Aftg react

Part40

Foxes react: chapter 11

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Racquets had a few inches of leeway to account for players' different heights. Neil was stuck with the shortest racquets available. He had his mother to blame for that: the Hatfords had never been a tall bunch. He supposed he should be grateful he was at least taller than Andrew and Aaron were.

Aaron was heard making a offended noise as his face changed to annoyance and anger making the quietness from before disappear as the room laughed with what Neil said and if anyone saw the twitch of Andrew's eyebrow no one commented on it.
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The weighted vest provided by Exites went over his clothes and reminded him a little of the Kevlar vest his mother gave him in Europe.

"Huh so he had a Kevlar vest but still managed to get shot" said Aaron reminding everyone of the bullet scar they had seen, they all looked at him with disapproval even Andrew shot a glance before going back to ignoring everything and everyone.
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Neil brought his racquet into the backseat of the car with him, not wanting such an expensive thing crammed into the trunk. Andrew had either forgotten their argument upstairs or had his attitude reset again by his medicine, because he knotted his fingers through the strings of Neil's new racquet and gave a curious tug.

"Damm the racquet getting the princess treatment" said Dan with a smile but it was not as bright as it could be because everyone knew what they were closing close to and it made the atmosphere just the dat bit darker.
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"I'll find Andrew," Neil promised in English.
"There is no need to worry," Maria said before Neil could duck inside again. "In fact, I think it's promising he has been gone this long. He'll come back when he's finished speaking with Drake."
Neil's heart skipped a beat. "What?"
"This dinner was not originally our idea," Luther said. "One of Andrew's former foster brothers came to us for help. They parted on unfriendly terms years ago, and it's been so long since they last spoke he's afraid their relationship is irreparably damaged. It made us think of our own familial problems and we were inspired to reach out again."
Luther's voice was a buzz in Neil's head, overlaid with Higgins' insistent pleas for Andrew's help. The investigation into Richard Spear was a dead end, Higgins said. Richard wasn't the man Higgins wanted to charge. He wasn't the one the Spears' foster children were too afraid to implicate. Higgins had a new suspect in mind, but Andrew threw him out of South Carolina as soon as he heard Drake's name.
"Drake," Neil said. "Was his last name Spear? Was he Richard and Cass' son?"
Luther looked hesitant. "Andrew has spoken to you about him?"
Neil let the door slam closed behind him and bolted across the kitchen. Andrew had been gone a while. Either Drake was dead or Andrew was in serious trouble. Neil didn't know which one it was but he wasn't going to this showdown empty-handed. He was good at picking fights, but he rarely won them. That didn't mean he couldn't stack the
odds in his favor.
He grabbed Aaron for backup because Aaron was closer than Kevin was and snatched his racquet on the way into the hall.

The situation made everyone sick down to their stomach, they didn't want to know what would have happened if Neil hadn't thought like that and the fact that Neil taking the racquet with him in the house because of how pricey it was was a good thing.
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Neil took a half-second to brace himself and drove the heel of his foot into the door as close to the knob as he could. Wood splintered around his shoe and his heel almost got caught on the jagged edges when he yanked it free.
"Jesus fuck—" Aaron started, startled, but Neil gave the door another savage kick.
This time the door popped open. Neil stumbled inside.

If they didn't know what was happening and it was on other circumstances they might have said something about how cool that was but it didn't feel right this moment.
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(The pounding of footsteps somewhere behind him said Kevin was running upstairs to investigate the commotion.
Neil dove forward and climbed onto the mattress at Andrew's side. He reached over him, snagged the edge of the sheets, and gave a fierce yank to free it from Drake's corpse. Neil only had the bloody sheet partway over Andrew's body before Kevin reached them. Neil didn't know how much Kevin saw. He couldn't look back to see Kevin's reaction, but the thud said Kevin recoiled from the sight in front of him and backed right into the doorframe.)

They didn't see what was happening but they could hear it and it was still to much some had held their breaths, Aaron had anger sipping from all over him, Nicky was silently crying, Kevin wasn't even looking at the screen even if it was black and Andrew appeared to not be carrying but it was there, the clench of his jaw and the grip he had on his chair it was horrible, they were at least happy that he was now dead.