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fuzzballsheltiepants · 6 years

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Back to the Start, part 7

All For the Game/The Foxhole Court, post-canon. Andrew remembers things and it’s not pleasant. Read it on AO3 if you choose. Read Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Comments, reblogs, etc., all greatly appreciated!

Neil was a trouble magnet. Andrew didn’t remember too many specifics, but he knew it with a bone deep certainty. So he wasn’t all that surprised when Neil admitted he’d lit into some paparazzo and it had all been caught on video by a dozen different coffee shop patrons. He supposed he should at least be pleased the idiot hadn’t been arrested.

Said idiot was sitting in the chair next to him, doing equations on his phone and completely oblivious to how distracting he was with his wet hair falling in his face. Andrew really needed something else to occupy his mind but options were limited when he couldn’t handle more than a couple of minutes of looking at a screen. He doubted reading a book would be any easier on his head. At least he no longer had that stupid catheter in, now that he had proven he could walk to the bathroom on his own. Small favors.

A flicker of a memory came, not a full one, just a flash of sitting on the couch in Columbia watching a movie with his feet in Neil’s lap. He’d had several of those already that morning, brief snapshots of the surprisingly ordinary life he had built. The information didn’t seem to be downloading in a giant dump anymore, but instead coming in short bursts that were easier to manage. Most of the memories didn’t involve Neil. He now knew what his apartment looked like, and his landlord; he remembered first setting down his stuff in front of his locker in the Boston stadium, and driving around with Nicky and Aaron, and Kevin grabbing his face mask on the court, and making out with Roland in the back room at Eden’s Twilight. But only the few with Neil had that odd settled feeling. It was annoying, really; he didn’t recognize that version of himself and wasn’t totally sure he wanted to.

Neil’s phone vibrated and he looked up at Andrew with a grin. “Oh, Allison’s yelling at me. Video must be up. Yup. Wanna see?”

Andrew shifted so there was room for Neil to sit on the bed. Neil hesitated only for a second before settling carefully on the edge. He held up the phone and tapped the screen. Under a Twitter headline of “#10NeilJosten goes off on reporter” was the brief video.

It wasn’t nearly as bad as Andrew had expected. He was vaguely disappointed in the lack of violence, but otherwise he had to admit he was…impressed. Really, that level of redirection required some fast thinking, especially on the fly. Neil dropped the phone on the bed and looked at him anxiously. “I hope that was okay, we hadn’t really decided on whether or not we were going to come out, but I don’t want to deny this either.”

There is no this, Andrew wanted to say, and he didn’t know why that response came so automatically when there very clearly was a this. Instead he looked up at Neil and said, “Seventh.” The blankness of Neil’s expression was comical, so he went on. “You meant the seventh circle of hell. The sixth is heresy, the seventh is violence. Though I’d argue that society is really trapped in the fourth. Greed.”

Neil’s jaw literally dropped, and Andrew tapped him under the chin, trying to ignore the odd feeling in his gut at the contact. “What the hell, Drew?” Neil started to laugh. “When did you read…whatever that’s from?”

“You ignorant child, you referenced Dante’s Inferno without knowing what it is?”

“When did you read Dante’s Inferno, then?”

Andrew shrugged. “Juvie.”

“You read Dante’s Inferno in juvie. That seems like an odd choice, I’ve got to be honest.”

“Not a lot of book selection, and there’s only so many times you can read the fourth book of Harry Potter. I mean, no matter what, Cedric still dies.” Neil looked thrown and Andrew wondered if he should’ve given him a spoiler alert. Too late. “And I refused to read all the religious shit they kept shoving at me. Dante’s Inferno was a compromise.”

“I didn’t realize you knew the meaning of that word.” Neil’s phone buzzed again and he looked at it. “I know, I know,” he grumbled.

“What.”

“Allison. ‘When I said you’d have to say something this was not what I had in mind babycakes.’” Yeah, well, tough shit.” The phone buzzed again. “‘You do know the non-denial will be taken as confirmation.’ Yes, thank you oh wise one.” He tapped something into his phone then looked up at Andrew. “She has a point though.”

