Soooooo sorry for the tremendous delay! This chapter is a little longer than usual, so I hope you enjoy it! I'm already working on the next chapter, so I'll post it SOON!
* * * * CHAPTER EIGHTEEN * * * *
Dominick woke the next morning to the feeling of Derek caressing his earlobe. It wasn’t a dream. He had really driven all the way to Brooklyn and spent his first night as Derek’s roommate.
The gentle wake up was suddenly broken by the feeling of a three year-old pouncing on the back of his head. Dominick rolled over and grabbed Amber in a sideways hug.
“Ahhh! You got me, kiddo!” He laughed as he tickled her belly. She had the cutest laugh. Her smile was a lot like Derek’s, but her eyes were what gave it all away that she was his daughter. She had the same hazel grey eyes that mesmerized everyone.
Amber was very shy with new people around, but Dominick had already spent a lot of time with her while Derek was getting established in Brooklyn. In fact, when he wasn’t around, she asked everyone when “Nicky” was coming back. Dominick always wanted kids, so he didn’t mind the idea of living with one. He was actually kind of looking forward to it.
Everyone spent the day unpacking. Dominick was settling into his room quickly, as it was much larger than the one he had at his mother’s house.
“You brought your plants with you??” Derek teased.
“Of course I did! I’ve had them for three years and if I left them with my mom, they’d be dead in three minutes!” Dominick laughed.
“That’s why they make fake ones!” Derek suggested.
“It’s just not the same. You’re gonna think I’m a hippie or something, but I love having live plants around me. I had them in my room and my office back home.” Dominick explained.
“Hippie!” Derek joked.
“Jerk!”
“Well I hope you’re ready to party tonight. My sister is throwing a shot party at her house!” Derek sounded excited.
“I’m always ready to party!” Dominick cheered.
“Liar!!” Derek’s dad shouted from the other room. The acoustics in the house were outrageous.
“What’s that supposed to mean, Pop?” Dominick asked. He always had a bit of hesitation before calling Derek’s dad “Pop”, but that’s what he preferred to be called.
“You practically stopped drinking after Derek left!” Pop explained, “I think you got drunk once in the last two months!”
“I was trying to save money!” Dominick lied. The truth of the matter was that things just weren’t as fun after Derek had left.
“Uh huh… Sure. Then why didn’t you drink at house parties where the booze were free?” Pop interrogated.
“Ummm… Because I’ve been hitting it harder at the gym lately and I didn’t want it to be a waste!” Dominick lied again. It impressed him that these things came to him so easily at times.
“Like I said before… Liar!!” Pop laughed, “You’re gonna be on the floor after two shots tonight! Your tolerance has to be low as hell!”
“Is that a challenge?” Dominick asked with a cocky tone.
“Sure is! Hope you like Jäger!” Pop laughed again.
As the sun set, they started preparing for the party. Amber was staying home with Aunt Cindy that night, so she was already bathed and in her pajamas. All was well until she wanted to watch a movie while she was lying down with her giant stuffed tiger. Aunt Cindy didn’t watch movies, so she didn’t even have a DVD player, and the other TV’s hadn’t been set up yet. Naturally, this caused quite the uproar.
Dominick started flipping through boxes in his room until he came upon the one labeled “Electronics”. He dug out a portable DVD player and brought it into Amber’s room.
“Here, Kiddo. You can use this!” Dominick smiled. He watched as she meticulously flipped through her DVD collection two or three times as if she were calculating the best option carefully.
“I want to watch Tinkerbell, please.” She smiled sweetly as she finished the request. Dominick set up the movie for her and showed her which buttons to press to pause and play the film. She immediately settled down into her ‘Big Kitty’ and stared at the small screen intently. Dominick watched for a few moments in silence before walking out of the room.
“Nicky?” Amber asked as he reached the door. Dominick paused and turned back toward her.
“Could you tuck me in?” she asked. Dominick’s heart nearly melted out of his chest. She was the sweetest kid.
