"Wait, Julia?"
Julia, who was already outside the door of Dom's house, turned around and raised her eyebrow, waiting for him to say what he wanted to say.
"Could you please text me once you get home?" he asked her shyly, fidgeting with his fingers but looking at her with his eyes a little squeezed. "I know I'll- I'll worry too much about you if you don't."
Julia chuckled and she nodded, adjusting her jacket again. "Of course. I will."
"Okay," Dom said quietly, nodding to sign that he was satisfied with her answer. He hold on tightly to the door handle, but didn't close the door yet, not even when Julia was about to turn around. Instead he just stared at her, his eyes glossy.
"Are you okay?" she asked him, taking a small step into his direction instead of turning around.
It took Dom three seconds to reply as he seemed to be deeply into his thoughts, but he eventually nodded and tried to give her a smile. "I am."
He now closed the door a little, just a few centimeters, but he didn't move. Julia's frown just got deeper and she eventually said "you don't want me to leave, do you?"
His eyes widen for just a second, probably because he realized how well Julia could actually read him. She always had been good at reading him, at least she thought, because she had believed him instantly when he told her he cheated on her eight months ago. But maybe that was just because of the emotions she had back then.
Dom sighed sadly. "I know you have to leave but... I just hate being alone."
His half pink, half black hair had fallen in front of his eyes as he was looking at his feet now instead of at Julia. But Julia couldn't stop looking at him, as he looked so fragile and small and she really just couldn't leave him like that. Not even after what happened between them. She would worry about him.
"I can stay if you want?" she offered, making him look up instantly.
"You-"
For a moment he got a hopeful and thankful look in his eyes, but he quickly changed his mind and shook his head with a frown. "You shouldn't. Your mom is gonna be worried about you and your girlfriend-"
"Becca and I are fighting anyway. And she doesn't have to know about it. I just don't want to leave you alone like this."
Dom let out a quiet "oh" and he didn't move, probably as he didn't know whether he could officially invite Julia back into his house or she was just proposing an idea.
"Do you want me to stay?" Julia asked him gently, trying to make eye contact with him which was extremely hard as he kept looking at his hands.
He shrugged. "I don't want to bother you. You should go home."
"Dom," Julia breathed out, knowing he didn't mean that and all he wanted was her to stay for the night. She walked up to him only so she could stroke his hair out of his face, which was the only way to make him look up. He did, though, but her action surprised him and he automatically backed up and brushed his hair backwards himself.
"When I say it's fine, it's fine."
Finally Dom managed to smile at her and he stepped aside to let her in again. For a moment Julia felt like she shouldn't do it, but when she saw his face become slowly more and more relaxed, she knew she made the right decision.
-
"You can sleep in my bed tonight. I'll sleep on the couch."
Dom stood up from the couch and stretched as they had been sitting in nearly the same position for three hours. All the time they had just been talking about what happened in their lives during the past months, to see what they missed. Dom's life was the craziest, though: during the last tour Julia had thought it couldn't be crazier than that, but his stories made her realize how much he had grown during the months.
It was the best thing to see how his eyes lit up every time he started talking about one of his fans or a show he had done. She could see how much he still loved what he was doing.
"I'm the guest, I'll sleep on the couch," Julia argued with him as she watched him picking up the snacks they had laid on the table in front of the couch.
"Jules I would never let you sleep on the fucking couch."
Dom turned around and gave her a serious look. Julia chuckled. "But it's your house so you should sleep in your own bed."
"It's my house so I make the rules. And one of them is that I'm gonna sleep on the couch," Dom told her stubbornly, only to make Julia roll her eyes. She knew it was impossible to argue with him over things like that. He'd probably end up carrying her to the bedroom until she fell asleep there instead of on the couch.
Dom sticked his tongue out at her as a response to her eye-roll before he walked away and disappeared into the kitchen. Julia found herself fondly smiling over their interaction, but once she realized she was doing it, she dropped her smile and instead focused on the tv they had turned on at the beginning of the night just for moments of silence.
"You want to bring a cup of tea to bed? I know you always loved that," Dom spoke from out of the kitchen. The fond smile Julia had forced to go away formed back on her lips as she answered "yes please that'd be great."
It took a while before Dom came out of the kitchen again, as he was making the tea first, but once she saw him walking up to the couch again he said "ever since you told me about it I started doing it and now I can't stop."
"Really?" she asked him.
He nodded. "It really helps you falling asleep."
"I told you," she said as she smiled at him again, receiving a shy smile back from him as he ran his hand through his hair again for the umpteenth time that night.
