Free The Neighbors by Ania Ahlborn Page B

Drew raised an eyebrow.
    “Yeah, driving around,” Mick said. “I’ll be right back.” Turning down the hall, he wandered to his room.
    Drew pulled a face, squinting at the television.
    Mickey resurfaced from his room a few minutes later, making a beeline for the fridge. He fished out two cans of beer, cracked one open while tossing the other at Drew. Taking a gulp midstride, Mick shuffled over to the couch and fell into his own personal divot.
    Drew peered at the cold can of beer in his hands, then looked at his housemate, breaking the silence: “Can I get access to the network here? The password, I mean.”
    “The what?”
    Drew leaned forward, snatching his cell phone off the coffee table. “The network,” he repeated, pulling up the settings screen. “I’ve got, like, no service here. Can I log into the wi-fi?” He pointed the phone at Mickey, a network titled “my neighbors suck” highlighted on the screen. “That’s you, I’m assuming.”
    Mickey gulped his beer and peered at the television before offering an unenthusiastic nod.
    “Well, can I have the password? Unless you have a computer I can use.”
    “For what?”
    “Job hunting,” Drew confessed. “I went to, like, nine different places today and wanted to kill myself afterward. Nobody’s hiring.”
    “Then how’s the Internet going to help?”
    Andrew lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “I have to keep looking, right? Unless you’re about to bless me with a lifetime of free rent.”
    “What’s wrong with the classifieds?” Mickey asked, throwing his head back to finish off his beer. Andrew stared at him in childlike fascination while Mick crushed the can in his hand.
    “Seriously?” Drew asked.
    It was Mickey’s turn to scope his roomie out. “Seriously what?”
    “You’re going to make me go buy a newspaper?” Andrew shook his head, looking back to the TV.
    They both sat silently for a long while. Drew chewed his bottom lip. Mick’s refusal to let him access the network was a breach of etiquette; if there was a roommate code, this was certainly a violation of it.
    A minute later, Mickey spoke up, as if sensing what Drew was thinking.
    “I forgot it.”
    Andrew shook his head.
    “The password,” Mickey clarified. “I forgot it. I got hacked and I made it complicated, and I didn’t write the goddamn thing down. Gotta call the cable company,” he said. “It takes, like, an hour to talk to anyone.”
    Drew furrowed his eyebrows at his phone.
    “I’ll do it later,” Mickey murmured.
    “Don’t worry about it,” he said grudgingly, but he hoped that Mickey
would
worry about it.
    They both went silent again, watching a Swiffer commercial as though it were entertainment gold.
    “You know they can see that, right?”
    Mickey glanced over to Drew.
    “The network,” Drew told him. “What you named it.”
    Mick offered the TV an intent look, and Drew felt that kernel of distrust wiggle at the pit of his stomach. Harlow had warned him, however vaguely, and the more time he spent with Mickey the more he was starting to believe that there was something to her advice. Perhaps that was why nobody had complained to the city about the state of Mick’s house; maybe the people on Magnolia were scared of what he would do in response. Andrew watched his roommate out of the corner of his eye, trying to get a feel of what sort of danger Mickey could pose; what kind of criminal he could possibly be. But Drew couldn’t very well ask him what his deal was. He’d have to wait it out, pick up on clues, piece it together himself. Or maybe he’d use it as another excuse to see Harlow; if Mick got too weird, he’d go to her for advice.
    “You aren’t worried that it’ll piss them off?”
    “Piss what off?”
    “The Wards,” Drew said. “Isn’t it better to try to stay on good terms with the neighbors instead of, I don’t know...” He shrugged. “Telling them they suck? What’s wrong with them, anyway?”
    Mickey glared at the