by Megan Smith
Hunter called Friday afternoon and asked what we had planned for the weekend. We made plans to hang at his house since he did not have to work. I hung up and told Hailey to pack a bag. Hunter would be here in a half hour. As we were on our way out, we ran into Dominic in the hallway. I looked up at him, but he looked down at the ground and walked away.
When we got into Hunter's truck, I was immediately hit with the scent of his cologne. I was not the only one that noticed. Hailey said, "Damn Hunter, you have a hot date or something?"
"Ha-ha, smartass, no, but we are going out tonight." Hunter said, casting a glance over to me.
"What? Where?" I asked.
"The bar where I work."
"I didn't know that is where you worked. We didn't pack anything to wear." I looked behind me at Hailey. "Let's run back in."
We ran back in. I grabbed my black mini, lime green and black tank top and my black pumps. I also grabbed the white dress that Hailey loved, and my white heels, and threw everything in a bag. Hailey had a bag with our makeup, hairspray, straightener and everything else we would need to get ready. Five minutes later, we were walking back out to the truck just as Brittany opened the door to our dorm, crying. Hailey mumbled, "Bitch," under her breath as she pushed me past her.
When we arrived at Hunter's, we took over his room so we could start getting ready. I jumped in the shower while Hailey started pre-gaming. I loved Hunter's bathroom; it was huge. There were three showerheads that sprayed your entire body and the shower itself was big enough to have five people stand in it.
When I finally pulled myself out of the shower, I walked out into the bedroom in just a towel. Hunter stopped mid-sentence when he noticed me. Smiling to myself, I walked over to the bag by his leg, grabbed my black thong, black bra, mini and tank top and walked back into the bathroom to change.
When I came back out, Hailey went in to take a shower. I started blow drying my hair so it would be ready to straighten when she got out. Hunter was watching me intently the whole time.
"Does it always take you guys this long to get ready?" He asked from where he was perched on the bed.
"Perfection takes time." I answered and winked at him.
An hour later, we were ready to hit the bar with Hunter. When we pulled up, the parking lot was packed. There was a line at the door, but Hunter went right past it. He walked up to the bouncer and did the guy handshake he did with my brothers all the time.
"CC, Hailey, this is my boy Zeke. He does my tattoos."
Zeke was your typical bad boy: tall, dark hair, brown eyes, covered in tattoos and piercings.
"So this is CC, huh?" Zeke asked Hunter.
"Yeah, this is her." He looked at me and winked.
Zeke grabbed my hand, lifted it to his mouth, placed a kiss on it and then did the same to Hailey. That is all it took and I knew Hailey was done for.
I was right. She looked at me with a dreamy look in her eyes. Shaking my head, I looked over at Hunter. He nodded his head for me to walk in first.
We made it to the bar and Hailey asked Hunter, "Does he do piercings too?"
"Yeah, he does it all." Hunter answered.
Hailey looked at me and before she could even ask, I said to Hunter "Can you take us to go see him this weekend?"
"Yeah, I can get him to hook you up." He looked at the door and then back at me.
When he noticed me smiling innocently, his eyes widened. "What?" I asked.
He squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them. I could see the battle he was having with himself. "Nothing."
Hunter smiled his pantie-dropping smile at the bartender, and she came over. "Hey hot stuff, what can I get ya?"
"I'll take my normal." He looked at me and winked, then looked back at the bartender. "And a Sex on the Beach and a Cosmo."
"You got it." She turned away to make our drinks.
I started to blush thinking about actually having sex with Hunter on the beach. I should not be thinking that way with all the shit I was dealing with Dominic about, but I could not help it. I glanced over at Hailey, and she just smiled at me.
After a few drinks, Hailey said, "Come dance with me." I grabbed her hand, and we walked out onto the dance floor.
We danced for a couple of songs and this ugly guy started trying to move in on us. He could not dance to save his life. I was not in the mood for this shit tonight. I looked over at Hunter, begging him with my eyes to come save us, and he just winked at me. The jackass winked! I shook my head and continued dancing with Hailey again, as the ugly ass guy tried to dance between us.
