I dropped my binder.
It wasn't by being tripped, making me crash onto the floor to scatter all of my homework and notes on the hallway floor.
I swear I'm not the clumsy type. I have never broken a dish before in my life. I can't say it was really because a foot was in my way while I was trying to find some homework in my binder was the reason I tripped. For one thing, I wasn't even walking. I was merely holding my binder, trying to open my locker with my combination which was inside it.
I didn't have to ignore the laughter and comments of me when I crawled around the floor to pick up my stuff. There were no people passing by to kick it farther away from me and walk over it to leave their shoe prints. It was only the first day back at school from winter break here in Dartwell High, home of the dragons, and I'm not as bullied as I used to be.
As I reached for my schedule that slipped out of my binder, someone grabbed it for me.
I stood back up to see him holding my binder out to me.
"Hey Nomi," he said with a small smile.
I tensed at the name and took my binder back, holding it against my chest. "Hello Dominic."
I saw a slight frown from him, probably noting how I didn't say "Domi", the stupid nickname we gave each other when we were kids. It gave me a sense of nostalgia back when times were better.
There was an awkward pause between the both of us. I mean, I don't blame the awkwardness. We haven't seen each other in years. But seeing him now right in front of me, it felt so surreal that he's here.
I didn't see my childhood best friend who had rowdy black hair and playful gray eyes that wore a big smile on his face. Instead, I saw a total stranger, with slightly calmer ruffled black hair and dark gray eyes that I don't recognize. Despite the small smile he was wearing, I knew it was a forced one since he'd rather give me a smile than anything else. He wore a leather jacket for the still chilly weather over a red plaid flannel and a t-shirt of a band I recognize and didn't know he liked, compared to the catchy kid songs we grew up to.
"Long time no see," he told me quietly, his voice turned soft at this atmosphere.
The casualness in his voice irked me how he could act so, well, casual in this reunion. Speaking of his voice, puberty hit him like a missile.
"I wouldn't say that," I told him, "given I saw you on Halloween."
My mind flashed back at the Halloween party. The guys' Musketeer costumes, my Alice in Wonderland costume, and his Zorro costume. His gray eyes under his mask, that cocky smile being the only visible thing I can see from him. Our dance- He's a pretty good dancer.
He chuckled. "You got me there."
The guys were right by my side. For a split second, I felt calm because they were with me. But the feeling vanished when I knew that it wouldn't be like anything we faced before. I could tell they were sizing him up. They each gave him a once over. They noted the confident straight posture he held, which he covered up by putting his hands in his pockets to look casual.
Bennett stared at Dominic with an unsettling gaze, one that would make people crumble whatever was in his line of sight. Despite this fact, Dominic was unfazed by Bennett's stare of his piercing blue eyes. He seemed to be in equal stance with Bennett.
Jordan gave Dominic a warm smile as if he was welcoming him. But looking at him, I could see that the smile wasn't like his usual ones. It felt forced, fake even, compared to Jordan's sincere smiles. Whether Dominic knew this or not, he returned Jordan a genuine smile.
Declan crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at Dominic, giving him his infamous death glare. It's like Darth Vader's death grip, only more deadly. The thing was, though, Dominic didn't seem to waver at it. Even going as far as to meet him right at the eye. He gave Declan a smile as if he was silently laughing at his efforts to scare him.
Dominic then looked back at me, as if he knew he passed some sort of test.
"What's with the cold shoulder you're giving me? We haven't seen each other in years, Nom-"
"It's Naomi."
I glanced at the guys and I felt my face turning warm. Dominic calling me by my nickname in front of them was too much. It's too personal, and knowing Jordan, he wouldn't let me hear the end of it.
"Alright then, Naomi," he corrected himself.
Suddenly he held out his arms out to me. I looked at the gesture and looked back at him in confusion.
"C'mon, we both know we miss each other," he said in exasperation. "Now wouldn't you give your best friend a hug after all this time?"
I smiled at him. "I'll do you one better."
So I raised my hand and slapped him.
Or that's what the guys thought I was going to do from the looks on their faces.
Bennett moved to try to stop me. Declan motioned his arm to show me how to give a right hook. Jordan went to get his phone to capture this moment.
But they suddenly stopped.
Dominic's hand grasped my own to stop me.
In that moment we looked at each other, our hands clasped tightly to each other. His eyes seemed to shine in excitement, and I figured it may have also reflected my own. We wore matching smiles as it seemed we were back at the time when we were kids.
