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)
Matt was on the couch when Neil made it back to his room. The coffee pot was done brewing and a hot mug felt good to Neil's chilled hands. Matt checked him on his way to the couch, likely looking for new injuries. Neil sat down as carefully as he could on the far cushion and breathed in the steam from his drink.
"Where were we?" Neil asked.
Matt sighed but picked up where he'd left off. He told Neil about snow in Central Park and a New Year's countdown spent in Times Square. Neil closed his eyes as he listened, trying to picture it, imagining for a moment he'd been there too. He didn't mean to fall asleep, but a careful tug at his coffee mug had him jolting awake. Matt narrowly avoided getting hit and held up his hands to ward Neil off.
"Hey," he said. "It's just me."
The mug was cold in his hands and the light in the room seemed wrong. Neil looked to the window, needing to see the sky, but the blinds were drawn. He let Matt take his coffee away and lurched to his feet when Matt stepped back. He crossed the room as quickly as his battered body could move and yanked the cords to pull the blinds up. The sun was down, but there was still some light in the sky. It was twilight or dawn; Neil didn't know which.
Neil pressed his hands flat against the window. "What day is it?"
It felt like forever before Matt answered, and his words came slowly. "It's Tuesday."
Twilight, then. He'd only lost a couple hours.
"Neil?" Matt asked. "You all right?"
"I'm more tired than I thought," Neil said. "I'm going to bed early."
The unhappy frown on Matt's face said he didn't believe Neil for a second, but Matt didn't try to stop him. Neil closed the bedroom door firmly behind himself and began the painstaking process of getting changed. He was breathing through clenched teeth by the time he finally got his sweats on. He clenched his hands to stop them from trembling, but the climb into his loft just sent the quakes to his stomach. It was too early and he was too sore to fall sleep again yet, but he pulled his blankets over his head and willed himself to stop thinking.
CHAPTER TWO
Getting out of bed Wednesday morning took a herculean effort, one Neil managed only because he was as keen on self-preservation as he was on maintaining his lies. He needed his teammates to think he was okay. That meant going about the day as if Christmas had never happened. He bought himself time to lock his thoughts down by going for the world's slowest run down Perimeter Road. Every step sent pain jolting up his legs and Neil was numb from knees to toes by the time he made it back to Fox Tower.
Matt, who'd disappeared to the gym before Neil got up, was waiting for him in the living room with an incredulous look on his face. "You're crazy, you know that? Tell me you didn't really go out like that."
"What time does Dan land?" Neil asked.
For a moment Neil thought Matt wasn't going to play along and let him change the subject. Matt's mouth thinned to a disapproving line. Instead of launching into a lecture, though, Matt said, "I'm going to get them at eleven and bring them straight to the court. You catching a ride with Andrew?"
"Yeah," Neil said. "Coach wants me to check in with Abby before the meeting."
Neil locked himself in the bathroom for a quick shower. Drying off afterward was almost more painful than his run had been despite his best efforts to be careful. He dressed at a snail's pace, grimacing the entire way, and took a minute to catch his breath afterward. It bought him time to put a fresh bandage over his tattoo, but his heart was still pounding in his temples when he left the muggy heat of the bathroom.
Matt was sprawled on the couch with the TV on when Neil left the bedroom fully dressed. He said nothing when Neil left, maybe assuming Neil was going two doors down to bother the cousins. Instead Neil left the dorm and took the winding path down to Perimeter Road. He cut a slow path across campus to the library.
He saw only a couple other students on his way up the stairs to the computer lab. Despite the relative privacy Neil went to a computer on the very last row. He'd stopped obsessively keeping up with the news in September but today he wasn't looking for dredges of his past. He looked first for anything about his stint in Evermore, found nothing, and moved on to researching the other teams who qualified for spring championships. It was an easy way to stop thinking and waste a couple hours.
He didn't remember putting his head down and definitely didn't remember falling asleep. Fingers digging into the back of his skull startled him awake. He grabbed for a gun, for a knife, for anything close enough to buy him room to flee, and sent the computer mouse skidding across the table. Neil stared blankly at it, then at the screen in front of him. Fingers clenched into a fist in his hair and Neil didn't resist as Andrew forcibly tilted his head back.
"Is your learning curve a horizontal line?" Andrew asked. "I told you yesterday to stop making my life difficult."
"And I told you I wouldn't promise anything."
Andrew let go of him and watched pitilessly as Neil rubbed at his head. Neil sat up straight and started shutting his browsers down. He went through three tabs before he saw what time it was. It was after eleven, which meant Matt was greeting Dan and the girls at Arrivals and Neil was supposed to already be at the stadium with Abby. Neil didn't know what was worse, that he'd lost two hours like that or that he'd fallen asleep in the open. He silently counted to ten in French and Spanish. It did little to take the edge off his frustrated anger.