The fact that Dom hadn't responded to her last message worried Julia a bit, but just a minute after the message she saw his name pop up on her phone screen as he was calling her. Apparently he did want to call.
"Hey," she said softly, waiting for him to say something back, but she just heard him sob through the phone, the sound faded away a little but still audible enough for Julia's heart to drop.
"It's alright Dom."
"I- I feel like a fucking ten-year-old," he cried and Julia shushed him hoping it would calm him down as it sometimes did. She couldn't believe he had lived like this for the past months and never asked anyone to help him.
"Take deep breaths with me."
Julia started breathing in and out slowly, waiting for Dom to do the same. He actually did, which she could hear by the way he tried to control his sobs to breathe in and out at the same time as she did.
She looked at the clock. It was 2.30 in the morning and she knew she should just make sure he went to sleep safely and then go to sleep herself as she had work the next day, but she knew she couldn't.
"Is it okay if I come over?"
She expected her question to make him feel relieved or at least calm down because he knew someone would be with him soon, but instead he started crying again.
"I feel so bad. You're way too nice I don't deserve-"
"You know how I feel about you putting yourself down Dom," Julia cut him off before he would go on about his mistakes for minutes. She heard him sigh and he let out another quiet sob and sniffed.
"Is it okay if I come over?" she asked him again, only for him to finally answer with "yeah".
Julia nodded and didn't hang up but let her phone on speaker while she laid it down on the bed and changed into her clothes. Dom didn't say anything for a while and she was too far away from the phone to hear if he was still crying. So it made her jump a little when suddenly he spoke up, just as she was nearly ready to go.
"You can't do this every night from now on, you know that."
Julia picked up the phone from the bed to answer him, but she didn't really know what to say. He was right: she couldn't do this every night but she also couldn't just do this only tonight and then never pay attention to him anymore.
"We'll see," she said, not even knowing herself what she meant by that. Dom didn't respond to it and she could hear him steadily breathing, which was good because it meant he wasn't crying anymore and he had his phone close to him in case anything would happen.
Julia quietly walked downstairs to grab her jacket and car keys and made sure she closed the door behind her as quietly as possible. Her parents barely ever woke up at night, though, but her sisters definitely did.
"Dom?" she spoke once she had gotten into her car and checked if he hadn't hung up already.
"Yeah," he responded, his raspy voice going up a little.
"I'm gonna drive now. Are you alright?"
"Drive safely, yeah?" was the only thing he responded, ignoring Julia's question if he was okay. She wanted to ask him again, but because she already knew the answer, she just decided to drive to his house as quickly as she could.
-
Julia: i'm here :) if you want you can come outside so i can drive us somewhere?
Julia: take your mind off things
Dom: okay
Dom: i'll be outside in a minute
Julia couldn't help herself and kept looking at the front door of Dom's apartment as she was waiting for him to come outside. Even though she knew he could come any moment, her heart still jumped when the door opened and he walked outside, a hood on his head, his hands hidden in his sleeves.
It was dark but she could see him smile at her, and she smiled back, opening the door for him so he could get in quickly.
"Hi honey," Julia said softly while Dom wrapped his arms around his chest and shivered, looking at Julia with an insecure look on his face. Julia knew why, and she pulled him close so she could wrap her arms around him to hug, rubbing his back to make him warm.
"I thought you were joking," Dom told her.
Julia frowned and let him go. "About what?"
"About coming over."
"Why would I?"
He shrugged as he sat back in the passengers seat and rested his head against it while he looked outside the window. "To take revenge, I don't know."
Julia's frown got even deeper as she started to get offended. "Am I really that kind of person?"
"No," Dom immediately said, turning his head back to look at Julia but still resting it against the chair. "But I don't know how much you've changed."
She looked at his soft face for two more seconds, having a hard time to hear him as he didn't speak louder than just a whisper. It was a sign he felt really bad; Julia knew that about him. So she quickly started the car to take his mind off of his thoughts as soon as possible.
"I don't think I've changed."
They didn't say a word to each other during the car drive, but it was ok because they had talked all night the night before so they could sit together in silence now. Julia had turned on the radio to break the silence and she sang along with bits of songs as she kept checking up on Dom who was staring out of the car window next to him as he never took his arms away from his chest.