We loosened our grip and we slid our hands back. They turned into fists and we bumped fists, mine above then below his own. We did a short hand-clapping game before doing rock-paper-scissors (I won, but I think he let me win again). He then grabbed my hand and twirled me around, letting a childish giggle escape from me. However, this came to a stop as I started for my hand-bird half while he was going for the thumb war. We burst out laughing at that.
"What are you doing?" I demanded in between laughs. "The thumb war comes after the hand bird. Don't tell me you forgot."
"No," Dominic denied. "The thumb war comes after this. You do the hand-bird before the hip bump."
I let out a sigh of exasperation. "We argued this before. We changed the hip bump from the trust fall which is then after the hand bird."
"That's only because I didn't think you'd be able to carry me during the trust fall."
My hand went over to my heart. "Oh, the trust."
Dominic laughed. "I'm cringing how much of that I remembered."
"How do you think I-"
I was cut off when he pulled me into a hug. I froze for a moment, my face heating up at the warm contact of his body. Then I hugged him back, but it felt half-hearted as I was torn between hugging my childhood friend and a total stranger.
"Naomi, I missed you so much," he said, hugging me tighter. "It's like nothing has changed."
"Except your memory of our secret handshake," I muttered, but of course, he could hear me as I muttered into his ear.
"You're the one who forgot," he said, and knowing him, there was a smile in his voice.
"Well, I-"
I heard someone clear their throat.
Dominic let go of me and I looked back at the guys who looked at me, at the both of us, with utter confusion.
"How come we don't have a secret handshake?" Jordan asked in disbelief.
Declan elbowed him, telling him that was the wrong question.
Bennett looked at me, then nodded towards Dominic. "Who's he?"
"He," Dominic said, "Is standing right here."
"This is Dominic, my friend, back in-" I looked at him "-kindergarten? First grade?"
"I think it was second grade." He smiled at me. "What? You forgot?"
"I'm Bennett," Bennett introduced himself. "This is Declan and Jordan- Please ignore Jordan. We're still trying to."
"So are you Naomi's classmates, friends-" He stopped and looked at the guys again, with an unreadable gaze "-boyfriend?"
I laughed, louder than I should have. Mostly because I didn't want this conversation to take this turn. Not now, not ever. "Oh no, just friends."
Declan leaned over and whispered to Jordan, "I think she just friendzoned us."
Jordan looked down in defeat. "After all our hard work..."
I blinked. "What?"
Bennett once again seemed to come to the rescue. "So you two kept in touch after all of these years?"
I shook my head. "No, he left so suddenly." The memory gave me a pang in my chest.
There were a lot of crying and yelling when I learned he moved. There were a lot of questions, demands really, of where he went, why did he go, why did he leave me. One time I tried to run away from home to try to find him. It seems so long ago now.
"My family moved a lot. I didn't have time to say goodbye," Dominic explained before he smiled at me. "But that's all in the past. We're together again."
"Yeah..." I smiled back at him. He would always be able to pull a smile out of me. "Why did you come back?" I asked him.
He raised an eyebrow. "What? You don't want me to be here?"
I looked at him. "I never said-"
"Relax, I was kidding," he said, smiling at my reaction. "Like I said, my family moves a lot. We ended up moving back here. After all these years too..."
A few years too late.
"Is there anyone else I know here? Who back then survived to this school?" Dominic asked me. "Tommy Kent? He liked to give girls bugs?"
"Moved, thankfully," I said, remembering one time he left a handful of worms in my backpack.
"What about Leslie Riza? Or Janey Kim?"
"Different schools, I think," I said, feeling nostalgic with these names.
"How about Kenneth, or Jason, or-" He suddenly stopped short.
"Is Raymond here? Raymond Myers?"
My mouth felt dry. "I uh-"
"You remember him, don't you? He always wanted us to call him Ray. We were all the best of friends."
Jordan coughed at that. "Sorry, I think I got a cold."
Declan moved away from Jordan. We all looked at him. "What? I don't want to catch a cold."
Dominic turned back to me. "So is he in this school? Or did he move?"
"No he's here," I said.
"Sadly."
"Jordan," Bennett and I snapped at him.
"I didn't say it," Jordan defended. "He did."
Declan just gave a small shrug. "Well, it is."
Dominic frowned. "It doesn't seem like you and Raymond are very close anymore, Naomi. Did something happen?"
Where's the list?
I ignored the weird looks the guys were giving me. "Between me and Raymond? No, of course not."
