The blade from the scissors slices a fine line across the tip of his finger and Neil lets out a hiss at the stinging pain that follows.  

He waits a bit, examining the cut, and his brows furrow when blood begins to bead along the line of split skin. A noncommittal sound escapes him and he holds the finger up in the air, ignoring the bleeding in favor of finishing up the box he's working on. Pulling a long strip of tape over the top to seal it, he shifts awkwardly, trying to use the same offending scissors to cut the end off with only one available hand. It takes some uncomfortable maneuvering but he manages.

Satisfied with his handy work, he pushes to his feet and prioritizes the cut that now leaves a trail of red from the tip of his finger to his knuckle. He runs it under the sink and scrubs away all traces of blood, head swiveling left and right to try and spot something around him that he could use as a makeshift bandage. Knowing he packed the first aid kit in one of the other boxes, he decides a paper towel will do and pulls a sheet from the roll to wrap around his finger.

As he stands there, applying pressure to the cut in hopes of making it clot so he could continue working, he takes a moment to observe the interior of his apartment. There isn’t much furniture, the most notable thing being a scruffy red couch in the main living area. Piles of different items sit atop the cushions while a few boxes lay scattered about the floor. Overall, it looked empty.

“Everything alright?” A head peeks out from his bedroom, a curtain of blonde hair swishing in the air at the motion.

“Yeah, just didn’t put my finger in the right place when cutting the tape.” Neil informs, wiggling his finger with the large white bulb of paper towel wrapped around it.

She pushes off the door frame and goes over to a leather bag sagging over on the coffee table. Neil watches on as she rummages through it, tongue sticking out in concentration. He raises a brow when she lifts the whole thing, shakes it a few times, and drops it back on the table before resuming her digging.

“Hang on, I got just the thing. I’ve always got- aha!” She calls out triumphantly, pulling out a single packaged band aid. She holds it in the air like it’s an item blessed by the heavens and gestures for him to come over.

Neil steps over a precariously placed box and moves as she directs him. He unwraps the paper towel as she peels back the packaging, giving her his finger once it’s free of its makeshift bandage. She swiftly replaces it with a band aid covered in tiny cartoon crocodiles. He grimaces, pulling his hand back to investigate the expressions on each one.

“Really, Dinah? Crocodiles?” He gripes, distancing his finger from his face and squinting. It’s almost uncomfortably tight, but at least it does the job.

“Yes, Neil. Crocodiles. They’re cool and I like them.” She shuffles her bag around and then pushes it away, turning to face him with a hand perched on her hip. “And you should be grateful I used my very limited supplies to take care of your injury.”

“Do you have any idea how many people crocodiles kill per year?”

Dinah groans, turning around to pick up one of the boxes on the floor.

“Not this again.”

“Like, over one thousand. That's a lot of people. You could’ve given me any other animal, but no, it had to be crocodiles. And what are you talking about, ‘limited supplies.’" Neil rants, making air quotes that makes the band aid tighten around his finger as it flexes. "you always have more band aids on you than you know what to do with.”

“Don’t apply your irrational fears of crocodiles onto my very cool band aids.” She hefts the box with a grunt, shifting her hold on it. “Help me move this.”

Neil snorts, but takes the box from her grip, dipping at the sudden weight in his arms. He carries it to the front door and places it there as Dinah continues to speak behind him.

“And I have to be the one carrying first aid supplies. Heaven knows you won’t. And it’s just my luck that almost all my friends are accident prone.”

“I don’t know what you mean, I have never done anything to get myself hurt, ever.” Neil reenters the room again and makes eye contact with a glaring Dinah whose arms are crossed.

They hold fast for a few minutes, Dinah’s glower against Neil’s deadpan, before her cheeks puff out. Neil feels his nose twitch and his lips go from a straight line to being pursed. They only last like that for another second before laughter bubbles out of their mouths. Dinah ends up folding in half, hands clutching at her stomach while Neil presses his bandaged hand to his mouth, throwing his head back in an attempt to swallow down the laughter.

“Hoo, ha, oh my gosh. Oh that hurts, ow my stomach.” Dinah huffs out between breaths. She straightens back up and a series of cracks and pops ripple up her spine, almost completely diffusing any last traces of the giggle fit. She hums, stretching her arms above her head and visually relishing in the solid crack that follows. “Ooh, but that felt better.”

Neil calms down as well, placing a hand over his stomach where a cramp pinches at his side from laughing.

“I bet it did. Maybe we’re due for a break.” He suggests, passing his eyes over the room once more. They were almost done anyways, a second to relax should be fine.

“Aw, heck yeah!” She wastes no time in flopping onto the couch, shoving miscellaneous items out of her way to make room for her feet as she fully drapes herself over it. "By the way, I know I never really asked but, what made you want to move out so soon? I thought you liked this place?”

The amusement on Neil’s face falters as he sits down in one of the kitchen chairs. He tries not to let his gaze linger on the items that were pushed onto the floor. Most of all, he tries not to think about how he got each of them.

“I thought it was time.” He shrugs. “The drive is a pain and I’ve been thinking of getting a place closer to campus anyway.”