I had my back to Hunter. Someone grabbed my hips and pulled me to them. I tried to turn and punch this guy in the face, hoping that he would get the picture but then the hands on my hips gripped tighter into my skin. "You're driving me fucking crazy." I immediately relaxed when I realized it was Hunter.
I looked over my shoulder at Hunter. "Yeah, well you deserve it. Why didn't you come out here earlier?"
Hunter started grinding his hips into my ass. "That's why."
Thank God I was already flushed from dancing, because if not, it would be downright embarrassing. I looked to the side and saw that Hailey was dancing with Zeke. He was whispering something in her ear, and she threw her head back laughing.
"This is dangerous, you know." Hunter said just loudly enough for me to hear.
I froze for a second, and then spun around so I was facing him. I was waiting for him to pull away, but he put one arm around my waist, put his knee between my legs and he started to move to the beat again.
We danced like this for what seemed like forever. I was so lost in him that nothing else mattered to me. I forgot all about my problems with Dominic. I forgot about him caring what my brothers thought. This right here was what I wanted more than anything; I just wished he was mine forever.
Hunter moved the hand that was on my hip to my lower back, and then ever so slowly, started to move it down to my ass. I moved closer to him, if that was even possible, and buried my face in his neck. As I placed a kiss on Hunter's neck, I heard him suck in a breath. I pulled my face back and looked at him, but he was not looking at me. He was looking past me. I turned my head to see what he was looking at, and that was when I saw Dominic glaring at me.
"Shit!" I said as I let go of Hunter, and spun around to face Dominic.
Dominic walked over to me and grabbed my arm tightly. I knew I would have a bruise by morning. "Ow! Dominic you're hurting me. Let go." I tried to yank my arm free.
"What the fuck do you call that MacKenzie?" He seethed through his teeth while still glaring at Hunter.
"We were just dancing. Relax and let go of my damn arm." I said, trying to pry his fingers off me.
"Let her go Dom." Hunter demanded.
Dominic let go of my arm, then said, "You said you needed a break. I give you your space, and this is what you fucking do?"
"I wasn't doing anything." I said.
"Bullshit. We're leaving." Dominic stated, and reached for my hand.
"I'm not leaving with you like this. Calm the hell down. You have no right to be pissed off. I found fucking panties in your room. You didn't find boxers in mine." I yelled back at him.
He did not respond. He just pulled me towards the front door. I looked back to Hunter who was following me, and shook my head no. I did not want them to fight, and I knew that was where this was leading. When we made it outside and around the corner into an alleyway, Dominic pushed me up against the wall hard and crushed his lips to mine.
He groaned as he tried to deepen the kiss, and once his tongue swept into my mouth, I knew he had been drinking. I could taste the alcohol in his mouth. He fisted his left hand in my hair while his right hand reached down to the hem of my skirt. I squeezed my legs closed and pushed back on his chest, trying to get him to stop. Finally breaking the kissing, I yelled, "Damn it Dominic, what the fuck?"
Dominic dropped the hand that was on my upper thigh, and took a few calming breathes before he spoke.
"You have no idea what you do to me. We need to get the fuck out of here."
"Hailey is in there. I'm not leaving without telling her first." Did he really think I was just going to leave with him?
"Fine, we'll go in and tell her we are leaving. And you're going to tell that prick to stay the hell away from you." He said.
"I'm not telling him to stay away from me. He didn't do anything wrong. We were just dancing." I said following behind him back into the bar.
He stopped right before he got to the door. "He wasn't doing anything? You're kidding right? He had his hands all over you, Kenzie." He ran his hands through his hair and pulled on it. "I know he has feelings for you. I've known for a long time. He will never pick you over your brothers. He's just using you."
