Neil silently counted to ten, but it didn't do much against his flaring impatience. "I am not shopping with any of you ever again."

"So you think. Man, I'm starting to see why Andrew left you here," Nicky said. "Good thing he ignored me when I told him to take you along."

"Take me along where?"

"Oh, you know," Nicky said vaguely. "Task at hand, Neil. The longer you stall the longer we're stuck here."

Neil pushed Andrew, Allison, and Riko from mind and focused on finding something to wear. Slacks were easy to pick out, but Nicky rejected the first several shirts Neil considered. Finally Neil gave up and let Nicky choose something for him. They went up to the registers together, but then Nicky refused to let go of Neil's unwanted clothes. He batted at Neil's hands and turned stubbornly away.

"Why would you pay for all this when you didn't want it in the first place? Technically the university is paying for it, since Coach is going to expense it. Hey," Nicky said, retreating when Neil tried again to wrest the stack from his arms. "Touch it again and I'll bite you. Don't think I won't. I will. I'm a biter. Just ask Erik."

"Stop embarrassing us." Kevin pushed them apart. "Find a different register, Nicky."

"I can buy my own things," Neil said when Nicky pranced off.

Kevin gave him a slow head-to-toe. Neil's jeans were so faded they were whitish-gray, and the hems of his shirt were frayed and coming undone. This wasn't the first time someone had looked at Neil like he was street trash, but from Kevin condescension was a thousand times more effective. The first spike of heat in Neil's stomach was shame, but he refused to let it take hold. His reasons for letting his wardrobe slide were valid. Someone like Kevin, who'd grown up in the spotlight and made a fortune off his talent, would never understand.

"I can't stand you," Neil said.

"I don't care." Kevin pointed over Neil's head at the waiting cashier. "Let's go."

When they were done they lugged their bags into the mall. They rode the next set of escalators down and Nicky led them to the towering fountain that marked the mall's center. Andrew was waiting for them there, sitting cross-legged on the faux marble wall surrounding the water. He didn't look up at their approach, too busy tapping away at the phone in his hands. Nicky dropped the bags on the ground on front of Andrew and leaned over to get a better look.

"What is that dinosaur?" Nicky asked, dismayed. "No one put money on a flip phone, Andrew. You ruined a really good pot."

Neil idly wondered if there was anything his teammates wouldn't bet on.

"So sad," Andrew said, not a whit sympathetic.

"You couldn't have even found him a qwerty?"

"What for?" Andrew finished what he was doing, snapped the phone shut, and tossed it at Neil. Catching it was instinctive, but Neil froze at the next words out of Andrew's mouth. "Who is Neil going to text?"