Adrian arrived and helped Naomi pack a few of her 'stuff'. After that, he locked the door and carried the already passed out Naomi to the car.
Travis watched as this went on. He couldn't say a thing and couldn't even say bye to Naomi because she was sleeping. He started thinking of how the whole school would be like once she was gone. It would go back to how it used to be, no doubt but there would still be that feeling of emptiness.
Just these few days, he had already grown used to her. He would miss her.
Naomi did whatever she could to take her mind off the pain. She spent four days couped up in her room. She stayed in bed and didn't leave her room even for a second.
Her food was always brought up to her and she'd eat it when she felt like it.
Meanwhile at school, Pete would walk out from the dorm and stop for a while. He'd look up at Naomi's window and seeing that it was closed, would come back to reality that she was absent.
"What are you staring at?" Matthew asked. "Are you waiting to catch a damsel in distress?" He teased but Pete didn't respond and simply walked away.
On Tuesday night, Naomi felt so much relieved. She thought of going out to receive the night's fresh air and took her motorbike, her 17th birthday present from her uncles.
She got it with the instigation of her aunts. Ah, her aunts had so much influence on them.
On the way, Naomi suddenly caught sight of Pete. She stopped her bike and checked the time, it was 6. This was the time he usually disappeared from school.
"I wonder where he's going." She got down from her bike but didn't take off her helmet in order to hide her identity.
She followed him quietly but it got to a place that led to nowhere. She wondered where he had gone and spotted him running behind. It seems like he figured he was being followed.
"This guy!" She ran after him. He was a really fast runner.
After chasing for a few minutes, Naomi lost him. The only place there was a gay bar. She didn't expect him to go there and decided to check someplace else.
After a while of searching, she concluded that she lost him and went back to her bike and rode back home.
Two days later, Naomi decided to go back to school and she did.
It was practice time and no one expected Naomi to come at this time. They all thought she would come the next day, just hours to the contest but that wasn't the case.
A boy spotted Naomi alighting from her car and quickly went to spread the word. Naomi went to her room first and somehow managed to get away from the flood of boys who wanted to know how she was doing.
"Phew, I got away!" Naomi heaved as she dropped her bags. "How did the word spread so fast? Anyway, I need to see Travis, it's been so long."
She opened her door and peeped to see if there were still a few lurking around and luckily there was no one in sight. She took in a deep breath before finally walking out.
"I guess they've gone back to the field, it's such a relief for me."
While walking down the stairs Naomi caught sight of Pete walking up the stairs. He was wearing a white jersey and a white headband, coupled with a white wristband. In his hand was a tennis racket.
She stopped for a while thinking to herself, how good he looked. This was the first time she was actually seeing him on a jersey.
Pete, whose head was down, looked up and his eyes met with Naomi's. He was surprised to see her.
Yes he had heard that she had returned but didn't feel anything about her return. Now facing her with eyes locked, he felt a lingering feeling.
If ever he told himself he felt nothing about her absence, it was just lies. He missed her, and not just her, he missed their regular encounters. He missed her carefree and crazy nature. He missed the feeling of having her around.
Watching her from afar was okay but now he wanted to do more than watch her, he wanted to talk to her, get to know her better and have her hand in his.
Pete took a step towards her and then something dawned on him. He had no chance to do the things he wanted to do with her. He couldn't spend much time with her because it wasn't in his place and...she had a boyfriend. Well, that hurts!
The thought of her dating Travis suddenly agitated him. Girls needed to be taken seriously and needed a lot of care. From the way he saw it, Travis wasn't giving her all that care. Nevertheless, he respected her wish and approached her with an indifferent expression.
"How are you?" He asked and it looked like Naomi was expecting that question because she immediately answered.
"I'm fine!" She flashed him a sweet smile which somehow lightened his spirit. He nodded.
"Take care." He simply said patting her head and walked past her. He headed up the stairs and Naomi turned to look at him having mixed feelings.
'I feel strange and my heart is suddenly beating fast.' She thought and tried to think about what it is. 'I think I've had this feeling before. It's...'
"Naomi!" Travis called from down. She turned to look at him. He looked happy and excited making her excited as well.