Sweet Tooth: On My Block

10: a new day

"Hey, Nova, who drove you home last night?" Maxine asked, scrolling through Instagram on her phone. She was wearing her usual pajamas: a tank top and sweatpants. Yawning, she looked up and screamed, dropping her phone when she saw someone who was definitely not Nova.

Steph from the tattoo shop turned to look at Maxine, who was now blushing. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry if I scared you," she said. "I was making coffee. Want some?"

"I'm good, thanks. You're Steph, right? We haven't formally met."

"That's me. And you're Maxine?"

"Yep," Maxine replied, picking up her phone from the floor.

"So I see you've met Steph," Nova laughed, strolling out of her room in nothing but booty shorts and a black bra. "Who took you home, Maxie?"

"Nova, do you realize that you're half-naked?"

"We're girls. Who fucking cares?" She asked, grabbing a mug from one of their cabinets, smiling when Steph filled it with coffee without question. 

Maxine shook her head in amusement. "Anyway. Dom drove me home when he saw me so drunk that I could barely stand. We were so wasted last night."

"Any action?"

"Nova, I'm not over Oscar. I would be using Dom if I did that."

"Just saying," Nova smirked, sipping from her cup. "You too would be pretty cute together. He's someone you would date."

"How do you know that? I haven't dated anyone in so long, and I thought Oscar would be it." Maxine ran her hands through her hair. "I'm a mess. I'm a fucking mess. God! This one stupid boy has me fucked over."

"Try girls, then," Steph offered, applying some lip gloss. "That's worked out pretty well for me."

 "I don't know if I'm ready to date, girl or guy." After a few moments, Maxine threw up her hands. "I'm making everything about me. Let's go do something fun."

"Amen!" Nova yelled suddenly. "If you want to date someone, date them. Who cares? At least try it out, you know, go on a date and see how it feels. You'll never know until you try. Go put on some cute clothes and have lunch with Dom."

outfit above :)

"How do you feel?" Nova asked from the passenger's seat, before Maxine could get out.

Maxine smiled. "A little over dressed, but cute." She tugged at her sweater and jumped out of the car, nervously looking at the Santos house.

"We can come with you if you need support."

"That's nice, but also a little weird," she laughed. "You guys have a lunch date to get to as well, and I wouldn't want to intrude. Thank you for driving me though, Steph."

"No problem," Steph answered, then turned to Nova. "C'mon, she's right. We have a date."

Maxine checked her reflection in her phone screen one last time and nervously pulled at one of the strands of hair that was framing her face. Taking a deep breath, she turned around. The Santos hadn't seen her yet, but she had already found Dom on the front yard.

She nervously took a few steps up before everyone turned to face her, and breathed a sigh of relief when she found that Oscar wasn't there.

"Hey, Maxine," Dom greeted her with a smile, standing up at her presence.

"Hi, Dom." Maxine bit her lip. "Can we talk? In private?"

"Of course. What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," she said, following him inside. "I wanted to talk to you about yesterday."

"I'm so sorry, Maxine, I know I apologized already, but-"

"Thank you, but you don't need to apologize. I actually wanted to talk about something I said. I know I said I didn't want to explore anything, but I thought it over, and I realize that I'd be open to being with you." She was blushing furiously now, thinking that she was saying everything wrong, but Dom thought the opposite.

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow. 

"Yeah," Maxine admitted. She looked up at him, twisting her fingers around. "So, I wanted to ask if you'd come to lunch with me?"

---------

"Do I have food all over my face?" Maxine asked, dabbing at her mouth with a napkin. 

Dom shook his head. "I'm the one with food on my face. I got this shit all over me."

She laughed and threw a napkin at him. "Here. Use this one."

"Thanks, Maxie."

"Don't call me that!" Maxine protested.

"Or what?"

"Or...or...or I'll steal your food!" 

"That's not a good threat. You can't do that. Half of it's already on my face," he replied practically, causing her to laugh again. 

"True," she began to respond, but froze halfway through her sentence.

"What's wrong?" Dom turned to see what she was looking at and froze as well. "Shit. Shit. Shit shit shit," he repeated, wiping his face with the napkin.

Oscar approached their table. "Hey, Maxine. I just wanted to say sorry for the other day."

"It's fine," Maxine mumbled, uncomfortably shifting in her seat. 

"No, I'm really sorry-"

"Spooky, I said it's fine. Can you go, please?"

"Am I interrupting-wait, are you guys on a date?" Oscar's voice rose with each word, until it was on the verge of a yelling tone.

No one said anything.

"Answer!" 

"Yes, we are," Dom stood up. "Have a problem?"

"Yeah, I do. You can't lay off her for a goddamn minute, can you, huh?! Me kicking your ass didn't say enough to you? Do you need me to spell it out for you? Stay away from her."

Dom looked him in the eye. "Why, exactly, should I stay away from her when you were the one who broke her heart? If I'm correct, you were the one who hurt her, not me."

"You son of a bi-"

"Spooky, please stop." Maxine touched his arm so he would actually hear her instead of ignoring her like he usually did when he was boiling mad.

He turned to look at her. "Why are you going out with him?"

"Why should I tell you?" She crossed her arms.

"Maxine. I thought you liked me."

"Well, I did, but how did that turn out? Would it make you happy if I never went out with anyone? For me to spend the rest of my life moping over you, because that's all I've been doing lately. You don't own me." 

They were silent, then Maxine waved him off. "Please go."

Without another word, he turned around and left, his heavy shoes pounding the ground as he flung the door open. 

She turned back to Dom uncomfortably. "I'm so sorry I had to put you through that."

"It's fine. I understand why he'd be jealous, though, he did like you-"

"Wait, what?"

Dom froze. Now he was the uncomfortable one. "Nothing. I didn't say anything."

"Spooky liked me?!"