Andrew found he didn’t really care. People already knew he was gay, there were worse things than being linked to a smart-mouthed pretty boy. “Whatever. Let them think what they want. I just don’t want to make some official statement about it.”

Neil flashed him his sweet, soft smile and Andrew shoved his face away. The smile broadened and Neil settled back against the raised head of the bed and pulled up his math problems again. It struck Andrew that this was his life now. Sitting here inches away from this man who was doing homework like it was no big deal. It felt strange and impossible and normal all at the same time and all Andrew could think was how.

*****

Neil’s phone would not shut up. He debated letting it run out of battery but needed to be available for Aaron so when it blinked a warning at him he resigned himself and plugged it in. Working on his differential geometry had long become an impossibility thanks to the constant interruptions. He could think of far more pleasant ways to spend the time but Andrew still seemed a little shocked if they sat close to each other so that was a no go.

The phone buzzed yet again and kept buzzing. “Wymack,” he said to Andrew. “Do you want me to go out in the hall?” Andrew shook his head and Neil picked up. “Hey, Coach.”

“Why did I ever make the mistake of thinking if you were holed up in a hospital I didn’t need to worry about the press?”

“Excessive optimism?”

“They’re up my ass, I’m going to have to say something at the press conference this afternoon. You guys have a plan?”

“Not really,” Neil said, watching Andrew watching him. “I think we’re trying to avoid formal statements though.”

“Okay.” There was silence on the line.

“How’s my team, Coach?”

“They’re doing all right, we need you back soon though. Robin and Bryan can’t manage these lunatics all by themselves. Binghamton’s a week from today.”

“I know. I’ll be there.”

“How’s it going up there?”

“Getting better. He’s pissed I don’t know my Dante properly.” Andrew rolled his eyes.

Wymack huffed in his version of a laugh. “That sounds about right. Look, if he needs some ongoing help once he’s released, we can make something work down here. Abby’s having kittens about him and I suspect Betsy’s not much better.”

Neil had to blink hard for a moment before he could speak. “That’s…that’s good to know, Coach. Thanks. I’ll let you know what the doctor says.”

“What is it?” Andrew asked as soon as Neil hung up.

“He, uh, he said that if you want, while you finish recovering you can come back to PSU with me.”

Andrew studied him for an endless minute before turning away. He reached for the pack of Reese’s and tilted one out into his hand. Neil gave up on getting a reply and had clicked his phone back on to start answering his dozens of text messages when Andrew spoke up. “How did you get the rest of them?”

Neil scanned the conversation they’d been having and came up blank. “Of what?”

“Your scars. You said this morning that most of them were from your father’s people. Nicky told me about him, and I remember parts of Baltimore, but how’d you get the rest?”

“Oh.” His hand went involuntarily to his ribcage. “Riko. Riko gave me the rest of them.”

He watched as that bomb hit, the slow motion ripple effect it had as memories resurfaced and deductions were made. Watched as Andrew’s pupils dilated and his hands started to tremble before he shoved them between his clamped knees. Watched Andrew’s head drop and his jaw clench and the cords of tendons in his neck leap out. Heard his rasping breaths ratchet up and the grate of his teeth against each other. He didn’t know how far back Andrew’s mind went, didn’t know what to do.

“Andrew.” The only response was a hitch in the breathing. “Andrew, look at me. Look at me.” Those hazel eyes were nearly black when they darted to him and away again. “It’s over. He’s dead.” Neil didn’t even know whether he meant Riko or Drake, it applied to both. “It’s over, and you’re clean, and you came back from this. You came back.”

He debated pressing the call button for the nurse, not sure if more people would make the issue better or worse. In the end he settled for not, the potential overreaction on the parts of the staff outweighing any benefit of possible distraction. “I’m here, Drew. What are you remembering?” Andrew shook his head violently and curled up tighter. “I’m here,” Neil repeated helplessly, cursing himself internally in every language he knew. “I’m here.”

*****

He thought at first it was a flashback to when he was thirteen, but the room wasn’t right and his head hurt too much and he was laughing. He had never laughed before.

He thought at first it was a nightmare, but he could still see the hospital around him.

He thought at first that he could keep this tucked deep inside, still keep it safe as he had always done behind the armor he had always worn.

