"Okay, Dominic," I reach over to his side and grab the bottle out of his grasp just as he is about to kiss the opening and accidentally, some of the liquid spills on the leg of his trousers, "I think you've had enough to last you a lifetime."
He tries to tug the bottle back from me, but he's way too drunk to do that so he ends up staring at it with his puppy dog eyes. When that does nothing to break my resolve, he settles for narrowing his gaze at me venomously, pursing his lips petulantly. That too does not cause me to crack as I purposefully place the bottle down on my side and he grunts irritably.
Before the wine can dry into his trousers, I strain over towards the paper towel dispenser and grab a couple. As I'm patting him down, I am suddenly struck by the thought that I am still stuck in a restroom with a now drunken Dominic.
Ever since we stepped on that elevator, he has been a different person, showing me more emotion than he ever has during these past two months, even going as far as telling me stuff about himself that he has not told anyone before. Maybe it has something to do with his drunken state causing his lips to grow looser, but I am not complaining.
"You're… boring, Seong Jin."
"Coming from you, that's rich."
"Give me my bottle, you… beach," he exclaims dangerously, but somewhat still in a childish manner, wafting the scent of alcohol from him into my personal space.
I instantly rear back to increase the radius between us, but he astounds me by jumping me and pulling on the suit jacket wrapped around me. "W-What are you doing?"
"Give me back my jacket since you're being such a beach," he slurs, still tugging it from me and failing miserably to get it off me. "You don't deserve it, Starr. Take it off."
"Okay, fine. Jesus, take it, you prick," I snap, letting go of the jacket and he smiles triumphantly, "and I think you mean bitch; not beach."
"No, you're a beach," he remains adamant about the way he says it and if arguing with him whilst he's sober is a mission, I'm not going to take my chances with a drunk Dominic.
Why did I allow him to drink so much alcohol? I don't even know how long we will be stuck in here. His acquaintance was supposed to be here a couple of minutes ago, but this Dinah character still has not shown up. I do not like the drunk version of himself, even though it comes with the upside of how expressive he may become.
Softly, he murmurs under his breath, "You're beautiful… eccentric… assertive… crazy and… h-happy."
I slowly stare over at him and a long, pregnant, uncomfortable silence commences between us.
"Yeah, you're certainly drunk," I conclude more to myself than him, nodding my head in conviction. That was impressive though, that he was able to do all that while being drunk. How he was able to think of words like that to go with him calling me a beach. I am pretty sure if I had to do that with a drunk, hazy mind, I would just mumble a bunch of nonsensical things.
"Will you compliment me back?"
"No, you need to sober up. Maybe you should take a little nap for a while. I'll wake you up when we get rescued by your… acquaintance." He shrugs my hands away when I try to lay him down and I have to heave a deep sigh to prevent myself from letting out a frustrated scream.
"I don't want to sober up," he mutters like an immature brat throwing a tantrum because his mother does not want to buy him the newest console. Truthfully, this side of him is not cute or hilarious; it's irritating the living daylights out of me. "I want a compliment."
An exhale of annoyance leaves my lips. "Dominic, you need to sleep."
"No, Seong Jin, you need to compliment me; compliment me right now."
"Okay, quit yelling, you big baby." I cut in his demands and my eyes are wide from his drunken behaviour. "I'll compliment you."
When I lopsided grin curls onto the corner of his lips, I narrow my eyes at him warningly. I fear for his drinking buddy when they have to go out to parties and his buddy has to remain sober to drive them home. But you know, since we have Ubers now, maybe the buddy system isn't really necessary. Is this how he feels when I pull stunts like this? I should stop irritating him then. This feeling is so compressive, and it makes my head hurt.
"If I compliment you, do you promise to go to sleep?" I muse sternly, staring down at him seriously.
"Pinkie promise," he swears and it reminds me of the time I said that to him coming from that Halloween party where I was spiked by Fleance's water concoction. I almost burst out laughing in amusement but instead, I turned away from him and released a quick, quiet chortle.
