Chapter Text
As soon as Neil wriggled out of his costume and got into bed, he entered Andrew’s phone number into his phone. He didn’t know what to text, so he called instead.
“What.”
“Andrew?”
“Neil.”
“Hi.”
A pause. “I didn’t think you’d call.”
“Of course I called.”
“I mean, I thought you’d text.”
“Oh. I can text you instead, if you want.”
“No, this is okay too.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
“Hey, Andrew.”
“Yes?”
“I had fun with you tonight.”
“Me too.”
“Andrew.”
“Yes?”
“You sound tired.”
“I am.”
“Okay. I’ll let you sleep.”
“Okay.”
“Goodnight, Andrew.”
“Goodnight, Neil.”
Neil dropped his phone and smothered his smile into his pillow.
-
On Monday, Neil sat down next to Kevin at their picnic table where they sat before school. He placed his lunchbox and backpack on the ground next to Kevin’s stuff.
“Where did you and Andrew go after you left the game room at the Bash?” Kevin asked, looking up from his book.
“We got food and sat outside.” Neil laid his arm across the table and rested his cheek on it, facing Kevin. “I told Andrew I’m trans.”
Kevin nodded, apparently unsurprised. “How did he react?”
Neil shrugged. “He didn’t, really. Just nodded. Made sure I wasn’t feeling dysphoric in my costume.”
Kevin looked thoughtful. “I guess that’s good.”
“Yeah. What did you and Aaron do after we left?”
“We each won a game of Scrabble and then we got snow cones and then we played Connect Four until Renee found us when it was time to go.”
“Cool.”
“Um. Hey.”
Neil and Kevin glanced up at Aaron and Andrew, who were standing on the other side of the table. Neil noticed that the laces on Andrew’s boots were rainbow instead of his usual plain black.
“Hey,” Neil said, dragging his eyes up. “Where’s Nicky?”
“In the library,” Aaron scoffed, taking a seat across from Kevin. After a moment, Andrew slid in beside him. “He’s already behind on homework.”
Neil wasn’t surprised.
“Do you guys get here this early every morning?” Aaron asked, glancing around the mostly-abandoned schoolyard.
“Yeah,” Kevin said. “We like to beat the rush.”
When Neil first joined the school, he made sure to arrive half an hour early each day. At first it was to learn the layout of the school, but one day he saw Kevin sitting at a picnic table and joined him, and kept joining him every morning after that. They usually just sat in silence or talked a bit, sometimes playing card games, but it was relaxing.
Aaron nodded to a sign someone had taped to the outside of the building, a notice about upcoming school events. “Nicky’s dragging us to the football game this Friday. Are you guys coming?”
“Probably not.” Neil looked to Kevin, who looked unsure. Neil and Kevin tended to avoid most school events, especially sporting events as they tended to get rowdy - the two of them didn’t do well in crowds or loud environments - Kevin on account of being autistic and Neil on account of his PTSD and anxiety.
Neil didn’t know why Kevin was hesitating now - maybe he wanted to go, but Neil couldn’t imagine why.
Aaron looked a little forlorn and went quiet.
Neil looked at Andrew and found his eyes already trained on Neil. Andrew then shifted his gaze to Kevin, then to Aaron. Kevin was playing with a stim toy - a tangle - and Aaron was picking at the table.
“Do you want to go to the football game?” Neil asked Kevin.
Kevin glanced up and blinked. “Maybe. I want to try.”
Neil was surprised, but nodded. “Okay. Then I’ll come too.”
“Try?” Aaron scrunched his nose in confusion. “What’s stopping you? Strict parents?”
Kevin’s hands twitched and he shook his head. “No. It’s just a bit much for me. Too loud and crowded. Same for Neil. We don’t usually go.” He glanced at Neil. “But I want to try at least once. Maybe it’ll be okay.”
Neil shrugged. He knew they’d leave if either one of them was feeling uncomfortable, so he wasn’t too worried.
-
Allison plonked herself down at their table in the cafeteria and shot a look at Neil. “I hear the Twinyards are dragging you to the football game on Friday. I almost shit myself in surprise when Seth told me.”
Neil rolled his eyes. “They’re not dragging us. Kevin said he wanted to go.”
“Twinyards?” Kevin repeated.
“What did you just say?” Nicky materialised at the table, the twins like shadows behind him. “Twinyards? Oh my god, I’m so using that.”
“Fuck you,” Aaron said to Allison, taking his seat beside Kevin. “Fuck you to hell.”
“For such a small person you sure do have a lot of anger,” Matt commented, taking his seat to Neil’s left.
“Fuck. You.”
Andrew reached across the table and thunked something down in front of Neil. It was his lunchbox.
“You left it at the picnic table this morning,” Andrew said, sitting with his own lunch - some sort of wrap and chocolate pudding.
