Close Behind || Aaron Minyard

35

Exy had never had been the same thrill for Naomi as it was for her brother, but watching him play was something that reminded her she was alive. He puts all of himself on the court, every single one of his twenty two names. If everyone played like Neil, maybe she'd love it, maybe even Andrew would like it.

Still, she started distancing herself from the sport the more it felt like a noose. It started with her not watching games with Kevin during the day. Then she stopped taking notes at practice. By the end of it, Naomi was only showing up for night practice every other day.

Playing served as a reminder to her of what was to come and how it would end. Her blood on Riko's hands forever. It's all Naomi thought of every time she stepped on the court.

So she tried to spend more time off of it. Naomi worked her way into avoiding the girls during most of the days because they could tell something was wrong. Renee was naturally good like that, Dan was captain for a reason and Allison saw her as a clone. Naomi wouldn't be able to fool them so she stayed away instead.

Both of those things started pushing her and Neil apart slowly. It was going against everything their mother had ever taught them but Naomi couldn't get herself to fix any one part of it.

She was tired. Who knew being eighteen was so much work?

It figures, though, the most difficult age of her life is the one she never expected to reach. The one she'd silently been desperately trying to see. Naomi hates things like that. Irony.

Naomi spent time with Aaron and Nicky, who were more than alright being allowed someone new to talk to. Even if she was stoic a lot of the time and had no idea what they were saying. Apparently it was better than Kevin's annoyed silence and Andrew's drugged mocking. Besides, they probably had been used to that apathy Andrew had before the drugs. Stoicism must be nothing for them.

Between her classes one Tuesday she was sitting on the couch across from Aaron doing her chemistry work, he was bouncing between his own biology something and helping her.

After a few minutes she got fed up and closed the book. Naomi leaned back and just watched as Aaron wrote notes about some model. He didn't look up at her. "Staring."

"You're more entertaining than valence electrons."

"Not hard to beat," Aaron says with a grin. He looks up at her and leans back a little as well. "You're better at chemistry than you think."

Naomi shrugged and sat back forward, her arms on her knees. "I don't need to be great at it. I'm an english major. You're great at it, though."

"Well, I have to be," Aaron reminds her with an easy going grin. "I'm a pre med major."

"Big Doctor," Naomi mutters. He laughs at her and she looks up at him with a smile. "Bet you'll wish you took english when you're doing 48 hour shifts as an intern."

"I'm sure I'll hate it," Aaron agrees, but he doesn't look that upset at the idea of it. He leans back in to talk to her. "Will you write a book? Become a teacher?"

"I'd like to write a book, sure," Naomi says easily. She shrugs. Aaron nods at her to say more and she sighs. "It would be good, I think, to write about the kind of stuff the Foxes deal with. Even if it's fiction and made up people, there's probably plenty of kids who would benefit from seeing that they aren't the only ones."