Ask Me to Stay

Chapter Seven

Dominic's POV
——
"Will you get the door? I think it's Blaine!" Kara yelled from the kitchen. Sighing, I stood and walked from the living room to the front door. When I opened it four heads turned towards me.
"Hey Dom." Blaine said, taking a step towards me. I stayed cemented in the doorway, looking over Blaine at his three companions. Two boys and one girl.
"Who are they?" I asked in the most polite tone I could muster. I failed horribly.
"This is Mac, and this is Evie, I'm pretty sure you two already met. And this here is Cody." Cody...A surge of anger split through, my grip on the doorway tightened and my jaw clenched.
"Let them in already!" Kara yelled again, pulling me out of my rage. I turned around, dramatically pushing the door open, and stalked off to the kitchen.
"Tell me why Blaine is bringing his whole clan to Vera's birthday?" I leaned against the counter with my arms crossed. Ignoring the thump of the four idiots racing to Blaines room.
"Vera likes Blaines friends, especially Evie. This better but be one of your bad influence rants." I paused, looking up at me with a raised brow.
"Thats not what I meant," I lied. "I just wasn't raised being allowed to bring my friends to my siblings celebrations."
"Yes, well Vera and I were raised differently. We didn't spend our weekends at a country club." Kara snapped in a sickly sweet tone. "You're not even coming with anyways." She added like salt to a wound.
I thought for a moment, letting the conversation die out into silence. Like hell I'm going to let Vera alone with that asshole...
"Fine." I breathed out. Kara looked up at me and cocked her head.
"Fine what?"
"I'll come with. I can bring my laptop and work from there." I rubbed my face and turned away from her. She had a knack for seeing through my lies.
"Go tell Vera that, not me. It's her party." I looked back at Kara, seeing the new smile on her lips.
"I'll tell her in the morning." I mumbled before heading out of the kitchen.
"You mean when she sees you getting in the car with me?" Kara yelled, laughing. I didn't reply, just walked upstairs to my office.
———
"Blaine." I whispered, shirtless with pajama bottoms riding my hips. "Blaine! Get the fuck up!" I said again, louder. I aggressively shook his shoulder, making him numb into the three other bodies piled on his bed.
"What?" He mumbled groggily.
"It's time to get on the road. To think you were old enough to set an alarm." I scoffed. I turned and flicked the lights on before leaving the room.
Vera and Maddy were getting showered. Their friends Bryce and Sam were awkwardly sitting in the living room. Kara was in the kitchen aggressively making car snacks.
"Woah." I shouted, almost bumping into Vera and Maddy on my way to my bedroom. I could feel Maddy's eyes taking over my body while Vera's held my gaze.
"Why are you even up? It's two in the morning." Vera snapped, pulling her robe tighter around herself. I hated that she felt she needed to hide herself from me, I guess I deserved it though.
"We have to be on the road by three so yeah...I'm up." I explained as if she should have known I was coming.
"You're not coming with." She stated flatly. I gently pushed her out of my way and opened the door to my bedroom.
"It's my cabin isn't it?" I said before closing the door behind me.
———
"Get in your car boys!" I yelled, gripping both Bryce and Sam's shoulders and pushing them towards the porch stairs.
Vera was standing by Blaines car with his friends, wearing a cropped tank top and loose grey joggers barely hanging onto her hips. Cody was standing next to her, one arm wrapped around her waist.
"Vera! Time to go." I yelled, handing Maddy a mini cooler full of snacks, along with a bag of mixed chips. "You too Blaine, into your respective cars."
"Get in the car Dom. No need to be a hard ass." Beck, Karas friend yelled from the back seat of my car.
"You can leave Beck." I teased before going back up the stairs to lock the door.
Kara finished helping Bryce and Blaine with their gps' and got into the car.
"Ready?" She chirped from the passenger seats.
"Ready."
———
Vera's POV
——
"Are you sure you're okay to drive?" I asked Bryce while handing the joint that Cody gave us back to Maddy.
"Yeah, I got my window down." He gripped Maddy's hands and relaxed into his seat.
"You two have the rest." Maddy handed the joint to Sam, clearly holding on a cough.
Sam and I snuggled up in the back seat at 2:45 in the morning, passing the joint back in forth between kisses.
———
"A little over one more hour and we'll be there." Maddy said, stretching outside the Panera building.
"I feel like it would go faster if we didn't stop for lunch." Sam groaned, crawling out of the car.
Blaine and Dominic pulled in beside us, eight more people began stretching in the parking lot.
