“If you say so,” he shrugged.
“Okay,” I closed my eyes in a hard blink in an effort not to roll them. “I think the point is, you’ve made some mistakes. Maybe we can try and fix some of those. That can be our thing we do, okay?”
He met my eyes. “Why are you doing this?”
“I second that question,” Dominic chimed in.
“You asked for my help, this is what you’re gonna get. Deal with it.”
“Oh, yeah, that makes sense,” Dominic said. “She does like to be helpful this one.”
It felt like a jab. I tossed a sneer in his direction but mostly ignored it.
Ryan frowned, his eyes moving between mine and Dominics. I wished I could see Dominic’s expression but he was standing behind me. “Okay,” Ryan said with half a laughed and just enough smile to make his dimples show.
The bell rang then.
“Oh crap. Is there going to be a class here any minute?”
“Nah,” Ryan assured, adjusting his shirt and drying his cheeks with the cuff of his sleeves. “But Mr. Meyer sometimes takes naps in here during 5th period, though.”
“Let’s go out,” Dominic suggested. “We all have Independent Study this period.”
“You want to?” Ryan asked twisting my hand back and forth in his.
It was the first day of the semester, It’s not like I had homework that needed doing. “Sure,” I shrugged.
Ryan kept hold of my hand as he stood. And in the next moment I was caught in a sandwich of muscles and men as Dominic pulled Ryan in to a hug, with me in the middle. I actually opened my mouth to complain but only made it as far as, “Ooh—” before I realized there was literally nowhere else I’d rather be than locked in an embrace that involved Dominic Weedon. Even one that wasn’t meant for me. It felt good, it smelled good. My thoughts were blissfuly beginning to kink, and I knew it was all going to end too soon.
“I love you bro,” Dominic patted Ryan on the back. “And even though this idea is completely insane, I’m here for you.”
“Thanks man,” Ryan returned the back pat.
“All right,” Dominic broke the hug. “I’m driving, you guys are paying.”
An uncontrollable giggle slipped out as Dominic stepped away. I inwardly cringed, I suppose it could have been worse though, something really pathetic, I could have gasped ‘no,’ or started crying or something. As it was I was pretty sure I’d lost the ability to walk.
“We’re right behind you,” Ryan said.
Dominic looked to me for approval, on my nod he said, “Okay,” and left, waving absently from the door.
“Thanks for this.”
I nodded. “Yeah, you’ll owe me one.”
“I think I may already owe you one or two. Do I look like I’ve been crying?” He pushed a smile, exposing his dimples and a blush of embarrassment.
“Little bit. But the cold will mask it. Take a couple deep breaths.”
“You’re a good person, Kate.”
“Kate?” Something clicked in the back of brain. “How often do you guys talk about me?”
Ryan chuckled, like he’d been caught. His expression was somewhere between ‘who told?’ and ‘are you psychic?’ “Uhm. What?”
“Dominic has a habit of getting my name wrong, most recently, it was Kate, but when you’re not using a nickname, you never get my name wrong, until just now.”
“Believe it or not, I was actually trying to help.” He started for the door, pulling me along as he explained. “No offense, but Katie is kind of a little girl’s name.”
“Totally agree. It’s not like I picked it, you know?”
“Well, Dominic likes more mature women and Kate is a more mature name.” He shrugged.
“And you thought that’d help?”
“He kissed you, didn’t he?”
“Ryan,” I stopped us at the doors leading outside. “Remember that one you owe me?”
Ryan huffed a laugh, his dimples showing. “Yeah.”
“I’m keeping one of your secrets, will you keep one of mine?”
“Of course,” his look became serious.
“Dominic, is an idiot.”
“That’s your secret?” And just like a good friend he went on the defensive, “I gotta say though, he’s really not, you know.”
I sighed. “You know this girl he likes? The one that lives on his phone?”
“The Canadian girl?” he mocked. “I don’t know if she’s Canadian, that’s just what the rest of us call her since we’re pretty sure she doesn’t actually exist.”
