Ask Me to Stay

Chapter Six

DOMINIC'S POV
——
It's been over a week since Vera and I's fight, ten days exactly. To be honest we both were ignoring each other. I kept myself busy with work to not only avoid Vera but also Kara. She definitely had questions as to why Vera and I went from being relatively okay to hating each other again. Of course, I didn't hate her, but from the silent treatment I've been given, she definitely does.
———
"What are we gonna do for her birthday? It took a month to get mine together and hers is only a little further than that away." Kara was sitting across from the counter from me while I cooked breakfast. It was both our days off and Vera had left a few minutes ago.
"I don't know, ask her." I sounded snappy but it was partly the fact it was eight in the morning and the conversation subject.
"It's may so we could go out of town, somewhere warm?" Kara continued ignoring my attitude.
"My dad has the lake house in Georgia. I'm slammed for work so I probably won't be able to go. But I'm sure she would like time with just you." I lied, turning away so she wouldn't see through me.
"It's not like she would be disappointed, you guys hate each other." She laughed and shook her head.
"Correction...she hates me," I added softly. I tried to be mad at her but after a few days, I just missed her.
"Well, she can bring Maddy. I know she's friends with some of Blaine's crew so he can bring one or two people. I'll have Kate and Beck come to keep me company." She began writing things down on the tablet beside her.
"Don't you feel like Blaine's friends are a bit of a bad influence?" I suggested, not wanting to insinuate that there have been any bad experiences with them in particular. It would be hard to explain that I was upset that one of his friends gave Vera hickeys. That says jealousy through and through.
"I know Blaine...he would bring anyone around Vera who wasn't safe. I was just us for years, Dom, it's different." That was her way of telling me that I didn't get to have input on this.
"I'll talk to my dad..."
———
VERA'S POV
——
I had slept through most of my first few periods, avoiding Dominic was exhausting. Especially when that means walking to school. Kara offered to drive me but then it would have been clear that I was avoiding him. I told them I liked the walk...I in fact did not.
"V we gotta talk. I think Bryce likes me." Maddy slammed her tray down at our lunch table, making my ears ring.
"Cool." I sighed.
"Well...I know you wanted to smoke after school today so maybe we could invite him and Sam?" I shrugged, picking at my food. "I'm gonna take that as a yes."
We talked a little during lunch. She has realized that whatever is bothering me is going unsaid after many many attempts of trying to pry it out of me. Yeah...I basically broke up with my sister's boyfriend...after a day.
The rest of the day went quickly, and my mood got better too. Thanks to creative writing, my outlet of emotions. I  finished my 'forbidden love' short story, handed it in at the beginning of class. Miss Tallon read it and gave me her feedback. Her exact words were, "this is amazing, it sounds like it came from somewhere raw and vulnerable" which I guess it did.
I met Maddy outside after school let out. She was standing with Bryce, a slim blonde-haired lacrosse boy, and Sam, who is dark with red ombré dreads.
"Hey V!" Maddy yelled, Bryce's arm draped over her. I waved and smile.
"Park?" I asked. She nodded and the four of us began walking down the street to the old run-down park.
———
The four of us sat on the carousel thing, not spinning though. I pulled out the joint from my bag while Bryce and Maddy choose music.
"Can I have a lighter?" I asked Sam, having just seen him light his cigarette on the walk here.
"Yeah," he dug through his pocket before handing me a simple black zippo. "Here, babes." I smiled at the adornment.
I lit the end of the joint, inhaling so the twisted end burned away. I took two actual hits before passing it to Sam.
We laid back, passing it in circles, following the 'puff puff pass' rule.
"Can I show you guys something? I actually learned this from the guy who gave me this." I held up the joint and they all agreed. "Come here Sam." He turned his head towards me, waiting.
I hit the joint, inhaling most of it completely. I placed my hand on his cheek and leaned in. I gently blew the cloud into his mouth.
"Give it to Maddy. Then to Bryce." I instructed happily, the weed kicking in. I watched them do it and then had Bryce blow it into my mouth, completing the circle. We did this a few more times, laying down with our heads in a tight circle so all we had to do is turn our heads to give it to the next person.
"Vera?!" I jolted up, some of the smoke that was directed towards Sam getting blown out into the air. I saw Dominic walking towards us.
"Who's that?" Sam asked.
"I think that's-" Maddy started but I cut her off.