"Okay, Dominic," thoughtfully, I glance up trying to see what I can call him and, in the end, I decide on, "You are a complete, utter… douche."
He smiles lazily and moves closer to me. The slight alcoholic breeze that hits me and the proximity makes me wrinkle my nose both irked and perplexed. "What does that stand for?"
"Demanding… overbearing… unhappy… controlling… heinous and exacerbating," I list on my fingers.
"I don't know some of those words, but they all sound like horrible things." He hiccups and gingerly rests his head on my shoulder, glancing up at me through his lashes. I've never felt more uncomfortable in my life than I am right now. "Say something n-nice, Seong Jin. I said something nice."
I dismiss the fact that he called me by my name for the umpteenth time now and instead inform him, "Yeah, because you're drunk. Once you sober up and remember that you're going to regret saying it."
"A sober mind says drunk words."
"I think you mean a drunk mind says sober words," I correct him and subconsciously a soft smile touches the corners of my lip, but he just mutters a soft poh-tay-toh, poh-tah-toh and I sigh from his stubbornness. "You have to sleep after I do this."
"And you have to use the word douche to compliment me. Just like I used beach."
"Yeah, I figured," I mutter under my breath, and to prevent myself from coming off as annoyed, my eyes flutter rapidly and then I clear my throat to compliment him as best I can. "Okay, you are first and foremost very… dainty."
He scowls up at me.
So quickly, I add, "Which is a good thing, because being a fastidious person means you're attentive and yes, you're sometimes difficult to please, but that can certainly be a good thing because it just means you want things to be done at a hundred percent. You want everything to be perfect."
The frown lines on his forehead disappear and he seems pleased with my response.
I continue onto the next letter, "You are also… I can't find a complimentary word which starts with the letter o so we'll stick with you are… an orange. You see, oranges are spherical and if we connect that to the celestial bodies, you'll realise that I mean you're out of this world."
His bleary gaze pierces through me and I decide to swiftly move on from that.
"You're… ubiquitous."
His brows dip down in perplex, but I do not feel like explaining to him what ubiquitous means nor do I want to explain that I have no idea what the word means. I just saw it in passing.
"You are… canny? I think you have good judgement. You are also… handsome. Your stature is masculine, and your body is… you're a good-looking guy."
He bobs his head up and down as if to silently say he is a good-looking guy. "Lastly, you are exhilarating. I mean, you annoy me to no end with your demands, but at the end of the day, you make me feel animated. With you, I never know what to expect, because you're unpredictable and always keeping me on my toes."
I pause before finally stating, "You are a douche, Dominic."
His grin widens and this time I have to say the boyishness in it makes him look cute.
Remember when I said that the emotionless boy smiling looks constipated and in pain? This is not the case this time around. He's just doing it freely. He's not even worried that he's smiling at the person he likes the least.
"Nice," he whispers.
"Yeah," I murmur, averting my gaze forward awkwardly. The restroom remains quiet after that and Dominic shifts a bit on my shoulder, to sleep comfortably. I don't appreciate him using me as his pillow, but if it will keep him from yelling then so be it.
"I haven't had one," he suddenly says out of nowhere.
"What?"
"You asked me about my first kiss. I've never kissed anyone before in my life."
"Really?" Even though my question comes off as me being caught off guard by his confession, thinking about it, I'm not surprised that he hasn't had his first kiss yet. I don't think he's even had a girlfriend.
While openly blushing, he nods.
"Well, I mean, Jodie is a professional. She has had her fair share of practice. Believe me, she'll teach you all the methods she knows."
"But… I don't want to kiss her."
I stare at him confused and ask, "Why don't you want to kiss her? You do like her, do you not?"
"Because you said that for her to like me, I have to be a really good kisser otherwise she'll gossip about my terrible mouth to mouth skills and... not I'm good." He must realise that he mixed his words up because he quickly corrects himself and says, "I mean… I might be bad."
"Well, if you practise then you'll be… not bad."
"Practise with what?"
