I Thought You Hated Me

Chapter 6:

It's been a week since I last talked to Dominic. I didn't have time to talk to him or explain the rules to him, I still don't know what the rules are myself though. Anyways, I'm sitting on the grass next to where the cafeteria is and where we sat on the bench. I have my headphones in, my copy books open, my laptop open, and man the weather is lovely today. I lie down to sunbathe for a bit. I close my eyes and enjoy the weather and the sun hitting my face.

The sun disappears and I open my eyes to see Dominic standing over me. He always appears out of nowhere. "Oh hey Dom," I remove my headphones and sit up, and gesture to him to sit down and he does. "I'm sorry I didn't text you yet, I've been super busy. If you have time we can get coffee now and talk about it." He smiles slightly. I will never get used to that. I'm about to get my stuff into my bag but he shakes his head.

"Let's enjoy the sun for a little." He says and lets out a little groan as he lies down to relax and gestures for me to lie down too and I do.

"What songs were you listening to?" I turn my head towards him and show him my playlist. It has a bunch of different genres, from sad to happy to sexy. It's quite embarrassing not gonna lie. He hands me back my phone and smiles. He's so cute.

"It's a mix of everything," I say, he nods and closes his eyes. I get up and Dominic sits up slightly resting his elbows on the floor. "Get up, come on, let's go get some coffee." He gets up and helps me pack my stuff.

He puts my laptop in my bag and takes one of my copybooks and puts it in as well. "Thank you." I smile and we begin walking.

"No problem." He smiles again. I can't describe how cute it is and what it does to me. The way the edges of his mouth curls up and how faint dimples form, and the way his skin wrinkles at the corner of his eyes. The way his nose scrunches up, making me realize he has freckles. The way my stomach drops and flutters, and how my throat dries up.

This Dominic right here, is the cute and soft Dominic. The angry one that I've met countless of times is hot, sexy, scary, but in a good way. The way where I get turned on, which surprises me and weirds me out a little.

"So how was your week?" I flinch a little, snapping back into reality.

"It was fine. I studied this whole week, I'm so exhausted, but hey I finished." I put my hands up in the air to wave them and let out a little 'woo'. He smiles, god his smile.

"I feel you, I have been drained this whole week." He rubs his eyes a little and now that he's said that I realize his under eyes are puffed up and darker than usual. Well, studying to be a nurse is a tiring job, and we're only two years away from graduating.

"We can meet another time if you're tired," I stop walking and he immediately shakes his head and nods to the direction we were walking to. So I continue walking again. "Okay." I say letting out a sigh.

"Hold my hand." He says out of nowhere.

"Uh, what, why?" I stutter, clearly flustered. He takes my hand and interlaces his fingers with mine. He nods at the people who are walking by us and smiles at them. I kind of blacked out in the moment, maybe from the warmth and how big his hand is.

"Oh okay," I say in a whisper. Even after the group of people turned the corner and there was no one in sight he was still holding my hand. I look at our interlaced fingers and look back at him and admire his side profile for a bit. There's a bump on the bridge of his nose and the tip of his nose is slightly pointed upward. His lips are full and slightly dry so he licks them every now and then. He has a strong jawline which gets stronger every time he's slightly annoyed or angry.

We arrived at the cafe and let go of each other's hands which I totally forgot I was holding. I'm already greeted by the cashier who sees me here almost every day. "Your regular?" She asks and I smile at her and nod. She looks at Dom, "Regular as well?" He nods. "Coming right up." She goes to make the drinks. I look at him and tilt my head.

"You come here often?"

"Almost everyday." He says and I tilt my head a little more with a confused face.

"I'm here everyday," I say.

"I know." He replies.

I raise my brow, "You do?"

"I see you here sitting there almost every time." He points at the table in the corner next to the window. I do sit there every time, how come I've never noticed him- ohhhh yeah because I'm always working on something and never enjoy my time.

"Here you go, one hot chocolate and cappuccino." I smile at the cashier and say thank you and so does Dom. He's already walking to the table I always sit at so I just follow behind. I put my bag aside and place the drink on the table and we both sit.

Well this is...weird. I don't know how to describe it. Sitting and having a conversation with the man I thought hated me about faking a relationship basically. Am I overthinking this? I don't know, fuck I have so many questions but they're overlapping with eachother.

"Why do you hate me?" Fuck, shit, fuck. Stupid Nat, why Nat, fuck you Nat. Oh god I would rather be buried alive than go through with his conversation. He lets out a sigh and shakes his head.

"I never hated you," Oh? Interesting. He shakes his head some more, looks like he's debating on whether to say something else or not. "I'm just kind of..." he lets out a sigh. "Jealous of you." He whispers. I widen my eyes and both of my eyebrows are so high up they could touch my hair line. "I mean you're so smart and always know everything in class. I turned things into a competition with you but I see my version of competition was just being plain rude. I'm sorry for that, I didn't mean for it to be mean," He chuckles a little. "But you would say comebacks to me and man were they funny, so I thought maybe you were fine with it."

He thinks I'm funny? Why am I hot all of a sudden? Fuck my cheeks are feeling hot, I dont want him to see so I shove the hot chocolate in my face. "I liked giving those comebacks," I say with a smile. "And also how in the hell are you jealous of me? You're literally the smartest person in class." He smiles big this time, and I can't help but smile back. His smile is so contagious, literally lights up a whole room.

"Thank you," he puts his hand on his chest. "Means a lot." I smile and nod and realize what we're here for.

"Right, um so yeah about the rules." I tuck my hair behind my ears and realize I have nothing. "Uh, well." He looks at me amused.

"You don't have any do you?" He takes a sip of his coffee with a smug smile on his face. I grin and nod.

"Okay wait, so basically the rules are..." I trail off thinking of what to say. "We have to look affectionate on campus," I think a little bit more.

"No kissing, or fucking, or anything sexual." He widens his eyes, and I could see his cheeks turn slightly pink. He opens his mouth to speak but nothing comes out. Why am I enjoying this so much, seeing him flustered and speechless is so entertaining. "Only hand holding and hugs." He closes his mouth and nods. He's still shocked.

"Did you think," he trails off thinking of whether to continue or not. "Did you think we would fuck?" I widen my eyes and my whole face turns red. I didn't really think when I said those 'rules'.

"Uh no..." he raises his brow. "I mean yes!" His mouth drops open. "No! No I mean...fuck." I want to dig myself a grave. I want to run away and never come back. Why do I do this to myself?

He bursts out laughing, while I'm here gasping for air, on the brink of a fucking panic attack. That laugh, that laugh does something to me. I was right, the skin around his eyes do wrinkle and he does let out a slight lopsided smile. He shakes his head with the biggest smile that I'm not appreciating because I'm still freaking out. "Um, yeah so that's literally all I have." I say trying to get over this awkward moment. I let out an awkward laugh and a very wobbly breath.

"How about we meet here daily?" He suggests and my body warms up, I'm blaming the hot chocolate. "There are students here all the time so we can show off to them." He explains and I nod.

"Okay then, that's that." I say and play around with my cup a little not knowing what to say and debating if I should run straight out the door. I look out the window and I feel him still looking at me. What is with this man and looking at me? I glance over at him and meet his gaze. He doesn't stop staring and I don't stop either. There is something in his eyes I never recognized before. I don't know how to describe it but he looks at me like I'm the most interesting thing in the world.

The cafe doors open and I break our eye contact to look and see- "Fuck." I whisper.