Close Behind || Aaron Minyard

20

A few days later Naomi is sleeping peacefully when someone knocks on the door. Maybe it was her fault for going to bed at nine in the night but did people have to except her to be awake?

She doesn't get up to answer the door because the other girls were all still up and watching a movie or something. She also doesn't move in bed, just closes her eyes and silent curses Seth for knocking so loudly.

"Absolutely fucking not!" Dans voice cuts into her sleep.

Naomi groans and rolls forward to look at the wall. Of course she couldn't just go back to fucking sleep. She pushes her blankets off her body and pulls a sweater shirt on before wandering out.

In the door way Dan is violently tearing into Andrew, who looks so bored he might just fall asleep. He probably will, Naomi winces, he's sober and that usually means a crash.

"She isn't going anywhere with you," Dan says fiercely. The other girls all watch for a second, Renee and Naomi move to the door at the same time. "You already have Neil, you don't need both."

"Night practice?" Renee asks, question pointed at Andrew. He nods in return and she smiles broadly at him. "I'm glad Kevin approves. Dan, if she wants to go that is entirely her choice. Maybe Naomi would like to join her brother."

"Join him, where?" Naomi asks tiredly. Riddles. It's too late for those.

"Kevin practices at the court in the dead of night like a fucking weirdo. He's been bringing Neil for a few days now," Dan seethes, still glaring at Andrew.

"And why is Andrew here?" She asks, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

"Kevin says you're coming, too," Andrew speaks up, finally, to tell her. His only looking at her when he speaks. "Hurry up. He won't wait much longer."

He didn't say anything else, just nodded at Naomi probably already knowing her answer. and left. She watched him walk down the hallway and turned back into her room, they'd wait a minute or two for her surely.

She moved around Dan and into the bedroom to change and make sure she was fine to go, not that there was much for her to worry about.

Naomi walked out as she was braiding her hair back Dan gaped at her. "Youre not seriously going with them?"

"I am," Naomi said firmly.

"You said you weren't part of their group."

"I'm not," she agreed.

She didn't give Dan anymore time to say anything else before dashing out of the dorm and down the hall for the stairs.

As quickly as she went she was able to catch up to Andrew's slow pace in the lobby, he'd probably done that on purpose knowing him. She ways her hand by the side of his face and he nods to her.

They walk together a little slower, ambling toward the car. She sees Kevin sitting, already annoyed, in the front seat and Neil just watching from the back. She gages his reaction, waiting for him to be confused or upset, but he just smiles slightly at her.

Naomi thinks the best part about being the only girl in this little section of the team is that they all give her unwavering privacy and Kevin can't walk into the locker room to yell at her. It's the little things.

It gives her plenty of time to change, genuinely takes her time. Maybe she even goes extra solo just to piss off Kevin. She'd never admit to that, though. Well, maybe to the twins.

When they get on the court Kevin starts them with doing laps, Neil and Naomi match his pace and grin at each other when they barely start breathing heavy at the pace. Then they do intervals for a while, which are equally as easy for Naomi because Dan makes her and Allison do those a lot.