“Sure! Do you want your Tinkerbell blanket?” Dominick asked in a kiddy voice. She just nodded without breaking her concentration from the movie. He covered her with the blanket and tucked her in gently.
Dominick jumped when he turned around to see Derek in the doorway. He was just staring at the two of them with the slightest smile on his face. Dominick froze in place. He wasn’t sure why, but the situation suddenly felt awkward to him. Derek let his hand graze Dominick’s back as he walked past him to Amber’s bed. He kissed her on the forehead and whispered what Dominick assumed were “goodnights” and “I love you’s”. If they weren’t cute enough separately, seeing them together would make anyone fall in love.
“Ready?” Derek asked in a low voice as he turned away from Amber’s bed.
“Yep!”
“Don’t worry about keeping up with my sisters tonight. They’ll drink you into a coma!” Derek laughed.
“Got it!” Dominick laughed back.
When they opened the door to Derek’s sister’s house, the bass from the music hit them like water bursting from a dam. Dominick was stunned by the bass, but excited to hear that they had similar taste in music.
“Dominick, this is–“
“Toni!” Derek’s sister interrupted, handing Dominick a shot. “Nice to meet ya, Dom!”
Although it made him laugh, Dominick loved this variation to the standard hand shake. They said “Cheers!” and knocked back the shot. The energy in the room was great.
“Jesus, you alchy!” Pop teased. He and Toni hugged and started catching up while Derek led Dominick back to the kitchen where everyone else was hanging out. Derek introduced him to the handful of people he knew, including his other sister, Tessa.
From the outside looking in, it wouldn’t even seem that Derek and Dominick were newcomers. The group was very social and easy to get along with. Dominick and Derek teamed up against Toni and Tessa for a few rounds of beer pong. Derek might as well have been playing alone, since Dominick lacked hand-eye coordination. They still won all three rounds, though.
After the beer pong games, Pop decided to fill Dominick in on the key players in the group. First was Toni. She had just broken up with her long-time girlfriend, Janet, but they were trying to remain friends. Tessa was in a relationship with her high school sweetheart, Bryan. Dominick wasn’t surprised to find out they had been together for nine years. They looked like one of those couples that just belonged.
Throughout the night it didn’t occur to either Dominick or Derek that they were searching for each other as they periodically scanned the room until they’d make eye contact briefly and quickly resume their activities. Dominick and Toni were really clicking. She was the oldest of Pop’s kids and they had shockingly similar pasts.
“Mind if I steal him away now?” Derek asked as he squeezed Dominick’s shoulder. Toni just eyed the boys for a second and smiled. Derek led Dominick into the living room, which was empty.
“So are you having a good time?” Derek asked.
“Yeah, I really am!” Dominick smiled. “How about you?”
“I am, too. Has it hit you yet?” Derek was concentrating on capturing Dominick’s facial reaction to the question. All he saw was confusion, though.
“What do you mean?” Dominick scrunched his forehead at the question.
“I mean has it hit you that you’re here now? Any regrets or anything?” Derek clarified.
“Yeah… I mean, I think so. I don’t know!” Dominick couldn’t really figure out how to answer. It wasn’t like he was in denial about the whole ordeal to start. They sat speechless for a few moments. The room was loud, but the quietness between them seemed to soften the music.
“You know what I’m in the mood for?” Derek asked as if he had just woken up from a daydream.
“Nope, but I’m sure you’ll tell me soon!” Dominick laughed.
“I want a tattoo!” Derek looked excited.
“Ooh I love tattoos! We should find a tattoo shop!” Dominick agreed.
“Okay, let’s go!” Derek answered.
“Wait… Like right now? I meant ‘We should find a tattoo shop sometime!’ not right now!”
“Why not?” Derek prodded.
“Uhh… Because it’s late and we don’t have a designated driver!” Dominick answered.
“I stopped drinking after beer pong. I’m stone-cold sober right now.” Derek assured.