But Neil knew. Unscarred, dark-haired, dark-eyed Neil was there in the memory, Neil and Aaron both. They were there and they were spattered with blood and it was real, oh, god, it was real.

*****

Andrew was silent for the rest of the day. He had eventually slipped into a calm that would’ve seemed like a coma if he hadn’t continued to react to people in the room. He’d even gotten up and walked the halls with Nancy, ignoring her chatter about her rescue cats with blank-eyed indifference. Neil explained to the doctors that he’d recovered a bad memory and they hadn’t pushed him to talk, just made him go through his usual exercises. Out in the hallway afterwards Dr. Martin had suggested a therapist; she’d seemed a little surprised when Neil informed her Andrew had two.

If Neil had thought watching Andrew in physical pain was hard, this was a thousand times worse. At least there was medication that could be given for a headache. He couldn’t even call Matt to talk about it, it felt too much like an invasion of Andrew’s privacy.

He scrolled through his texts again; it felt like they were from a lifetime ago.

Literally crying tears of joy rn from Nicky.

Never been more proud of you than in this moment from Dan.

WTF spectrum you gay but your right your a shitty example from Jack. Asshole. He couldn’t even use the right you’re.

Clapping hands emoji from Matt, followed by hows Andrew taking it?

A rainbow of heart emojis from Renee.

When r u coming back i hate these people from Robin.

And a series of articles from Allison that he couldn’t bring himself to click through.

He typed out neutral replies to everyone but Jack. Finally he got the text from Aaron that they were in the lobby. He told Andrew, who didn’t react, and went down to get them. Katelyn hugged him gently and asked how he was doing in a serious tone.

“I’m fine,” Neil said automatically, and Aaron rolled his eyes.

“That’s going on your tombstone,” he said. Neil wanted to argue but couldn’t, so he led them to the elevators, listening to Katelyn chatter about the drive up and the mass of photographers in front of the building.

“So, um, he’s had a rough evening,” Neil said once the elevator emptied out on the third floor.

“Is that because of your idiot moment this morning?” Aaron asked.

“No, actually he was okay with that.” Aaron shook his head in disgust and the elevator dinged. Neil pulled them aside into the empty waiting area. “He remembered something. I think it was Drake but I’m not sure, he wouldn’t talk to me.”

“Then why do you think it was Drake?”

Neil shrugged. “I just do.”

Aaron and Katelyn had a silent conversation and Katelyn turned to Neil. “We didn’t stop to eat anywhere, is there a cafeteria or something?” Neil nodded and Katelyn put her hand on his arm. “How about Aaron goes and sees Andrew while you and I grab some food.” Neil gave Aaron a searching look that was met with calm determination. With a hesitant nod he gave Andrew’s room number and followed Katelyn back to the elevator. As the elevator doors slid shut he saw Aaron stalled in front of Andrew’s room, head bowed, before he reached for the handle and entered.

*****

It was strange, how you could scream and scream and nobody could hear you.

Andrew could have sworn he was screaming. He could hear it echoing in his ears, his throat was raw and his chest ached from the effort of it. But nobody around him seemed to hear it. Neil looked at him with sad understanding, the nurses were gentle, the doctor didn’t seem to expect him to answer her, but they all talked in normal voices to and about him. He could hear them; it didn’t make sense that they couldn’t hear him.

Except people never had.

Neil left and the room was empty and his scream was still rebounding around the room. Then there came a faint knock and Aaron entered. Aaron, who looked exactly like him. Aaron, who he he had cared about before he ever met him. Aaron, who had twisted that love like he’d twisted his hatred for his mother, until he couldn’t tell the difference between the two.

He stopped screaming. Perhaps he never had been. He could never tell.

“Hey, man,” Aaron said, dropping into Neil’s chair. “Hear it’s been a rough week.” Andrew didn’t know how to respond to that perfect banality. “Your asshole boyfriend and Katelyn are getting food, they should be up in a bit.” Andrew blinked and saw Aaron spattered with blood, then blinked again and he was fine.

“You killed him,” he said, and he could hear the difference between the words and the screaming. How much more solid the words sounded. Like they could be touched, cupped in a hand.

