Remembering to Forget

6

Dominic walks slowly along the footpath. School doesn't start for another hour, so he's in no rush. Sometimes he'll wait for Missy, but he doesn't want to hang around too much; her comment about 'not being made of fucking glass' hit hard.

He sees Alyssa turn onto the street that he's walking on. She doesn't look around, but instead walks in the same direction as him, not noticing him. He goes to call out, but the sound gets caught in his throat; a lump has formed that wasn't there previously.

He's looking down at the ground, not watching where he's going, which is why he doesn't notice that he's walking straight onto the road. Alyssa sticks out an arm and catches him, pulling him back onto the path. "Hello? Earth to Dominic?"

"Shit! Sorry."

"You should probably watch where you're going. Death isn't reversible."

Dominic chuckles at her dry tone. "Glad to see you're so concerned."

They walk in silence for a while. Dominic gazes at the buildings either side of them; desperately wanting to kill the uncomfortable silence, but not knowing how.

"I didn't see you on Saturday." Alyssa breaks it for him, and Dominic likes to think she did it for his sake.

"Do you normally see me on Saturdays? Should I be concerned?"

Alyssa snorts at him. "Oh, come on. Julianne sounded so sure that you were gonna show up."

"Something else came up. Couldn't make it," he sighs. He doesn't want to keep things ambiguous, especially when it could lead to misunderstandings, but he'd made a promise to James, which he intended to keep. "Wait, so that was..."

"That was what?" Alyssa asks, cocking her head.

"Doesn't matter." Even as he says it, he knows he's not going to get away with it, and he sighs again. "I spent a long time, longer than I'd like to admit, trying to figure out whether I was meant to have that info and if it would be creepy if I showed up."

"Are you serious?" Alyssa laughs, loudly, and Dominic blushes a little. "Didn't she bring up the topic of her team to you on her own?"

"Kind of."

"And then read out their exact time and location?"

"In my defence, she never said the location."

"But I'm guessing you figured out the place anyway because you were that stressed over it. Wow, you are amazingly stupid. Should've just turned up, man. Why didn't you show up just in case?"

"I told you, I didn't want to look like a weirdo."

"You always look like a weirdo. Now you're just a weirdo who can't take a hint." Alyssa's laughter has not died down, and Dominic wonders how he's able to unintentionally provide someone with this much humour. "Besides, if you did show up, do you really think you'd be the only guy there to stare at the girls?"

The faint tinge of pink in Dominic's cheeks turn into a full-blown red. "That's... I... That's not what I would be doing!"

"Sure it isn't." Alyssa cuts off further protest with a smile, letting him know that she didn't really believe that. "To be honest, she'd probably appreciate another friendly face at the game more than anything."

"I'm the next option for 'friendly face'?"

"Why not? You're on good terms." Dominic purses his lips, surprised that a person as sociable as Julianne wouldn't have better options for that job. But Alyssa seems to have read his mind. "Julianne talks to everybody, but she's not... I don't know how to put it. I'm her best friend, and the only one she'd consider ever asking to this sort of thing. I think she was trying to branch out a little bit with you."