He left Kevin with the others to finish getting ready and followed Matt down to the truck. There was room at Neil's feet for his bag. Matt turned the key in the ignition and cut his radio off a half-second too late to save Neil's eardrums. Neil tried not to feel ill when the campus disappeared behind them but didn't quite succeed.

"When's your return flight?" Matt asked.

"New Year's," Neil said, "but I might come back early, depending on how things go."

"You bail early enough you should come join us," Matt said. "Mom can have your ticket changed."

"Thank you," Neil said. "I'll let you know."

Matt left him at the curb at Upstate Regional Airport. Neil watched him slide back into traffic, then turned to face the entrance. It was dizzying being here again. He and his mother never went through the same airport twice. He tightened his grip on his bag and went through the sliding glass doors.

The airport was busy this summer, but this close to Christmas it was downright chaos inside. Neil let himself get lost in the hubbub. He was just another face in the crowd, anonymous and unimportant. His airline had self-service check-in, so Neil scanned the barcode printed on his itinerary. His ticket and boarding pass popped out the slot at the bottom, and Neil headed for the security checkpoint. His bag made it through the scanners before he did. Neil toed into his shoes on the other side, grabbed his bag, and headed for his gate.

Most of the seats were taken, so Neil stood against a pillar to wait. He watched the crowd so he wouldn't watch the clock blinking at his gate. He'd half-expected to see more classmates here, but maybe they'd high-tailed it out of town yesterday. The airport was a sea of unfamiliar faces. Neil was alone.

He'd been around the Foxes for so long he'd forgotten what it was like to have breathing space. He should have been grateful to have a couple moments by himself before this nightmare started, but Neil was left feeling out of sorts. He buried his hand in his pocket and wrapped his fingers around his phone. If he flipped it open, his call history would still only show one name, but his message box was so full it emptied itself out on a semi-regular basis. He thought about reading through them for courage, but he couldn't make himself do it.

The gate attendant's voice on the overhead speakers startled him from his thoughts. "Passengers for flight 12 to Charleston, we will begin boarding soon. Please report to gate D23 and wait to be called."