before our hearts explode in our chest."
The striker grinned at Matt over her shoulder, then tilted forward and sucked in a deep breath against her neck. Dan brought her stilettos up between his legs in a vicious punch. The Raven recoiled with an inhuman yelp. The teammates to either side of him grimaced and cringed away. They were quick to avert their eyes from their half-crumpled colleague.
Neil put his hands in his pockets, feeling his keys in one and his phone in the other. He twisted his fingers through the key ring, tracing ridges with his fingertips until he found the key to Nicky's house in Columbia. Andrew gave it to him in August when he first promised to protect Neil.
Andrew told me it was my last chance to get out. I decided to stay. I wasn't sure he was enough to stand between me and my father but I wanted this too much to care about the risks.
Kevin was silent for an endless minute, then said, "You should be Court."
"Andrew has neither purpose nor ambition," Kevin said. "I was the first person who ever looked at Andrew and told him he was worth something. When he comes off these drugs and has nothing else to hold him up I will give him something to build his life around."
Andrew was hell to deal with most of the time but he really was doing his damnedest to keep both Neil and Kevin
"He's stronger than I am, and I like that. I feel like I could lean on him all day and he wouldn't break a sweat."
Andrew, though, nodded in the face of it and told Neil to stay. He stood his ground when Neil asked him for murder and gave him a key to their house. But that didn't count, because Andrew was Andrew, and this was definitely the last turn he needed his thoughts to take. He dragged his attention back to the task at hand and vowed
Neil, get at least five points or I'll have you running marathons every month until graduation." Neil stared at him. "Five points?" "You got four last week." "We weren't playing Edgar Allan last week, Coach," Neil said. "Irrelevant," Wymack said with a jerk of his hand. "Five points or twenty-six miles. Do the math and decide which one makes you happier."
Andrew, for once in your miserable midgety life play like you want us to win, would you?"
The Ravens took their image seriously. Neil guessed they had a lot of intensive counseling in their futures.
The Ravens had taken an incredible hundred and fifty shots on goal; it was unbelievable Andrew had only missed thirteen of them. He looked back as Andrew tried again to get his racquet. Andrew didn't fare any better this time, so he gave up
I have a cleaning crew coming in tomorrow to wash the Raven stench off our court.
"Ask him, and then tell the busybodies to come along if they dare." Nicky's jaw dropped. "Wait, are you serious?"
"You are absolutely impossible to put up with sometimes. I might ban you from shopping with us ever again." "I tried banning myself last time," Neil said. "It obviously didn't work."
"Did she use punctuation?" Nicky asked. "I'm convinced she never does."
"Don't make me hurt you," Andrew said. "I don't want blood in my ice cream."
"Andrew goes through shrinks like he's trying to break a world record only he knows about. She's his eighth one at least." "Thirteenth," Andrew said. "She made sure to ask me if I was superstitious."
"New team rule." Matt mimed banging a gavel on the table. "Never again put 'Andrew' and 'mellow' in the same—oh my god."
"Does your shrink know you have a grudge against half of the English language?" Neil asked, but Andrew only grinned.
"How did you do it?" Neil neatly excised ninety percent of the truth and said, "I asked." "Yeah, right. Do you know what would have happened to me if I asked? Violence, Neil. Extreme and uncalled-for violence."
