physiotherapy | awsten knight

16: sleep alone

November 25th, 3 weeks before the incident

Scoring baskets, Awsten won due to his obvious height advantage over the 10-year-old, but that only made Zizi more eager to beat him.

He taught her two different techniques to outplay defense that he remembered from his limited days as a basketball player. Surprisingly, he had to admit that she picked them up fairly quickly and she ended up tricking him a couple of times.

May, who had been watching the scene unfold, turned to Cosima, "He is cute, you didn't even tell me you had a boyfriend."

Cosima blushed and hid herself behind her glass of Sprite, "Because he is not..."

May's facial expression went from confused to disapproving, "Don't tell me you guys are friends with benefits... Cosima! That's so sad, the guy is so cute!"

Cosima choked on her drink as soon as the words left May's mouth and she swatted her sister's shoulder.

"No! I'm not sleeping with him!", she spoke in a hushed tone to prevent Awsten from overhearing her.

"Ow!", May exclaimed and held the spot that Cosima hit, "No reason to get violent with me. What did you expect everyone to think when you bring a guy along to a wedding?"

Cosima adverted her eyes and glued them to the bottom of her glass, "Nothing, I just thought it would be fun.", she muttered.

"Yeah, whatever. I'm pretty sure everyone else here thinks you guys are a thing.", May chuckled humourlessly and tried to remake eye contact with her younger sister.

"Well, that's not my problem.", Cosima avoided looking at May and focused her attention on the three people entering the backyard.

It was her cousin Joriz and his parents. She was glad to see them, and even though Joriz could sometimes get on her nerves, he was a welcomed distraction at that moment.

Her 19-year old cousin was greeting everyone cheerily and he walked over to Cosima holding a smug grin.

"Ah! Not you! When are you leaving again?", he asked sarcastically as he held her head in a headlock and his sweaty hand ruffled her hair.

Joriz had always acted like an older brother towards Cosima, even though he was literally four years younger than her.

"Ouch! You're such a brute. I don't think I'm leaving early enough, considering you're here.", she pushed him away from her and he tripped over his feet at the force.

From across the yard, Awsten was watching the whole encounter and Zizi took advantage of his distraction and filched the basketball from his hands.

"That's Joriz, I think he's accidentally gonna kill Aunt Cosima one day. They say that he almost did it when they were small.", she told him.

"I'm gonna go say Hi to him, okay?", Awsten said to the girl and she promptly dropped the ball to the ground to come with him.

Joriz was about to sit down directly next to Cosima, but she tried holding him off, "Look, that seat's taken! Awsten's back!", she argued.