The King And His Nerd. #1

chapter 7

As the three of us chat happily, my phone rings. I grab my phone and answer.

"Hey Ian, Ellie wants Naomi to come over, so i was wondering if maybe we could practice a bit at the park," Axel asks me, noise gently coming from the background.

"Dude we already agreed to help you practice for the tournament. Leo is at my house so he is basically coming whether he wants to or not." I chuckle as Leo shoots me a dirty look. I stand up and stretch. Naomi looks at me excitedly, knowing what's about to happen. I just smile and nod, and she races away to grab her things. I hang up the call and sigh.

"Welp, let's go i guess. Emily if you want to come with that fine. Since you probably don't want a guy touching your lady things, I asked Naomi to wash your clothes, so they're folded up, on the dryer in that room." I tell her. She shoots me a grateful smile and shuffles off into the direction I pointed. I slip my shoes on, Leo and Naomi follows in suit. Emily walks back into the room, fully clothed. She slips on her shoes.

"I'm stuck with you guys. I don't know when mom gets off of work, so the house isn't unlocked," she tells me. i just nod. I start up the truck after we hop in, and i drive towards Springfield park. I park the truck and head out. We meet Axel and his sister. The two eleven-year-old girls, dash off towards the swings, after getting permission. I walk up to the net, and Leo is stationed beside me. We practice sets and tosses for a while, until Isaac shows up. Axel starts the actual game, as he serves the ball, slapping it across the court. Before the ball can fly over my head, i smack the ball in Isaac's direction. The game steadily gets more intense. The ball goes off the net and beans Leo in the face. We try so hard to continue playing, but our laughter prevents it, as we keep busting out in laughter every time we see Leo's face. Emily watches from the sidelines. After an hour of intense playing, we take a break. I take a drink from a bottle of water that was left in my truck. I walk back to the court and wait for Axel to begin again. Out of the corner of my eye, i see a flash of red hair, just like Naomi's. I whip around. I recognize the young woman climbing out of a taxi.

"Mom!" I blurt, tripping over my own feet. Everyone looks in the direction I'm looking in. I glance back at Naomi and see her watching me. I jog toward the middle-aged woman nervously.

'Will she recognize me?' i think to myself. The woman turns around in surprise.

"Ian!" she breaks out into a grin, immediately hugging me. I hugged her back tightly. Someone tugs on my shirt, making me glance down.

"Ian, is this mom?" Naomi looks up at me in fear, trembling, glancing between me and our mother. I give a slight nod and a weak smile. I watch as Naomi slowly makes her decision. She wobbles toward our mother and pauses.

"Can I hug you?" Naomi asks. Sarah nods, holding out her arms. They embrace each other, and suddenly Naomi burst into tears.

"I don't want to wait for a mom anymore!" she wails. Our mother squeezes Naomi tighter.

"No, I'll always be with you if you want me to, ok? Once we get dad out of our lives, then we can live together, and we can go shopping, have holidays, and do normal family things, ok? We can be a family." my mother cries with Naomi. She glances up at me and laughs.

"I didn't forget about you, Ian. I definitely didn't forget that you're extremely awkward." she laughs as she wipes the tears off her face. She stands up tall, recomposing herself.

"Why don't you introduce me?" our mother suggests. I glance up at our friends, who are gathered around us. I walk up to them.

"This is Leo Hernandez, don't mind him he's a little gay," i say, poking him in the cheek. Leo swats me on the ass, making me yelp and rub my butt, and he wiggles his eyebrows as he grins. I sigh and point to Isaac.