Castle in the City

15

A knock sounded on my door, so I told Aria and Natalie to hold on. "Come in," I invited.

"Hey, big head," Nico greeted with Damien trailing behind him. Damien gave me a playful wink, and I tried not to blush.

"What?" I asked, focusing my attention on my brother so that I wouldn't have to be teased by Damien.

Nico answered, "I was thinking the whole gang should link up and do something fun tomorrow, since Dame and I will have a day off."

"Sure," I nodded. "I'm actually on the phone with Nat and A." I disconnected my AirPods so that they could pitch in on the convo. "Guys, Nico and Damien wants to link up tomorrow. Justin should come too."

"Sure," they agreed in unison.

Natalie then asked, "Where are we linking, and what are we doing?"

"I don't know. We can do the beach, roller skating, or anything anyone else thinks of. I just wanna leave the house," Nico shrugged.

"Alright," Aria agreed. "Can my boyfriend come too?"

"Yeah," Nico nodded. "Nat, pack a bag, you're sleeping over."

Natalie chuckled, "Who said I wanted to sleep over."

"Word?" Nico chuckled. "What if I do that thing we did last-"

"Aight, aight, nobody needs to know the precise facts," Natalie said, causing us all to chuckle. "I'll pack a bag."

Nico smiled, "That's what I thought."

I made the mistake of looking over at Damien because I noticed that he was staring me down, causing blush to start forming on my cheeks. He smiled and looked away, and I bit my bottom lip to suppress the wide smile that wanted to emerge on my face.

Damien spoke, "What about a big sleep over after whatever we do. We could get some drinks and snacks and have game night."

I teased, "Only two people are old enough to drink."

"Ah, hush. If nobody snitches, we'll be alright," he replied. "I'm off the day after tomorrow too, so I can bring everyone home in the afternoon when it wears off- or y'all can take an Uber and spare me the trouble."

We all chuckled and Aria and Natalie agreed, "Fine."

"Text me the details. I gotta go- bae's calling," Aria said before hanging up, leaving Natalie and me on the phone.

"Babe, I'm boutta call you too," Nico said while exiting my room.

Natalie chuckled, "Deuces, Sa, bae's calling." I rolled my eyes and hung up the phone, and I was left along with Damien.

He teased, "Should I call you too?" I chuckled and patted the spot next to me, and he climbed into my bed and lay beside me.  "I wanna take you out on a date Friday. I'm thinking a romantic night- dinner at a nice restaurant, a night stroll through the city, so on and so forth."

I blushed, "That sounds lovely, yes."

"Great," he smiled before smooching my lips. "We'll head out at 6 p.m then."

"Alright," I nodded, more blush on my cheek from his kiss.

He smiled, "You're so beautiful." He then smooched my cheek and climbed off my bed. "Nico and I met up and got Popeyes on our way from work. All of the food and drinks are downstairs."

"Say no more," I chuckled while climbing off the bed. We then walked alongside each other until we got to the kitchen, where Nico was already grabbing a box and his drink. He had his phone in his hand and AirPods in, so I assumed that he was already on the phone with Natalie.

"Night," Nico said to us before heading upstairs and to his room with his food.

Damien and I then took out our box of food and drinks before sitting side by side at the island. "My dad's secretary still got you sorting through files or are you working in the marketing areas?" I questioned as I opened my box of food, revealing spicy tenders, fries, and a biscuit.

"I actually started working on some marketing projects today," he nodded. He then slightly frowned, "Funny you asked the same day the switch happened."

"Lucky guess," I shrugged, which was a lie because I had called my mom this morning and asked her to whisper some sweet things in my dad's ear to get him to allow Damien to start working on the projects he wanted to work on.

Damien's face straightened and went blank as he replied, "I know you didn't call your dad after I told you I didn't want you to."

"I didn't," I answered as I ate some fries. I then opened up the Sweet Heat sauce and dipped half of one tender in the sauce and ate it before dipping the other half in.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me you didn't," he said, and I sighed. "Now, Sagacity!"

I rolled my eyes while facing him and confirmed, "I didn't call him."

"Did you tell your mom to talk to him or had her call up the secretary?" Damien asked while studying my eyes, and because I didn't want to lie to him, I looked away and focused on my food. "Seriously?!"

"I just wanted to help, Damien. I don't understand why you're upset," I sighed as I dipped some fries in my sauce.

Damien angrily replied, "I told you that I wanted to do it by myself. I already got Uncle Rico babying me, I don't need you treating me like a helpless orphan project too."

With that said, Damien grabbed his food and went to his room, slamming his door as well.

Afraid that I messed up our relationship, I walked to his room to try to talk to him, but he had locked the door. I knocked on it and said, "I'm sorry. Can we at least talk about it?"

"Before you piss me off even more, I advise you to leave me the fuck alone. I mean it," he replied coldly, a side I had never experienced from him. He had never been angry with me before, and I didn't know how long it would be before his anger would wear off.