"I'm lucky Kevin doesn't recognize me," Neil said. "I don't know if he even remembers meeting me, but I remember him. Seeing him helps me remember my parents. He's all I have left of my real life. But if Kevin or Riko recognizes me and word makes it back to my father's boss, I know what will happen to me."

Andrew said nothing for so long Neil thought he'd blown it, but finally Andrew moved. Wymack shifted his weight, ready to intervene if things turned violent, but Andrew only came to stand right in front of Neil.

"Then why did you come here?" Andrew asked.

"Because I'm tired," Neil said, trying to sound defeated. It didn't take much effort. "I have nowhere else to go, and I'm too jealous of Kevin to stay away from him. He knows what it's like to hate every day of his life, to wake up afraid every day, but he's got you at his back telling him everything's going to be okay. He has everything, even when he's lost everything, and I'm—" Neil didn't want to say it, but the word was already there, broken and pathetic between them, "—nothing. I'll always have and be nothing."

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. There was no censure over Neil's crooked parents or pity for their deaths, no triumph over having backed Neil into admitting so much, and no obvious skepticism for such an outlandish story. Whatever this look was, it was dark and intense enough to swallow Neil whole.

"Let me stay," Neil said quietly. "I'm not ready to give this up yet."

That strange look left Andrew's eyes. His expression cleared to stony indifference and he let go of Neil. "Keep it if you can. You and I both know it won't last long."

Neil's stomach gave a nauseating flip. He'd been lying since he'd first learned to speak. What he'd just told Andrew was fifty percent truth, the most honest thing he'd ever tell someone about his life, and Andrew took it without batting an eye. Neil didn't know how to feel about that. He should be relieved, because it meant Andrew might be done asking him questions, but it went deeper than that. He wondered for a moment if Andrew could handle the entire truth so calmly, but that was too dangerous and stupid to consider.

"I'll be gone by our match against Edgar Allan," Neil said. "I don't look now how I looked then, but I can't risk Riko's family recognizing me."

"Such an unexpected will to survive from someone who has nothing to live for. Next time we have a little heart-to-heart like this, maybe I'll ask you to justify that."

"Let's not talk like this ever again."

"Let's not," Andrew agreed.