"Let the kids get their own table. We can complain about politics at our own." Kate barked towards Dominic who was humbling about something to Kara.
For a moment Dominic stopped to look at me. Something unfamiliar flashed across his eyes before being replaced with a cold expressions. He cocked his head towards the restraint.
"You're making this difficult." He whispered after I caught up with him. Everyone else finished up and followed a few yards behind us.
"I'm not making anything difficult, Dominic. I'm moving on." I stated gracefully, holding my chin up.
"That's not moving on. That's rubbing salt in the wound." He replied. I scoffed and shook my head.
"Can we maybe take a break of the sexual tension slash mutual self loathing until we get home. I would like to celebrate my birthday without my sisters boyfriend on my mind." I snapped. Looking up at him for an answer.
"You're the one who brought him." He looked down at me as if that was the answer we both were looking for.
"I had no idea that Cody was coming. Am I mad about it? No. But in all honesty...you made your bed. Lie in it." With that I pushed through the doors and heading towards the ordering counter.
———
"This is nice." Sam whispered from beside me as we walked into the large lake house.
"Yeah, Dominic and his grandfather designed it when he was our age. They mostly rent it out." I explained, not as impressed since I had been here multiple times.
"Vera show your friends their rooms. Blaine...same thing." Kara shouted from the door.
We all grabbed our bags. Sam, Bryce, and Maddy followed behind me as we headed down the hall.
"Are we gonna share a room?" Sam asked flirtatiously.
"Funny, Samuel. Only official couples share rooms." Maddy joked, trying soften the blow of me saying no. Instead Sam just turned towards me, awaiting my answer.
"She's got a point." I joked. "I prefer one bed all to myself anyways." I patted his muscled chest before opening the door across from mine. "This is yours, Sam. And that one there is for you two." I pointed at another door for Bryce and Maddy.
We all closed our doors, planning on napping from the ten hour drive.
———
Knock knock knock
"Sam I swear to god." I groaned under my breath as I climbed out of bed. But, when I opened the door a freshly showered Cody stood in front of me.
"Hello." I squeaked, blushing furiously.
"Hey, V." He whispered before bending down to kiss me.
"In." I moaned before pulling him inside and kicking the door closed.
Cody and I's make out session only lasted about ten minutes. Dominic was pounding on my door yelling about something to do with dinner.
"He seems like he really needs to talk to you." Cody whispered against my skin before gently nibbling at it.
"Ignore him, he's being a pain in my ass." I returned before connecting our lips again. The pounding continued making both Cody and I call it quits. I walked to the door, angrily swinging it open. I stood there with my arms crossed and a raised eyebrow.
"What, Dominic?" I snapped expectantly. "We've been here less than an hour and you're already pissing me off." I added as extra insult.
"Excuse me?!" He clenched his jaw and took a step back. "I don't know when you thought it was suitable for you to use that kind of language directed towards me...but it stops. Now." A fleeting sense of amusement washed over me making my cold expression falter.
"Maybe when I was riding your fingers while you kissed me..." I whispered by his ear. I could feel him tense up, and his breath hitch.
Not a second layer Cody widened the door and stepped out in the hall beside us. Dominic went straight back to rage.
"Don't piss me off, Vera. Or I'll start treating you like the child you are." He barked before walking down the hall.
"Sucks that you weren't before!" I called, groaning in anger before grabbing Cody's hand and walking him out to the deck area.
"What's his issue?" Cody asked lightly once we were outside.
"He has a power complex. He doesn't like when it seems like he's the weaker on in an argument. Usually he's just an ass, but when I stand my own that's when he brings out the emotional ammunition." I explain just as lightly as if I didn't want to go in there and murder him or fuck him...maybe both?
"Oh okay. For a second there it seemed like something more." I could tell where this was going, meaning it had to be shut down now.
"He's a good guy, we just bring out the worst in each other. I'll be out of here in a year so it's not that big of a deal." I sit down at the edge of the pool, letting my feet dip into the water.
"I don't mean to pry...but what happened to your parents. Blaine never talks about that stuff to the group." I could tell he was being careful. Keeping his distance in case I flip out.
"Our dad died, I was two. Then when I was five when Kara and I's mom ran off. She couldn't handle being a single parent so she gave parental rights over to Kara for both me and Blaine." After Cody realized this wasn't a sore subject for me, he sat down text to me and pulled my hand into his.
"Blaine has a different mom doesn't be?" Cody asked as if he was looking for a reminder that that was true.
