Oh, Neil!" Andrew wiggled his cigarette at Neil in greeting. "Hello." "Can we talk?" Neil asked. "Today's not a good day," Andrew said. "Try again tomorrow." "I wouldn't crash your birthday party if it wasn't important." Andrew grinned. "Sarcasm from Neil? Your repertoire of talents is ever-expanding." "Two minutes," Neil said. "So persistent.

If I could ban some of you from ever opening your mouth in public, I would, but this is out of my hands. Attempt to behave yourselves without sacrificing your confident image. Think you can do that?" "You're no fun, Coach," Nicky said. "I will be a lot less fun if you make us look like fools," Wymack said. "But I'm not as worried about you as I am about our resident punching bag and his smart mouth. Anyone have ideas on how to make Neil look a bit less like a battered wife?

Instead Wymack snapped his fingers at Neil and jerked his thumb toward the court door. "Tell your pet psycho to knock it off before he cripples someone." "I don't think he'll listen to me," Neil said. "You and I both know he will. Now get.

Rude," Nicky said, sitting up and looking between them. "What did you just say? I can't understand you. That's not fair." "Think about that the next time you use German at my practices," Wymack said. "That's different," Nicky complained. "I only see that look on Neil's face when someone tries to do something nice for him, but we all know Kevin's as bratty as they come. What did you say, Kevin, and do I need to defend Neil's honor or what?

Neil hit Riko," Matt said. "It was beautiful." "What?" Nicky squawked. "Not fair! I missed it! Go do it again. Or not," he added quickly when Wymack leveled a death glare at him. "You can't blame a guy for dreaming, right, Coach?

I'm sorry." Nicky sent a pleading look at Neil to save him from his thoughtlessness. Neil didn't have to intervene, because Allison followed Nicky's frantic glance to Neil. "You do like the mountains, don't you?" "I cut through them once," Neil said. "We didn't stay. Is this really okay?" "Is it okay, he says," Dan said, "like we didn't all just invite ourselves to his vacation.

Before I forget, Andrew said I could invite you to the Halloween party at Eden's Twilight. It's on the twenty-seventh." Matt dropped his sandwich back to his plate with a splat. "Bullshit." "Andrew doesn't socialize with us," Dan said. "He's making an exception," Neil said.[...]"How the hell did you talk Andrew into this?" Dan asked, staring at Neil. "I asked," Neil said. "And he agreed just like that?" Matt asked, skeptical.