"What did you expect? You waited this long to figure it out. By now I've already made other plans. I—" Neil cut himself off, listened a moment, and bulled on. "But how long have you known he was coming? You could have said something. I don't know. I said I don't know. I'd have to—" Neil scrubbed a hand across his eyes as if the entire conversation was exhausting to deal with. "Okay. Goodbye."

He clicked his phone shut and dropped it off to one side.

For a minute, silence reigned. Then Nicky came into the bedroom and closed the door behind him. Neil sagged back against the wall as Nicky climbed halfway up the ladder to his bunk. Nicky folded his arms across Neil's pillow and stared at Neil.

"Everything okay there?" Nicky asked.

"I'm fine."

Nicky just looked at him. "We've known each other forever by now. At some point you're going to have to stop lying to my face. That didn't sound fine and you don't look fine. So what's really going on?"

"My uncle's flying to Arizona for Christmas," Neil said.

"Good thing? Bad thing?"

"Both?" Neil shrugged against the wall. "He's a good guy, but he's usually smart enough to avoid my parents. I haven't seen him in years, and he's never come over on a holiday. Something must be up. I just don't know what. I don't know if..." Neil trailed off and gestured helplessly. "I promised myself I'd never go home again, but."

"But you want to see him again," Nicky concluded.

"It doesn't matter," Neil said. "I told Andrew I'd stay with Kevin."

"But Kevin's going to be with us," Nicky said, "and we're going to be with Matt and Matt's mom. The four of us can keep an eye on him if you need some time with your family. You need money for a ticket?"

"I already have one," Neil said, and held up his folded itinerary. "Mom emailed it to me a couple days ago. I just didn't want to deal with it before the banquet."

"You're hopeless," Nicky said. "If you want to go, go. You've done more than enough for us this semester, Neil. At some point you've got to think about yourself. Watch," he said when Neil shook his head. "I'm going to go tell the others, and they'll all tell you to go home. You'll see."

"But—" Neil said, but Nicky was already gone.

Neil swallowed the rest of his argument. It wasn't a fight he wanted or needed to win, anyway. For a moment he pitied Nicky for being so gullible, but Neil took no satisfaction in what he'd just done. He unfolded the itinerary and studied it with a sinking feeling in his stomach. In two hours he'd be on a flight to Charleston, West Virginia, and he wasn't scheduled to come back until the night of New Year's Eve. That was two weeks alone with the Ravens.