The Survivor (Book #2)

Chapter 30

I wasn't sure if Dominic was remembering that our fight last night had been in this very spot. Maybe that's why he brought me here. Was he going to demand that I apologize? I wasn't sure if I should. I felt like I deserved to be mad, even if I had said things that I hadn't meant.

I waited for him to speak but he just chewed on his lip and looked at his feet. I had never seen him so nervous before.

I walked to the pool and peeled off my socks before dipping my feet in. I had to grit my teeth at the cold and rubbed my ankles together but stayed where I was.

"Come over here," I said, still looking at the water. Was he still panicking?

I heard him trudge over, and then land on the ground beside me. He didn't bother putting his feet in. I tried not to roll my eyes imagining his over-exaggerated response from the cold water yesterday.

I looked up at him and saw his eyes focused on the pool, but somehow much further. His eyes were glazed as if he were deep inside his thoughts. Should I give him a moment to think, or help him? I waited a couple of seconds, but he didn't move. I reached my hand out and placed it on the crease where his arm bent and squeezed a little.

"Dominic? You here?" I asked worriedly, as silly as it sounded. He turned to me and nodded, shaking his head yes.

"Are you okay?" I asked uneasily.

He took a deep breath and nodded, but he still wouldn't speak. His eyes were blankly concentrated in front of himself, and he had his arms wrapped around his knees in a protective sort of way.

I resisted the urge to ask if it was my fault that he was like this. It was too egocentric.

"Can I help in any way?" I tried.

He nodded, turning to me as if his life depended on it.

"Distract me?" he begged, in a voice that was so un-Dominic like I nearly froze.

I nodded slowly, quite perturbed. He knew I would help him regardless.

"Sometimes when you're mad, you clench your jaw, just a little bit. And when you're unhappy with something, your eyes flash like you want to punch someone in the face but you'll settle for doing it mentally. And when you protect me, I feel like the luckiest girl in the whole world. Because you're the scariest person in the whole world, but you're on my side. Because you're my brother. Although Damon is also potentially as scary as you." I rambled, letting myself be foolish if it helped him feel better.

His face softened as I spoke, and I sighed as the Dominic that I knew came back. He rolled his eyes at my last statement and petulantly said, "Damon is not scarier than me."

"True. It's a close call, though." I teased.

He bumped my shoulder with his and sighed.

"Why are we here?" I asked him, trying to nudge the conversation forward.

"I need to apologize for last night." He admitted, locking his brown eyes with mine.

"Oh..." I wasn't used to apologies.

"There's more. I want to tell you why I was so rude to you." He explained.

"You don't have to do that. I know you don't like cussing and I was purposefully trying to rile you up. I was looking for a fight." I confessed, dipping my first finger in the water and watching the ripple. I lifted it out and watched the water drip from my hand.

"I knew you were trying to get me angry, Maya." He scoffed as if it were obvious. I frowned.

"Well, it worked," I muttered, remembering how angry he became when I told him what Liam had done.

"No, it didn't. I was never mad at you!" He said sharply, making me pull away from him a little. He looked remorseful immediately.

"I'm not going to hurt you." He said sadly.

"I know that. I can't fix how my body responds when it thinks someone is mad at me though. It's Maya protection mode." I teased weakly, trying to make a joke out of it.

"I'm so sorry." He said again, looking lost.

"I forgive you."

"No, you don't." he chastised.

"I do."

"Well, you shouldn't! I haven't told you everything." He responded infuriated. His hands squeezed into fists and I tried to avoid leaning away, despite all the alarm bells ringing in my head.

"You don't need to tell me everything!" I replied wholeheartedly, feeling embarrassed. I loved him no matter what, how was he not seeing that?

"Maya, I didn't get mad at you last night because you cussed. I was mad last night because I couldn't help you. I felt weak and defenseless and like... the world is bad, and I can't do anything to change that."

His words pulled at a chord within me, and I tried to catch the feeling to make sense of what it was.

"Why's that?" I asked, half paying attention, and half trying to capture the feeling.

"Maya, you're not the only kid who was abused." He said, voice catching, pulling me clear out of my thoughts and into reality.

The chord rang out louder than before and I realized what it was. Empathy. Like he had felt the very same feelings that I had felt. Maybe he still was.

"What?" I asked in disbelief, as tears filled my eyes faster than they ever had in my life. He looked shamefully at the ground and I tackled him with a hug as he began to cry.