Aaron shifted in the chair but didn’t look away. Andrew heard him swallow. “Yes, I did.”

Andrew wondered how Aaron could put up with years of Tilda’s abuse but then kill Drake for hurting Andrew. He didn’t think he had spoken out loud but perhaps Aaron read the question in his face. “Do you remember doing counseling together? No? It was your asshole boyfriend’s fault, of course. Anyway, I think it was junior year, right before the trial. You told me that the reason why you had sent me that letter, the one telling me to fuck off when I asked to meet you, was because of Drake.”

Andrew did remember, then. A hyper-organized office and hot chocolate and a calm reasoned voice and anger and grief and so much unfamiliar longing. “You said that I’m not the only one who’s allowed to care.”

Aaron nodded. “Maybe nobody did for a long time. But you have me and Nicky and Coach and Dobson and Renee and your asshole boyfriend who care. Maybe even Kevin too, when he can get the exy racquet out of his ass. Now, you might not remember us -”

“I didn’t forget you.”

Aaron nodded and went quiet. Andrew closed his eyes, leaning back against the pillows. His head was pounding and he felt a nauseating fullness in his stomach.

“Do you need something?” Aaron asked. “Pain meds or something?”

“Yeah.”

There was a pause and then footsteps and he recognized the night nurse’s voice. “What do you want, Mr. Minyard, the new stuff or the old stuff?”

“New.” It didn’t fuck with his head so much.

There was the sound of a drawer opening and closing, then, “Is it all right if I touch your arm?”

He ground out a yes and there was a feather-light touch where his IV was. Aaron and the nurse were talking in low voices, then the nurse said, “Let’s give that a few minutes and I’m going to turn the lights down. You’ve done really well having them up this high all day.”

The room went quiet and he waited for the pressure to ease. Once he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to vomit he blinked and looked at the chair. Aaron was watching him with sharp eyes.

“I’m tired.”

“You can sleep. I’ll stay until your asshole boyfriend gets back.”

Exhaustion crashed over him in a wave. He surfaced enough to ask, “Why do you call him that?”

“Because ‘Neil’ takes too long to say.” Andrew snorted despite himself and looked back at Aaron, who was smiling faintly. “Go to sleep. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

Fatigue swept over him again, and this time he let the peaceful darkness drag him under.

#aftg #all for the game #tfc #the foxhole court #andrew minyard #neil josten #andriel #amnesia #healing #past trauma #memory recovery #hospital #aaron minyard #david wymack #my writing #fanfic

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samanthasroberts · 6 years

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5 Celebrities Who Did Crazy Scummy (And Underreported) Stuff

Maybe you’ve seen a picture of Justin Timberlake eating an apple and thought, “The stars, they’re just like us!” And while it’s true that some celebrities have apples like us — like we normal folk do for every single meal — some of them might be legitimately unhinged. Here are several ludicrous incidents wherein the stars were quite decidedly not like us.

50 Cent Bullied An Autistic Airline Employee

You’d think that after owning more bullet wounds than hit albums, 50 Cent (aka Curtis James Jackson III) would be a little more judicious in his dealings with strangers. But back in 2016, as he was apparently looking for ways to stave off boredom in the Cincinnati Airport, he noticed something fishy about one of the young maintenance workers. He seemed almost high, like the kind you might get from drugs — or as they’re called on the street, reefers.

50 leapt into action! No, he didn’t contact a supervisor to let them know their employee was on drugs; he got out his phone and followed the man around so he could mock him on Instagram. Hilarious, right? A drug user? At an AIRPORT!? It quickly went viral, but not in the way he was expecting.

The employee, a young man named Andrew Farrell, did his best to ignore Mr. Cent as he pointed his phone at him and lamented how “crazy” the younger generation is. He wondered aloud to his Instagram followers, “What kind of shit you think he took before he got to work today?” Sadly, this was the sort of abuse that Mr. Farrell had become accustomed to over the years. Because Mr. Farrell is not a drug addict — he’s autistic. Yes, 50 Cent was harassing and publicly humiliating a stranger because of a developmental disorder, not a drug habit.