It was kind of weird how they could talk non stop for three hours and barely even noticed the tv, but now they were both staring at the tv screen not saying a word until the tea was ready and they got ready to sleep.
Dom had grabbed a blanket and some pillows from his bedroom and prepared it on the couch as Julia was waiting for him awkwardly in the corner. She checked her phone real quick to see whether she got any texts, and it only now hit her Becca hadn't texted her ever since the fight. She had completely forgotten about it for a moment.
"Is she still mad?"
Dom's voice caused Julia to jump and look up from her screen and she frowned, trying to figure out what he meant.
"Your girlfriend. Is she still mad?"
Julia only shrugged and brushed it away. "We'll probably talk about it tomorrow. It's fine for now."
"Okay," Dom only said as he nodded and sat down on his self-made bed. "I'll see you tomorrow then. I'll turn off the lights."
"Sleep well," she told him as she grabbed the t shirt Dom had given her to sleep in from the kitchen counter. He mumbled "sleep well" back at her and smiled shortly. She was about to turn around but changed her mind quickly.
"Oh Dom? Please wake me up if something's wrong. That's why I'm here."
The expression on Dom's face got all soft and he nodded. "I will."
"Please do," Julia said to make sure he would, because she knew he never sticked to promises like that. He sticked to many promises, but never when it was in a situation he was vulnerable in.
"Promise," he told her, finally making her satisfied enough to go to bed.
-
She guessed it right: Dom hadn't sticked to his promise. It was past four in the morning when Julia woke up by sounds coming from the bathroom. She fell asleep quickly after it, assuming it was just Dom using the toilet, but ten minutes later she woke up from the same sounds again.
She listened for a bit, not being able to figure out what kind of sounds they were. She eventually turned on the lights and got out of bed to walk to the bathroom that was right next to the bedroom.
"Dom?" she spoke gently, not wanting to scare him. She knocked on the door twice as she said his name to be sure he heard her.
He didn't respond to her, but any sound that was coming from out of the bathroom earlier stopped so Julia could guess he heard her.
"Is everything alright?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"Can I come in?"
No response this time, but as he didn't stop her either, Julia just opened the door only to find him kneeling in front of the toilet, looking absolutely exhausted.
"What's wrong? What happened?" she asked him worriedly, immediately rushing over to the toilet to crouch down next to him. Dom couldn't even answer and just broke down crying, letting his body fall against the wall.
"Dom what happened?"
Instead of letting him cry as he pressed himself against the wall, Julia tugged on his hand to pull his body over to her chest and wrapped her arms around him.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" she asked him as she rubbed his back and tried her best not to tear up while her heart was literally breaking by the way he was sobbing in her chest.
"I didn't want to," he told her. His breaking voice broke her heart even more.
"I told you I didn't mind," she told him worriedly, and it was the last thing she said to him before she just let him cry out in her chest because she didn't want him to feel guilty about something he shouldn't worry about.
"Did you throw up?" she asked him once he had calmed down a little bit and was just trying to control his breathing now. He hadn't moved in the meantime though, and she could see how he enjoyed her arms around him.
He nodded as an answer to her question.
"Did you feel sick all night?"
"I have this nearly every night," he breathed out and he finally pushed himself away from Julia as it was easier to look at her while he was talking. Stains of tears were all over his cheeks and Julia had a hard time trying to stop herself from wiping his tears away.
"My stomach always hurts from the... the bruise and my anxiety makes my stomach hurt so much more until I-"
"Nearly every night?" Julia asked him in disbelief, and he just nodded, biting his lip.
"Does anyone know about it?"
This time he shook his head and said "only you now. It's too fucking stupid to tell someone."
The way he kept bringing himself down made Julia realize how Dom had completely fallen back into the old him; how he used to be when they first met. He seemed to have barely any confidence and the way he obviously hated himself with everything in his body broke Julia's heart into little pieces.
"It's not stupid," she told him, making sure she kept eye contact as she held his face with both of her hands. "I'm glad I know now."
He hesitated for a moment, taken aback by the way she was holding his face and their faces were close to each other, but he eventually smiled and didn't say anything. But it was enough for Julia to smile back at him.
"Let's just go to the living room and watch a movie to get your mind off of it, yeah?" she told him. He nodded and let Julia help him stand up.
"Thank you Jules. You didn't have to do this after- Just thank you."
Julia nodded at him to sign it was okay, but she could barely even get herself to respond normally as her stomach made a turn for the third time in one minute.
"You can choose," he said and he seemed so happy about the idea, it made Julia smile yet again.
"Okay."