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Andrew Minyard was not a morning person. Neil was, though, and he took great pleasure in Andrew’s sleepy blinks every morning as he tried not to fall asleep over whatever sugary cereal he decided to pour that morning. While Kevin fiddled with the blender, Neil would watch as Andrew zoned out, until his cereal was too soggy for him to enjoy, and made a tragic expression as he ate his soggy, chocolate cereal, too stubborn to pour a new bowl and admit he hadn’t been awake. If Andrew only trusted certain people to drive his car, Kevin was the exact same way with his blender, which was fine with Neil because it meant that he got to watch Andrew until Kevin had finished whatever concoction he wanted Neil to drink that morning—today’s smoothie looked extremely purple.
Neil was looking at the lines under Andrew’s eyes and wondering how Andrew hid them during the day, when Kevin started complaining about Neil’s hatred of vegetables and how there were only so many ways Kevin could make the smoothies have the nutrients he needed without it. Kevin was twisting a lid with a handle down onto the cup full of thick purple liquid, when Andrew looked up with eyes clearer than Neil had expected, given the early hour. Neil smirked at Andrew and held out his hand while Kevin started to cross the kitchen towards the table, and that’s when Andrew decided to open his mouth.
“Neil, I think you should ask Kevin out on a date tonight.”
Kevin dropped the cup and it bounced twice before rolling, spilling foul smelling purple liquid all over the kitchen and spraying it on the cabinets.
“You want to do what?” Neil asked in what he thought was barely masked hysteria, but the way Andrew’s eyes lit up told him that the message wasn’t received that way.
“I don’t want to do anything. I think you should ask Kevin out on a date,” Andrew said, before clarifying, “tonight.”
Kevin jerked his head toward Neil and then back to Andrew before he stormed across the room, demanding what Andrew thought he was fucking doing. Neil was frozen in the middle of the room, with purple smoothie staining his pants. Time for him had stopped as he stood there in the middle of the kitchen. The ceiling seemed to grow in height, while the room started to shrink around him. Everything was silent except for Kevin and Andrew’s muffled arguing. He needed to swim back to the top because the sound of them arguing had him feeling more than a little distressed. He didn’t know why he fucking cared. Kevin was always screaming at someone, especially Andrew because he had a particular penchant for crawling under Kevin’s skin in a way that not even Neil had perfected, but Neil just wanted everyone quiet .
Neil wished he was like Andrew, he could throw something or maybe put his fist through a wall and would make himself be heard through formidability alone, but Neil couldn’t make himself do that. It reminded him too much of Mary. Maybe if he were like Kevin he could shout them into submission, but when Neil yelled his voice sounded eerily like Nathan’s so he normally just didn’t. He didn’t have a way to make himself be heard, and he had to wait until people were ready to listen to him.
He had a few things that helped him make himself be heard. It was surprising how loud a stubborn silence could be, and Neil could get his way with Andrew and Kevin just by being a stubborn shit. Even then, there were still moments—moments like this one—where Neil desperately wanted to be heard and his silence wasn't loud enough. He thought that maybe that was why he tended to gravitate toward Andrew and Kevin. Neil wanted to make himself heard as effectively as they did, but he wasn’t going to yell like Nathan and he wasn’t going to hit like Mary. Neil had to find a way to make himself be heard that was just Neil.
He shook off the stiffness and mentally pushed back the walls and pulled the ceiling back to where it belonged, before he regarded the two men arguing before him. Andrew’s bowl had been jarred, slopping brown milk and coco pops on the table, slowly dripping onto the floor. Andrew was standing at full height and glaring at Kevin, who was leaned over yelling in Andrew’s face.
“Andrew. Kevin.” Neil didn’t raise his voice and he didn’t resort to using his fists, but he made himself be heard through sheer presence alone. His tone brokered no deals and both men froze what they were doing and turned to look at Neil standing alone across the kitchen from them with his fists clenched at his sides.
Andrew just raised an eyebrow and let go of Kevin’s collar where he had it fisted his hand in his shirt. Kevin just gaped at Neil, like he was surprised that Neil had the audacity to talk to him like that and he stalked off stiffly, calling over his shoulder that they needed to clean up the kitchen because he had to leave for his 8am history class and couldn’t.
When the door slammed, Neil looked back over toward Andrew who had made no move to sop up the cereal mess.
“Were you serious?” Neil asked.
“You’re both so stupid. Do you know that?” Andrew asked, tossing a tea towel to Neil and pointing to the table before grabbing the mop out of the tiny pantry in the corner of the kitchen.
“We could go back and forth about this forever, but you don’t say things unless you mean them.” Andrew tapped his nose twice in affirmation. “But you know that Kevin has Thea.”
“Before you go any further with that, when is the last time you heard him talk about Thea? Before you got here, I always had to listen to him complain about how Thea wouldn't run drills with him. He found someone to run drills with and he hasn’t been complaining about the other things Thea gave him. Have you ever considered that maybe they didn’t have that aspect of their relationship? I mean, I don’t think many of those backward fuckers would know a relationship if it slapped them in the face. All I’m saying is, text him, because if Thea is the only thing stopping you then you’re wasting everyone’s time.”
“Do you not want this anymore?” Neil asked, before adding, “and don’t say it’s nothing.”
“I never said that I did or did not want you,” Andrew informed in a bored monotone.
“So, what? We all date each other?”
Andrew tapped his nose again.
“You’re fucking infuriating.” That got a rare smirk before Andrew tapped his nose again and sprinted out of the room, before Neil could try to flick him, calling for him to text and ask Kevin out, over his shoulder.