Before our president made mocking the disabled a partisan issue, everyone agreed this was terrible. Fans were outraged, and liquor stores threatened to stop selling the faded rap star’s “Effen Vodka” brand of booze.

Effen Vodka“Effen” is, of course, a Dutch children’s game about number guessing. Wait, unless 50 Cent meant it like “Fuckin’ Vodka”? Oh 50, that’s naughty!

Read Next

The Hidden Connection Between 'Ghostbusters' And The Remake

As uniquely awful as this seems, it wasn’t the first time Jackson did something like this. Or even the second. A few years before, he’d landed in hot water after telling someone on Twitter “Just saw your picture fool you look autistic.” He ended another social media discussion by saying, “I don’t want no special ed kids on my timeline follow some body else.” It’s all very disappointing when someone unfairly derides another’s cognitive differences. Especially when that someone is the sort of person who claims bankruptcy while simultaneously posting photos of himself wallowing on a Scrooge-McDuck-sized pile of fake money. Maybe next time, try renting a conscience instead of a Rolex and a pile of money, Mr. Cent.

Both Akon And Afroman Savagely Attacked Fans On Stage

There’s an unspoken (and also very spoken) rule that you don’t get up on the stage when someone is performing. You can throw your panties and flowers, but hardly ever your beer, and never your throwing stars. When you violate these rules, you will get violently grabbed and thrown out on your ass. That’s exactly what happened to a fan at an Akon concert, only not the way you may think.

It was between songs, and Akon seemed to be doing some light crowd work. He took his shirt off and pulled an eager fan up on stage. It wasn’t a hot girl, as you’d expect a freshly shirtless singer to select. It was a nerdy guy in glasses and cargo shorts, and Akon immediately grabbed him by the dick, flung him up on his shoulders, and heaved him into the crowd. He did this not so much in a fun crowd-surfing arc, but at a low angle, directly into a pocket of girls extremely unprepared to catch a 150-pound projectile. The fan ate what most onlookers would call total shit. You can watch it here:

You’re not allowed to body-slam people to near death, even if they seemed like they were asking for it, so Akon was fined $350 and sentenced to 65 hours of community service. The stars, they are not just like us.

A strangely similar but way, way less cool incident happened at an Afroman show. Afroman was on stage playing guitar when a female fan jumped up and started stumbling around with her drink. For 10 or 15 seconds, she danced behind Afroman while he ignored her. Oh my god, can you believe how crazy she was being, you guys!?

Emboldened by the club’s lack of security, she started inching closer to Afroman. Oh my god, you guys, she was going to rub her butt on him! Can you believe how crazy she was being!? But then she finally did. Her butt, getting closer and closer to Afroman’s, finally made contact. Afroman reacted like a mousetrap. His right hand came off the guitar strings, formed a fist, and blasted into the intruder’s face.

Afroman went back to playing, disturbingly undisturbed after punching a woman out. A few seconds later, some drunk guy, presumably the disoriented girl’s boyfriend, struggled onto stage. Afroman kept playing, but made it absolutely clear he would be more than happy to fuck up the second entrant into his impromptu gladiator arena. The fan’s disapproving expression quickly changed to the universal gesture for “Whoa, whoa, I’m only here to get this drunk idiot home.” And he did indeed have more important things to worry about, as his drunk, concussed companion was now wandering aimlessly backstage.

It was a bad way to handle a difficult situation placed upon him by a shitty person, but if the world’s worst TV producer created a fight league between drunk women and guitar players twice their size, this would absolutely be the knockout highlight of the year.

Justin Bieber Abandoned His Dog, And His Backup Dancer Had To Pay For Its Surgery

Justin Bieber has a love/hate relationship with animals. He loves getting them and taking pictures with them, and he hates feeding them, taking care of them, and generally keeping them alive. Last year, C.J. Salvador, one of Bieber’s dancers, gave the famously irresponsible singer a puppy. Naturally, it didn’t work out so well. A routine checkup found that the puppy had severe hip dysplasia and may not be able to walk unless an $8,000 procedure was performed. Bieber didn’t want to pay for this, despite that amount literally not registering as money to him, because you should never underestimate a shitty human’s capacity for awfulness.

