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)
The second floor was mostly gear: court shoes, gear bags, and books. Revolving shelves with key chains, jewelry, and charms helped break up the sections. Aaron and Nicky went to investigate the bargain bins, but Andrew turned Neil to the next set of stairs.
"Quickly now," Andrew encouraged him. "Let's get this over with."
"That eager to get to Nicky's place?" Neil asked as he continued to the third floor.
"We aren't going to Nicky's place," Andrew said, shaking a head at Neil's ignorance. "It's his parents' house now, Neil. Nicky has no place there. Hasn't in years. But the sooner we are done playing around here, the sooner we can go home. Columbia is boring on Sundays. You understand, of course."
"Since I'm not affected by blue laws, it doesn't really matter to me," Neil said.
"No team spirit," Andrew mocked him. "Alas. Oh, look."
Neil didn't have to be told twice. The walls of the entire third floor were lined with racquets. Neil spent enough time looking up everything Exy on the internet that he knew how many different kinds of racquets were available. Seeing them on a website and seeing them in person were completely different experiences, and for a moment Neil stood frozen at the top of the stairs.
To the left of the stairwell was a register. The woman standing there was threading a racquet's net. She looked up at their arrival and chirped out a greeting. Andrew waved her off without looking. Neil thought he might have answered but he was too distracted by the racquets to really pay attention. The sound of her voice got him moving, and he slowly made his way around the room.
They passed the goalkeepers' section first. Andrew kept his eyes forward but he reached out as they went and dragged his fingers over the racquets. Neil didn't miss it, but he didn't think Andrew would acknowledge it if he commented. He bit back every question he wanted to ask Andrew about his apathy and his upcoming sobriety. Curiosity helped shake him a little out of his daze, though, and he paid more attention to the signs. The racquets were arranged from heaviest to lightest, with the heavy racquets right after the goalkeepers' section.
There were fifteen choices hanging from hooks. Most of them were plain, though placards showed what designs and colors were available for each model. They were arranged by manufacturer, then by weight, length, and available net depths. 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.
Still, knowing he needed a short racquet didn't help him narrow his choices much. Every racquet he picked up was an uncomfortable weight in his hands, and Neil hadn't been playing long enough to really understand the benefits of different net depths. He knew strikers tended to have deeper nets so they could carry the ball further, whereas dealers and defense had shallower nets for stealing and passing, but the incremental differences were a gray area of confusion. Neil picked up and put down every short racquet he could, stalling until Kevin showed up to tell him what to do.
"They don't feel right," he said.
"A tear for your discomfort," Andrew said, completely unsympathetic.
"And you said I have no team spirit," Neil muttered.
"Never claimed I did either." Andrew grinned and shrugged. "You're the fool who gave him your game. Reap what you sow or burn the field down, the choice is yours. Be smarter next time, would you?"
"I'm not the only one," Neil said, putting the last racquet back and looking over at Andrew. "He told me why he stayed. He told me what he promised you. So how are you any different from me if you're in it for Exy, too?"
"Oh, Neil, it's like this." Andrew leaned forward as if about to convey a secret and gestured between them. "He asks and you give—okay, okay, okay. He asks and I refuse, absolutely not. I'm waiting for him to give up. He has to walk away eventually."
"Do you really want him to? Haven't enough people walked away from you already because of your condition? He can't wait for you to be sober again. How many people can you say that about?"
"It is very self-serving excitement," Andrew said. "He wants something. He stands to gain, or so he thinks."
"So what happens if he's right? What happens if you wake up and you realize Exy really is exciting and worth your time? Will you lie just so you can keep refusing him, or will you give in and admit he's won?"
Andrew laughed. "I never took you for a dreamer. You are so strange sometimes."
"I saw the way you played against Edgar Allan," Neil said. "For a moment it looked like it meant something to you."
"Oh, Neil."
"That's not an answer."
"That wasn't a question," Andrew said. "It was a misguided accusation."
"Here's a real question: how have you survived this long when you're so violently self-destructive?"
Andrew cocked his head to one side in a question. Neil didn't know if Andrew was playing stupid to rile him or if Andrew really was oblivious. Either way it was frustrating. He wondered why no one else had caught on, or if people noticed and just didn't care enough to say it. Now that Neil saw it, though, he couldn't look past it. Anytime the Foxes mentioned Andrew's upcoming sobriety or Andrew's name popped up in write-ups on the team's performance at games, the focus was on what a danger he was. People talked about his trial and how it saved them from Andrew. No one said what they were doing to save Andrew from himself.
"You told me Cass would never hurt you and would have given you a good education, but you sabotaged your adoption. Officer Higgins came all the way here from the west coast to fix something from your past but you won't help him. You left juvie and killed Aaron's mother to protect him, but instead of fixing your relationship with him you keep him on a leash. You don't want Nicky's parents to hurt him, but you won't let him into your family either. Kevin promised to invest in you but you won't even try. So what is it? Are you afraid of your own happiness or do you honestly like being miserable all the time?"