Close Behind || Aaron Minyard

40

Naomi hates to admit it but she's a little lonely lately. Neil, and she's so grateful for this, has been making friends with all the upperclassmen. Naomi was still sticking to her sort of relationship with Renee and dutiful barbie doll role with Allison but outside of that she's been with the Monsters.

It makes her a little lonely, because in a room of people only Nicky will open his lori at any given moment. Which Naomi does not want to her.

Maybe that's why she finds herself sitting on the desk that is usually Andrew's when he comes in from one of his classes. The dorm is empty outside of her, it should be entirely empty as she has class and it isn't even her room.

He looks at her for a long second before a grin solid onto his face and he ruffles through his pockets to throw his cigarettes and lighter at her. Naomi catches it and lights up two, and passes him one when he reaches her. "Are you curious about something, Kitty? I think you're in the wrong room."

"I want to understand," Naomi tells him.

"What, pray tell, do you want to understand?" Andrew asks her around the cigarette.

"Aaron."

"How vague." Andrew laughs and holds his cigarette out for a second before waving it close to her face, Naomi doesn't mind. "How strange it is that you think I can help you understand. We are very different people, Naomi Josten. You know that."

"I do," Naomi agrees easily. She finally takes a drag of the cigarette. "To understand Aaron I need to know about things that he is unable to answer the way you can. If I ask about his mother it will be through rose tinted lens, just like when Neil talks about ours. You will be more impersonal."

Andrew hums and smiles larger. He tilts his head and looks over every inch of her, like he's inspecting if she's good enough for this. "You already know she beat him. What more do you need, Kitty? To know how she hooked him on drugs?"

"I want to know about the crash," Naomi says evenly.

"Well, that's almost interesting," Andrew muses to himself. He takes a long drag and watches her for a few seconds before smiling largely again. "What do you want to know?"

"Tell me the story," Naomi tells him. "If I ask one question you'll find a way to leave something out so tell me the whole story."

"Well done, Naomi," Andrew grins at her. He mimes dipping a hat at her for that. "It was a few months after we'd made our deal. She was drunk and thought I was him, she smashed my head into a picture on the wall. That's when I realized she didn't know I wasn't Aaron, and that's when I realized what I had to do to fulfill our deal. One night a week or two later I convinced Aaron to sit my place at some after school thing, we switched places often back then. She came home furious over something and thought I was Aaron just like she was supposed to. We were going to the Hemmicks. There was this one road that was all dirt and had trees just everywhere. She started talking and talking and talking until I snapped. It was too late when she realized which twin she had. I'd already reached across and spun the wheel until it went off the side of the road and hit a tree. I woke up minutes later, saw her body half through the windshield and torn to fuck, knew she was dead and passed out. I woke up in the hospital to Aaron trying not to vomit on me. Weak minded fool."

Naomi watches him for a long time and tries to check his face to make sure it's completely true. The entire story, Andrew's grin had been slowly widening into a massive smile and Naomi knew he was proud of what he'd done.

She doesn't know if he did the right thing, Naomi doesn't think she can pass  judgment either way when the situation has nothing to do with her. Andrew was following the deal, sure, and he was helping Aaron, sure but there's something else.