Rainbow Connection, AFTG ✔️

1.9

PORTER
CHAPTER NINE

The events that followed after the disaster at Nicky's house -- disaster didn't seem adequate enough of a word -- were draining, to say the least. Porter remembered them in blurry images and blackout moments, though he wasn't sure if that was his dissociation or repression speaking.

Aaron had been escorted away in handcuffs after admitting to being the one who hit Drake, but the rest of Andrew's group had barely gotten off easier. Once Andrew's ambulance had disappeared, Nicky, Kevin, Porter, and Neil were all sent off for interrogation at the Columbia police station. Neil had been released after refusing to even give them his name, and he'd vanished to the hospital to wait for Andrew.

Porter didn't think he slept for at least a day after that. Though Wymack, Abby, and Betsy had all made the trip down to Columbia and they'd started using Nicky's home in Columbia as a base of operations, sleep was invasive and cloaked in visions of Jean and Drake and Riko and Andrew.

Betsy spoke with Nicky, Kevin, and Porter all at once, but their trio seemed to be running on empty. Porter managed a few zombie-like moans around nine in the morning and was forcibly put on the living room couch.

The next time he woke up, he was panicking and shouting. He met with the gaze of Wymack, Abby, and an unfamiliar man assumed to be Aaron's new lawyer. Porter apologized and dragged himself into Nicky's room, curling up on Andrew's bed next to Nicky and Kevin.

"Porter..." Kevin shook him before he fell asleep, and Porter mumbled something in response, "Porter." He tried again.

Porter managed to turn, eyes glued shut from the heaviness of his body. He could barely open his mouth, but he tried, "Kevin."

Kevin didn't say anything else, but the hand that was nudging him awake stayed on Porter's side. It was warm, and Porter's sleep finally fell silent and calm.

At some point in the day, Neil let himself into the room. By the point, Nicky was stretched out on his back down the middle of the bed, and Kevin sat rigid at the foot of it. Porter had moved to the floor, letting the hardwood cool his overheated body. Neil looked from one haggard face to the other, then set his racquet off to one side and closed the door. Kevin's stare went immediately to the racquet. Nicky didn't notice, too busy staring at the ceiling. Porter stared at Neil, hollowly.

Neil sat on the bed between them. It was pointless to ask if Nicky was all right; anyone with eyes could see he wasn't. The best he came up with was an insubstantial, "Hey."

"We shouldn't have come here," Nicky said, sounding as wretched as he looked. "I should have listened all those times Andrew told me to give up on them. If I had we wouldn't be here right now. Andrew wouldn't—" Nicky closed his eyes and sucked in a deep, unsteady breath. "What have I done?"

"You didn't do anything," Neil said, "You didn't know this was going to happen. None of us did. If we'd known, we wouldn't have come." It was the most comforting Neil had ever sounded, to the point where it didn't sound like Neil.

"Betsy said that, too, but do you really believe it?" Nicky asked. "Can you? We knew Andrew didn't want to come but we made him anyway. I should have just trusted him. I should have known it was something big if he could hold a grudge through all those drugs."

"This is your father's fault," Neil said. "He set Andrew up."

"With alcohol," Nicky said, with a broken laugh. "He told me and the police last night. He talked to Andrew knowing it was going to end with an argument. He promised Andrew alcohol as a peace offering. Drake's idea, see? Dad just had to tell Andrew the bottle was upstairs, and Drake and Andrew would have all the privacy they needed to 'work on their issues'." A savage edge crept into Nicky's voice as he mocked his father's words.