There was a little smile on his face every now and then when she checked, though, and that was enough for Julia to know that he was grateful for the fact that he picked her up. He didn't even have to tell her. She just knew.
"As I was driving here I thought of something we made a while ago," Julia said once she made a turn and started driving slower as she entered a new street.
"And I know I put it in this car in case I was driving around with friends and I needed something to do. But I never opened it because I knew it was ours, actually."
She checked on Dom once again and by the way his frown that he had gotten first made place for his eyes lighting up a little, she knew he understood what she was talking about.
She was talking about a small booklet they owned together. It was one of her favorite memories of them: at the end of tour they had made a list of things they could do together so they would never be bored after tour. They never got to cross out all of the things; they had only crossed out two of them.
"You got it here?" Dom asked her, his voice cracking as it was the first thing he said in a while.
Julia nodded and opened a little hidden cabinet next to her seat. She just held the cabinet open so Dom could grab the booklet, Julia still focusing on the road. He did it, and first stared at the cover before he opened it.
"We didn't even do 10 percent of it," Julia said, making Dom chuckle.
"We did steal that road sign," he said and Julia loved to hear how there was a smile audible in his voice. She nodded and giggled.
"One of the things I was the most excited about was climbing on the station's roof to watch the sky."
"You begged me to bring you there every day," Dom agreed and they both laughed while Julia finally drove slower until she stood still.
She said nothing and just smiled fondly, waiting for Dom to realize where they were, which he did quickly.
"You actually drove us to the station?"
"I thought it'd be a good way for you to forget things," Julia nodded, turning her head toward Dom to wait for his reaction, hoping he didn't find it stupid.
He laid down the booklet in front of him. "I think so too," he said, his voice finally a little bit louder which meant he got a little bit of confidence and happiness back.
"Are you sure?" Julia asked him, and he nodded quickly, even looking excited now.
"Let's fucking cross this off the list."
They had been to the station before, just to see how they could possibly get up the building, so they exactly knew where they had to go now. There were security cameras, though, but maybe that's what partly made them so excited for it.
By the time they had finally climbed up the roof using the narrow ladder, Julia's heart was pounding. She couldn't really define whether it was because of the effort she had put in climbing or it was the excitement, but it felt great feeling like this. She hoped Dom felt the same, and his thoughts weren't still bothering him.
"I'm glad the sky is clear. Imagine if we climbed all the way up here just to see clouds," Julia joked as she was walking around on the roof, looking down at the edges. Dom did the same, and he was still walking around when Julia found a good spot and laid down on the roof, her jacket underneath her head to support it.
Dom didn't say anything back; he hadn't really talked much after they got out of the car. It was okay, though, she knew he'd act differently if he wanted to go home.
"Come lay with me. I got this thing on my phone to see the signs."
Dom walked over to the other side of the roof once again before he walked up to Julia, slowly lowering himself until he was sitting next to her.
"Are you cold?" Julia asked him when she saw him hiding his hands in his sweater again. She had given him her jacket, though, to wear on top of his sweater, which was pretty warm.
Dom shook his head. "I'm good."
He laid down next to her and Julia made sure the distance between them got smaller before she grabbed her phone and held it above their heads so they could look together. Dom had to rest his head against her shoulder so he could see, and once Julia noticed how he wasn't afraid to do that, she smiled a little.
"That's yours," Julia pointed out after she had turned her phone for a while and had found different stars. "You're a leo, right?"
She felt how Dom nodded, still resting his head against her shoulder.
"Cool," Julia said as she moved her phone away to search for more.
"Hey Jules?"
"Yeah?"
"Can we just stay here?"
Julia moved her phone down to her chest and smiled while looking at the dark sky. "As long as we don't get caught we're not leaving."
She said many more things to him after that; about the stars again and about her favorite planets, just to talk to him. But apparently her confirmation that they could stay there as long as he wanted had been enough for Dom to fall asleep.
She never stopped talking to him, though. Until she felt like she was about to fall asleep as well.
As her eyes were getting heavier she rested the top of her head against his and said "let's just not cross this off the list yet, so we can do it again."
-----
All this time I thought I had published chapter 9 already but I never did? I only found out once I published this chapter lmaoo so here's a double update then :)