me: girl that’s a really specific curse?? there are ways around it… loopholes if you will… if he’s meant die, then you should just kiss gi-

blue: ghosts! you’re so right!

“I think Andrew should ask her and see if she can tell the difference.” Andrew’s smile was slow. “Okay.”

“It wasn’t me, it was the one-armed man!” Andrew yelled from out of sight.

Nicky and Andrew talked the whole way there, Nicky bouncing topics from movies to music and Andrew cheerfully arguing with almost everything he said

“Neil is a walking tragedy.” “You’re a pretty pathetic sob story yourself,” Wymack said. Andrew laughed.

Andrew went up front more interested in talking Wymack’s ear off

“You are a pipedream,” Andrew said.

“You’re not actually a sociopath, are you?” “I never said I was.”

Andrew touched Aaron’s temple where he himself was injured as if he expected to find an identical injury there.

Neil watched his knuckles go white as he leveraged himself into the car, but it wasn’t until Andrew laughed and said, “Ouch,” that Neil understood how much pain Andrew was still in.

Light flashed off the crystal figuring in Andrew’s hand as he passed it to one of the cashiers. Neil was too far away to see what shape he’d settled on, but he didn’t need to know. His thoughts were on a shelf of sparkling animals all set equidistant to each other.

“You said you’d go back for some of us. Five of us,” Neil said, splaying his fingers at Andrew. “You weren’t counting Abby or Coach. Since you trust Renee to handle the rest of the team, I’m guessing the last spot is for Dobson.”

Andrew tugged the blanket out from under them and draped it over Neil’s shoulders like a cape. Neil tried pulling the ends together over his chest but couldn’t get a good grip with bags over his fingers. Andrew watched him try twice, then pushed his hands aside and did it for him.

“Jean,” he said. “Hey, Jean. Jean Valjean. Hey. Hey. Hello.”

Andrew made himself comfortable on Neil’s left, a one-man barricade between Neil and the crowd.