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#Wymack just stares off to the distance like he’s contemplating every one of his life choices and how they brought him here
karmiky · 3 years
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Convinced that at some point Neil makes it his life’s goal to give Andrew a fox paw shaped hickey.
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Aaron Minyard Vs. Calculus Pt. 6
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Aaron was in a foul mood today. If asked, most of his teammates would tell you that was his default setting, but that’s only because they possess the innate ability to piss him off easily. On the other hand, if you asked Katelyn, she would tell you that his shitty mood was not the norm and instead had been building as the days grew closer to the anniversary of the worst Thanksgiving of his life.
As each day of November ticked by he felt as if an invisible hand had taken hold of his chest and was constricting it tighter and tighter. The air was being choked from his lungs, and eventually he was going to explode. It constricted tighter every time a Fox or classmate mentioned their plans for the upcoming break, and at the sight of any exy racket. He was constantly asking himself why had they gone to Luther and Maria’s when Andrew had clearly been so reluctant about it, and why hadn’t he noticed his brother's absence before Neil had frantically dragged him through that house? Maybe, just maybe, if they had listened to Andrew or had noticed him missing sooner, then his dreams wouldn’t be filled with blood splattered walls and the echoes of manic laughter.
His nightmares and memories were bleeding into every aspect of his life, causing his agitation to crash into everyone around him. Just in the past few days he had lost his temper with Nicky when he wouldn’t shut up about how much he was looking forward to gorging himself on turkey. Got pissed off at Matt when he bought a pumpkin spice air freshener for their room. He even stormed out of practice after Kevin had yelled at him for the seventh time to get his head in the game. It wasn’t like he had been purposefully zoning out; it was just hard to focus when every time he swung his racket he swore he could feel bone-crunching beneath it.
Dobson had even taken notice of his deteriorating psyche during his joint sessions with Andrew. In her hands off guiding approach to helping them, she asked if they thought it would be best to put their usual, no holds barred, discussions on pause till after the holiday had passed. Both had agreed. Aaron hoped that meant he could skip out for a few weeks. What was the point in going if Andrew and he couldn’t hash out their issues? But no, she wanted them to keep coming so she could ramble on about how time and stability were some of the biggest factors in healing.
Which, logically, Aaron already knew was true. He could see it anytime he looked at the Foxes. The freshman who were only a few months away from what had caused them to be Foxes were angry and distrustful. Whereas Allison, Dan, and Renee, who had five years of time and distance between who they were then and now, were much more settled. Though that didn’t stop Aaron from feeling like his world was going to crash and burn again and again every Thanksgiving for the rest of his life.
Adding to his rapidly declining mood today, in calculus, he had been handed back a quiz from last week and received a much worse grade than he had been expecting. Now he was sitting at lunch picking through a grilled chicken salad while trying and failing to ignore Neil sitting across from him. Neil’s phone vibrated against the table for what felt like the hundredth time since they had sat down. Each time it had gone off Aaron had felt the vibrations all the way down to his bones.
His clenched his fist around his fork as Neil opened his phone, checked his message, and placed it back down without responding. About thirty seconds later it went off again, and Aaron couldn’t hold his irritation back anymore. “You know people can tell when you’re playing favorites with him.”
Neil blinked up at him confusion written across his face. Which was fair. Even Aaron was surprised by the words that had spilled from his mouth. It hadn’t been what he had meant to say. Yesterday the team had been stuck running endless laps for most of practice; all the while Andrew hadn’t even bothered showing up. Apparently, Aaron was more ticked off by it than he thought. Too late to take it back now.
When understanding finally settled into Neil’s brain, his confusion morphed into a steely stare. “I don’t play favorites with anybody.”
“Bullshit,” Aaron accused. “If you’re not playing favorites then why did you let Andrew skip out on practice while the rest of us had to run extra laps?”
A dark looked crossed Neil’s face, and his fingers twisted tightly together until he forced his hands apart. “Those two things have nothing to do with each other. We had to run extra laps because Wymack was unimpressed with our lackluster performance on Friday, and I do not allow Andrew to do anything. I am not his keeper.”
“You’re the vice-captain. You share a dorm,” Aaron pointed out. He could have mentioned their relationship or how Neil had more sway over Andrew than anyone else, but just thinking about it was bad enough. He definitely didn’t want to breath those words to life.
“I am the vice-captain, but that doesn’t mean I’m in charge of forcing people to come to practice if they have a...”
Neil stopped himself before he could finish that thought and clenched his jaw. He stared hard at Aaron. “Is this your shitty way of asking why Andrew didn’t come to practice?”
Aaron had been ready to argue with whatever Neil was going to say, but that question brought him up short. He hadn’t even meant to bring up his brother’s absence, but it had been weighing on his mind since yesterday. He had witnessed Andrew’s stubborn refusal to lift his racket during practice many times, but could only remember one instance when he had refused to be there at all; last year when Officer Higgins had called. He hadn’t understood then why that call had upset Andrew so much, but now that he did he hoped nothing like that had happened again.
So okay, he did want to know. He also knew it would be pointless to ask Neil about it. Andrew trusted Neil to keep his secrets, so even if he did know why Andrew had skipped practice he wouldn’t tell Aaron or anybody else.
Neil was still glaring but didn’t look like he was contemplating murder anymore as he said, “If you want to know, why don’t you ask him yourself.”
“I thought that trick only worked for you,” Aaron replied scornfully.
“No. If you ever opened your damn eyes you would see it works for Wymack, Betsy, and Renee too. That ‘trick’ works for anybody who asks instead of demanding things from him like most people do.”
Aaron's brow pulled down as he thought about what Neil was telling him. Ever since Wymack had first shown up he made it obvious that it was their choice to join the Foxes or not and he had never once forced them to do anything they didn’t agree to. Renee and Dobson were also always asking, never telling or forcing. Then, of course, there was Neil. Neil didn’t just ask; he had the unfair ability to know how to ask in the exact right way. He also gave equally in return. Something which Aaron had found out Andrew valued almost more than anything else during their sessions.
If it was that simple for them, could it be that simple for him? Could it have always been that simple for him? And if it had where would they be now? If he had understood Andrew better back then would anything like Drake’s attack at Thanksgiving have happened?
No. As much as the thoughts tore at his mind there was nothing he could to do to undo the past. All he could do now was try to mend things for the future. “I will.” 
Thanks to @saltierthanbottomofapretzelbag for being a beta for this chapter.
My AFTG Continuing Universe - Next
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