"Yeah. My Dads best friend wanted a kid but she didn't have a guy in her life so she asked him to Ya know..." I lazily did a jacking off motion in my lap. "They co parented him for a while, and then she got involved in some pretty bad things so he got full custody of Blaine. Him and his mom don't really speak anymore."
"Sharing family secrets are we?" Blaine yelled from behind us. Him, Mac, and Evie were in their bathing suits holding towels.
"Nope, just helping out a friend who was left in the dark." I shot back.
"Yes, Cody, my mother is a crack whore. I'm cool with it though, parental figures are shit." Blaine joked as he dumped his things onto a pool chair.
"That right there," I motioned towards Blaine. "Is quite literally the opposite of being cool with it. That's called deflecting."
"Go get your friends and put on your bathing suits or I'm throwing you in the pool." Blaine shot, changing the subject.
"Definitely not cool with it." Evie and Mac agreed from beside Blaine.
———
DOMINIC'S POV
——
That evening we made dinner on the grill, periodically jumping in the pool or lounging on the edge. Us four actual adults, Kara, Beck, Kate, and me sat by the fire pit drinking beers.
"Okay, listen up not so young children." Kara stood from her seat walking closer to the pool. "I am not supplying minors with alcohol. But I did buy a decent amount and put it on the counter in the kitchen. If you walk out here holding a brown glass bottle...I will assume it is cream soda. So go about your business with out dying. Thank you." I rolled my eyes at Karas vague speech telling the kids that she got them drinks. Almost all of them walked inside.
Vera walked over to the grill, peaking at what I was cooking. I quietly excused myself from the ladies before walking over to her.
I've only every seen Vera drunk when she came home the other weekend from hanging out with Blaine. During which she didn't hold back on what she thought. I just don't want her saying anything under the influence that she would rather keep to herself...or between us.
"Hey..." I mumbled from behind her. She flinched slightly before turning to me with her usual stone cold glare.
"What do you want, Dominic?" She crossed her arms over her bikini clad chest. It would be a lie if I said I wasn't admiring her body this whole time...
"I just wanted to ask you to be careful..." I started lowly.
"Of what?" She snapped.
"Of getting drunk and saying something you regret..." I leaned back, distracting myself by checking on the food.
"You're scared I'm going to tell everyone? You do realize that by me saying that I not only ruin my sisters relationship with you but also with me. I'm not dumb, Dominic." She replied gentler. She turned to walk away but paused. "You don't have to worry about that Dominic."
I mumbled a thank you before returning to sit next to Kara.
"What was that about?" She asked, sounding unconcerned.
"I think it was a truce...of sorts." I answered simply, sipping my beer and averting my eyes from Vera's swaying hips as she made her way inside to her friends.
———
"Hey..." I breathed out, sitting down beside Vera at the pool side. It was well past midnight and everyone had gone to sleep.
"Why are you so far up my ass?" She asked without sounding mean.
"Because...because I miss you. I know we only had two days but I liked how you talked and how you listened." I admitted from beside her, playfully splashing her foot with mine.
"You miss me?" She whispered.
"Yeah, yeah I do." I continued. "I don't need to touch you, but can we at least be friends. I liked it when we were friendly."
"I liked it when you touched me. But I didn't like it when you got over protective and intrusive. I never asked you to end things with Kara for me...in turn you can't ask me to not hang out with other people." She explained, leaning against me with her head on my shoulder.
"I know...but even now when I act romantically with Kara it feels wrong. It feels like cheating. I just don't understand how it doesn't feel like that for you..." I bit my cheek, confused with my own openness. I felt vulnerable and weak, like Vera could break me at any moment.
"To be honest...it does. But I tell myself I'm only doing it to catch up with you. It's a shitty excuse but it works for the most part." I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her into me.
"You don't need to catch up with me. I like how being with you, like this, feels. I know it's shitty but it gives me a sense of control knowing that I'm the one teaching you about things...like that." I gently finished by kissing her head and rubbing her hip with my thumb.
"It can't be like that, Dominic. We can't form attachments to each other like that. You can have Kara and I'll do my thing." She whispered into my shoulder.
"I don't know if I want Kara..." I whispered without thinking it over.
"No, Dominic," she stated much louder. "I'm not coming between you two. If you end it with her you end things with me."
"How is that fair? To any of us?" I dropped my arm from her back and laid down on the deck. She followed suit and laid back beside me.
"It's fair because I'm gone in a year. Meaning this can only last a year. Long term...it's not realistic." She curled into my side, her hand sliding up my shirt to rest just above my belly button.
"I'll take what I can get then..." I compromised, wrapping my arms around her. "Just not Cody..."
"I'll try..."
"Please..."