Aftg react

Part56

Foxes react: chapter9

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"Anything else?" Neil asked.
"Free to go," Wymack said. "You need a ride?" "I'm fine," Neil said.
"Uh-huh," Wymack said without looking up. Neil let it go and gathered their breakfast trash. He was almost to the garbage can before Wymack spoke up. "By the way, I'm making you vice-captain next year."
Neil's heart lodged in his throat. He twisted to stare at Wymack, but it took two tries to find his voice. "You're what?"

There was surprise but on different levels some were not even surprised at all but in the end it made sense, Neil from the moment he came he put the team together so after the original surprise there was more, a smile full of fondness from Dan and Matt, Renee was smiling proud to see that he had made so much progress towards himself and the team, Wymack was nodding like he was agreeing with himself and Abby was smiling the other found it a good choice with the only exception being Aaron who was grumbling under his breath.
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"I can't captain them," Neil said. "I won't."
"This isn't a democracy," Wymack said. "You don't get to vote on what you do or don't want to do. I make the rules and you get to deal. And you are going to deal with it. You need this as much as they need you. Give me one good reason why you'd try to turn this down."
"I—" Neil said, but he couldn't say "I'm dying". He couldn't tell Wymack he wouldn't live long enough to take the position. "I have to go."
He was afraid Wymack would argue, but all Wymack said was, "See you Monday." Neil thought he'd breathe easier once he got out of the stadium, but his chest was still too tight when he stumbled out onto the sidewalk. He stared at the empty parking lot, heart pounding in his temples. The thought of going back to Fox Tower and facing his teammates right now made his stomach hurt, but there was nowhere else to go. He should run it off, burn himself down to fumes until he couldn't think or feel anymore, but Neil's feet stayed planted on the sidewalk. Maybe they knew he wouldn't stop if he ran now.

This made them feel bad, they had no idea what Neil was thinking and went through, now seeing the panic something like this send him they couldn't help but think that maybe it could have been approached differently but that was something that the future Wymack had done so there really was not much they could now.
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He sank to the curb to buy himself time, but his thoughts kept twisting in anxious circles. Neil felt a half-second from losing his mind, but then Andrew said his name and Neil's thoughts ground to a startled halt. He was belatedly aware of his hand at his ear and his fingers clenched tight around his phone. He didn't remember pulling it from his pocket or making the decision to dial out. He lowered it and tapped a button, thinking maybe he'd imagined things, but Andrew's name was on his display and the timer put the call at almost a minute already.
Neil put the phone back to his ear, but he couldn't find the words for the wretched feeling that was tearing away at him. In three months championships would be over. In four months he'd be dead. In five months the Foxes would be right back here for summer practices with six new faces. Neil could count his life on one hand now. On the other hand was the future he couldn't have: vice-captain, captain, Court. Neil had no right to mourn these missed chances. He'd gotten more than he deserved this year; it was selfish to ask for more.

Five months these words were too much to stomach, five months felt and were too little what added to the pressure they felt was how Neil talked about himself, he said that he god more than what he deserved but that was a lie Neil deserved more, for him to ask for a longer life was not selfish. Something else that the others might have seen past it but Andrew hadn't Neil had called him, wenn he thought of running away he stood his ground and called, Andrew might not want to admit it but he couldn't ignore the feeling he got out of it, he was feeling and he hated that he hated Neil Josten.
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A couple minutes later they pulled into a dealership. Kevin got out as soon as Andrew parked. Andrew killed the engine and tossed his keys in the now-empty passenger seat.
"Get out or stay here," Andrew said. "Those are your only choices."
Running wasn't an option, he meant. Andrew knew why Neil had called him. "I'll stay."
Andrew got out and slammed the door behind him. Neil watched him disappear through the front doors in search of a sales rep, then closed his eyes and fell asleep again. When he woke there was a metallic black beast parked alongside the rental car. Neil wasn't any smarter about cars now than he'd been at the start of the year, but every curve of this one screamed expensive. Neil assumed Andrew did with this purchase what he'd done with the last: simply looked for whichever car would burn through his budget the fastest. It was a perplexing quirk for a man who claimed to have no attachments to his material possessions.
Andrew opened the back door and looked across the backseat at Neil.

