Close Behind || Aaron Minyard

19

On Sunday, after spending the entire morning ignoring Andrew's group pointedly, Naomi huffs and leaves her room. Dan calls after her but she just gives a curt goodbye and walks into the hallway.

She stops in front of the door and hesitates before knocking a few seconds later. The door opens pretty timely and Nicky is on the other side, his grin falls away.

"Hey, Naomi."

"Nicky," she greets blankly. She gives him a curt nod and pushes into the room, ignoring that he might try to stop her. Andrew is sat on the desk with a mostly blank face, Kevin and Aaron are half watching the tv. "Hello, Minyards and company."

"Kitty came crawling back," Andrew says, his voice is pitched which means he's not fully high yet. He looks over at the couch with a large grin. "I told you, brother dearest, she doesn't scare easily. Black cat, all dubious."

"I will hit you again," Naomi says lightly. He laughs and she ignores it. She saunters into the room and falls down on an empty bean bag. They're all looking at her. She grins and looks at Aaron. "What? Miss me, liebling?"

He flinches a little and looks over to Andrew, who's laughed again. "You speak German?"

"I know how to use google," Naomi says instead of actually answering. It's a lie, sure, but only because she didn't answer his question.

Nicky and Aaron both seem to stare a little bit at her, but Andrew is still laughing quietly from the window.

Kevin glares over at him, seems to think about chucking a pillow or something, but then turns back to Naomi. "Are they allowing you around us?"

"They don't tell me what to do," she says with a shrug. She focuses her attention back on the game they were watching. "Renee knows where I am."

"Paragon Saint," Aaron mutters.

"Only through repenting," Naomi scolds him.

She glares at the tv instead of looking at him, there are a lot of things she lets people around her getaway with. Mocking Renee won't be one of them, they all wished to be half as strong as her.

They don't fight, or at least Aaron doesn't, when she pointedly begins watching last years semi finals between the Trojans and Breckenridge.

One team is obviously better than the other, and one team obviously cares less about that fact.

Jeremy Knox, California golden boy with hair brighter than his smile. Current captain of the Trojans. He plays like it's his favorite thing ever, like not even the disgusting play of Jackals can ruin it for him.

She's a little envious of how much fun he can have. Naomi hasn't had fun like that in years. Even if she enjoys Exy, she doesn't love it like that. It's Neil's thing and she loves Neil so she likes Exy.

Maybe she loves reading, maybe she just feels comfortable between the pages of a book. Does she have something she loves that much? Probably not. She probably doesn't deserve something like that, anyway.

"See how their defensive dealer joins the attack?" Kevin points to the screen, breaking her from her thoughts. "He only does it when the defense pushes high. Don't do that. Join every time you know you have enough energy to get back."

"I run a four and half minute mile, can do a marathon and still not be tired," Naomi says blankly. Kevin looks over at her with a withering stare, she ignores the startled looks from the cousins. "I play dealer for a reason, Kevin."

"Shut up or I'll stop helping you," Kevin snaps at her.

Naomi groans and throws her head back without thinking. "It's not like I'll ever be court anyways. Who cares? Put your energy into someone who wants it. Like Neil. He's better than..."