Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 87395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Neil didn't remember leaving the club last time, so he paid attention to the drive this time. The house was seven minutes away, off the interstate a short ways and in a small neighborhood. Andrew was pulling into the driveway when Aaron's phone rang. Aaron fumbled through his pockets looking for it, but it took him four rings to find it. He flipped it open, stared blearily at the screen, and made a face.
"Coach," he said, and answered. "Do you know what time it is? What? Wait, what? You're lying. I don't believe you!"
Aaron jerked the phone away from his ear and shoved it at Andrew. Andrew took time to light a cigarette before taking it. He cradled the phone between his ear and shoulder as he put his pack of cigarettes away.
"What do you want?" he asked, and listened as Wymack explained all over again. "Overdosed like how?"
"Again?" Nicky said incredulously. "That stupid bastard."
"Never again," Andrew said over his shoulder. "He's dead."
There was a second of absolute silence before Nicky moved. He grabbed Andrew's shoulder and gave him a violent shake. "No. What?"
Andrew shrugged him off and spoke into the phone. "No, not a good idea. I'll call you when we're back in town."
Nicky slumped forward in his chair and groaned low in his throat. "Shit, shit. No way."
"Who overdosed?" Neil asked.
"Seth." Andrew hung up and tapped the phone against his thigh. "Someone found him face-down in the bathroom at Bacchus where he drowned in his own puke. It's exactly how I warned him he was going to clock out, not that he ever listened to me."
Neil was hearing things. "Seth overdosed?"
"Keep up with the conversation," Andrew said.
"I thought he was on something, but I never saw him using," Neil said.
"He cleared most of it out of his system years ago," Andrew said. "Only thing he's on these days is antidepressants. Curious."
"I might be sick," Nicky said miserably.
Neil looked at him, surprised by how hard Nicky and Aaron were taking it. He wondered if he was supposed to feel something besides shock, but a mental check came back clean. He'd grown up around death. It was nothing to him now but ice in his system and a reminder to keep moving. Seth should have been an exception, since Neil had been living with him for months, but Neil had never liked him.
"Are we going back?" Neil asked.
"When they're all drunk and cracker high and I'm off my meds? I'll be back in jail before you can say 'threat to society'. We'll wait until morning."
Andrew got out of the car, but no one else moved.
"What about the line-up?" Kevin asked.
Nicky winced. "Kevin, the man is dead. Like, permanently."
"It's not a major loss," Kevin said.
Nicky got out of the car and paced the driveway with his hands linked behind his neck. Neil looked from Aaron to Kevin, and then slid out Nicky's open door. Andrew was fiddling with his key chain on the front porch when Neil caught up with him. Andrew finished whatever he was doing, transferred the key chain to one hand, and pointed his cigarette at Neil's face.
"That's interesting," he said. "That apathy doesn't bode well for your sanity."
"I don't understand suicide," Neil said. "Staying alive has always been so important I can't imagine actively trying to die."
"He wasn't," Andrew said, like Neil was being stupid. He unlocked the door but didn't bother with the lights when he went in. Neil followed him into the dark hallway and left the door open behind him for the others. "He wanted a way out for a little while, a few hours where he didn't have to think or feel. Problem was he picked an out that's easy to die on. That's his fault."
"Is that why you drink?" Neil asked. "You don't want to feel?"
Andrew turned to face him. Neil wasn't expecting it and almost ran into him. Andrew dug his fingertip into the hollow of Neil's throat in warning. This close Neil could smell the alcohol and cigarettes on him. It made him think of his mother burning to ashes on the beach. He reached out without thinking and took Andrew's cigarette away. For some reason Andrew let him keep it.
"I don't feel for anyone or anything," Andrew said. "Don't forget that."
"So Kevin's just a hobby for you?"
"Seth didn't kill himself. He couldn't have."
"What do you mean?"
"Seth only takes his pills when he and Allison are on the outs," Andrew said. "When they're together she's enough to hold him up. She went with him tonight, so she would have made sure he left his pills at home. She knows he likes chasing them with drinks."
Neil remembered watching her dig through Seth's pockets. "She checked him. I saw her."
"So did I," Andrew said.
"If he didn't have his pills on him, how did he overdose?"
"Not by choice," Andrew said. "My theory says Riko won this round."
Neil stared at him. "You don't really think Riko did this."
"I think the timing's too convenient for it to be an accident," Andrew said. "Riko broke Kevin's hand for being better. He crossed districts because Kevin picked up a racquet and got back on the court. What do you think he's willing to do to you for calling him useless on national TV?
"You said our greatest strength is in our small size. How strong do you feel now that you've been bumped to our starting line? You think you and Kevin are ready to carry us to championships?"
"And you called me paranoid," Neil said quietly.
"They were supposed to stay on campus tonight," Andrew said. "Renee stopped by after you left and asked how soon we could expect Riko to respond. Kevin said we would hear back tonight. Pity you didn't see the busybodies panic when they realized you weren't at the dorm anymore. I told them you'd be back at nine, so they built their plans around you."
Neil remembered how relieved Matt looked to see him in the hallway. More than that, he remembered Nicky's incredulity that Allison and Seth were leaving. Nicky rarely paid attention to the two and he shouldn't have cared that they were socializing. He reacted because they were deviating from the plan.