“Ask him to show you a picture of her.”
“What like, pics or it didn’t happen?”
“Pretty sure you’ll get it when you see her. But you gotta promise me that when you do, you won’t say anything, and I mean anything.”
“Okay…” Ryan looked confused. “Isn’t that gonna be kind of weird?”
“You can talk, you can say, like, oh, nice pic or whatever, you just can’t say anything. I know that’s vague, but you’ll get it when you see it.”
Ryan still looked confused.
Dominic rumbled up in his truck. “Forget it for now,” I pushed open the door, pulling Ryan along behind me. We hurried, gingerly, around the truck, slushing through the wet of falling snow. It was melting now but it would be icy after the sun went down.
Beyond ‘red truck’ I hadn’t considered much about Dominic’s vehicle. But as I reached for the handle, that required a strong thumb to press a button to open it I realized, Dominic’s truck is practically a relic from a bygone era. I gripped and pushed and pulled, and yanked, but it didn’t budge.
“It’s a little tricky,” Ryan gripped the handle and pushed the button with his thumb. There was a drummy bump from inside the door, he gave the handle a solid jiggle and wrenched the door open. “After you,” he motioned for me to climb in.
I slid to the center of the bench seat and Dominic handed me the lap belt. “Well, this is basically useless,” I said as I clicked the belt into place and pulled it tight. “Slam on the brakes hard enough and I’ll be eating radio,” I shook my head as I took in the truck’s ancient radio, complete with tuning nobs and a little orange marker. I had to look at the doors then and confirm my suspicions — crank nobs. Yep, his windows literally rolled down. He took good care of it at least, it didn’t look as old as it obviously was.
“Yeah, sorry. It’s usually just me and Ry-guy.” He aimed his thumb at Ryan as he put the truck in gear and eased off the brake. “He doesn’t care so much about losing teeth.”
“It’s true.” Ryan confirmed. “Eight of my teeth are implants. Hockey, not dashboard,” he assured.
Dominic laughed. “It wasn’t hockey. It was face-planting on the ice.”
“Turns out skating isn’t my thing,” Ryan shrugged.
We drove to a little restaurant just off Main Street. I’d never been there, but was familiar with a good chunk of their menu thanks to Dominic’s many food pic texts. He ordered a triple bacon cheeseburger and garlic fries. Ryan ordered pan fried chicken and waffles with fruit. It wasn’t on the menu, but it sounded good, so I ordered the same.
Conversation was light-hearted and mostly consisted of Dominic and Ryan reminiscing. But they talked about graduation and college too. And what kind of car Ryan was going to get next. Dominic took a picture of his garlic fries. They smelled delicious, but Ryan and I both teased him about having garlic breath for the rest of the day. “I totally won’t,” he insisted, “ I know a trick.”
I jumped as the text of his garlic fries arrived in my pocket. I don’t know what kind of brain melt I was having to have been surprised by it though, I’d watched him send it. Maybe it was because I’d known it was happening? I don’t know.
Ryan gave me a big hug when we got back to school and told me he’d text me. Dominic waved and told me he’d see me later.
6th period Spanish 1, with Mrs. Ramirez. I was the TA for this class too. It was the first time I’d h
eard Mrs. Ramirez speak in a language other than Spanish. It was kind of weird. I think I expected an accent.
7th period Visual Arts - Introduction to Arts with Miss Lancaster. Kimber, Kayley, Mika, Ambree, Claire, Jayla, Sara, and two other of Kayley’s friends, Samantha and Lindy all had the class as well.
“Omigawd, you guys,” Kimber squealed. “I can’t believe that actually worked.”
“What did you do?” I eyed her.
Kimber inched close to me. “There was this rumor that if you don’t mark an elective, they put you in the least popular class, so none of us picked a second elective, and viola, we all got put in the same class.”
“Why is this the least popular class? I picked it.”
