Chapter Two
Dominic
I smudged the charcoal with my thumb again and frowned. The shading still wasn’t right. The alarm on my phone went off, and I debated skipping class again. I’d been obsessed with this sketch for the past few days, but it still wasn’t done and sure as hell wished to finish it more than learn anything about polymers in organic chemistry. Somehow my heart had become entangled with my head, and I wasn’t just silently obsessing over Brooke anymore.
Now, I was drawing her too.
I jumped and dropped the charcoal when a booming knock on my bedroom door startled me. I grabbed a spare sheet of sketch paper and threw it over my drawing right before Josh walked inside my room. I’m surprised he even knocked. He threw himself down on my bed and grabbed a baseball off my bookshelf.
“Skipping again?” he asked as he threw the ball up in the air to catch it. The rhythmic thwack of the ball hitting his hand made me pause before answering.
“I was debating, but I probably should go to class. If I miss another day I’ll get docked another ten points.” I glanced down at my phone. “I still have another fifteen minutes to get there.”
He shot me a knowing look that reminded me of his sister. “You aren’t going. Sit your ass back down.”
“I didn’t even get up, asshole.”
He grinned. “No kidding, but you’ve got that look.”
“What look?”
“The one that says you’ve been sketching.”
I laughed and shook my head. I had no idea how he knew, but he always did.
“Now that that’s settled, what are we doing this afternoon? I vote we all play disc golf.”
Loud sounds came from the living room as Jared and Austin crashed inside. None of my friends knew how to be quiet—or the meaning of privacy—but the open door policy of next door apartments was pretty awesome when I wanted someone to talk to. It was kind of like being back at home. Matt and Raquel, my little brother and sister, didn’t know what a closed door meant either.
Jared shoved his way into my room, closely followed by Austin. They were arguing animatedly about something, gestures and all, while they yelled at each other. I was finally able to make out that it was about a girl they’d met at the gym. Those two were constantly competing for women’s attention and most of the time, Austin won. Josh rolled his eyes. Out of all of us, he was the only one in a serious relationship.
“Do you both seriously think you could get any girl to go out with you at any time?” Josh asked, breaking into their argument.
They both wore a look of incredulity. Of course they thought they both could get any girl. Austin looked like the typical boy next door that all girls went for—but he was also a major manwhore. Jared wasn’t quite as bad as Austin, but he had just as many girls falling all over him, and he was no saint. He had crazy curly hair that he wore long just so girls would touch it. His dad was white and his mom was black, and somehow that guy ended up with a head full of hair that women couldn’t resist. Even Riley couldn’t keep her hands out of it, and she’d been happily dating Josh for the past four years.
“What makes you two idiots think you’re God’s gift to women?” I joked. “I bet I can think of two girls right off the bat who’d tell you no if you asked them out.”
“Name them,” Jared said.
“Riley.” I leaned back in my chair and waited for their reaction.
“Not fair,” Austin said. “She’s hot, but I’ve never even seen her glance in another guy’s direction.”
Josh punched him in the shoulder. “And she sure as shit won’t be looking in your direction.”
Jared laughed. “What about Brooke?”
“What about her?” I asked. “If you two start messing with her, I might beat both your asses.” This time Josh’s eyes narrowed. “What? She’s my best friend and she doesn’t deserve that shit.”
“And she’s my little sister. Don’t you think I should be the one to defend her honor or something?” He’d quit tossing the baseball up to study me. “What the hell’s going between you two anyway? You aren’t dating or anything, are you? I hope you’d say something to me first.”
“No, nothing like that,” I said quickly. God, if he only knew. “I just don’t want these two screwing around with her. She doesn’t need that. Last I heard she was talking to some guy in her psychology class.”
Austin got a look on his face that made me think I might be punching him soon. “I like Brooke. She’s sweet—like a girl you could take home to meet your mom. Would you care if I asked her out?”
I made a noise in the back of my throat, and he glanced in my direction.
“Do you have an issue with it? Like you said, you two aren’t dating. It’s not like you’ve grown a pair and asked her out.”
I narrowed my eyes and stood up. “It’s not like—”
“Yeah, yeah, it’s not like that. No one fucking believes you.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Josh pushed between us. “Brooke is her own person and she sure as hell isn’t going to listen to me about if she can or can’t date someone. If you want to ask her out, ask her out, Austin. But if you hurt her I’ll let Dom go all commando on your ass.”
I clenched my fists and tried not to lose my temper. The last thing I needed to do was let my hotheaded side out right now.
