Close Behind || Aaron Minyard

11

A while later Naomi is sitting on the ground between the bean bags, in front of Kevin and Nicky, while reading a book Andrew had thrown at her some time ago. She hadn't even noticed him leaving between reading and listening to Kevin commentating the game he was watching.

She noticed him come back, though.

Andrew walks in and slams his door, it makes both Naomi and Kevin jump as the sound hits every corner of the room.

He stomps over with a too large smile and drops down in front of Naomi and stares at her for a long time. Then Andrew starts laughing and grabs the book out of her hands, throwing it somewhere else.

Naomi flinches back away from him and collides with Kevin's legs, he reaches out a hand and grabs her shoulder. "Andrew, is something wrong?"

"Kitty, Kitty, Kitty," he drawls. Andrew inches closer to her, Naomi keeps her eyes locked on his hands and not his face, her own going to her pocket. "You forgot to tell me something."

"You forgot to ask me," Naomi says defiantly.

Andrew breaks out laughing and Naomi grips her fingers around the knife in her pocket, Kevin's grip on her shoulder grows even tighter.

"Andrew, seriously," Nicky says from her left. "You're going to have to be less confusing."

"Quiet, Nicky, this is between me and the cat."

Naomi stares at his hand, her grip in her pocket going tight enough her hand feels like it's been etched with the grip tape. Andrew keeps looking at her and she tries not to flinch, to seem as unaffected as possible.

"Either tell her what she did or leave her alone," Aaron says harshly.

Her eyes snap up to where Aaron has come from the kitchenette and is stalking the edge of whatever's happening. His eyes are hard on Andrew, he looks tense. Aaron looks at her briefly and he almost seems concerned.

"Neil has a very interesting set of papers in his bug out baggy," Andrew says with a vicious smile. Naomi snaps her head at that, eyes going wide and unable to stop them. "He's a little fanatic. There's some paper, I wonder where it came from? Is there something I should know?"

Naomi looks him in the eye, hides her fear that mounting, and nods a little. She looks over at Aaron and Nicky, trying to shoo them away.

Before she has a chance to say anything the door to the dorm is pushed up, Andrew jumps to his feet and Naomi follows after him.

Everyone else in the room goes completely stiff and look at Neil. He looks absolutely pissed, eyes only on Andrew for a few seconds before glancing at Naomi. She nods her head a little, barely noticeable.

"Try again, Neil. You've got the wrong room!" Andrew says.

"We locked that," Aaron mutters in German, he's starting at Naomi and she thinks he's maybe even talking to her.

"Last I checked," Nicky responds, trying to not look nervous. "Hey, sounds like Matt's back. Did you meet Dan and Renee?"

"Neil," Naomi says, quietly, trying to get his attention.

She tries to shake her head at him, but his eyes grow even more furious at whatever he finds on her face. Naomi flinches a little at the look, out of instinct, had his eyes been blue she'd be having a full blown panic attack at this point.

"Stay out of my things," Neil snaps in french, eyes on Kevin. She frowns at him, for picking that language when they knew the cousins spoke in German. "The next time someone goes where they don't belong, they'll regret it."