As A Friend

7: Unsatisfactory

"That's what happens when you suppress those emotions for 18 years. When you finally do stuff, you're wild. But it feels good, right?" He seems satisfied at our common belief.

"Yeah." 

"I'm a combination of proud and also jealous," he admits and my head whips in his direction. "I'm proud because you finally did it. I'm jealous because it was supposed to be me."

I feel my neck growing hot so I try to figure out a way to make a joke of the situation. "I don't think Elias swings that way but if you want, I can ask him."

"I meant me as him," he clarifies as if I didn't know that originally. I was trying to avoid that coming to light. "I'd have enjoyed it."

"I just told you that I couldn't control myself! What if that had happened with you?" I ask him as my skin starts to itch. I don't even want to think about what would've happened to my body if I had been locked in a car with Dominic in that state. I'd probably have internally combusted from excitement.

"It would've been a bonding experience," he says with a shrug. "And I wouldn't have made you stop." That sentence alone sends emotions through my body that I don't want to have. I adjust my face and shoot a look at him, which he promptly picks up on. "Too far?"

"Way too far," I reply. Him saying things like that is probably the reason why I reacted the way I did when I was kissing Elias. I remembered those things and took them out on poor, unsuspecting Eli.

We arrive at the diner and get out of the car. He holds open the door for me and I lead the way to a spot. A waitress intercepts and hands us menus, which I take and hide behind once I'm nestled on my side of the booth. The waitress insists on giving us a minute but I barely hear what she says. Instead, Dominic's words keep replaying in my head. 'I wouldn't have made you stop.' I exhale slowly when the waitress comes back around.

"What can I get for you two, today?" she asks in an upbeat voice.

Dominic hesitates as he looks to me. I shrug and he orders first. I follow with a quiet: "A glass of orange juice and a double stack of chocolate chip pancakes."

"Coming right up." She writes it down and bounces off to place the order. 

"So what did Elias say post kiss?" What a great way to bring up the retired conversation.

"Nothing really, not until we got back to my dorm building. He said it just caught him off guard. He kissed me again but it was just a short peck." He seems amused at my brief explanation because he chuckles quietly.

"You're a bit more wild than he's used to," he explains with a laugh. "You definitely don't look like the type to be...dominant." He scrutinizes me with his eyes. "I can see how he was taken off guard. I mean, I was taken off guard when you told me."

"He was surprised it was my first kiss." It's like I'm adding more flame to the fire and Dominic is only stirring it and pouring gasoline directly into it.

"That good?" He smirks widely at me and bounces his eyebrows twice. "Now I'm curious."

I ignore the latter of his response even though the butterflies in my stomach are sent into another frenzy. "I told him I had a lot of pent up energy," I reply and he looks at me and grins.

"That probably didn't help his situation," he mutters thoughtlessly. I shrug in response and he returns his excited gaze to me. "I really did not expect you to be so...into it. I expected you to go out and peck him on the lips and come back all excited that you kissed him, not practically ride him with your clothes on in a dark parking lot."

"Oh my god!" I gasp at his words. When he says it like that, it makes me sound bad.

"Is that not what you did?" he asks and I put my hand over my mouth.