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Andrew should have expected it, honestly. Neither Neil nor Kevin had had a childhood that could be even remotely considered normal. He looked at his idiot boyfriends who were gripping each other for dear life as they tried to balance on their skates, and rolled his eyes.
He made eye contact with Kevin (he seem petrified) as he expertly made his way to them, assuring himself that they were not going to fall anytime soon, he made his way to Aaron.
“Race,” he said to Aaron.
“It’s on, asshole.”
*
Neil was fucking terrified. He didn't quite get the point of trying walk with fucking wheels strapped to his shoes. He was happy sitting out, thank you very much.
He watched Kevin as he gripped Matt for dear life as he regained his balance. Kevin, Neil reflected had the bullheaded stubbornness that motivated him to perfect everything, even if it was roller skating.
He also used that stubbornness with their plans.
Today’s plan was very simple and highly circumstantial, a combination that Neil knew from experience, had a fifty-fifty chance of succeeding.
He watched Andrew demand a rematch as Aaron won their friendly race. He got up and walked to the air hockey table, looking at it speculatively as Katelyn joined him.
“Do you want to play?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said, looking up. “Sure.”
Neil didn't really know Katelyn very well, he just knew her as Aaron’s girlfriend.
He took his position on one side of the able and prepared himself.
For someone who looked so unassertive, Katelyn was extremely competitive, and Neil found himself actually enjoying the game as it ended on a tie.
Katelyn pushed her hair out of her eyes and said, “Rematch?”
*
Kevin was finally able to take a lap of the rink without falling and he used it to his advantage, skating over to Andrew and going around him in circles till Andrew got was annoyed enough to grab him by his shoulder and ask him what ws up.
Kevin pointed to the air hockey table where they saw Neil talking very animatedly to Katelyn.
Andrew narrowed his eyes, and started walking over to them when Kevin grabbed his arm.
“Stop it. She’s not doing anything.”
Andrew looked at Kevin flatly and walked away.
Kevin sighed. He had never really understood what Andrew’s problem with Katelyn was after even he had started dating. It seemed almost irrational. She was perfectly likeable, and wasn’t even homophobic. All the conversations he had had with her were amazing. Hell, even Allison seemed to like her. There was nothing that Andrew could hold against her.
Kevin sighed as he stared at Andrew talking stiffly to Allison, and skated around the rink.
*
Andrew didn’t really have anything against Katelyn. Nothing substantial, anyway. All he had was a baseless assumption that he was smart enough to recognize was stupid.
Yet, he could stop that pinprick of a feeling that turned up anytime Aaron cancelled their sessions for Katelyn, or skipped Columbia to spend the weekend with her. Bee aid that it was completely natural, but something in him still felt he was expecting too much.
(It was only obvious he thought, that Aaron chose Katelyn over him.)
((Seeing Neil with her had sparked something inside him that he wasn’t ever going to even try and name))
He just needed to tel Aaron how he felt, Bee said.
(Like it was going to be so easy.)
*
Neil liked Katelyn, and he said that about very few people. She reminded him of Allison, honest, but her sense of humor matched his more closely. He wondered if Kevin had ever talked to her. He had a feeling they would be great friends.
The Vixens too, he had learnt had pretty much the same recruiting standards as the foxes, but were a lot less dysfunctional. He was walking around the rink with her now, both of them staring ta their respective boyfriends.
Kevin made his way up to him and Neil excused himself.
“What’s up with Andrew?” He asked Kevin and Kevin huffed a laugh.
“That’s what I wanted to know.”
Neil sighed.
“He needs to talk to Aaron.”
Kevin nodded.
“He’ll have to do this on his own. We cant get him to do it this time.”
Neil sighed as he stared at Katelyn, who was talking engrossedly with Aaron, who looked softer than any of them had ever seen him.
*
Andrew knew he was putting off the inevitable.
At this point, he didn't even want to skate. He knew he was only doing it so that he’d have an excuse to not talk to his brother, but he didn't have to act on that.
He sighed as he noticed Neil and Kevin looking over at him worriedly. He knew they knew (they could read him really well and he hated it.)
He walks up to Aaron and takes a deep breath.
“Can we talk.”
To say Aaron looks taken aback would be an understatement, Andrew thinks. Hit by a bus would be more accurate.
Nevertheless, he ods and Andrew inhales, then exhales, and says, “I don’t have a problem with Katelyn.”
Aaron looks at him weirdly.
“Okay?”
Andrew saighs again, and tries to articulate what the’s thinking.
“I fell like she’s replacing me.”
Aaron stares at him for a moment before repeatedly opening and closing his mouth in an effort to speak.
“That’s ridiculous.” He says finally, and Andrew just raises an eyebrow.
“The idea that you and Katelyn have the same space in my life is ridiculous. You’re you. She’s her. No one’s replacing anyone.”
Andrew looked at Aaron properly.
“Thanks.”
Aaron just smiles.
*
Kevin is sweaty as fuck, and so is Andrew. Neil decides that while this is perfect for their plan, it is also extremely inconvenient, since he is not putting himself anywhere near the stink bomb that is Kevin.
So he walks ahead to check and make sure that everything is in place.
*
Andrew wants to take a shower as fast as possible. The foxes have a reservation at a local hotel in an hour, and he does not want to enter the hote smelling as if he had just bathed in a sewer.
So he opens his bag, looks inside and finds a lot of clothes, none of which are, of course, black.
He sighs and reaches for a bag under the bed.
Time to wear Aaron’s clothes.