Dawn of Fog and Glass

Chapter Twenty-One (Part One): Dawn of Fog and Glass

"No."

He's sitting at his desk, pencil twirling in his fingers, in the process of writing a note in the margins of one of his classics. Faint light ignites his minuscule words scrawled adjacent to the text. I'm crouching beside his chair. Dominic places the end of his pencil between his teeth in thought. Draco huffs loudly behind me, but I ignore him for the time being.

I've snuck into Dom's room multiple times recently, so he wasn't surprised to see me. In fact, he brightened when he heard the mechanical click of the door connecting our rooms. However, he was surprised to find Draco following me.

"Please?"

Dominic pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration. "No, Arden."

I widen my eyes, giving him my most innocent expression. "For me?"

He raises an eyebrow. "Oh, great, manipulation. That'll help."

Draco groans impatiently. "Never mind, Arden. This was a waste of time."

I sigh and glare at the boy, who ruffles his cherry-red hair with one hand. He's leaning against one of Dom's bookshelves, looking so bored he might fall asleep in his position.

Dom sighs. "I just don't see why you can't do it yourself."

I restrain the urge to roll my eyes. "Crawley loves you. You're Barrett's best friend." My tone rises and falls dramatically, and I wonder briefly whether it's too obvious I want something.

"No, frankly, he only tolerates me." He slides a bookmark between the coarse pages and closes the book. His blue eyes reflect annoyance. "He would hate me, except Barrett won't permit it. The Headmaster thinks I'm a bad influence. The only reason he hasn't kicked me out is because of Barrett."

"That's not true," I stammer, but I don't know enough about Dom's and Crawley's relationship to know if it is or not. A pang of irritation hits my throat, because despite how much I've opened up to Dom, he's still vague about Barrett and his father. I sigh. It's not up to him to tell me, anyway.

He gives me a questioning look. I continue, "Please, Dom?" I put my hands in his, giving them a squeeze. Draco raises his eyebrows in suspicion.

"You'll be fine." Dominic shoves my hands off, gives me a tight-lipped smile, and stands. I sit back on the carpet, offended.

"Dom, please. We need your help if we're going to make this work."

"Not unless I know exactly what I'm signing up for."

I open my mouth to tell him. Before I can get a word in, Draco yanks me away from Dominic.

"Okay. Arden, group huddle. Now," Draco orders. He pulls me aside. When Dominic tries to follow, Draco shoves him back, demanding, "What part of 'group huddle' did you not understand?"

"Am I not part of—"

"No, Dom. No, you are not."

Dominic glares at us and settles back down at his desk with a melodramatic sigh. Draco's voice becomes hushed.

"Alright, first of all," Draco begins, "What the hell is going on between you and Dom?"

"What?" I'm immediately aware of how fake my look of surprise is.

"Come on, Arden. I know it when I see it, and as we've already established, you don't hide your crushes well." He whispers loudly, and I worry Dom can hear us. I glare at Draco and give him a signal to quiet down.

"I mean, you're the expert, so..."

He scoffs. "You're not still hung up on what Chantelle told you, right?"