"I have no clue who that is," I said laughing. Shooting Maddy a look.
"What do you think you're doing, Vera?!" Dominic yelled, standing in front of me, joint still resting between my fingers.
"Who are you?" I asked innocently, trying to hold back a laugh.
"Enough, Vera, you're going home." He snapped.
"Stranger danger." Maddy laughed out.
"Really Madeline? Come on Vera!" Dominic ordered again but I stayed sitting on the carousel.
"Dude...clearly she doesn't know you. How about you move along." Sam stood up, a little wobbly but meeting Dominic in stance.
"I don't know who the fuck you think you are but Vera does in fact know me, she's just being a brat." Dominic snapped again, staring Sam in the eyes.
"Vera...do you know this guy?" Sam asked, not taking his eyes off Dominics.
"Nope." I said with a grin, popping the 'P'.
"How about you get back in your fancy car and leave us alone. Cause this isn't gonna end well." Sam shot, raising his brow and sending Dominic a smirk.
"Vera?" Maddy whispered as a warning. I ignored her and continued watching.
"Vera! Get. In. The. Car." Dominic growled, fists clenched.
"Jesus dude!" Sam yelled before landing his fist into Dominic's cheek before I had time to deescalate.
"Fuck!" I yelled, scrambling to my feet and taking Dominic's face in my hands to look at the damage. "Are you okay Dominic?"
"Wait?! You fucking know him?" Sam yelled. "I'm getting the fuck outta here." He scoffed before grabbing Bryce by the arm. "It was fun though, Vera." He yelled with an amused but also scared smile.
Dominic made no attempt to go after Sam.
I let my hands fall to my sides, looking down at my feet.
"Both of you...in the car," Dominic grunted
———
Dominic dropped Maddy off at her house, telling her she should be glad her parents aren't home.
"What the fuck was that?" Dominic asked now showing how angry he was. He pulled out into the street and headed towards home.
"I'm sorry okay, I thought it would be funny...I didn't think he was going to hit you." I mumbled, looking out the window lazily, still very, very high.
"You didn't gather that from him saying 'or this is going to end badly'? I can't tell if you're being a brat or if you're just stupid." He scoffed and leaned back in the driver's seat.
"Thanks for that...my confidence is going through the roof," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes.
"Yup, turn this around on me. It's not like your boyfriend just punched me in the fucking face."
"Not my boyfriend."
"You'd were kissing him."
"No I was...actually never mind. If we're going by your logic I have three boyfriends." A laugh erupted from me, making me curl into myself.
The conversation died, but then I saw chipotle ahead of us and I became very talkative.
"Wait! Can we get food? Chipotle is right there." I basically had my face plastered to the window, my finger pointed to the red building ahead.
"No, Vera." Dominic snapped, gripping the steering wheel tightly.
"Why not? I didn't eat lunch today, it was gross. Please, Dominic?" I whined, tossing myself back against the seat.
"I said no, Vera. You should have just eaten, you can wait until we get home." His tone was gentler but nowhere near being nice.
"Jesus, Dominic. You're really gonna starve me because I kissed someone and it hurt your feelings." I breathed out, rubbing my forehead as the chipotle sign passed by.
"Trust me, Vera, my feelings weren't hurt. I'm just unsupportive of your choices." A dickish smirk settled on Dominic's lips as he relaxed into his seat.
"So...I'm a slut?" I asked, offense showing through my voice.
"Your words, not mine. I never said that." He argued.
"But you thought it, right? Maybe not in an insulting way, but we both know what you're into." I scoffed and leaned my head back, amused with my own insult.
"Ya know...calling you that never occurred to me. That honorific sounds better on your sister." He shot back. Oh...okay, that's how we're gonna play it.
"Makes sense, I liked calling Cody 'daddy' a lot more than I did with you." I returned, looking over at him with a proud look.
"So that's his name? Sounds like a wonderful boy, maybe you should invite him over to dinner." He swiped his tongue over his bottom lip before pulling it between his teeth.
"I'll let him finger me under the table so you can watch. I wonder how it will feel fucking your girlfriend with a hard-on her little sister caused." I pulled up my one leg so it leaned against the door for my arm to drape over.
"I bet you would love the attention wouldn't you?" He laughed out angrily.
"Yup...because I'm a slut." I shouted with a sadistic grin. Before I could stop the idea, I slapped my hand over his crotch, gripping it tightly while I looked ahead.
