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)
"If you can't play, don't," Kevin said.
"I know," Neil said. "If anything pulls I'll step off the court."
Kevin gave him a suspicious look but didn't argue.
It did hurt, almost immediately, but it was almost a relief to work out his sore muscles. Neil kept an easy pace because Abby and Wymack were watching him from the sidelines. When he had to finally stop and stretch he feared they'd pull him. They didn't, so he went back to the game with a vengeance. Afterward Wymack sat them all down in the locker room to go over the day's high and low points.
When he was done he looked at Neil and said, "Well?"
"I'm fine," Neil said. He leaned a little away from Kevin's death glare and said, "If I wasn't sore right now, I'd be worried, but it's not enough to be a problem. I can pass off the wall if overhand shots start pulling too hard on my stitches."
"Was that really so difficult to say the first time around?" Dan asked wryly.
"I did say it the first time around," Neil said. "I'm fine."
"The word you're looking for is 'hopeless' or 'obsessed'," Nicky said, grinning.
"All right," Wymack said. "Neil, you're at the gym tomorrow. Go easy for a few days, would you? Adapt the circuit as needed and let me know what doesn't work. Injure yourself here, not there." Wymack had to notice the dirty look Abby shot him, but he didn't acknowledge it. "That's it for today, then. Pack up and move out."
They washed up and headed back to the dorm. Dan came with Matt and Neil to their room. Neil took it as a hint to make himself scarce, but Dan beckoned to him when he turned to leave again. When she knew he understood she sat on the couch and hugged her knee to her chest.
"So it's back to life as usual," Dan said. "Us and them, I mean. It was fun last month, wasn't it? I liked our team dinners and nights out."
"Feels like we're right back where we started in August," Matt agreed.
"If we knew what Andrew had against us, we could try to fight it," Dan said. She drummed an agitated rhythm on her knee for a minute, then looked at Neil. "How'd you get him to stop tripping us up at practice the other day?"
Neil whittled it down the barest, easiest truth. "I asked."
"You asked," Matt said. It almost sounded like an accusation. "You said that about Halloween and Nicky's parents. Seriously, Neil. How do you keep talking him into doing things he obviously doesn't want to do? Is it bribery or blackmail?"
Dan flicked Matt an indecipherable look and said, "No pressure, Neil. No bullshit. Andrew's sober now and I know that's a game-changer. But can you bring them back to us?"
"I don't know," Neil admitted. "I can try. But," he continued, with a glance between them, "someone needs to work on Aaron. Nicky wants to be your friend and Kevin knows the team is stronger as a whole, but Aaron's almost as dead-set against us as Andrew is. That doesn't make sense, because siding with Andrew means hiding Katelyn. If Aaron's willing to do that without a fight, this isn't just Andrew's decision. It goes back to the two of them."
Dan looked thoughtful. "Katelyn has to know something. No self-respecting girl would put up with this unless there was a really good reason. If she won't talk, you think you can wrestle something out of Aaron, Matt? You said he's been better since Christmas, right?"
"It's worth a shot," Matt said. "Coach give you our tutor schedule yet?"
"It's somewhere on my desk," Dan said. "As soon as I unearth it I'll text his hours to you."
"All right. I'll see if I can't hunt him down there."
"Let me try Katelyn first," Dan said. She shifted to pull her phone out of her pocket and tapped a quick message out. "I don't want Aaron telling her we're getting nosy." Matt nodded, but Dan was watching her phone like she could will a response from it. It didn't take long before it jingled. Dan went back and forth with Katelyn a couple times, then got to her feet. "All right. I'm going out for a bit. Might be a while, so eat without me. Wish me luck?"
"Luck," Neil said as Matt kissed her goodbye.
Neil and Matt ended up eating dinner with Renee and Allison in the girls' room. Allison's choice of movie was instantly vetoed, so Allison threw democracy out the window and put it in anyway. It was probably the worst thing Neil had ever watched, but at least it helped kill time. He was spared the last fifteen minutes of melodrama and limp acting because Kevin was ready to head to the court. They met Andrew at the car.
Andrew sprawled on the couch in the lounge while Kevin went ahead to change out. Neil hesitated, changed his mind and started after Kevin, and changed his mind again. He stood behind the couch, folding his arms across the back of it, and peered down at Andrew. Andrew had one arm folded under his head and the other draped over his eyes to block the light.
"One of these days you might as well practice with us," Neil said. He wasn't surprised when Andrew didn't answer, but he refused to give up that easily. "Why'd you even start playing if you weren't willing to practice?"
"It was a bigger cage than the alternative."
That was one of the things reporters had liked harping about most when Kevin became a permanent fixture at Andrew's side: Kevin was raised at Evermore, surrounded by the best and practically born with a racquet in his hand, whereas Andrew learned Exy while he was locked up in juvie. Neil had a page-long article about it in his notebook. It was crassly titled "The Prince and the Pauper", and its focus was on how doomed their friendship was. The writer thought their attitudes toward Exy too incompatible and their backgrounds too different for them to stay together long.