Neil grabbed them, but Andrew held on for a moment. Andrew leaned forward on his perch and smiled at Neil. "Hey, Neil. Honesty looks awful on you."

Neil wrenched the keys out of his grasp and walked away to the sound of Andrew's laughter. He didn't go back inside afterward, but they came out to find him not much later. No one mentioned the cell phone and, although Nicky kept shooting him worried looks in the rearview mirror, no one spoke to Neil on the ride back to campus.

-

The silence couldn't last, though Neil wished it would. He came out of the bathroom in half of his gear for his night practice with Kevin and found Kevin had already left the locker room. The scattered clothes on the bench hinted he'd been kicked out before he was ready.

Andrew was straddling the bench as he waited for Neil, and in front of him was Neil's new phone. Neil glanced down at it instinctively and quickly jerked his stare up to Andrew's face. Andrew wasn't smiling anymore. He'd skipped his nine o'clock dose so he could start winding down for bed even though he was usually out with Kevin and Neil until midnight.

"A man can only have so many issues," Andrew said.

"I don't need a phone."

"Who needs one more than you do this year?"

Andrew took his own phone out of his pocket and set it down beside Neil's. His was black but otherwise seemed to be the same model. He flicked both open and pressed a couple buttons. A few seconds later Andrew's phone started to ring. Neil expected a generic ringtone, but a man started singing. It didn't sound like something Andrew would assign to his phone until Neil listened to the lyrics. It was a song about runaways.

Neil crossed the room and sat facing Andrew on the bench. He scooped Andrew's phone up and crushed the reject button with his thumb. "You're not funny."

"Neither are you. You put a noose around your neck and handed the loose end to Riko," Andrew said. "I distinctly remember saying I would watch your back. Give me one good reason why you'd make that difficult for me."

"I survived for eight years because no one could find me," Neil said.

"That's not why."

"Are we doing the honesty thing again?"

"Do we need to?" Andrew asked, taking his phone from Neil. "You start."

Neil turned his new phone in circles on the bench, unwilling and unable to pick it up. "You know, most parents give their children phones so they can keep track of them throughout the day. I had one because of the people my father worked with. My parents wanted to know they could reach me if the worst should happen. 'Just in case'," Neil said, echoing Nicky's words.

"When I ran away, I kept the phone. I saw my parents die, but I kept thinking maybe I was wrong. Maybe one day they'd call and say it was an act. They'd say I could come home and things would be fine. But the only time it rang it was that man demanding I bring him back his money. I haven't had a phone since. I shouldn't have one now. Who am I supposed to call?"