“You’re probably the only one,” Mika laughed. “Miss Lancaster has a bit of a reputation, nobody wants to be in her class.”
“Why?”
“She’s weird,” Kimber said with a shrug.
Miss Lancaster is weird. She danced into class with giant feather fans and told the class to call her Miss Babbs, not because that was her name but because that was what she wanted everyone in her 7th period classes to call her. She spoke with an ever changing accent and talked a lot about freeing ones self through art. She was no doubt weird, but I personally think that’s what made her so awesome.
The Parkwood City police station is less than a block away from the school. I couldn’t justify driving to work and then basically back to school again to give my statement, so I texted Alaina and asked her to cover for me, and then Julian to give him a heads up.
“Hey,” came a familiar voice.
I turned to smile up at Dominic and was met with a gust of wind as he blew in my face. And in case there was any doubts about how thoroughly love sick I was, I actually tried to romanticize the moment. At least it was only I’m my thoughts. Later, I would be violently beating them down into the shame shack they so clearly belonged in. “Uhm. Hi?” I shrugged and shook my head, confused as to why I’d just become the only candle on his birthday cake.
“See? No garlic breath.”
“Neat trick,” I chuckled.
“Parsley,” he replied. “Nobody ever eats the parsley, but everybody should. It does wonders for food breath.”
“Good to know.”
“Why you still here?” Dominic asked. “You’re usually outta here on Mondays.”
“Yeah,” I lost the ability to speak for a couple of seconds, as I had to take a moment to mentally berate myself for getting excited about Dominic knowing such an intimate detail about my schedule. “I figured I go give my statement,” I gestured in the general direction of the police station.
“I’ll walk you,” Dominic said.
“No need,” I practically blurted.
“I know,” he shrugged.
“Okay,” I sighed in surrender at the hopelessness of my plight — I was never getting over Dominic Weedon.
Chapter 23
Forty-five minutes later, I was told ‘thanks for coming in, but they already had everything they needed.’
“I missed work for this,” I grumbled.
Dominic laughed. “C’mon, I’ll walk you to your car.”
I wish I could say it hadn’t been a total bust, but we’d just spent the last 45 minutes sitting in a police station lobby in those weird chairs that look padded but totally aren’t. We weren’t even talking, or using our phones, or doing homework we didn’t have, we were just sitting.
And thinking.
I couldn’t even begin to guess what Dominic was thinking about. Part of me wanted to entertain the idea that he was thinking about Katarina Franks. But I had to shut that part down right quick, because it was just too weird to feel something that felt like jealousy directed at myself.
The Dominic I knew in words, was always thinking about stuff. The one sitting next to me was pretty good at looking like he was just co-existing with the furniture and fake ferns that needed dusting.
I liked the enigma, but I was curious too. It’s a simple enough question but I was worried that if asked him what he was thinking about he’d give an answer like, ‘stuff’ or ‘nothing’ which is seriously the worst response to that question. How can a person just be thinking about nothing? Are they thinking about the concept of nothing, and how, in a way, that makes it something? Or are they literally just void of thought, like helium balloons? Because that seriously freaks me out. The void of thought thing, not the helium balloon thing. Balloons are awesome.
“Hey,” Dominic finally decided to speak, just as we’d reached my car. “What’s the real reason you told Ryan you’d be his fake girlfriend?”
I turned to look up at him, his warm brown eyes scrutinizing. “You want to have this conversation now? It’s freezing.”
Dominic shook his head “I knew it. I fucking knew it.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me to his truck. “We can talk in my truck, it’s warmer in there.”
“Or we can talk in my car, that’s from this decade, and is right there, and heats up in about three seconds.”
“Yeah, okay.” We walked the three steps back to my car and he opened my door for me. As I climbed in he hurried around to the passenger side. I tried to use the 2.5 seconds to come up with a suitable answer for him, something that didn’t include the word distraction.