“Oh.” Neil unzipped it and pulled out his sad-looking sandwich and apple. “Thanks.”
-
At the football game on Friday, Allison foisted a bag full of face-paints onto Neil and sent him off to spread the school spirit. He rolled his eyes and set off, locating Kevin and the twins in line at the concession stand. Kevin and Aaron got soft pretzels - Kevin’s plain and Aaron’s salted with a side of cheese. Andrew got a mini ice cream and a hot dog. Neil led them to a spot behind the bleachers where it was quiet and gestured for them to sit in a circle. Aaron mumbled something about getting his new jeans dirty, but complied when Andrew elbowed him in the knee from his place on the ground.
Neil crouched down and spread the various paints on the floor. Their school colours were orange and white, but Allison had brought all of her paint colours, as well as stencils for various designs and quite a few paint brushes.
“What does everyone want?” Neil asked.
“None for me,” Kevin said, popping a bite of pretzel into his mouth.
Aaron peered at the supplies and then at Neil, suspicious. “How can I be sure you wont fuck up and make me look like an idiot?”
“It’s too late for that,” Neil returned, gesturing at Aaron.
Andrew snorted into his ice cream and Aaron sent him a vicious glare. “What are you laughing at? We have the same face.”
Andrew launched a glob of ice cream from his spoon and it hit Aaron’s cheek with a splat.
“Andrew!” Aaron snatched a napkin out of Kevin’s hand, wiped his cheek and checked his jeans for any stray drops. “You’re so fucking annoying.”
Andrew looked unconcerned, attention already back on his ice cream. He was eating in tiny, conservative scoops, making it last. He’d placed the hotdog on the ground next to him, still wrapped in its foil.
“Just pick a stencil,” Neil said. “Or I can do the stripes under your eyes.”
Aaron sighed and leaned forward, then pointed to a star stencil. “Do one star on each cheek, one orange and one white.”
Neil picked up the stencil, an appropriately-sized paint brush, and popped the two colours open. “Ready?” Aaron nodded. Neil pressed the stencil to one cheek and filled it in, then repeated on the other side with the other colour, wiping the brush off in between. “There. Don’t touch your face for at least five minutes.”
Aaron brought his hand down to his lap and nodded. He turned to Kevin, who had put on his ear defenders as the crowd increased in volume, only five minutes left until kick-off. “Did he fuck it up?”
Kevin examined Aaron’s cheeks and shook his head. “Looks good.”
Neil tuned them out in favour of watching Andrew suck the last drops of ice cream from his spoon and set the container aside. “Want anything?”
Andrew considered Neil, then the paint and stencils. He pointed. Neil picked up the stencil of a cat. It wasn’t their mascot, but Neil wasn’t going to argue. “Colour?”
Andrew pointed. Black.
“Where at?” Neil gestured to his own face.
“We’re going to find the others,” Aaron said from somewhere off to the side. Neil waved a hand at them as they departed.
Andrew pointed to his right cheek.
“Okay. Can I move closer?”
Andrew nodded, so Neil shifted the supplies to the side and scooted forward, his knees just shy of bumping Andrew’s. He closed the white and orange paints, opened the black, and cleaned the brush. Lifting the stencil he said, “Ready?” Andrew nodded slowly, fingers clenching on his ankles where they were crossed in front of him.
Neil lightly pressed the stencil to Andrew’s cheek. Warmth seeped into Neil’s fingers where they were holding the stencil steady, and into the side of his pinky on his other hand as he brought the brush up. He slowly, carefully filled the stencil in with black paint. It didn’t take long, and he was reluctant to pull away when he finished. He scooted back a bit and closed the paint and cleaned the brush. When he glanced back up, Andrew had a hand poised, about to prod at his cheek.
“Don’t do that,” Neil chastised. Andrew’s hand dropped and he blinked. “You’ll smear it.”
Andrew nodded and then rolled the hotdog towards Neil. The movement struck Neil as very cat-like and he had to smother his smile.
“You don’t want it?” Neil asked.
“I’m vegetarian.”
Neil blinked. “Then why did you buy it?”
Andrew gave him a look. Over the years, his parents being who they were, Neil had to become adept at reading expressions; Andrew’s look clearly said, you’re so fucking stupid.
Oh. Oh. Neil unwrapped the hotdog and took a bite. “Thank you.”
Andrew shrugged and cast his eyes around. The crowd was roaring and stomping on the bleachers and Neil wondered how Kevin was doing.
“Wanna go find our seats?” Neil said, finishing off the hotdog and rolling the foil into a ball.
Andrew nodded, getting to his feet. Neil scooped the face-painting supplies back into the bag and led Andrew around to the steps leading up to the bleachers. It wasn’t hard to find their group - it was an unspoken agreement that in places with crowds they’d always choose an area that was on the fringes - easy to get to the exit. In the bottom section of the bleachers right near the steps, Matt, Dan, Allison and Seth were occupying the front row bench, and Renee, Kevin, Aaron and Nicky were perched behind them. Someone had placed all of their bags and a few coats on the row behind them to save space for Neil and Andrew.
