Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 109903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
"But it's not Aaron's fault," Neil said. "It was their mother's decision."
"That's Andrew for you: making sense since never." Nicky spread his hands in a helpless gesture. "Finding Andrew again was a turning point for Aaron in all the worst ways. Aunt Tilda moved them cross-country, started drinking more than ever, and got heavy-handed with Aaron. Aaron got into all kinds of trouble in some sort of traumatized rebellion. He took her drugs and got into fights at school and in general grew up to be a bit of an asshole. Mom wrote me about it when I was in Germany because she was worried about him. The only good thing Aaron did in South Carolina was play Exy, and he only picked that up so games would get him out of Aunt Tilda's house.
"Then Dad found out about Andrew and began this years-long campaign to bring Andrew home. Told you last time, right? He wore Aunt Tilda down until she agreed to take Andrew in, then talked to the courts and Children's Services and Andrew's last foster family. He met Andrew, who apparently wasn't at all interested in a triumphant return with his mother, and introduced Aaron to Andrew. That's when things started moving. Andrew suddenly got motivated. He started behaving and toeing the line and got released on early parole about a year later."
"Andrew decided he wanted a brother after all," Neil said. "So what went wrong?"
"Aunt Tilda died, and Aaron blames Andrew."
"Did Andrew do it?"
Nicky motioned for him to quiet down, no matter that Nicky was the louder of the two of them. "The night Aunt Tilda died, she and Aaron got in a fight. That's how Mom and Dad finally found out Aunt Tilda was beating on Aaron. He showed up at their place with fresh bruises and cuts. Dad called Aunt Tilda over to sort things out, but she didn't stick around long. She took Aaron and left. They didn't make it home. She went over the median into oncoming traffic and wasn't wearing her seatbelt."
Nicky shifted in his seat, looking a little uncomfortable, and said, "It wasn't Aaron in the car. Aaron was standing in for Andrew at a study session. That was before Andrew was on his drugs, so it was a pretty easy act for Aaron to pull off. He didn't know why Andrew asked him to do it until the police called. I still don't know what happened, if Aunt Tilda panicked when she realized which son was with her or if they were fighting or if it was intentional, but…
"It's not like Aaron liked her, but she was his mother, you know? And Aaron never got to fix things with her, never got to understand why she was so messed up or why she messed them up so bad. Aaron can't accept that she's gone. He misses her. He can't forgive Andrew, and Andrew doesn't understand or care about how much it hurt Aaron. Stalemate."
Neil thought he understood Aaron's situation. He and his mother had serious issues, consequence of her background and his terrifying childhood. By the end he wondered if it was survival or love that kept them together so long. Knowing now she'd run to protect him skewed his perspective a little, but he'd violently disliked her for half his life. Despite that, losing her was the worst thing that ever happened to him.
Neil couldn't say that when his teammates thought both his parents alive and well, so he settled on the more interesting conclusion of Nicky's story. He spoke slowly, giving himself time to think and to bleach the grief from his voice. "Andrew did care. That's what went wrong."
Nicky blinked at him. "What?"
"Andrew came home for Aaron, right? It wouldn't have taken him long to realize Aaron was a wreck. Andrew would have traced Aaron's problems back to their mother. Maybe he didn't kill her for giving him up. Maybe he did it to protect Aaron."
Nicky looked skeptical. "That is a seriously big maybe, Neil."
"Is it?" Neil asked. "Do you remember how Andrew ended up on his medication?"
"Yeah," Nicky said, then went quiet as he thought about it.
Nicky used to work at Eden's Twilight down in Columbia. He was on break one night when four men decided they could beat the homosexuality out of him. Andrew stepped in to protect Nicky, but he went too far. It was one thing to join the fight and another thing entirely to keep at it when the men were unconscious and bleeding out on the sidewalk. Andrew would have killed them if the club's bouncers hadn't hauled him away. The press had a field day with it; Neil read all about it when he was researching the Foxes.
"She was hurting Aaron, so Andrew stopped her," Neil said. "Aaron should have been grateful, but he mourned her like he didn't care what she'd done to them. He took sides."
"You really think so?"
"It makes sense to me," Neil said. It might even explain why Andrew hated Katelyn, though Neil wasn't sure which interpretation to go with: that Andrew wouldn't let another girl come between them, or that he was still punishing Aaron for choosing the wrong side three years ago. "I'm guessing they've never talked about how she died."
"Not since I moved in, and I showed up the day of Aunt Tilda's funeral," Nicky said. "They won't even talk about the little things. I don't see them having a belated heart-to-heart about Andrew's intentions anytime soon."
Nicky propped his elbow on the table and cradled his face in his hand. Defeat looked unnatural on his face and made him finally look his age. Neil had almost forgotten that Nicky was several years older than his cousins. He was a sophomore like they were, but he was the second-oldest player on the team after Renee.
"The only reason I stayed when Coach offered me a spot was so I could fix this," Nicky said. "I thought if I had more time I could show Aaron and Andrew how to be brothers again. And I'm not giving up, not by a long shot, but I've realized by now I can't fix it on my own. I hate to say it, but I wish Renee would hurry up and make her move."