Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 145402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 582(@250wpm)___ 485(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 582(@250wpm)___ 485(@300wpm)
Katelyn made the mistake of stopping too close to him. She barely had time to cry out before Andrew caught her shoulder and threw her at the wall. Neil winced at the sound she made as she slammed into it. She stumbled but didn't fall and turned to stare wide-eyed at him.
"Please," she said. "Please, I—"
"Shut up," Andrew said. He snapped his arm out like a barricade, and the slap of his hand against the wall near her head made her cower. "Don't speak. The sight of you is intolerable as it is. The sound of your voice tips the scales out of your favor."
Neil took a careful step toward them, trying to convey silent support and backup, but Katelyn was too afraid of Andrew to look at Neil. Andrew leaned forward to get in her face and jabbed a finger into her temple.
"You are a tumor," he said. "I should have cut you out and thrown you away when you were still benign. Now it's too late, so here we are. Don't you dare fucking speak," Andrew said, voice savage, when Katelyn opened her mouth. Katelyn clamped her lips together and finally darted a terrified look at Neil. Andrew seized her chin and forced her attention back to him. "Do not ignore me. Your life hinges on how well you can listen. Can you listen?"
She nodded frantically, but Andrew didn't let go. "The conditions for your survival are simple: do not ever mistake this for acceptance and do not ever, ever speak to me. You are part of his life but you will never be part of mine. If you forget that I will remind you, and you will not survive the lesson. Do you understand?"
Andrew waited for her to nod again before letting go. He considered his hand a moment, then wiped his fingers off on his jeans like he could erase the feel of her skin. He gave Katelyn a long look, then pushed off the wall and stepped back out of her space. "I hope you two are miserable together."
With that, he turned and strode off. Neil turned after him, but Katelyn gave a quiet sob behind him. He hesitated and looked back at her. She clamped both hands over her mouth to stifle the noise, but Neil could see her shoulders shaking. Neil wasn't good at comforting people and wasn't overly fond of Katelyn to begin with, but he felt obligated to make a rough attempt seeing how this confrontation was partly his fault.
"You won," Neil said. She just stared at him with tear-bright eyes. "Aaron's not in class now, if you want to call him."
He turned and left her there with her shock and fear. Andrew hadn't slowed to see if Neil was following. Neil jogged after him and caught up at the stairs. Andrew strode out the front door into a sunny afternoon. Neil let him get to the railing overlooking the campus pond before catching hold of Andrew's elbow. Andrew wrenched out of his grip but stopped moving.
Neil stood where he could see Andrew's face. "What changed your mind?"
Andrew ignored him. Neil propped his back against the railing and looked past Andrew at the library. He turned the overdue encounter over in his head and imagined how Aaron would react when Katelyn called him crying. It had the potential to make practice uncomfortable, but Neil doubted Aaron would hold onto his irritation for long. Aaron knew firsthand how callous Andrew's methods were and he finally had what he wanted. If the ends justified the means for him, he'd comfort Katelyn appropriately but never hold those threats against his brother.
"That reminds me, is now a bad time to take my bonus turn?" Neil interpreted Andrew's silence how he wanted and said, "Who said 'please' that made you hate the word so much?"
Andrew gazed at him in silence for a minute. "I did."
Neil didn't know what answer he'd been expecting but this wasn't it. He felt it like a pop to his chest, sharp and startling. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but what could he possibly say to something like that?
Andrew tolerated his blank stare for only a couple seconds before waving this all off as inconsequential and uninteresting. "He said he would stop if I said it."
"You believed him," Neil guessed.
"I was seven," Andrew said. "I believed him."
"Seven," Neil echoed stupidly.
Andrew hadn't moved in with the Spears until he was twelve. Before Drake turned Andrew's life into a living hell Andrew had gone through twelve other houses, and Andrew had told Neil just the other week that none of them had been good. Neil hadn't asked how bad they'd been; he'd assumed Drake was the worst by far.
Neil regretted asking, but it was too late to take it back. "You—" Neil said, but words failed him. He looked for the lie in Andrew's calm stare and came up empty. Andrew had nearly killed four men for assaulting Nicky and would have broken Allison's neck for hitting Aaron, but when it came to crimes against his own person Andrew couldn't care less. He held his life in less regard than he did anything else. Neil hated that with a ferocity that was nauseating.
"After everything they did to you, how can you stand me?" Neil asked. He was unwilling to put the details into words with so many people around. He doubted anyone was paying attention to them, but he wasn't going to risk it. He gestured between them, knowing Andrew would understand. "How is this okay?"
"It isn't a 'this'," Andrew said.
"That's not what I'm asking. You know it isn't. Andrew, wait," he insisted, because Andrew was turning away like he couldn't hear Neil anymore. Neil reached for him, unwilling to let him leave without a real answer.
"No," Andrew said, and Neil's hand froze a breath from Andrew's arm. Andrew went still as well, and they stood for a minute in awful silence. Finally Andrew looked back at him, but for a moment Neil didn't know who he was looking at. In the space of one breath Andrew's expression went so dark and distant Neil almost retreated. Then Andrew was back, as calm and uncaring as always, and he caught Neil's wrist to push his hand to his side. He dug his fingers in before letting go, not quite hard enough to hurt, and said, "That's why."