𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞, nelson neumann

three'

Reflections
we were too close to the stars, I never knew somebody like you

the time was 10:14 pm, kai and the twins had accompanied rwe at the rental house per cam's invitation which they obviously accepted.

while everyone was inside engaging in conversation, elena sat outside on a lounge chair by the pool. can you guess what she was doing? arguing with devin.

the boy had seen multiple clips from the game of nelson and her talking. to say he wasn't happy was an understatement.

the boy blew up her phone. he wanted answers and he wanted them immediately. elena tried explaining to him countless times that it was a harmless conversation, but he didn't believe it.

"I'm your boyfriend, I know other boys' intentions." was a common saying of his. it bothered elena, why couldn't she just have friends without it being a problem?

as she pressed send on a very long paragraph, she hears the backdoor, meaning someone had walked outside. elena raises her head to see nelson.

the girl couldn't help but sigh, she has nothing against the boy, but it's hard to interact with someone when they're partly the reason your boyfriend is mad at you.

nelson takes a seat on the chair next to her. "are you okay? why aren't you inside with everyone else?"

elena sets her phone on the table that stood between them. the only piece of furniture separating their chairs. "I just like sitting outside when it's nighttime."

which wasn't fully a lie, she did love to sit outside. It helped calm her mind. but in this situation, she just didn't want the boys to see her arguing with devin yet again. it had become a regular thing, which they were tired of.

nelson made a mental note of her words, he wanted to learn more about her. "can't argue with that, it's peaceful out here."

he follows elena's actions and looks up at the sky. staring into space, literally.

"did you have fun coaching today?" she asks, breaking the silence. nelson nodded, "yeah, I wish I could play though, you know?"

a vibration sound comes from elena's phone, meaning someone texted her. she ignores it, knowing it would backfire on her but she was just enjoying the moment.

nelson notices and speaks up. "ej, your phone." she puts her hand out to say it's fine. "it's okay."

"but back to you, did you feel bad about not playing?" ej  continues, reverting the attention back to him.

the boy thinks for a couple seconds, debating on whether he should open up to the girl. did he really trust her after barely meeting that same day? yes, yes he did.

"well yeah, I always do. but if I go in the game and don't score as much as the fans want me to, then I automatically suck and i'm the worst player. that's how they think and I don't get it sometimes."

elena took in the boys words. giving advice was her thing, it was a trait everyone noticed about her and appreciated. she now was going to help nelson too.

"I don't think you should listen to what they think. at the end of the day, you know yourself better than they do."
she turns to look at him for a split second, he was genuinely listening to her.

"and feeling like you underperformed doesn't make you any less of a good player. if you do good then they're gonna say it's glazing, if you don't score as much then they're gonna say you suck. and that's just the way it is, but you just have to focus on your skill, not other people's opinions on it."

that night nelson gained a new admiration for the girl, the way she understood him and was quick to motivate him was a new experience. of course he had his family, cam, and lavar. but to meet a girl who didn't just want to get with him right away was rare, and he found it in her.

the next day, kai dropped off the twins at a private gym while he went to film an interview. he insisted they come with but of course the siblings couldn't go a day without practicing so they declined.

the twins took turns catching eachother's rebounds. "I know devin got mad about nelson." emren told his sister as he threw the ball back to her.

"it was whatever." elena shot from the free throw line, she avoided eye contact with him. she wasn't the type to open up to people, especially about her relationship.

on very rare occasions she has and will, but only to emren. though, this argument was not one of those occasions.

"you can tell me ej" emren encouraged the girl, he stopped passing her the ball and just held it in his hands. "you always say it's okay to not be okay but it's not okay to let it bottle up inside you."

elena fought the urge to roll her eyes. she hated when people used her own advice against her. "yeah but you're not bottling it up if you're using basketball to let everything out." she informed him matter of factly.

she held her hands up signaling for him to throw the ball now. emren shook his head disappointed, he threw the ball back, annoyed by his twin's mindset at the moment.

elena felt bad. she didn't mean to shut him out, but some things are just better left unsaid. she didn't think devin would be mad for that long, so she decided to just let this small disagreement fall off.

emren, on the other hand, felt left out. in his eyes, ej changed. she used to be one of those girls that always put herself out there, joking and laughing with everyone.

and she still was that girl, but devin dimmed her light. she became closed off, often leaving emren in the dark. emren didn't like that. and he noticed really quickly that it only began when her and devin started getting bad.

all of the people closest to her acknowledged it as well. if they tried to say something, she always brushed them off. elena knew better, but right now, she knew nothing.

it went from her doing whatever she wanted to worrying if devin would get mad. from her being friends with whoever to cutting people off because devin told her so.

emren liked devin as his friend, but he didn't like devin as elena's boyfriend.

an:
someone save this girl 😪