My Best Friend...The Keeper?

Sober

Once we finally reached the house, Dame had just stopped crying. But it wasn't the end of my anger. The truck pulled in behind us, and immediately I felt my anger flare.

"What do you think you're doing?!" I yelled at the figure behind the wheel.

"Apologizing for not standing up for you! Lil I'm sorry, I should've said something. Friends don't just let friends suffer like that." Dom yelled back.

"Since when are we friends?" I bit back.

He looked honestly hurt, his voice was cold. "Well I don't know. What about where we talked for two hours. Did that mean nothing? To me it meant everything! Maybe I even started to like you more than being only a friend." He admitted, "or did any of that just mean nothing? Was I just making it up in my mind? Was it all just a complicated figment of my imagination?!"

"You...no...I...what?!" I stuttered.

"Lil he said he might like you as more than a friend, and that your conversation was great." Damian explained slowly.

"Thanks little man." Dom answered breathlessly.

Dame looked at him with a shy smile as I just stood there dumbfounded.

"Will you go get a burger with me? Tonight."

"I have to stay with Damian. Our parents are...unstable."

Dame's face turned into iron as he turned on his heel, "not for long!" He shouted.

I looked to Dom with a panicked expression as we chased after Monster. When we finally caught up, he was standing in front of my temporarily sober parents huffing and puffing his chest out.

"Beast is bullied by snotty girls at Hillside and she wants to switch schools in a week. She finally made a friend who actually cares. He wants to take her out for burgers. Put down the alcohol and be actual parents for once in your lives!" He yelled.

"Monster, why are you doing this?" My mom asked with a bottle of Captain swinging around in her hand.

"Because mom, it's gone too far! Too far is the point where Beast has to take me to school every morning because you're recovering from continuous hangovers. It isn't fair to either of us!"

My eyes widened at the sight of my little Monster going off. Something I had never had the patience for. I felt Dom wrap his hand around mine and squeeze it tight. I flinched at the contact but didn't let him let go.

Dame then did the unthinkable. He snatched the bottle of Captain from my mothers hand. My dad's eyes widened and just flitted between my brother and the bottle. Monster's hand rose as he slammed the bottle back down. Letting gravity do its thing, the bottle shattered against the wood. I shrieked as Dom shielded me from the flying glass.

"What the hell, Monster?!" My mom screamed.

His face turned beat red as his neck tensed. "Cover your ears." I whispered to Dom.

"STOOOOOOOP DRIIIIIIIIIINKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Monster's voice echoed throughout the quiet neighborhood.

Tears swept out of my mothers eyes as my father put down his beer. "Son, sit down. Beast, go out with your friend." He ordered.

I nodded my head and dragged Dom out of the house.

"I am so sorry you had to hear that." I pressed my head against his window as he sped down the darkening roads.

"It's fine, you don't have to apologize for your family. I thought it was amazing how your brother did that."

"Did you really mean what you said? That you could like me as more than a friend."

He pulled into the diner parking lot, and just looked at me. "When I first saw you, I honestly was taken away by your beauty. You're different than any other girl I've ever met. I don't regret meeting you one bit, and I don't regret showing up at the library. You're an amazing girl and forgive me for this...even though we just met."

His hand brushed against my cheek as he pulled me to his lips. I didn't try and stop him, I wouldn't even know how to try. Slowly, I pushed my lips further into his. He smiled against my lips as he pulled away for a breath. Again, he leaned forward. Dom's lips were soft as his lips picked up the lacking of my own kiss. The pressure against my lips tingled as we pulled away. Was not disappointed for having my first kiss from him.

"Don't look so surprised, I know I don't come off as a good kisser...but I am." He flirted

I laughed and shoved his shoulder

lightly, "can we get that burger now?"

He nodded and opened my door for me with a kind smile. The same I'd seen so many times in one day. How many more times would I have the chance to see it?

We sat in a booth as he talked over the old music blaring from the jukebox. The conversation revolved around him, and his multiple past relationships. They were all the same. One after another he explained how they were all perfect, perfect body, hair, everything. But it all didn't work out in the end because of the simple fact, they were all the same. There was nothing exciting or new around every corner. That was why he apparently found an interest in me. I was different.

I made the point very clear to him that when I move schools there will probably be other people who think he same, he didn't seem to listen to what I was trying to say. Dom kept rambling on about his own life, leaving me to sit there drowning my fries in the ketchup.