I didn't want to open up these old wounds. It's all in the past. I just didn't want what happened between me and Raymond to ruin those perfect memories Dominic still kept. Maybe just for a little bit, he can still believe nothing has changed.
"Well, in that case, all three of us should-" He stopped short as his eyes wandered off into the crowd of kids in the hall. "Is that-?" I didn't even have to turn around to know who he saw.
Raymond walked up to us. He kept a cautious distance from the guys, always glancing at them to see if they haven't attacked yet. He then looked at me, and our eyes met. We didn't say a word, didn't have to. Raymond then looked at Dominic, his face not showing a hint of recognition of who he is or was to him.
"Well if it isn't the man himself." Yeah sure, man. "Raymond Myers."
Raymond's eyebrows furrowed together. "How do you know me?" He looked at us. "Who's the new guy?"
Dominic raised an eyebrow. "I know it's been years, but I can't look that different." Yes, yes you can. "Don't tell me you can't recognize me."
Raymond looked at him for what felt like a long time. I felt like I saw a glint of recognition in his eyes, some sort of brightness that lit up those orbs of cold darkness. Maybe his memories from years ago are flooding back to him and-
"Seriously, who are you?"
Dominic let out an exasperated sigh. "It's me, Dominic. We knew each other back in grade school."
Raymond narrowed his eyes at him. "Well, I do remember this one kid. Scrawny, goofy looking-"
Dominic looked at him in disbelief. "I was not-"
"I think he was talking about himself," I told him.
Raymond gave me a sharp look, too quick for Dominic to notice. Then Raymond quickly went back to Dominic.
Raymond broke into a smile, one that isn't caused by my misfortune. It gave me a strange pang of nostalgia again. "When did you come back?"
"A few months ago," Dominic explained. "I didn't apply to a school until second semester."
"You should have contacted me the moment you got here."
"Yeah, and you could've told me you joined football." He tapped Raymond's number on his varsity jacket. "You of all people became a jock?"
"What do you think I would be?"
"A dropout," Dominic said with a shrug.
"Who said you can't be both?" Declan mumbled.
He got a fist bump from Jordan and a scolding look from Bennett and me.
Raymond ignored us, his attention still on Dominic. "We seriously need to catch up."
Dominic nodded. "Yeah, we all do," he said as he put his arm over my shoulder.
Raymond looked at me as if remembering of my existence. "Oh... Yeah, sure."
Jordan certainly recognized Dominic's arm's existence as he picked his jacket sleeve and lifted his arm off my shoulder. Dominic and I looked at Jordan, Dominic with a look of confusion and me with disbelief.
The bell rang, putting an end to our little reunion.
"Hey, so do any of you guys know where any of my classes are?" Dominic asked us, pulling out his class schedule from his pocket.
I was about to say something when the three guys suddenly pulled me back by the shirt. Jordan even went so far as to put his hand over my mouth. Raymond and Dominic looked at the four of us weirdly.
"Yeah, I'll show you around," Raymond told him as he took Dominic's schedule. "I want to skip first period anyway."
"Dropout," Dominic coughed, making Raymond elbow him in the stomach.
It seems like he got Jordan's cold.
Dominic looked back at us. "It was nice meeting you guys... Declan, Bennett, and Jordan." Then he turned his attention to me. "And I'll be seeing you later, Naomi."
"You too," I said with a smile as they walked away.
Jordan scratched his head. "That's a great way to start the semester."
"You have a lot of explaining to do later," Declan told me, speaking for the three of them.
Bennett looked at me. "But until then, we should get going to class. Are you coming Naomi?"
I didn't answer him. My head felt like it was spinning. This was not what was supposed to happen. He wasn't supposed to come back. What if he found out? What if they all found out? I thought I have finally ended that chapter in my life but it always seems to flip back. Wanting me to keep reading and remembering and living through the mistakes I finally managed to forgive myself. Maybe because I still haven't.
I watched Dominic and Raymond walk away, as they talked and laughed as if they have never separated after all of these years. Then they both looked back at me and I was forced to hold that smile. Not for Raymond of course, but for Dominic. Dominic looked at me with warm eyes anticipating when I could tell him the things he missed, while Raymond held a cold gaze telling me that he should never know. They then turned around and melted into the crowd. When they vanished, that weight I thought was lifted crashed down on me heavier than before.
My smile dropped faster than the way he came back into my life.
This is going to be a fun book.
Rubix