Roll the Dice

eighteen. sky masterson

[Dedicated to Sydney, who is one of the most down-to-earth Wattpad writers I've ever met. All of her books are so lovely and insightful with the best characters (Mickey!), and she deserves all the recognition she receives and more.]

"You know, I always thought that you thought that taking me anywhere with you was a chore," I commented casually to Dom as we walked down the bustling street.

Dom pushed down his sunglasses from the top of his head and turned his head to look at me with a completely flat expression. "And it still is."

"Hey!" I protested, crossing my arms over my chest. Somehow, his comments still hurt a little after all this time-but I was somewhat proud to say that the insults came flying a little less often now that I stopped blurting out random things involving Guys and Dolls every five seconds. (However, I was still the same awkward freak I was weeks ago when I actually spoke to Dom for the first time in my entire high school career.)

Shaking his head slightly, Dom looked straight ahead at the backs of the other pedestrians' heads with a little smirk dancing on the corners of his lips. "Don't take everything so literally, Lottie."

And I still couldn't get over how incredibly adorable my name sounded whenever it came out of his lips.

We walked along in silence for a bit as I struggled to regain my composure. I was quite sure that I appeared bright red to anyone who passed me, and that fact alone was enough to send even more blood to my cheeks. On the other hand, Dom, as cool as can be, navigated his way around the street-side shops and passerby, looking so incredibly unruffled that I swore the only part of his being that was even slightly out of order was his rumpled hair.

The weather today was gorgeous-in fact, prime time for cross country runners like me to head out for a nice, long workout. If anything, it was balmy, which was a word I almost never used for this time of year, with the sun benevolently beaming down on humanity and an ever-constant breeze that kept temperatures much, much lower than the blazing usual. And besides, the sky, a pristine azure blue, was sparsely dotted with huge, fluffy clouds, which made for a great cloud-gazing session if I had time.

All around me, there was a gentle buzz of conversation about this and that. Today must have been a market day because there were tents set up everywhere. Colors from everything and anything competed for my attention from all sides, and I could barely keep myself from accidentally jostling anyone every time I took a step to follow Dom.

For some reason, I was at ease.

(Well, I could always blame it all on Dom and his damn distracting self and face and eyes and pheromones-my goodness-but I didn't feel like going through denial today.)

It really had been so long since I could properly enjoy myself, even for a little bit.

"And what business do your buddies"-I wiggled my eyebrows-"have here?" I wondered out loud to Dom.

He started a little. (Yes, the sound of my voice was kind of annoying, but I hoped it wasn't that strident.) "Here?" His voice was a little higher than usual, and he ran his hand through his already rumpled hair a couple times. Pointedly, he avoided looking at me (very easy to put on that façade since he was, after all, wearing sunglasses). "Why would we meet up here?"

I cleared my throat and lifted my eyebrows. "Well, I was kind of wondering that as well. Also, you promised to buy me a sundae if I came, so I was kind of hoping that it would around here because food seems rather abundant in this general area." After pausing to take an extremely deep breath, I gestured to the food tents all around us, feeling a little like a herald in a Shakespearean play referring to the king's subjects.