Chapter Text
Neil spent the rest of the day with Andrew. He felt ridiculous staying in their room as the sun shined outside, and then gradually faded, but he still wasn’t sure how Matt and Dan felt about him. He did know how they felt about Andrew after seeing what he did, not that they had high opinions of him, to begin with, but seeing their faces . . . Neil knew he was more desensitized to violence than most people, he’d barely blinked when Andrew had started sliding his knife across Nicky’s throat. Matt and Dan weren't like that, they had looked disgusted.
Neil flexed his hand, trying to relieve the healing scabs lining his knuckles that were itching, he was too lazy to move his other hand out from under Andrew‘s leg and didn’t want to risk reopening the wound by rubbing it on the blankets, then they’d have to try and wash out the blood, and Neil just didn’t want to deal with it. Though, as he moved his scabs began to split, blood slipping through the crack in his skin. Andrew had immediately taken Neil’s hand as he’d joined him upstairs, scowling as he carefully pulled a piece of glass out from one of Neil’s fingers. Neil hadn’t even noticed.
Now, Andrew just scoffed. “Idiot,” he whispered, but they didn’t move.
Neil rested his head on Andrew’s thigh, he let the tension melt out of his body as Andrew methodically ran his fingers through Neil’s hair. Every now and then his fingers would drift down to Neil’s face, lingering on the spot Nicky had hit, and sometimes tracing the scars lining his cheek. Neil was still exhausted, all he really felt like doing was sleeping, staying right here with Andrew.
He drifted off a few times but could never get his mind to quiet. Neil did at least feel better knowing Nicky would be gone the rest of break and moving out of their dorm. And hopefully long after that. Wymack and Abby had come back only an hour after Nicky left, there wasn't any yelling nor did anyone come up the stairs, so Neil assumed everything was taken care of.
His phone buzzing suddenly startled him, he squinted at the screen, trying to read it from where it was lying face-up on the bed, with the angle, he was only able to make out Matt’s name. Neil huffed and reached for his phone, the screen was too bright for how dark it had gotten outside.
Hey, I want to talk about all of this whenever you’re ready, but for now, I just thought you should know Nicky’s not staying with me and Dan says he can’t stay with her either.
Neil blinked a few times at the screen before the meaning of Matt’s words really kicked in. He didn’t know what he had expected, but he had not expected this. That left either living with some of the freshmen or staying with people not on the team. Hopefully, he would move to a new dorm entirely. Neil got another text, this time from Wymack:
Nicky texted a while ago and said he's quitting the team.
Andrew tapped his leg to get Neil to show him the screen. Neil rolled his eyes and handed him the phone. Andrew didn’t say anything, but Neil saw the stiffness start to melt out of his shoulders when Neil looked up at him.
Andrew flicked Neil in the forehead and handed him the phone back, “Staring.”
Neil hid his smile in Andrew’s leg, “Yeah.”
Neil felt like he could finally let out a breath. He’d been so tense, and so stressed, so worried about what everyone would think. But it was done. It was over, and he sank further into the bed. Nicky wasn’t in the house, he wouldn’t be at their dorm, and now, he wouldn’t even be on the team.
Neil was still incredibly irritated with how the upperclassmen had handled everything, especially in regards to Andrew. Andrew didn’t deserve to be talked about that way or looked at that way. Andrew didn’t care about it, but Neil did, and it seemed like Aaron and Kevin cared too. Dan would definitely have something to say about Andrew cutting Nicky in front of everyone, Allison would more than likely ask if Andrew was hurting Neil. There wasn’t really anything Neil could do about their opinions of Andrew, they would only ever see a monster. Neil would still try. If he heard the word “monster” leave any of their mouths again, he would fix it. He was still itching to lay into Allison after what she’d said, her little show downstairs hadn’t changed anything.
Andrew lightly ran one of his fingers over the coagulating blood on Neil’s knuckles. It always felt odd when he would do it, Neil could barely feel his touch in certain spots with the nerve damage Lola had caused, but other times it was like it was all he could feel. Everything would melt away and it would just be Andrew.
Neil sighed, he felt like he might actually be able to fall asleep without nightmares and he was looking forward to a restful night. Andrew locked their pinkies together for a moment before going back to running his fingers through Neil‘s hair. Neil gently tugged on Andrew‘s wrist and brought his hand down to his mouth to press a few soft kisses to the back of his hand. Neil smiled as he felt Andrew’s pulse speed up against his fingers.
Neil eventually felt himself beginning to drift off, a small part of him wanted to jolt awake, instinctively he avoided falling into sleep, worried about what he could see, but, it was much harder to care when he knew Andrew would be by his side when he woke up.