The New Dudez

Chapter 22

I jolted awake to the sound of my phone going off. I saw the picture of Dalton without eyeliner around his eyes and he’s wearing a beanie making a “surprised” face. I swiped over the accept key and sleepily answered “Hey.”

“You still love me, right?” Dalton asked. He sounds like he’s been crying. What time even is it? It’s frickin four in the morning, but his question and tone fully alerted me awake.

I sat up in my bed and stated, “Of course I do, Dalton.”

“Rox, please say you love me.” He was really blubbering like a baby now. He sounds like he might have been drinking a bit too.

“Dalton, I love you. I love you a lot. What is going on with you? Where are you at?” I got out of my bed and started to pull on a random pair of skinnies off the floor. Then I slipped on a pair of all black converse.

“In my room, and thinking of you.” That didn’t really answer my first question. At least I know he’s in his room and not somewhere in town, or in a random alley.

“Dalton, stay there. I’m on my way over.”

The line went dead, and I wasn’t the one who did it.

“Shit.” I cursed under my breath. I quickly jotted down that I was going to Dalton’s and set it on my mom’s bedside table in case she woke up and sees I’m gone. Now she can’t get mad at me. I sped over to Dalton’s. Don’t worry, I was going only ten over- the speed limit is 25.

I didn’t realize my body was shaking until I was reaching out to turn the doorknob to the front door. Relax Rox, he’s okay. I opened the door then walked down the small, congested hallway to his room. The door to his room was closed yet again but it wasn’t locked. I slowly opened the door and poked my head in.

He was sitting on his bed, his face was red and his eyes were swollen, and he was strumming chords on his guitar as he looked down at it. The same chords from ‘Miss Amnesia.’ Why is he doing this to himself?

I walked over and sat down next to him. “Hey.”

Dalton looked over at me and continued to strum the chords. “Hey.” His voice was a bit raspy. How long was he crying?

“What’s up?” I asked, breaking the silence a bit more. Not sure why it’s so awkward.

He made a small smile. “Playing your song, Miss Amnesia.”

“I love it but,” I reached out to take the guitar away from him, “I think you should stop playing it.” I rested the guitar in its stand next to his bedside.

“Why did you take the promise ring?” Dalton sniffled.

I looked over at him, shrugging, and I sighed. “I don’t know… I just got caught up in the moment.”

“Can you make a promise for me?” He asked quietly, kind of like a child.

“Always.” I answered, taking his hand.

“Wear this dog tag necklace. I… I got our names engraved on it and the date of when we met.” He took one of the dog tags off that he wore and put it on me.

I used my free hand to look down at it and I smiled. It did have our names on it and the day of when I auditioned for the band. How long has he had this? He’s always worn dog tags but I didn’t notice the number of them. So he could have gotten this recently, or it could have been a while ago.

“How long have you had this?” I looked him in the eyes.

He made a small laugh. “Since you took me to school that one day.”

“You mean the one where I witnessed you get brutally attacked by a girl? Who was that chick?”

“Yeah... just some fan of IM5. She asked me about why I left IM5 but I said I wasn’t going to tell her and started heading to school again. Then she asked about going out and I told her no thanks. That chick did not take no for an answer. Thanks by the way.”

I gave him a slight push on the shoulder. “Such a ladies man, Dalton. But eh... No problem."

“You’re so humble.” Dalton joked. At least it was becoming light hearted again. Though, it fell silent again and Dalton massaged his thumb on the top of my hand.

“I’m thinking of giving him the ring back.” I whispered. Dalton didn’t say anything. I looked up at him and asked, “Do you think I should?”

He shrugged. "He really does care about you. But not the same way I do. I love you enough to just make sure you’re happy. Even if it’s not with me.”

I set myself so I straddled Dalton on his lap. I rested my hand on his cheek. “I love you too, and I’m more happy with you.” I leaned in and kissed him. He rested his hand on the back of my head, holding me in place, and kissed me back. I could feel the heat rise up and before our kisses could quicken too much I pulled away, but held close as I rested my hand on his chest.

We both whispered, “I want you.” Then laughed, and I bit my lip as I looked into his bright blue eyes.

We both leaned in this time and kissed again. All our movements became a blur as the need for him grew more each second. The only thing that was distinctively clear was Dalton’s face, well mostly his eyes, and our dog tags.

***

I woke up for the second time today with my head next to Dalton’s. Dalton laid on his stomach with his arm around my stomach as I laid on my back. I have no regrets about what happened- it was the most amazing sex I’ve ever had. Well, correction, the only sex I’ve ever had, but still the best. I wouldn’t change how it happened or anything about it.

I have no intention of telling Cole. Now, it sounds like I’m cheating and being deceiving. I’m not. I’m going to give him the ring back, telling him I can’t have it, and probably mention that maybe we shouldn’t be going out anymore.

I laid there, non-moving, and just thought. Dalton was still sleeping. So naturally, I began to run my fingers slowly through his bleach blonde hair. Dalton’s eyes finally fluttered open and he gave me a sleepy smile. “Hey.”

I smiled back. “Hey.” We are getting pretty good at this ‘hey’ game.

“Sleep okay?” He asked, rubbing his eyes to try and get rid of the sleepy vision.

I made a small laugh. “I did. The question is, did you sleep okay?”

He smirked. “Perfectly.”

Eventually, we both took separate showers and got dressed. Dalton let me borrow one of his shirts to wear. I had ended up putting on black skinnies early this morning in the rush of to get over here. Dalton and I were kind of dressed the same way- band shirts (The one I’m wearing is Linkin park and he was wearing Nirvana), black skinnies, all black converse, and the dog tags. Except, Dalton wore a red and black plaid shirt over his Nirvana shirt.  

I took us out to Dunkin Donuts for coffee and you’d think donuts but Dalton and I split a breakfast sandwich- egg, bacon, and cheese on a croissant. When we were close to done, I heard my phone go off with Cole’s voice saying, “Please pick up. Mrs. Rock pick up the phone. It’s Mr. Pop.” For the record, I did not do this. Cole stole my phone and recorded it himself and set it at his ringtone. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to see Cole and I in the paintball get ups. I thought about ignoring it but I swiped the key over to the right anyways.

Then I said into the phone, “Hey, Cole… We need to talk.”