I did not respond to him. I just walked past him, and opened the door to go tell Hailey I was leaving. I knew Dominic was right. Hunter would never be disloyal to my brothers. I was pissed at Dominic for bringing that up; I was pissed at myself for even thinking that tonight would mean anything to Hunter. I was only asking for more heartache.
Finally making it to Hailey, I told her I was leaving, and asked if she could grab my things from Hunter's, and bring them back with her. She told me she would, and that she would see me in the morning. As I was heading back to Dominic, Hunter stepped in my way.
"Where are you going?" He asked with a slight panicked look on his face.
"I'm leaving with Dominic. Tonight shouldn't have happened. You know that Hunter." I tried to step around him, but he stopped me.
He just stared at me as if he wanted to argue with me, but he did not say anything. That just pissed me off even more. I wanted him to tell me I was wrong, but he did not, he never would.
"You need to stay the hell away from me Hunter. You can't keep playing these head games with me. One minute, you are flirting and acting like you want me, then the next you are pushing me away. I'm tired of the back and forth." This time when I moved around him, he let me.
As Dominic and I made our way back to campus, neither one of us said anything to each other. I was pissed at myself for letting Hunter get to me. I was pissed off at Dominic for not being the boyfriend he used to be. When we pulled up to the dorms, I got out of Dominic's car, slammed the door shut and ran right to my room, locking the door behind me. Dominic tried knocking, but I did not answer and eventually, he left.
The next morning when Hailey came home, she was pretty quiet; I did not have much to say either. What would I have said? I freaked out because I was losing Dominic, and he pointed out the fact that Hunter would never want me. I wanted to know what happened after I left, but what would it have changed? Nothing. I just needed to get over Hunter, concentrate on Dominic and hope things would work out.
Hailey had made plans to meet up with Zeke from the bar last night, and she asked if I wanted to go along. I told her was not in the mood to go out, and that I was going to spend a quite night in bed reading. She told me I had until Monday to sulk, and that would be it. If I was not over my shit by then, she was calling my brothers. I promised her things would be ok. I just needed a little time by myself.
On Monday afternoon, I received a phone call from the library offering me a job. The only down fall was that it was from 6 p.m. until midnight, Monday through Thursday. I accepted the job because I needed time to myself and the distraction would be good for me. I was starting the following Monday, and Logan, of all people, would be training me.
When Hailey came back after her last class, I told her about the library job, and that Logan would be the person training me. She just shook her head and told me to watch my back. She had not talked to him since that day in the library and I was actually surprised by that, especially since she kept going on about him from the first time they met.
As the rest of the week went by, I would go to class, and come straight back to the dorms. Hailey wasn't around much since she seemed to be hanging out at Hunter's lately. When I saw her, I would act like I was fine and that nothing was bothering me. I think she bought my act. If she did not, she was not calling me out on it.
Saturday night, I got my first text from Dominic. I guess our taking a break was not bothering him as much as it was me. I finally caved, and texted him that we needed to talk. I did not trust him one hundred percent, but I still missed him. I missed him holding me. I missed him being sweet and caring. I even missed all the football talk. I finally gave up on him texting me back, so I plugged my phone into the charger and fell asleep.
The new text message alert on my phone woke me from a deep sleep. Sitting up, I rub the sleep from my eyes only to see that I actually had two new messages. The first was from Mason, letting me know that he would be staying at Hunter's in two weeks. The second one was from Dominic. It came in around four this morning, and made no sense whatsoever.
I quickly sent Mason a text back letting him know that I had a new job, and that I would have to let him know what my schedule was like. I also let him know that I would make time to have dinner with him, Cooper and Jackson when they came. I did not want to tell him I was not speaking to Hunter. I then sent a text to Dominic to come over whenever he woke up.
I was drying my hair when I heard someone knocking; I turned the dryer off, and went to see who was at the door.
"Hey, I didn't think I would see you till later." I said to Dominic, opening the door wider so he could walk in.
"I'm actually surprised I'm up this early too. So, you wanted to talk?" He walked over to my bed and sat down.