“Finally!” Matt called out when he spotted them. “We thought you two might’ve left.”
“Nice cat,” Allison said with a smirk, nodding at Andrew, who didn’t respond. “You can just throw that into my bag,” she said to Neil, who nodded and wandered up to the empty bench.
Kevin turned at their arrival, his ear defenders still in place. He looked alright as far as Neil could tell; his expression was calm and he had a small keyring with two buttons on it in his hand. Aaron looked a little bored, slouching forward over his phone where he was playing Subway Surfers.
“You alright?” Neil asked, locating Allison’s bag and shoving the face-paints inside.
Kevin nodded. “It’s not too bad over here.” He turned back to the game where their school’s team was advancing towards the end-zone. They made a touchdown and Neil jerked back as Nicky leapt to his feet, waving his arms wildly. Renee ducked to avoid an elbow to the head.
“Neil, Neil, look!” Nicky was pointing to number 08, the player who had just made the touchdown. “That’s the German exchange student, Erik Klose.”
Neil wasn’t sure why Nicky was pointing him out, but he nodded and said, “Cool.”
Nicky fully turned to face Neil, expression incredulous. “Cool? Cool? Neil, he is gorgeous. Just wait for him to take his helmet off. I might pass out.”
“We’re leaving you here if you do,” Aaron said, not looking up from his phone. He was playing Candy Crush now. Andrew was watching over his shoulder and pointing out moves.
Nicky huffed but settled down. “You’re too painfully straight to understand,” he said.
Aaron remained silent.
The crowd only grew rowdier as the game progressed, most people standing and stomping and clapping and shouting. Neil was getting a bit anxious and found himself checking that the stairs were clear and mentally calculating how fast he could get to the parking lot. Aaron was clearly beyond bored; having cycled through all of the games on his phone he’d taken to reading articles online. Neil couldn’t see what they were about, but whatever it was hadn’t been enough to hold Andrew’s interest, who had leaned back and was staring at the field, but not looking like he was taking anything in. Kevin had grown more restless, tapping his heels and cracking his knuckles.
Neil leaned forward and said, “Do you guys want to go?”
Kevin, Aaron and Andrew all nodded, a little desperately. Neil snorted.
“Wait, what?” Nicky’s eyes widened. “You’re leaving already? It’s not even half-time.”
Neil shrugged.
“How are you getting home?” Renee asked.
Andrew lifted his hand, car keys dangling off one of his fingers.
“How am I supposed to get home?” Nicky demanded.
The others had apparently caught on to the conversation and Allison said, “I can drive you.”
Nicky found this acceptable and waved to the four of them as they made their way down the stairs. “Drive safe.”
Andrew led them to Nicky’s car and slid into the driver’s seat. Neil and Kevin dawdled at the hood of the car, unsure of where to sit.
Aaron rolled his eyes as he clambered into the back. “Just pick a fucking seat,” he muttered, slamming the door.
Kevin shrugged and got in the back on the other side, leaving Neil to either wedge himself between them or join Andrew in the front. It was an easy decision.
“Does Andrew not let you sit in the front?” Neil asked Aaron as he slid into the passenger seat.
Aaron scoffed. “No. I get carsick.”
“Gross,” Neil said.
Andrew was too slow to hide the twitch of his lips as he stuck the key into the ignition.
Kevin was dropped off first and waved as Andrew pulled away from the curb. Neil waved back. He gave instructions when necessary and five minutes later the car was idling in front of Uncle Stuart’s house. Neil felt a little embarrassed at the sheer size of it - it was two stories, but grand, clearly expensive, especially when only two people were living in it.
After a few minutes of silence as the twins took it in, Aaron said, “Huh. You’re rich.” A pause. Then, “Why don’t you dress like it?”
Neil rolled his eyes and shoved the car door open. “It’s my uncle’s house, his money. He doesn’t pick out my clothes.”
Aaron looked Neil up and down. “Maybe he should.”
Neil ignored him, turning to Andrew. “Thanks for the ride.”
Andrew nodded and tapped his phone in the center console. Neil nodded in return, smiling a little.
Aaron, who apparently hadn’t moved on from the previous conversation, said, “So why do you bring those depressing sandwiches in for lunch every day? Don’t you have a private chef or something?”
“Bye,” Neil said, slamming the door shut.
An hour later, Neil was tucked in bed when his phone buzzed.
Andrew
thanks for the cat
Neil
thanks for the hotdog
Andrew
come over tomorrow, if you want
Neil
okay, if Aaron and Nicky are okay with it
Andrew
it doesn’t matter what they think
Neil
ok, see you tomorrow
Andrew
see you tomorrow