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Andrew couldn’t explain what it was about Renee. But she was different from the others, he’d known that from his first day at Palmetto. There was something about her that even he wouldn’t fight. She didn’t take sides. She didn’t put her own personal gain in front of anything or anyone else. And most importantly, she never lied; not about her opinions, herself or others. If she didn’t want to tell you something, she wouldn’t. And if she promised to keep a secret, she would.
Nobody really understands it. To look at, Andrew and Renee were polar opposites. Andrew was all sharp edges and mania. Whereas Renee came across as soft smiles and serenity but it didn’t take long for Andrew to see past that.
It was the callouses on her knuckles that gave her away, with small white scars on her hands where clumsy hands learnt to wield knives with lethal precision.
“Not as pure as you make out to be,” he commented offhandedly one day. Renee flexed her fingers out as she studied her hands before looking up at him.
“I don’t make out to be anything. I just am and you just assumed,” she said before going back to his ethics homework.
In the first few weeks at Fox Tower, Andrew realised that Renee was the first person he’d met in years who didn’t see him as just somebody to be feared, but as an equal.
In his darkest days as he adjusted to this new life, feeling as alone as ever, she was there, always giving him a second choice, a way out. She helped him to find a new way to channel his anger and that in turn gave her closure. One night, morning really, when he fell asleep in the gym after a sparring session, without knowing any better, she woke him with a gentle hand on his shoulder and narrowly missed the fist he swung at her as he called out an unfamiliar name in terror.
To his surprise and unspoken gratitude, she didn’t ask. Instead, she slid a sheathed knife from her boot and pressed it into his hand. His fingers curled around the handle and her lips curved into the softest of smiles.
“I don’t need these anymore,” she said, “they already helped me get free.”
So over the next few days, Andrew had more knives and Renee had less and although they both hid them well; people noticed.
But it really came to light during one of their team meetings. Kevin made a disapproving comment about the way Seth played and Seth, who was clearly coming down from something, lunged for him. Andrew stepped smoothly between the two, a medicated grin plastered across his face, as he grasped the front of Seth’s jacket, slamming him back into the wall, hard enough to make the photo frames around them tilt.
Seth went to push him back but froze suddenly, his eyes darting down between them as the flat side of a knife pressed into his stomach.
The rest of the team froze around them, unsure if stepping in would likely get someone stabbed. Allison swore at the back of Andrew’s head but even she made no move to intervene. Despite the fear in his eyes, Seth smirked down at him.
“You don’t have the balls,” he spat and Andrew laughed, loudly and without humour as he let Seth go, the knife slicing a clean line through Seth’s expensive looking shirt.
“And you’re not worth the energy,” Andrew said, his voice casual, like he wasn’t just threatening to stab someone. Just as quickly as it appeared, the knife disappeared back on Andrew’s person as he turned back to the horrified faces of the team with a sharp smile. “What were you saying there, Coach?”
And after a beat, the meeting carried on.
But after that, the rumour mill spread. Everyone knew that that knife was Renee’s, and all of the foxes knew that she was never within arm’s reach of one of them. Which of course meant there was only one possible reason Andrew would have them.
“Did you know we’re fucking?” Renee said one day, dropping down on the monsters couch. Andrew, the only other person in the room, glanced around, flicking the ash from his cigarette across the carpet with a grunt.
“Really?” he said, “I wish you’d told me sooner.”
Renee’s lips twitched. “There’s a pool out. Aaron is the only one who hasn’t put in,” she said.
“Shocking,” Andrew said completely unsurprised. It wasn’t news to him that Aaron would bet on anything so long as it didn’t involve Andrew.
Renee looked as though she was resisting the urge to roll her eyes but didn’t comment. “Dan and Nicky thinks we are, Matt’s on the fence while Kevin, Allison and Seth think it’s grossly unrealistic,” she said. “Dan said Aaron told her that he doesn’t think we are either, he just doesn’t care enough to put any money on it.”
A small, spiteful part of Andrew wished they were just so Seth would lose whatever large sum of money he’d put on this.
“Well, we’re not,” Andrew said, “I don’t fuck women.”
A beat passed as Renee considered the meaning behind his words before she raised her shoulder in half a shrug.
“And I don’t fuck men, so it looks like we’re on the same page,” she said. Andrew looked thoughtfully across at her for a moment, his eyes lingering on the cross that hung around her neck. She narrowed her eyes, no doubt waiting for the inevitable comment on how religion and sexuality work together, but it never came. Andrew didn’t give a fuck about that. But he wouldn’t lie and say he wasn’t surprised. After all of the hints and quips that Nicky drops about how Renee was into him, Andrew had genuinely started to believe it; almost convincing himself that his medication was what was stopping him from seeing it. He also couldn’t say he was disappointed. Andrew learnt at a very young age that people being attracted to him normally ended badly.
Instead of commenting, Andrew bought his cigarette up to his lips and took a long drag, turning his head away to blow the smoke out of the window.
Andrew considered Renee for a moment, her closeness to Allison more than anything else and the lingering looks they gave each other. “Fifty bucks says you and Allison hook up before senior year,” he said blandly and Renee narrowed her eyes at him.
“Never gonna happen,” she said, “Allison’s straight.”
Andrew shrugged with an almost challenging look. “Then you have nothing to lose.”