"Yeah, I think it's about time. What do you think?" I said, taking a seat next to him.
"I don't really want to talk right now." He looked up at me with regret in his eyes. "Can I just hold you for a little while?"
I moved to lean against my headboard, and he did the same. He pulled me so I was cuddled into him, with my head resting on his chest.
"I miss this Kenzie. I miss you. Being here at school is so different from being at home," he said, as he kissed the top of my head.
I nodded my agreement, and he continued, "What you found in my room was Brittany's. I told my roommate he needed to keep his shit on his side of the room. I explained to him what you found, and he asked me to apologize to you." He grabbed my chin, and made me look up at him. "I can't lose you Kenzie."
"I miss us too; we worked when we were at home. Things are so different here, and I am trying to trust you, but it's hard. When I walked in, and saw those panties sitting on your side of the room, I didn't know what to think. I knew you couldn't be that stupid to leave them there in plain sight."
"I know that I wouldn't have known how to react if I found some guy's boxers in here either. Can we just put it behind us and move on?" He whispered the last part to me.
I watched, as his eyes grew heavy. "I'm trying Dominic, but you can't keep screwing up all the time. I've cut Hunter out, so you don't have to worry about him anymore."
"I love you baby." He blinked once, twice and then he was asleep. I put my head back down on his chest, and listened to his breathing. I laid there, thinking for a long time, before I finally fell asleep.
When I woke up, I lifted my head and looked at Dominic. He was still sound asleep. I must have slept for a few hours because now it was dark outside. I tried to get up without waking Dominic, but when I sat up, he grabbed my arm.
I turned to look at him and he smiled at me. "You're so beautiful."
Blushing, I shook my head, and turned away from him. "I'm not."
"You have no idea the feelings I get when I look into your pretty blue eyes."
This is the Dominic that I loved, the one who knew what to say to make me feel beautiful. This is the relationship with him that I wanted, not the one we seemed to be having lately.
"I love you. I'm sorry things have been so messed up for us lately."
I smiled at him and said, "Me too."
"I'm starving. You want to head out to grab something to eat?" He asked, stretching out on my bed.
&n
bsp; "Yeah, I haven't been eating too well lately," I admitted to him. I never could eat right when something was bothering me.
"Baby we talked about this. You are too skinny now as it is. You need to eat."
"You know how I get. I'm starving now, so let's go."
We drove down to The Raven. This was becoming a favorite place of mine. The burgers there were to die for. When we arrived, Dominic asked to be seated by the windows. This was my favorite place to sit, and I loved watching all the people passing by. When we followed behind the waitress, I was surprised to see Hunter, Hailey and Zeke sitting at one of the booths.
Dominic stopped walking when he noticed them too. He turned his head to look at me. "You want to go somewhere else?"
"No, we're already here. I'm starving and I can't avoid him forever. He's practically family." I knew that with my brothers coming into town, I would not be able to avoid him while they were here.
"Alright, I guess you're right, I still don't like it though."
I leaned in, placed a kiss on his lips and said, "You don't have anything to worry about, I promise."
"I know. That still doesn't mean I have to like it." I knew it would be a while for him to get over what he saw and I knew I would be hearing about it again.
We continued to walk to the booth that the waitress sat us at, which happened to be right behind where they were sitting. Dominic kept walking but I stopped to say hi.
"Hey sweetie." Zeke said.
"What's going on?"
Hailey looked at me, trying to gauge my mood. "I'm fine," I said.
"Well since you're here and Zeke has to get back to work, let's go get our nose pierced." Hailey said practically bouncing out of her seat.
I looked over her head to Dominic who just shrugged his shoulder at me. I guess that was my answer.
"Alright, but we have to eat first. We're starving."
"Of course, we were just heading out. Zeke has to get back to work so Hunter and I will go take a walk. Text me when you're done." She stood up from the booth, gave me a hug and whispered in my ear. "He's a mess."
