The Damage is Done

Chapter 3: New Friends

I was awoken a few hours later by a mouthwatering smell and loud chatter. The sun had gone down and my room was one eerie shadow that gave me a small shiver. I rose from the bed and walked out into the living room to try and find out what that fucking amazing smell was. I stopped dead in my tracks as I realized that Blaze had company, and each one of them was now staring at me. "Um, hi," I said uncomfortably.

"Oh, great, you're up!" Blaze bounded over to where I was still standing awkwardly in my doorway. He grabbed my arm and pulled me into the kitchen where three other guys sat around the big wooden table eating pizza. So that's what the smell was. "Elliot, this is Jarred, Joshua, and Dominic. They're Hellhounds too. Guys, this is Elliot," Blaze announced. "El, I thought you might want some good old fashioned, greasy, delicious pizza after eating shit for the past five years so this one's yours," he said handing me an entire large pizza. I opened the box and found it covered with probably every topping available. I swear I nearly fainted.

"You're the best, Blaze, holy mother of hell," I said before taking a large bite of a slice of heaven. I was too busy scarfing down my food to notice the confused looks I was receiving from the men sitting at the table.

"Where were you that you couldn't eat pizza?" Jarred, I think, asked. I'm not sure if it was Jarred or Joshua because they were very obviously identical twins. They both had the same features, the same sandy blonde hair, and the same muscular build. Though I did notice that one had green eyes and the other had brown which will make it simple to tell them apart when I learn which eyes correspond to which twin.

His question threw me off guard a little bit and I looked at Blaze questioningly. "You haven't told them?" I asked. He shrugged and shook his head.

"Not my story to tell," he said putting his hands up in surrender. I looked back at the guys at the table waiting for an answer. The twins were on the edge of their seat, probably thinking that they were going to get an amazing story tonight, but Dominic seemed completely indifferent. Not the slightest bit of interest in his fascinating gray blue eyes. I found myself wanting to get a reaction out of him.

"Prison," I said suddenly, making the twins' eyes pop out of their heads. "I was in prison." The feeling of satisfaction that I got when Dominic's eyes snapped up and met mine was monumental. Ah, a reaction.

"Woah, Elliot," Jarred/Joshua sputtered. "That's hardcore."

"Definitely," the other twin agreed. "What did you do?"

I noticed Dominic move a little closer to the rest of us, equally as interested in the reason why an innocent looking girl like me had been convicted. "Well, long story short, I killed my parents," I said bluntly. I had accepted the fact that I would have to explain this to people years ago. The words didn't bother me so much as the reaction I usually got from people. Nobody stops to think that they might have deserved it, they all just assume I'm psychotic and homicidal.

"You don't seem like the type," Dominic said, catching us all by surprise. By the wide eyes of Blaze and the twins, I'm guessing I was right when I assumed he doesn't speak much. "They must have done something unforgivable," he reasoned. "Am I right?"

I cleared my throat and stuttered, "Y-yeah."

"Do you regret it?" he asked.

I looked into his eyes and got lost for a minute. They captivated me. I felt like he was looking straight through me. Remember that mask I have? Shattered. "No," I said finally. "I don't."

I consider myself lucky that I'm in a room full of gangsters right now, as weird as that may sound. I feel like if I were anywhere else, we could not have just had that conversation then gone back to casually eating pizza and discussing Jarred's love life. Jarred, by the way, has green eyes, I decided. Joshua has brown.

~*~

It was late in the night and all I wanted to do was curl up in my new comfy bed and get thirteen hours of blissful sleep, but the guys were not going to let that happen. I was currently sitting on a curb in the streets of Chicago waiting for Blaze, Jarred, and Joshua to finish 'shopping' for my new clothes. But let's get real, it was around two in the morning and none of the businesses on this block were open.

I could easily hear the loud voices of the guys inside of the shop, rummaging through racks of women's clothing. "What does she like?" Joshua asked. I could have very easily gone in there myself and picked out what I wanted, but the guys were convinced that I would get them caught seeing as how I'm such a rookie. The thought was almost comical considering how obnoxious they were being. I think I literally just heard a display falling over. "Shit," Jarred shouted.

"Uh, I don't know man," I heard Blaze reply to Joshua's question. "She doesn't seem like the frilly type. Actually, when I told her she needed new clothes, she didn't want any."

"Huh," Jarred said. "Maybe just a bunch of t-shirts, then?"

I tuned out of their conversation when I smelled the distinct smell of cigarettes. I turned around and sure enough, Dominic was leaning up against the side of the building with a freshly lit one dangling between his fingers. He had decided to stay outside the store with me. I just assumed it was because he couldn't be bothered to search for my new wardrobe. The streetlight on the corner illuminated his features and I found myself staring at his strong, stubbled jaw. He has a nice nose, I noticed. Is it weird to think that somebody has a nice nose? "You know, you really shouldn't do that," I told him. "It's a nasty habit."

His eyes met mine in the darkness and he smirked. "So is killing people," he pointed out.

I narrowed my eyes and cocked my head to the side, attempting to get a read on him. "True," I said slowly. "But isn't it basically the same thing?"

His hand dropped to his side while he thought about my words. The corners of his lips tilted up slightly, so slightly that I barely caught it, and I wondered what his smile looked like. All I've seen from him is a perpetual frown and the occasional smirk when he thought he was being clever. I watched as he released his grip on the cigarette and it fell to the sidewalk at his feet. "Touche," he said softly.

Suddenly, the door to the shop slammed open in Blaze's normal fashion and the three guys filed out of the store with shopping bags in their arms. My eyes widened at the amount of stuff they got me, which was a lot, and I stood up from my spot on the curb. "Damn, guys, what did you get in there?" I questioned.

"I think I grabbed one or two of every kind of t-shirt they had," Jarred said.

"And I picked up a few stacks of jeans because I wasn't really sure what size to get you," Joshua chimed in.

"And I was in charge of everything else because I didn't trust these bozos with your, uh, under...panty...things," Blaze struggled to tell me. "But the night's not over yet, young grasshopper."

I sighed irritably. I really wanted some sleep. "What did you have in mind?"

Very hunky picture of Dominic to the side. I knew I just had to have Paul Walker in my story :'(

*******ATTENTION READERS! I've decided to give this book another go. I started this when I was 15 years old and now I'm in college. I read it and it turns out to be pretty good for 15-year-old-Mallory. I am changing one thing though, because I suppose my taste in men has changed. Instead of Paul Walker for Dom, it's going to be Milo Ventimiglia.