Dominic climbed in and switched on the overhead. “Okay, spill.”
“He needs help, and I have the time.”
“He’s taking advantage of you and you’re letting him.”
Not any more than I’d be taking advantage of him, I thought. “I don’t see it that way.”
“Yeah, obviously.”
“Dominic,” I let out a low sigh. “Why do you care so much? I don’t just mean me. It’s everybody, why do you care so much?”
“I don’t know. Life’s shitty. If I can do something to help make someone’s life less shitty, I want to do that.”
“Okay, same,” I said. “I guess it’s another one of those pesky things you and I have in common.”
Dominic nodded slowly, his eyes out the window. “You’re a good kid, you know?”
“Yep. There it is. Just rub that kid part in a little deeper,” I forced a laugh, but it came out about as miffed as I felt.
“You are a kid,” he defended.
“So are you.”
Dominic chuckled. “Okay. Sure. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I’ll be here,” I nodded.
He climbed out of my car and jogged over to his.
I pulled to my phone and opened my texts to a picture of Garlic fries.
DW: These are the best fries, but none of my friends will ever eat them with me because they’re too worried about having garlic breath. Their loss is my garlicky gain.
KF: I have it on good authority that eating the parsley garnish will prevent that.
I watched him from my car as I hit send, and half a second later he reached for his phone and smiled.
DW: I don’t know why, but I’m so glad you know that. Maybe one day we can eat garlic fries and parsley together?
KF: Absolutely. Unless I order fruit instead.
Which is exactly what I’d done. Dominic looked amused by my reply, so he probably wasn’t connecting any dots.
KF: Serious question: Have you ever had your heart broken?
His brow furrowed as he read the text, and he started fidgeting with his steering wheel. Safe to say the answer to that question was, ‘yes.’
I wondered if it looked weird, the two of us, sitting in an empty parking lot on our phones, texting. It felt weird, but I was the only person that knew we were texting each other.
DW: Yes.
KF: What did you do? How did you get over it?
DW: I got a long answer and a short answer, but I’m not in a good texting locale. Give me 20? Maybe 30?
KF: I’ll be here.
I gave Dominic a wave and pulled away, he did the same. I spent the car ride home lamenting how awkward our relationship was. I did
n’t really speak to anybody when I got home, except for a brief wave and a “hey” as I passed. I changed into comfy stretchies and went to the garage. I didn’t expect to get very much practice in before he texted back. Mostly my location made it less likely that I’d be interrupted. I turned on some music, and did some basic stretches and tried to forget the world and the irritating fact that I was actually waiting for a text. So lame.
I was upside down when my phone alerted me to the arrival of a text. My dismount was less than graceful as I leapt off the lyra, raced over to the chest freezer by the door, and snatched up my phone. I frowned when I saw it wasn’t Dominic. It was Ryan.
RM: I have a phone again! I was just starting to not miss it.
KF: I hope this doesn’t mean no more hand-written notes? I’ll miss those.
RM: No you won’t.
KF: Yes I will.
RM: :-P
I held the phone in my hand, staring at it, as if I could will Dominic’s text to come in. I was debating just calling him, finger looming over the phone icon, when his text popped up on my screen.
DW: Heartbreak comes in many forms, I suppose I should have asked you which kind you were talking about, though I’m not sure it changes the answer. The way I see it, when it comes down to it, it’s all just disappointment. There’s other stuff too, obviously, like betrayal, loss, regret, etcetera. You know, it depends on the situation, but basically, things didn’t go the way you wanted. Some heartbreak, I’m not sure you ever get over. Not that you’ll always feel miserable, just that there are some things, some people, you never get over. But time helps, and working through your emotions, and more time. Best thing you can do is find something in your life that brings you happiness. Or at least doesn’t make you feel like shit. I dive into sports, I work out, I run, music is good, work is good. Basically: sort your feelings and find something to take your mind off of it, preferably something good.
Kit Kat & Katie Did Page 27