Andrew reached up and forcibly uncurled Neil’s fingers from his mouth. He pushed Neil’s hand out of the way and stared Neil down with nothing between them. Neil didn’t understand the look on his face. […] Whatever this look was, it was dark and intense enough to swallow Neil whole.
Tag: tfc edits
He didn’t want to leave Andrew with nothing, but what could he possibly say?
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 didn’t want to look away, as if by holding Andrew’s gaze he could somehow save this moment.
Neil was the first out and he caught Andrew’s door before Andrew could close it. Andrew didn’t move, but there was just enough room for Neil to lean in and get his binder. He straightened and turned to find Andrew had shifted closer. There was nowhere for Neil to stand except up against Andrew, but somehow Neil didn’t mind. They’d been apart for seven weeks but Neil keenly remembered why he’d stayed. He remembered this unyielding, unquestioning weight that could hold him and all of his problems up without breaking a sweat. For the first time in months he could finally breathe again. It was such a relief it was frightening; Neil hadn’t meant to lean on Andrew so much.
BOOKS I READ IN 2016 → All for the Game trilogy by Nora Sakavic
He’d come to the Foxhole Court every inch a lie,
but his friends made him into someone real.
Renee looked to Neil and said, “What do you need from us, Neil?”
It didn’t take much thought. “Everything I needed, you already gave me. You let me stay.”
Renee’s smile was slow and sweet. Dan got up and crossed the room to give Neil a careful hug. She didn’t hold him like Abby once had, like she thought he might fall apart without her support. There was a muted ferocity in the fingers that bit into his arms and he could feel the tension in her body where she leaned against him. This wasn’t comfort; it was something protective and defiant. She was staking claim over him as one of her team. Somehow it was enough to ease the last of the day’s stresses out of him. That much-needed peace only made Neil realize how exhausted he still was, and he barely managed to swallow a yawn.
“Don’t make this harder for yourself than you need to.”
“You think this is hard? Look what I’ve been through. Surviving you is easy.” Nathaniel tipped his head to one side and fixed Towns with a cool look. “But can you survive me?”
“Thank you,” he finally said. He couldn’t say he meant thanks for all of it: the keys, the trust, the honesty, and the kisses. Hopefully Andrew would figure it out eventually. “You were amazing.”
Character Aesthetic: Neil Josten from The foxhole court
Monsters' Queen 