Shadow & Light

the night we met

6:18 PM.

He glances up to the newscast playing on the screen across from him. A well-dressed man gestures to the seven-column weather report, the words he speaks lost on Dominic as he stares listlessly ahead. The world surrounding him grows eerily quiet until, a couple seats down from him, an infant starts wailing in the arms of her mother. It's not long before the mother is shushing her baby, patting her gently on the back until the child is quiet, but it's enough disturbance for Walker to glance in his direction right as Dominic looks up.

Walker's face remains emotionless for a moment until, almost undetectably, a small smirk teases his busted lip. He nudges Michael, who nudges Evan, and soon, all three are staring intently at Dominic. He turns his head back towards the window, but the falling snow and city lights have all blurred together in a mass of color. Fog on the sea, in the streets, and in the mind; he cannot distinguish one building from the next. He suddenly wills the train ride to last forever.

But it doesn't. Soon as the train lurches to a stop and the doors slide open, Dominic is out of his seat like a bullet, a dozen different heads shooting up as he sprints down the aisle. He just makes it onto the platform when Evan grabs the back of his backpack, the momentum flinging him back against him. He sees Michael and Walker fall into step on each side of him, Evan shoving him forward in a silent command to start walking.

He does.

The boys walk in tense silence for a block and a half until the crowd around has dispersed into the softly lit streets of North End. Only then does Michael grab Dominic by the shoulders and shove him to the ground.

He inhales sharply as he lands on the snow-covered pavement beneath him, pain shooting up his spine until his ears ring from the impact. Everything slows down as he stares up at the cloud-ridden sky above him; the world spins before he closes his eyes and takes a deep, calming breath, releasing it and watching as it clouds the air above him. The world balances steadily on its axis once again. He stands up, his eyes burning holes into Michael's all the while.

You can't get in another fight.

He watches Michael's face scrunch up in confusion at Dominic's lack of retaliation, until anger masks his features once again.

"You've got a lot of fucking nerve, you know that?"

Dominic stares silently at the three boys, first Michael, then Evan, and finally Walker. They're nothing more than a basic construct of social psychology, he thinks. Walker directs, Michael follows. Evan either conforms or risks oppression.

You're outnumbered, anyway. Walk away.

The three boys glance between each other in confusion as Dominic takes a small step back, then another, before he turns away entirely, his fists clenched so tightly, they feel like they're burning.

"Where do you think you're going?" he hears Evan yell, a few yards behind him. He keeps walking. The golden hues of the street lamps and store windows are dulled by the falling snow, but Dominic knows the streets well enough by now without the signs.

"Hey spaz, Evan asked you a question."

His steps are tense and calculated, anything but spastic.

Three lamp posts, then Charter street.

"Why the rush, Carter? It's not like you've got somewhere to go home to."