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)
It stayed with Neil all through evening drills and his shower afterward: not so much because it was odd but because it was a perfect shortcut past his and Andrew's game. As soon as Neil left Kevin at his room that night Neil took the stairs up to the roof. Andrew was where he was every night now, sitting cross-legged near the front ledge. His cigarette was a too-bright blur against the rest of the shadows and seemed to pulse when Andrew took a drag off it. Neil stole the cigarette as he sat down beside Andrew and turned it over in his hands. Andrew blew smoke in his face in response, so Neil flicked ash at him and made as if to stub the cigarette out. Andrew pinched his wrist and took the stick back.
"Upperclassmen are going out of town this weekend," Neil said. "Renee's mother is moving and it's apparently the most interesting thing to happen around here in months. I can't imagine what it'll be like when they all graduate and have to move." He waited a beat even though he knew he wouldn't get a response. "I know Nicky's going back to Germany when he graduates, but what will happen to his house? Is he selling it or giving it to one of you?"
"Ask him," Andrew said.
Neil ignored that. "Do you want to stay in South Carolina?"
Andrew lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "Planning that far ahead is a waste of time."
Neil hugged a knee to his chest and followed Andrew's gaze out to the campus. The trees lining the hill between Fox Tower and Perimeter Road blotted out most of the streetlamps, but there were lampposts every twenty feet on the campus sidewalks. It was after midnight but Neil saw at least a dozen students out and about.
"Maybe I'll go to Colorado," Neil said. "It'd be an interesting change of pace, anyway. I've mostly stuck to the coastal states."
"Not California," Andrew said, not really a question.
Neil didn't know if Andrew was humoring his best attempt at having a conversation about something other than Exy or if he was genuinely curious. Neil didn't really care. Andrew's disconnect—learned or forced—meant they probably amounted to the same thing in Andrew's book. That Andrew responded at all and prompted him to elaborate was victory enough.
"I went through California on my way to Arizona but didn't stay. I liked Seattle, I think, but…" Neil remembered the thick crunch of a pipe against his mother's body. "I couldn't live there again. I couldn't retrace my steps to any of those places."
"How many is 'any'?"
"Twenty-two cities," Neil said, but didn't say he'd spread them across sixteen countries. Andrew still thought Neil had hit the road alone all those years ago. A child couldn't go back and forth across the world without help. "Longest stay was that year in Millport. Shortest was one week with my uncle."
"Am I supposed to believe he's real?" Andrew asked. "You told Nicky you would see him over Christmas. You lied."
"Uncle Stuart is real," Neil said. "He was the first person I went to when I ran away, but he's a gangster, too. I didn't feel any safer with him than I did at home so I left again. I still have his number, but I've never been desperate enough to call him. I don't know what his help would cost me." Neil looked at Andrew. "Did they move you a lot?"
"Twelve houses before Cass," Andrew said. "They were all in California."
"Were any of them good?" Neil asked.
Andrew stared Neil down a minute, then stubbed his cigarette out and reached for his drink. "None of the ones I remember were."
Neil didn't want to know how far back Andrew's memory stretched. "So California and South Carolina. You've really never been anywhere else except when traveling for a game?" Andrew only shrugged in dismissal. Neil thought it over for a bit, then said, "Spring break's coming up. We could go someplace."
"Go someplace," Andrew echoed, like it was a foreign concept. "Where and why?"
"Anywhere," Neil said, and amended, "Anywhere at least three hours from campus. There's no point in going someplace closer than that. It won't feel like a vacation. The only trick is figuring out how to pry Kevin away from the court."
"I have knives," Andrew reminded him. "That doesn't answer the 'why'."
Neil couldn't explain where the idea had come from, so he said, "Why not? I've never traveled just for the sake of it, either. I want to know what it's like."
"You have a problem," Andrew said, "wherein you only invest your time and energy into worthless pursuits."
"This," Neil flicked his finger to indicate the two of them, "isn't worthless."
"There is no 'this'. This is nothing."
"And I am nothing," Neil prompted. When Andrew gestured confirmation, Neil said, "And as you've always said, you want nothing."
Andrew stared stone-faced back at him. Neil would have assumed it a silent rejection of Neil's veiled accusation if Andrew's hand hadn't frozen midair between them. Neil took the bottle from Andrew's other hand and set it off to one side where they couldn't knock it over.
"That's a first," Neil said. "Do I get a prize for shutting you up?"
"A quick death," Andrew said. "I've already decided where to hide your body."
"Six feet under?" Neil guessed.
"Stop talking," Andrew said, and kissed him.
Neil went to bed far too late that night, and morning came much too early. He half-dozed through all of his classes and caught a quick nap before the game. It was a good thing he did, because Nevada was a brutal opponent and a harsh wake-up call. This round the Foxes were up against the two other schools who'd survived the evens' death matches. The sudden jump in skill and difficulty nearly knocked the Foxes off their feet. It was made infinitely harder by Nicky's absence. His red card against UVM meant he was benched for the entire game. Luckily Renee was willing to reprise her role as a backliner sub, and Andrew guarded his goal like every point scored was a personal offense.