inhale, kevin day.

xvi. some kind of disaster

chapter sixteen
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She was leaning against her motorcycle, arms crossed as Matt's truck came into view and he stepped out, along with Dan and Renee. Maeve and Dan greeted each other as they always did, her with a struggling smile and Maeve by dipping her chin in acknowledgment of her presence, both for Matt's sake. This time around Renee didn't hesitate and she stepped forward, arms wrapping around her waist.

     "Loved the new playlist." She exclaimed.

     "Yours too." Maeve hesitantly patted her shoulder while counting to ten before pulling back, she'd definitely reached her limit on hugs for one day.

     Matt already had an arm around Dan, but reached over to tug at a chunk of her hair, a 'hey' on his tongue when she noticed the conflict behind his eyes and asked what had happened.

He looked to Dan before sighing and going on to explain the hallway fight that had broken out between Kevin and Neil, followed by his intervention. From what they could gather, Neil had been the instigator and definitely had more secrets than they knew what to do with. Now Dan was even more freaked out because she didn't know how to mediate between a group of strangers she had no choice but to call teammates and their latest addition to the team.

     "Said it was a "difference of opinions"." Matt shook his head.

"Yeah, that spells bullshit with a capital 'B'." Maeve rolled her eyes. She wanted to hear the other side of the story, but she couldn't really approach Kevin when she had no idea what it was that they were doing and whether it'd continue past summer break.

Sure, just that morning they'd been making out in her bed before anyone else woke up, but from the very beginning she'd been the one to draw the line between them and say their hookups would change nothing for the upcoming school year. She'd be a hypocrite to go to him now and say that she changed her mind because she wanted the scoop on Neil, who she'd also been rejecting from the start.

On one hand, hearing of the animosity between Neil and the group was strange, considering they'd been not quite chummy, but close enough to it before they'd moved from Abby's and Coach's to Fox Tower. Then again, their initial meeting with him had Andrew stealing his breath with a racquet and Kevin basically calling his opinions irrelevant. And then there was her, telling him that he was a nobody going nowhere and calling him some kind of disaster.

The trio made their way inside and she stayed.

It was less than five minutes before Nicky was speeding into the lot and parking their car on the other side of Maeve's bike. She turned around as doors opened and closed.

Andrew merely raised an eyebrow, and she switched over to his beloved German.

"You got your turn with him."

He clucked his tongue with a slight shake of his head,"So dramatic." Still, no further explanation was needed and he motioned with two fingers for the rest of the group to go on inside before giving Neil the laziest shove in her direction,"Careful, I don't like sharing."

She switched back to English,"Sucks to suck. Leave."

When he finally did walk away, she faced Neil, who rolled his eyes,"Feeling a lot like the monkey in the middle, what do you want?"

"To ask you a question." She shrugged,"A simple one, yes or no will suffice for an answer— do you have a death wish, Neil?"

He stood upright,"What?"