My wrist lies flat against the wooden feel of the desk as I trace a perfect line across the large paper in front of me using my ruler.
Today is the planning phase of our project with me doing the drawing because the rest of them are absolutely shite at it. The unusual heat which seems to always radiate off Dominic meets my right side. Peeking over at his work, I catch him writing down the apparatuses we will be needing from our teacher. Fortunately, we have the whole of this month as well to build our robot.
I still don't understand why we must demonstrate electrical circuits through a fully functional robot. Why can't we just do it with light bulbs like we did in the tenth grade?
"Psst," I hiss lowly, leaning closer to Dominic who stops what he's doing and gazes at me dangerously.
"What?"
"Did you—" I cut myself off, cautiously looking over at the other two members of our group before I can say something too incriminating and sighing in relief when they seem occupied.
Christian insisted on giving a two-page long report about the two different types of circuits after Mrs Kennedy smarmily said something about there being some bonus marks for those who put in a little bit more effort. Which I, of course, do not care for, but the kid is pretty serious about obtaining those bonus marks. Good for him, you know?
Jodie is naturally on her phone with one earphone in her ears, the other piece hanging over her shoulder. She said she would rather build the thing instead of writing.
My bully is not at school today and when I asked our golden boy if he knew why that was the case, he shrugged unknowingly but from the way his eyes quickly wavered away from mine, I knew that he was not entirely telling the truth. It's okay, I don't want to pry into their relationship.
I whisper audibly only for Dominic, "Have you asked her out yet?"
"I don't think that this is the place for that, Starr," he grits out lowly.
"No, I think this is the perfect place for this. Jodie isn't listening in on the conversation and Christian is minding his own business," I tell him, gesturing at the two members of our group with a cock of my head.
He looks down at me, the expression on his face expressing his willingness.
I prove my point by bouncing my shoulders up and down in the air to poke at their concentration but neither of them seems to notice me. "See? They aren't interested at all. Just say yes or no."
"Yes or no."
"Really?" I stare at him dryly.
He shrugs.
"Just pick one answer. Did you or did you not?"
"Yes, I did," he replies hurriedly, focusing his attention back on his work and disregarding my presence. "Now, leave me alone."
"And? What did she say?"
When I lean even closer to him curiously and maybe even a little excitedly which makes him glower at me for literally breathing down his neck.
With a tight-lipped grin, I rear back into my own personal bubble, knowing that I too don't like it when people invade my personal space. I won't impose on him anymore.
All I need from him is the answer to what she said to him after he asked her out. You know, back then he only had a ninety nine percent rounded down chance of being rejected, but with this new plan, with my unplanned plan, there is no way we could ever go wrong. Hopefully.
"She said nothing. Go back to drawing," he says in a terse manner, almost like he doesn't want to talk about it.
I scowl fearfully.
That's not a good sign, is it? Does this mean that she rejected him?
No, but when she entered the class, she was beaming at him like a lovesick puppy. I just assumed that they were definitely going on that date from her amicable reaction to him. If she had rejected him then wouldn't she be trying very hard to avoid him and vice-versa? Except now, from Dominic's unwillingness to spill the fat beans, I'm not so sure.
What if my unplanned plan was not such a good idea after all? What if it still remains that he has a ninety-nine percent rounded-down chance of being rejected?
"Tell me! I deserve to know, you know?"
"No."
"Domi," I hiss, glaring at him harshly.
"For the last time, stop calling me that," he growls under his breath.
I just stare back at him blankly, raising my brows expectantly.
After clenching his jaw irritably, he turns around to give me his undivided attention and quietly, he muses, "If I tell you, will you leave me alone?"
"Maybe." I grin innocently.
He takes a huge breath into his chest, puffing it out involuntarily.
This is the very moment when I start feeling nervous and afraid of the failure of my winging-it plan, because if she said no then all that hard work would have been for nothing. I can't have gone to that fucking party for nothing. I can't have sipped lean and hallucinated out of my mind for nothing. All those risks couldn't have been for nothing.
"She said," he pauses for a while for some sort of dramatic suspenseful moment and I have half the mind to shake the answer out of him before he finally ends his sentence with a, "She said yes."
"Really?" I muse in shock, my chest deflating from relief. I didn't spend all that time with him for nothing, thank God.
At my disbelief, he narrows his eyes at me.
I clear my throat, taming the surprise which is staining my expression. "I mean… I knew you could do it, mate."
He moves away from me when he sees that I'm going to pat his shoulder. Disbelievingly, he murmurs, "Right."
My hand stays in the air mid-pat before I instantly drop it back onto my side limply. Dismissively, I ask, "So… where are you planning on taking her for your date? One of your mum's many, exquisite establishments?"
"That's the thing," he starts.
I catch a bit of anxiety passing through his eyes before he manages to hide his emotion behind his daily façade, licking his lips instead to portray that nervousness.
His eyes glide over to Jodie who is bobbing her head and mouthing the words to the song that she's listening to.
Until she glances up from feeling his eyes on her. She stretches a shy grin on her face, blushing a little before she flickers her gaze back onto her phone, jamming lightly this time around.
"She wants me to meet her parents."
"Well, I think it's going to be one hell of a da—" His words hit me hard, cutting me off mid-sentence. "Wait, what do you mean, she wants you to meet the parents?"
He looks over at me. "I don't know. She said something about me being different to the others and she's apparently been talking to her mum about me and now her mum wants to meet me. So, it's not going to be a romantic dinner date with just the two of us but her parents are now also part of the whole jibe. Can you believe that?"
My mind blanks completely before I eventually process his words in my head fully and they do not go with the unplanned plan at all. In fact, this new information is straying the train heading to station J&D off its rails and it may possibly tip over and kill the passengers on it. Unfortunately, I'm the only person on this train so it's clear how many casualties we are going to have.
A panicked breath leaves my lips as my eyes flicker all over his still-neutral face. "Holy shit, that's not part of the unplanned plan!"
"No shit, Sherlock."
I run a hand through my hair, pinching on the tips and realising that I have split ends from not taking good care of my hair. Great, now I have to tell my dad to take me to the salon to get them cut off again because once I get split ends there is no treatment to get rid of them. Am I the only one whose hair is like that? Wait, no, why am I worried about hair right now? I'm on a train that's going to tip over and kill me. I don't want to die.
"It's supposed to be date first, then the big bear hug, eventually there will be handholding in the hallways, you carry her bag and escort her to every single one of her classes, then the first kiss and… and—"
"Relax," he scolds, interrupting my panicking state.
Almost instinctively, I spring away frightfully when I feel his hand on my thigh as if he's trying to calm me down. Except it just makes me feel very uncomfortable. I am so used to Dominic not touching me willingly. He'll do anything not to come into physical contact with me, even dropping me while we're practising something to get Jodie to like him back.
I give him a wide open-eyed look which makes him clear his throat and awkwardly retract his hand. My eyes awkwardly flutter away for a second.
Trying to play off the weird moment, he glances at me from the corner of his eyes. "Don't worry. I've got this. I'm gonna blow them away."
"How? By glaring at them throughout the entire dinner?" I muse with a frown.
He proves me right by going right ahead and glowering at me dangerously. Only, it doesn't scare me like it used to. I've grown to know him and actually, strangely, like him for his personality now. You know, as a friend and nothing more than that.
"Are you guys t-t-talking about Jodie right in front of her?" Christian asks, gazing up at us questionably.
"Mind your own business," Dominic snaps.
He jumps in fright, quickly averts his gaze away from us and continues to do his planning for the robot.
"Seriously? What's your deal?"
Dominic rolls his eyes and doesn't even answer me.