What he fails to say is how this apartment was something he and Kash bought together. A place meant to be for the two of them once Kash was in a better situation to move in with him. How everything in here has been touched by him in some way, reflecting a memory or fragment of a potential future. How everywhere he looks, all he can see is a bag of trash tossed into a dumpster and a phone laying face down on the concrete.

Dinah nods, folding her arms behind her head. “That makes sense, but why stay with me? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I totally don’t mind having you as a roommate until you find a new place. But why stay with me and not Kash?”

“Right. Kash.” Neil gives her a smile that looks more like a grimace. “I don’t want to bother him right now, what with his whole project and all.” The words border on a venomous hiss.

Instantly Dinah is squinting at him, sitting up out of her comfortable position. She places a finger to her chin and looks over him like a curator appraising an exhibit at a museum. He leans back subconsciously, shifting in his seat while her eyes bore into him.

“You two had a fight.”

Neil takes a deep inhale and waves her off. “We didn’t fight, don’t worry.” He forces the curve of his lips to be more natural and pleasant looking. It doesn’t matter that none of what he’s trying to sell isn’t reaching his eyes. White lies.

Sure he caught his boyfriend cheating on him, and only further proved it when he went on the date, but they haven’t fought. Of course they haven’t, because Neil hasn’t confronted Kash on anything yet. Despite having every reason to break up with him, he hasn’t. As a matter of fact, since that one date a week ago, he hasn’t spoken to Kash at all. And Kash, likely busy with his own… business, hasn’t reached out to him either.

It isn’t because Neil plans to go on pretending nothing happened. It’s because he has no idea what he should do. Obviously break up with him, but then what? What happens after that? He’s dedicated so much of his time, so much of his heart to Kash. Now every time he thinks of the inevitable moment when everything ends, when he hears the truth from the man he loves- loved- and finds out that all those years were nothing but a waste. Well… it’s easier not to think about it. Easier to do this.

Easier to just run away.

“Mhm. You totally didn’t fight. And the fight that totally didn’t happen wasn’t obviously a really nasty one.” She replies, voice dripping with sarcasm and looking unconvinced. Neil lets out a heavy sigh.

“We really didn’t, I swear.”

“Neil, you do realize that you are a terrible liar.”

“What do you mean?! I'm not lying!” Neil groans. “I actually don’t know what else to tell you.”

“Mhm, mhm.” She nods a few times then fixes him with a piercing look. “So everything on the couch, the pile of things that you said were the ‘things to sell’ pile, isn’t a whole bunch of things that Kash got you at some point in time.”

He freezes and she goes in for the kill.

“Even the blanket!” She reaches over and picks up a rumpled, gray blanket bunched up on the armrest. “Isn’t this the exact same blanket that he got you for your birthday last year? You know, the one you wrapped yourself in religiously every time I came over and wouldn’t shut up about for weeks?”

“I… I… that…” His mouth opens and closes, gaping like a fish, until he finally trails off, the words leaving him. She watches the way his entire body seems to sag and his head lowers to stare at the crocodile band aid on his finger.

Dinah puts the blanket back in its spot and gets up, going over to stand beside them. Gently, she places a hand on his shoulder and tilts her head to get a better look at his face.

“Hey… we’re friends. You know you can tell me anything.” She says carefully.

“Yeah… yeah, I know. It’s uh… it’s just a little too much for me to think about right now.” Neil slowly lifts his head to meet her eyes. A clear, crystalline blue that holds nothing but genuine care and concern looks back at him. “I will tell you, I promise, eventually. Once I’ve got my head in a better place.”

A beat of silence passes between them and the hand on his shoulder lightly squeezes.

“I’ll be here when that time comes. Even if it never does, I’ll still be here for you. No matter what.”

“Thank you. I-… I’m lucky to have a friend like you.” Neil smiles at her, small but soft. The corners of his eyes start to burn when her hand slips off his shoulder and is pressed to her sternum.

“Of course you are, I’m a gift from the heavens.” Dinah uses her other hand to flick her hair back, a shower of golden strands flaring out behind her before settling into place.

“We were having a moment and you just ruined it. You ruined the moment.”

“Yeah, well, it was getting way too wholesome and I’m allergic to intimacy.” Neil can’t help but snicker, the smile on his face only widening while Dinah gets a bright grin of her own. “Let’s get back to work then, shall we?”

“We shall.” Neil huffs out in amusement, standing up as she walks away.

While Dinah disappears back into his room to get the smaller and lighter boxes, determined to get those into the car herself, Neil focuses on filling up the last, unopened box in the main area. It’s when he’s reaching for a mug on the coffee table that’s wrapped in one of his old tee shirts that he sees the glowing screen of his phone sitting just beside it. He grabs the device instead, unlocking the screen to check the notification.

It takes him to his email inbox, just spam from a pizza place he regulars about a deal related to drinks and brownies. However, he finds his thumb hovering over the email below it. The trip to Vegas. The city of second chances.

Before he can talk himself out of anything, he swipes out of his email and pulls up his contacts, dialing his advisor. The phone only rings twice before the line clicks and a deep voice echoes a 'hello' from the other end.

“It’s Neil. I wanted to talk about the department trip to Nevada.”