They were all surprised except Wymack and Abby who didn't care what car Andrew bought but the other were openly staring with mouths open and the first to talk was Matt "no way that's a fucking Maserati, oh my god" that's all he could say before he went on a rant about the car "Damm Neil sure knows how take good care of his man" said Alison with a smirk and got a glare from Andrew, Nicky was making some weird happy noises about how cool the new car was and Aaron still looked surprised with his mouth open, Andrew on the other hand might have looked cool on the inside but Damm was he happy about his car choice.
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Andrew managed only one drag before he crushed his second cigarette beside the first. He lit a third anyway, but Neil reached out and took it from him. It was a good sign, maybe, that Andrew didn't react to the theft. Neil set the stick beside his own dropped cigarette and looked back at Andrew. Andrew chucked his pack off to one side and tucked his knee to his chest.
Neil should let it go, but he needed to understand. "Why not?" "Because you're too stupid to tell me no," Andrew said.
"And you don't want me to tell you yes?" "This isn't yes. This is a nervous breakdown. I know the difference even if you don't." Andrew dug his thumb into his lower lip like he could erase the weight of Neil's mouth and fixed his stare on the horizon. "I won't be like them. I won't let you let me be."
Neil opened his mouth, closed it, and tried again. "The next time one of them says you're soulless I might have to fight them."
"Ninety-two percent," Andrew said, "going on ninety-three."
It wasn't funny—none of this was—but that response was so obnoxious and so typically Andrew that Neil couldn't help but smile. He forced it off his face before Andrew noticed and looked out at the campus again.

Seeing something like that felt a bit too much of a privacy breach, on one side seeing moments like these between these two was funny and nice but things that they said to each other like right now what Andrew had said to Neil, it was different they couldn't say anything, everyone knew very well what he meant with that sentence and it made it difficult to say something but it refreshing to see some of the other moments between the two.
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He didn't remember falling asleep, and he didn't know how long he was out before his phone hummed at him. The new message in his inbox was from an unfamiliar number, and all it said was "48". Neil deleted it and would have passed out again if not for the muffled sound of a TV in the next room. Neil searched for the strength to face the upperclassmen and found it closer than it'd been this morning. With a quiet sigh he kicked his blankets off, shut his alarm off, and climbed down from the loft.

Whatever feeling was present before flashed away the moment the new notification made its way to Neil's phone, it was now clear that who ever that was was sending him a countdown of some sorts, it was weird but it send a uneasy feeling to everyone present, the question was what was it that said person wanted to accomplish? "you know it's weird that the countdown started right after the bloody birthday message" said Nicky, he was thinking something and everyone caught on with no problem "do you think that Riko is behind this too?" said Abby with narrowed eyes "he is right, it could very well be Riko since he could pull something like that, there is no way he couldn't do something like this" said Renee, it was making sense but it raised other questions, what comes after the countdown is done? What has Riko planned this time?
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He might have forgotten about the text that woke him up if he didn't get a "47" message from a new number the following evening. Neil looked down at his phone in consternation as he realized someone was sending him a countdown. He pushed his schoolwork aside in favor of the calendar hanging from the kitchen fridge. He counted days with his fingers, flipping pages until he found March. For a moment he thought he'd get to Neil Josten's birthday, but he landed on Friday, March 9th. It was an odd day to end on. It was the last day before Palmetto State University's spring break. There was a game that night, but it wasn't one of championships' two death matches.
Neil checked his phone again, debating whether or not to respond. In the end he deleted the text and went back to conjugating Spanish verbs.

It was an odd day indeed, it somehow made everything worse. They couldn't explain the why but not knowing why Riko would choose a day like that put them everyone on edge.
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The perfect distraction from himself came on Wednesday, when Kengo Moriyama collapsed at a board meeting and was raced to the hospital in an ambulance.

That really was a big distraction, it was enough that they forgot the countdown even if it was for a little while before it came back. Hearing news like these made Kevin look like he was living on of a hundred vodka shots, the others were surprised but not as bad as he was.