“Don’t fucking hurt her or I’ll fuck you up.” I bowed up to him and held my ground. We were both fairly matched height and weight wise at six foot three and two twenty, but I had anger on my side. The asshole wouldn’t stand a chance if I actually took a swing.
He smirked, and it had the intended effect when my blood pumped even harder. “Why are you so fucking convinced that I’ll hurt her? Maybe I’m ready to turn over a new leaf, Dom.”
Jared’s and Josh’s eyes bounced between the two of us, wondering if they needed to break us up now or if they should just let it go. Austin and I didn’t have a good track record of not throwing punches anyway, but when you added Brooke into the equation—someone was probably going to end up with a broken nose.
“I’ve watched you fuck everything in a skirt for the past three years, Austin. You literally were just fighting with Jared about some girl from the fucking gym two minutes ago. I honestly don’t believe you’ve decided to become a one-woman man in the span of ten minutes.”
He shrugged. “I guess we’ll see when I ask her out. We know she’s going to say yes. She’s been gagging for it for—”
I couldn’t take any more. I pushed past him and grabbed my bag by my door. “I’m going to class. Get the fuck out of my apartment.”
My friends watched my retreating back. I didn’t know what they thought about my reaction and honestly I didn’t care. If Austin wanted to be a dick and ask out the girl he knew I wanted, then I’d let him, but I’d be there to put the pieces back together when he broke her heart. This was just a game to him, but to me, Brooke was everything I wanted but was too afraid to let myself have.
***
I handed over my cash to the barista and waited for her to hand me my large iced latte. The caffeine would help me get through the next two hours of cramming with any luck. Finals were right around the corner and I wanted to get a jump start on studying. The last few weeks of school would fly by as I knew all too well. Of course all of my friends thought they still had forever and a day and would be cramming come dead week.
Small hands covered my eyes, and I grinned when the scent of Brooke’s floral perfume reached me.
“Why aren’t you in class, B?”
She laughed. “How did you know it was me?”
“Who else would do that to me?” I teased. “Normal people just say hi.”
She stuck her tongue out at me. “I’m normal. And to answer your question we got out early. I guess Professor Reed has a hot date tonight and wanted to get out of here early.”
The barista handed me my coffee, and I followed Brooke over to one of the large, overstuffed couches in the student union. We’d spent more time in this building in the past three years than anywhere else on campus, including our apartments. It seemed perfectly natural for us to sit here all afternoon. I started unpacking my backpack and laying my books out on the coffee table in front of me.
“What are your plans for the rest of the day?”
I held up my O-chem book. “My favorite subject in the world.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Never mind. You’re on your own. I was going to see if you wanted to watch a movie later.”
I shook my head. “I want to, but I’ve got a quiz next week. Plus, finals are close.”
She grabbed my cup and took a sip of my coffee. “You’re the only person I know who starts studying months before finals. It’s Thirsty Thursday. You should live a little, Dom.”
I wanted to, believe me I wanted to. I gave her a small smile. She knew how important school was to me. Normally she didn’t push, but today it seemed like she wanted to go out more than normal.
“It’s a month and a half before finals. This shit happens when you’re pre-med. Why don’t you ask Caroline if she wants to go with you?”
“She’s got a sorority thing.”
“Riley?” I asked.
“Hanging out with Josh.”
“Quinn?” My exasperation grew with each name.
She made a face. “She’s going out with some of her friends from class. I never thought Quinn would seem tame, but some of those people are crazy.”
I chuckled. “You haven’t spent much time in the arts building, have you?”
Her phone buzzed as she shook her head. “Nope, I stay strictly in the south oval, although I don’t know what I’m doing there half the time anyway. I knew you’d want to study since you mentioned it yesterday, so I was trying to find someone else I could bug. My—holy shit.”
“What?” I pulled the last notebook out of my bag.
“Austin just texted me.”
I slammed the notebook down a little harder than necessary, and she glanced up at me, but I could see the excitement shining in her eyes. I leaned back into the couch and crossed my arms over my chest.
“What did he say?” I fought back the need to grind my teeth or yank her phone out of her hand and smash it.
Her mouth split into a wide grin. “He asked if I wanted to go out tonight, so I guess you’re off the hook.”
My stomach dropped. He really was going through with this. I murmured what was hopefully a happy sound and looked back down at my books. My voice was thick when I answered. “I guess you should go get ready then.”
“I guess so.” She leaned over to kiss me on the cheek excitedly. “I’ll text you later.”
I murmured in agreement and waved her off. As she went, I watched her retreating back and ducked my head. With Brooke I’d always be firmly in the friend zone, especially when there were guys like Austin around. Maybe one of these days my heart would catch up with my head and I wouldn’t be so in love with my best friend.