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)
A message was blinking at him in his inbox. Neil's heart slowed a bit when he saw Nicky's name attached to it, because Nicky was the last person Neil thought would be the bearer of bad news. He opened the message anyway and found a two-character smiley staring back at him. Neil waited to see if anything else came through, but that appeared to be it.
The next time his phone went off, it was Dan: "nicky said u have a phone y/y".
"Yes," Neil sent back, and hoped that was enough.
Seconds later Dan was back with "bout time thought u'd never get one".
Neil considered asking her how she was doing in her English classes but took the higher road of silence.
By the time Neil made it to the athletes' dining hall for lunch he had twenty messages. Most of them were from Nicky, idle comments about nothing in particular. Neil read them but didn't respond unless Nicky was asking a question. Two were from Matt, first checking up on the rumor of Neil having a phone and then complaining about the bet Andrew sabotaged by getting such a cheap model.
"No one uses those anymore. Did he find it at a pawn shop?" Matt messaged Neil.
Neil didn't know what to make of it. The Foxes spent seven hours together at practices every day and roomed with each other at Fox Tower. How they had anything left to say to each other was beyond him. He wanted to turn the messaging off somehow or tell them this wasn't why he had a phone. Phones were for emergencies, not running commentary on a teacher's boring lecture. Neil refrained because he knew he was in the wrong this time, but he still jumped every time his phone hummed at him.
The others were undeterred by his silence. Nicky peppered him throughout the day and through most of Thursday. Finally Neil's patience wore thin enough to say something. He sat on the stairs of the hall where he had his tutoring session and painstakingly typed a message out.
"What happens when you use up all your messages and then need them?"
Nicky's response was almost immediate. "???" A couple seconds later he came back with something more useful: "our plan has unlimited txt. we can't use them up. man i try tho :)".
Neil sighed and gave the fight up as a lost cause.
He had seventy messages by the time they boarded the bus late Friday afternoon. They were up against USC-Columbia tonight. Columbia was the only other Class I Exy team in the state, so the two schools had a rowdy rivalry. The odds were good, even though the Foxes were playing with the same crazy lineup they used last week.
Nicky wanted to drive to Columbia separately so they could go out to Eden's Twilight afterward, but Wymack put his foot down. He knew what sorts of things they got into at the club and didn't want to risk it this close to the banquet. If any of the officials at the banquet thought for any reason Andrew was off his drugs they could push for blood work to be done. Wymack didn't want dust showing up in the results. Andrew didn't fight Wymack's decision, but Nicky was more than a little grumpy about it.
Nicky turned in his seat to talk to Neil over his seatback. Halfway through his rant about a current class project Neil's phone hummed. Neil answered without thinking. It was a smiley face from Nicky. Neil looked up at Nicky, not understanding.
"See?" Nicky said, sounding pleased. "That's much better. That's how a normal human being looks when they check their phone, Neil."
Neil stared at him. "Is that really why you've been messaging me nonstop?"
"Mostly," Nicky said. "Andrew told me to handle it. That's the easiest way I knew how."
"Handle what?"
"You, of course. Question," Nicky said. "If I hadn't been bothering you would you have touched that phone at all this week?"
"I have it for emergencies," Neil said, "so no."
"Question again," Nicky said. "Do you honestly think you'd have used it if you had an emergency? No, really. You didn't see your face when Andrew gave you that, Neil. That wasn't disinterest or shock. That was like, mental meltdown the likes of which I haven't seen in years. I don't know why, but I know it wouldn't have occurred to you to call us if something went wrong."
Neil knew he was right, but he said, "You don't know that."
"Couldn't risk it. We didn't want to find out the hard way just how screwed your mental wiring is."
"I called Matt from Columbia when I needed help."
"Yeah," Nicky said, unimpressed. "So we all heard. You called Matt, gave him your 'I'm fine' song and dance routine, and then hitchhiked with strangers back to campus. Maybe you remember?" Nicky waited, but Neil couldn't defend himself against an accusation like that. "Anyway, you're welcome. I just saved you at least two hundred dollars in intensive therapy."
Neil didn't think Nicky wearing down his guard was something to be grateful for, but he obediently said, "Thank you."
"You ever say that like it's not a question?" Nicky asked, looking pained. "Oh well. I'll take my victories where I can. Focus on the battles first, then win the war, right? I don't know how the quote actually goes but you know what I mean. So where was I?"
It didn't take him long to remember. He chattered away a mile a minute about his upcoming presentation. Neil let it go in one ear and out the other. His mind was more on the phone still sitting in his hands than the put-upon tone of Nicky's voice. When Nicky finally turned away to harass Aaron about something, Neil flipped his phone open. He went past his packed inbox to his call history. It hadn't changed; Andrew's name was still the only one there.
It didn't make sense.
Kevin claimed he had something Andrew wanted. Neil didn't know what it was, but it had to be something big if Andrew was willing to defy the Ravens and work around all of Neil's problems. Neil made a mental note to talk to Kevin about it this weekend, but they had to survive the fall banquet first.