Close Behind || Aaron Minyard

36

As October comes tumbling along Naomi tries to keep breathing every time she wakes up. The reminders of being on a court with Riko come to her more frequently, like hot flashes in the Arctic.

She knows, logically, that playing against the Ravens is hopelessly and will probably turn out to be not nearly as bad as what happened at the banquet, but Naomi still feels completely off kilter.

It's been nearly a week now of avoiding Kevin with a level of skill that Naomi thinks should be taught to everyone in the universe.

Regretfully she's been skipping night practices, and Naomi is probably getting worse skill wise again but at least she's still doing that wrist movement crap without noticing. It'll count for something when she can finally stomach being near Kevin again, right?

After morning practice and going to their psychology lesson together, Naomi convinced Aaron to skip the rest of their classes for the day. He'd been extremely put out at her suggestion of it but when he'd taken a second to see how little Naomi was holding it together, he agreed.

They managed to convince Katelyn to come back to the dorms with them. It took a little work, Naomi suffering through texting Neil and Nicky to make sure Andrew was out being coucko for coco puffs somewhere else.

Naomi's plan when they got back was to ditch and spend time in her dorm doing homework, because she still didn't fully believe there was nothing between Aaron and Katelyn no matter what they said. Except of course that doesn't work out.

As soon as she reaches the door Katelyn grabs her by the arms and forces her back into the living area. Naomi falls into a bean bag and Aaron sits on the couch to do work.

They sit all together and chat but it's mostly just the three of them being around together. Naomi doesn't understand any of it but she doesn't have time to worry about it.

Katelyn is busying herself by weaving ribbons into Naomi's hair like she always does. This time she's making five of them at the top of her head, they're tight and don't go all the way through her hair. When they're all done they get pulled into a ponytail with the rest of her hair.

"What do you think, Aaron?" Katelyn asks.

He looks up from where he was mumbling to her about stuff in a text book from their shared classes. When Aaron sees Naomi he freezes a little. "Good. Yeah."

Katelyn chuckles at him and looks down at Naomi like they both know something but Naomi doesn't get it still. "I think I should use another ribbon around the hair tie. Like a cute little bow."

"Do what you want," Naomi agrees.

This time, Aaron watches as Katelyn adds the bow around her hair tie. His face is a little red so Naomi graciously doesn't look over at him, because she is just so kind.

"Better," Katelyn confirms. She puts her hands on her hips and looks over her work.

"Thanks," Naomi says lightly.

"What're friends for?" Katelyn jokes.

She's pushing stuff back into her bag and Naomi turns around slowly to look at her with a confused face. Sure, Naomi had decided that her and Katelyn would be friends if anyone asked— for Aaron's sake.

But are they really?

"Are we?" She asks quietly.

Katelyn stops and looks at her with a confused smile, she looks over Naomi's face before nodding gently and smiling more. "If you want to be."

"Yes," Naomi says without thinking much.

It makes Katelyn smile more. She puts her hand on Naomi's shoulder and squeezes it gently, probably the only thing refraining from hugging Naomi too tightly.