Aftg react

Part33

Foxes react: chapter5 part2

"I am sorry for Neil but I have to agree it was kind of funny" said Matt.
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"Neither are you. You put a noose around your neck and handed the loose end to Riko," Andrew said. "I distinctly remember saying I would watch your back. Give me one good reason why you'd make that difficult for me."
"I survived for eight years because no one could find me," Neil said. "That's not why."
"Are we doing the honesty thing again?"
"Do we need to?" Andrew asked, taking his phone from Neil. "You
start."
Neil turned his new phone in circles on the bench, unwilling and
unable to pick it up. "You know, most parents give their children phones so they can keep track of them throughout the day. I had one because of the people my father worked with. My parents wanted to know they could reach me if the worst should happen. 'Just in case'," Neil said, echoing Nicky's words.
"When I ran away, I kept the phone. I saw my parents die, but I kept thinking maybe I was wrong. Maybe one day they'd call and say it was an act. They'd say I could come home and things would be fine. But the only time it rang it was that man demanding I bring him back his money. I haven't had a phone since. I shouldn't have one now. Who am I supposed to call?"
"Nicky, Coach, the suicide hotline, I don't care."
"I'm remembering why I don't like you."
"I'm surprised you forgot in the first place."
"Maybe I didn't." Neil pushed the phone Andrew's way. "There has to
be a better way."
"You could occasionally grow a spine," Andrew suggested. "I know
it's a difficult concept for someone whose kneejerk reaction is to run away at the first sign of trouble, but try it sometime. You might actually like it."
"What I'd like is to put this phone through your teeth."
"See, that's more interesting."
"I'm not here for your entertainment," Neil said.
"But, as expected, you are talented enough to multitask. Question for
you, Neil. Do I look dead to you?" He pointed up at his face, waited for Neil to answer, and didn't seem surprised when Neil didn't. "Here."
Andrew beckoned Neil closer as if he wanted to show Neil something on his phone's small screen. He flipped the phone open one- handed and pressed down hard on a single button. There was silence, then the distant hum of Andrew's phone dialing out. Between them Neil's phone started to sing. The words were different than Andrew's ringtone, but the voice was the same. Neil knew it was from the same miserable song. The lyrics hurt just as much as Andrew's had. Neil stared down at the phone and let it ring.
"Your phone is ringing," Andrew said. "You should answer it."
Neil picked it up with numb fingers and opened it. He spared only a second to look at Andrew's name on the screen before he answered and put it to his ear.
"Your parents are dead, you are not fine, and nothing is going to be okay," Andrew said. "This is not news to you. But from now until May you are still Neil Josten and I am still the man who said he would keep you alive.
"I don't care if you use this phone tomorrow. I don't care if you never use it again. But you are going to keep it on you because one day you might need it." Andrew put a finger to the underside of Neil's chin and forced Neil's head up until they were looking at each other. "On that day you're not going to run. You're going to think about what I promised you and you're going to make the call. Tell me you understand."
Neil's voice had left him, but he managed a nod.

"Damm I might start thinking that the monster is not actually a monster after all" said Alison amusement dripping from her voice as she levelled her own glare towards Andrew who was watching her with a blank expression.
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Neil had no idea why the team's psychiatrist was programmed as an emergency contact. He had no intention of speaking to Betsy Dobson again. Neil deleted her information.

"Yes of course he would do that" said Wymack face palming mean while there was quite snickering all around.
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Neil's phone went off the next morning and startled five years off his
life expectancy. Neil was packing his things to leave his Spanish class when he heard the distinctive buzz. He dropped his textbook immediately and dug his phone out of the depths of his bag, mind going a million miles an hour on everything that could be going wrong.
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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.

"Poor Neil" said Dan with a smile, "I take that as a compliment" said Nicky and there was some laughter around.
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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.

Dan had her mouth open shocked but not the bad kind just shocked, the others where openly laughing and she playfully smacked Matt on his hand she herself smiling, "don't tell me he doesn't know that slang exists" said Alison with a sign as she calmed down "well it would be possible since you know his past would make it hard to have been friends with anyone" asked Renne if something could drop a mood quickly it was that, most took a pained expression and realisation hit Neil's first friends where them since when his mother was alive he couldn't be close to anyone, it was obvious that Neil was new to this friendship thing and now it was made clear as to why.
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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.
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"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."

"I am always right" Nicky said a smug expression and his head held high "no you are not" commented Aaron who rolled his eyes.
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"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.

"Man that had been a intense day, I don't want to ever relive that" said Matt with a shudder as Dan gave him as sympathetic shoulder rub.