"Your hand… your pillow… you know, the normal thing."
This causes him to stare up at me curiously. When he asks me, "Do you practise with your hand and your pillow," my eyes enlarge sheepishly.
"What? No. Um… because unlike you, I have charm and charisma and… I've kissed and been kissed more times than I can count on both hands."
"In that case, can I… can I practise with you?"
"What?" I jump back in shock and when I notice how earnest he looks, I instantly shake my head and say, "No."
The hopeful look on his face falls and he looks away in disappointment.
Sue me, but drunk Dominic with that look on his face is somewhat disheartening and also, but I cannot for the life of me kiss him. Do I even like him in that way?
Wait, why am I asking that? Shouldn't I be absolutely saying that I do not like him in that way, because of course, I do not like him like that… nor do I like him in any other way. He is both unpleasant and has feelings for Jodie. I cannot like him. I will not allow myself to like him. Ever. Even though this kiss would only be for practice and would answer my question about how his lips would feel, I'm not mentally prepared to.
"Look, Dominic, you're drunk, and you don't want this."
"How do you know that?"
"I don't know. For one, you're not gay and for two, you hate me. My whiny voice, the shit I spew, I'm too happy for your liking. You remember you told me that. That you don't even like me in the slightest. You could never like someone like me, whatever that means."
"Shut up," he mutters dismissively.
You know, I had my first kiss stolen from me. It was back when I was very young, almost seven or eight, but I still remember it like it was yesterday.
Everything was normal in the beginning whilst we played mummy-daddy-kids. For some weird reason, I was the mum, she was the dad and Taylor and Samantha, who moved away back when we were in primary school, were the children.
I recall us going to bed after putting our kids to sleep, kissing them on the forehead and telling them goodnight. When we slept, I made sure that I was not facing her, but then she placed her arm over my waist and whispered in my ear to ask if I was sleeping to which I answered with an affirmative response even though that would have clearly meant that I wasn't asleep.
She kept quiet for a while until she asked me if I knew that mummy and daddy slept facing each other. I tensed because I was a kid who didn't know anything about that, but I knew I had to be a good wife otherwise she'd divorce me. I was thinking of my children, okay?
So, I turned around and faced her.
Okay, goodnight now, I reminisce saying to her quickly and shutting my eyes tightly.
Big mistake. The kid took that as an invitation to lean into me and in my blind state, I felt her lips on top of mine. I remember them being soft, but I did not like it. It was very weird, strange. Why would people want to do this with each other? Why would Amma and Appa want to do this? But I bared it until she pulled away, whispering a goodnight at him. For my children.
And then I ran home.
So, when Dominic pulls his lips away from mine, resting his forehead on my forehead and staring into my eyes with those intense, chocolate brown eyes of his, I just stare back tensely. Everything has gone quiet and it does not feel like I'm in my body anymore.
Am I dreaming right now?
This has to be a dream, right?
Did that just happen? Has another person just stolen a kiss from me without my permission?
After a few more seconds of his breathlessness fanning my swollen lips, he slowly leans into me again and softly presses his lips on mine. I am caught slightly off guard for a second time as he starts moving said lips and my heart flutters within my chest. This time, there is much more vigour in the way he's kissing me. It feels like he's starving for more of a taste of me. Faintly, I feel his large palm holding my face.
The more his lips move against my still stagnant lips, the more my resolve breaks and slowly my eyes begin to flutter close. Tentatively, I kiss him back and subconsciously, I bring my hand up to cup his face too in my small palm to angle him the way I want to deepen the kiss. The closer he pulls me into him, the warmer I feel and as time passes, our lips part so we can both swallow a breath.
Then his lips are on me again.
You know, I was actually going to dismiss that first kiss with the girl I don't even remember and say that it didn't count. I was going to tell whoever kisses me next, my boyfriend most likely, that he was my first kiss so that he can feel special. Now I can't even do that, because Dominic has stolen my second first kiss. And I realise that I have nowhere to run to this time around nor do I want to run.