“Really? I started drinking after beer pong, and I’m quite unsober!” Dominick laughed.
“Okay, so let’s go now!” Derek pushed.
“Fine! Let’s go!”
As they said their goodbyes, Pop and Toni both eyed Derek and Dominick as if there was a scandal in the making. Dominick blushed at the thought of what they could possibly be assuming.
Dominick had joined Derek in Sober Land by the time they arrived at the tattoo shop. He wondered what kind of tattoo Derek was planning on getting. They toured the room, looking through posters of various designs. Derek didn’t seem to be interested in any of them, though.
“So what should we get?” Derek asked.
“Umm… We? What??” Dominick raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“Yeah. Our tattoo… What’s it going to be?” He asked.
“I wasn’t aware that WE were getting a tattoo!” Dominick stalled. It’s not that he didn’t trust Derek, but he was firmly against getting tattoos that signified anything volatile. Relationships, friendships, practically everything changed, and tattoos were so permanent.
“We could get the symbol for ‘friendship’ in Japanese or Chinese or something!” Derek suggested.
“I have to be honest… Unless you speak Chinese or Japanese, I think it’s kinda dumb to get a tattoo like that. I mean, you can’t even tell if says what they’re telling you it says!”
“Good point. How about a quote? We can find a two-part quote and we’ll each get half of it!” Derek got excited again.
“Hmm… That would be cool. What quote, though?” Dominick was warming up to the idea. “I think we should find one that doesn’t look incomplete when it’s cut in half. You know what I mean? Just in case we ever…” Dominick stopped himself.
“Ever what?” Derek asked.
“Ever… Ya know… Stop talking again or something.” Dominick shrunk.
“That’s always going to be there between us, huh?” Derek’s tone dropped. It sounded like the excitement that had been building was violently torn out of his voice. Dominick stared at the floor for a few seconds before answering.
“Listen, Derek. I enjoy having you as a friend and I trust you a lot. But that’s just the way my brain works. I don’t hold it against you actively, but I can’t force myself to forget about it and to be honest, I won’t try to. It’s one of those ‘Hope for the best, but expect the worst’ situations.” Dominick fumbled. Derek shifted his focus to the wall and just nodded his head.
“Can I help you guys?” a heavily-tattooed and pierced man asked from behind the counter.
“Nah… We were just browsing. Maybe another time.” Derek answered in the same defeated tone.
“Derek, c’mon.” Dominick pleaded. “Don’t be like this.”
“I just wouldn’t want you to risk anything permanent.” Derek sneered. Dominick was shocked at the comment, as if Derek had been reading his mind.
“I want the tattoo. Please?” Dominick asked. It annoyed him to no end that he was now practically begging to do something he didn’t fully agree with in the first place. He tried to hide it and look sincere, though.
“Are you sure?” Derek asked, his voice losing the sharp edge it carried before.
“Yes. I’m positive.” Dominick assured.
When Dominick and Derek walked into the house, Pop was standing in the kitchen talking to Aunt Cindy.
“Where’d you guys run off to?” Pop asked.
“We went to the tattoo shop!” Derek answered.
“Oh… What did you get?”
Dominick and Derek both pulled the collars of their shirts down in unison. On the right side of Dominick’s chest above his collar bone, the words “Yesterday without regret…” were written in cursive. In the same font, but opposite side of Derek’s chest, the words “… tomorrow without fear” were written.
“Wow… You guys are uh… Something else.” Pop laughed. Aunt Cindy raised her eyebrows in curiosity and confusion, but said nothing.
Derek laughed as they headed upstairs, not bothering to respond. Amber and Derek’s mom were already asleep in Derek’s room, so Derek followed Dominick into bed without hesitation.
As they both lay on their backs, Dominick thought about how a side-by-side picture of them would look now. He ran his finger lightly over the tattoo, which was still fresh enough to leave the skin under the words raised like Braille. Before he could even realize he was tired, they were both asleep.
To be continued...