Justin Bieber“Sorry dude, but you know how many [current fad bullshit item]s I can buy with that?”

Salvador mounted a scrappy fundraising effort for the puppy’s surgery himself. He managed to secure over 90 donors to help Todd the dog walk again, and Bieber’s animal kill count did not grow. “At least for now,” Bieber added from the shadows. “At least for now.”

Vince Neil Body-Slammed a Woman Because She Snubbed Him For Nicolas Cage

As the frontman for Motley Crue, Vince Neil has had many encounters with women. In fact, mathematically speaking, 17 percent of all people reading this have Neil DNA in them, or possibly just on them. But this dude …

Elektra Records

… is well into his 50s now, so you’d think he would have mellowed out some. But no. A couple of years ago in Vegas, a woman was taking a picture with Neil when she saw Nicolas Cage. She screamed, “Nicolas, I love you!” and ran for Cage, abandoning poor Neil for a younger model — a practice he was well used to being on the other side of. Neil did what any insecure, doughy man in eyeliner would do: He grabbed her by the hair and threw her to the ground. We believe it was Archimedes who said, “Give me an innocent lady’s ponytail long enough, and I can assault the world.”

Cage sprung into action. He seized Neil in a wrestler’s clinch and screamed into his ear, “Stop this SHIT! NOW!” Cage isn’t sure what that phrase means, but it’s what his agent says to him every time he attaches himself to a project.

Neil initially deflected the allegations, saying he merely “pushed past her,” but when he realized the offense could land him up to six months in prison, he pleaded guilty. The story has a happy ending, though. Neil was forced to pay a $1,000 fine and agree to six months of not beating up random women for shockingly pathetic reasons. Oh, we meant a happy ending for Vince Neil, not the woman or the concept of justice in general.

Aaron Eckhart Crashed A Support Group For Grieving Parents

Aaron Eckhart, known for his portrayals of Harvey Dent and Sexy Frankenstein, needed to get deep into the emotions of a grieving father for a role. Most actors would consider what they know about sadness and then try to act sad, but Eckart knew it would take more. So he went to a support group for grieving parents and pretended his kid died.

Lionsgate“So in this scene, I’m supposed to have half a face? Well off comes half my face, then!”

We understand every artist has their own ways of working, and maybe faking a dead kid is what he needed to do. But when Eckhart did an interview on Howard Stern’s show, it seemed like he genuinely forgot other people’s for-real kids died.

We learn that when it was his turn to share, Eckhart described his character and broke down in tears, and was then consoled by the group of legitimately bereaved people over the loss of his pretend movie baby. Stern, to his credit, offered Eckhart a lifeline by asking if he later felt bad about doing it. Eckhart did not take the lifeline. In fact, he burned the lifeline and scattered its ashes into the wind. He said, “you really believe that you just lost a child. You are as close to reality in that sense as possible. I don’t want to be rude to people who have lost a child, but yeah, you feel right there. You feel like your character.”

OK, Aaron Eckhart made the reprehensible choice to go into a room with people who had real emotional problems and made them comfort him over a fake dead kid. And he doesn’t feel bad about it. But at least we got the legendary and beloved film Rabbit Hole out of it, right? We all saw and loved … Rabbit Hole? Yeah, it was all worth it for Rabbit Hole.

Greg Tuff has a Twitter, and recommends you check out his friends at Bush Gang Gaming on YouTube. Michael Battaglino is a contributor to Cracked.com. Be sure to check out some of his other work if you enjoyed this article.

Nic Cage has been in some crummy flicks, but he was in a pretty good one already in 2018 called Mom and Dad that’s worth checking out.

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Source: http://allofbeer.com/5-celebrities-who-did-crazy-scummy-and-underreported-stuff/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2018/09/01/5-celebrities-who-did-crazy-scummy-and-underreported-stuff/

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adambstingus · 6 years

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5 Celebrities Who Did Crazy Scummy (And Underreported) Stuff

50 Cent Bullied An Autistic Airline Employee

Effen Vodka“Effen” is, of course, a Dutch children’s game about number guessing. Wait, unless 50 Cent meant it like “Fuckin’ Vodka”? Oh 50, that’s naughty!