"Clearly." He bit back, making no intention to move my hand. "You would let me fuck you on the side of the road if I gave you the chance."
"Do you hear yourself?! Act your fucking age, Dominic! If you haven't realized you're thirty-four, I'm sixteen." I didn't want to pull the age card but that was out of line, too far.
"Thanks for the reminder..."
———
Fighting with Dominic became more and more normal. We could walk into a room at the same time and it would end in us yelling at each other. Communal dinner with all three of us became less and less frequent. Maddy even commented on how divided the house was between Dominic and I. That was partly due to the fact I made her wait to leave my room until Dominic closed left for work.
I knew I was contributing To the problem but my petty comments were nowhere near how he would flaunt fucking my sister almost every night.
I went out with Blaine more often, saw Cody a few more times. Sam, Bryce, Maddy, and I started having group hangouts. Every Friday we would get high at the drive-ins, make out, and suffice our munchies at all-night diners. Faking being okay got more and more easier to do.
———
"I'm going out!" I shouted as I ran down the stair towards the front door. It was only five o'clock but I wanted to get out of the house as soon as possible.
"No! Wait! We have to talk to you." Kara yelled from the kitchen. Reluctantly I walked into the kitchen. I knew Kara didn't care about how I dressed but I could tell Dominic was disapproving.
"What?" I snapped, tapping my wrist as if I had to be somewhere at that exact minute.
"You're birthday is in two weeks. We're going to Dominic's family lake house in Georgia. Ask a few of your friends to come, we have the room. We're gonna start the drive Friday morning and then leave Tuesday morning, so they would need to take off three days of school." Kara explained, turning her stool towards me.
"Really?" I said with excitement. Then it hit me, Dominic's lake house. "Is Dominic coming?" I asked, pretending he wasn't even in the room.
"No..." Kara sighed. "He's not. But I really wish the two of you would get past whatever this is. It feels like I'm living with two territorial cats...or toddlers because you're both acting like children." She shot a glare up at Dominic before turning it to me.
"Sounds good," I yelled while walking to the door. "I'll be back tomorrow, and I'll talk to them about Georgia."
The door closed before either of them could say anything. Sometimes I wished Dominic would put up of fight for me to stay home, because that would mean he cared, but then Sam would kiss me and I would forget about that.
———
"Hell yeah!" Bryce yelled from inside the deserted diner. Two of the waitresses were sleeping in the booths across the room, some of the other staff were talking in the kitchen. We always made sure to tip them well for making them boot everything up at two in the morning.
"Georgia sounds amazing, babes," Sam said gently from beside me with his arm draped over my shoulders.
"Your parents will be okay with missing  school?" I asked all of them before taking a sip of my vanilla milkshake.
"Mine will, they like Dominic and Kara." Maddy piped in while the other two shrugged. "We have to do some shopping though because we're going out. I'm sure we can find something down there to do."
"We should tag along." Bryce started, gently punching Sam's shoulder from across the table. "To approve and all that." He added with a smirk.
"Ha, like either of us would really listen to you two dumbasses." Maddy laughed out before planting a wet kiss on Bryce's cheek.
"Blaine texted me and told me he was bringing some people too so there will most likely be weed and alcohol," I added, mostly to Maddy.
"Drunk skinny dipping?" Sam asked flirtatiously.
"Death by drowning?" Maddy joked, shaking her dead. "My drunk butt is not going near any body of water that goes past my ankles."
"Bring something nice, we're probably gonna go somewhere nice for my birthday dinner." I playfully stole one of Sam's fries, nestling my head into his shoulder.
"Sound like a plan," Maddy said in a chirpy tone. Bryce nodded in agreement while Sam kissed my forehead.
"Is Dominic coming? I want to know so I can practice my boxing beforehand." Sam joked, pulling me into his side.
"Nope," I said happily, earning a curious glance from Maddy. "Apparently he had work stuff."
"You don't believe him?" Bryce asked.
"No. We kinda hate each other so it doesn't surprise me that he doesn't want to come." I said nonchalantly.
"And you're okay with that?" Same asked. "It is your birthday."
"Yup, plus he would be hell about drinking and smoking. It's for the better." I shrugged and shielded my lie with another sip from my almost empty milkshake.
"If ya say so..." Maddy mumbled.