𝐍𝐎 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐒, ꜱʙɢ

15

Present day

Dom and the rest of the group sat in silence as Tyler's fist clenched from underneath the table.

"We need to go back to Savannah." He spoke, his voice loud and unwavering at the group thought the idea over for the fifth time.

"This is the fourth time you've bought this up, Ty." Dominique spoke up from across the table, looking him in the eye with a soft look over her face.

"I get you're stressed. We all are. But we can't rush back into Savannah with no plan and no time to fully think about it." She disagreed softly. Her eyes darted around the group as Tyler looked down at the table in disappointment.

"I'm not shutting the idea down completely, Tyler." Dominique reminded, and Tyler looked back up at her hopefully. Dominique sent a look to Ashlyn, who was at the head of the cafeteria table.

"We'll take a vote on it later." Ashlyn responded simply, poking at her food and not looking up at Tyler.

With disappointed eyes, Tyler shook his head at Ashlyn's response. "Why not thsi afternoon? Today even?" He countered, glaring at her.

"I have to help the flower shop today." Logan spoke up from diagonal to Dominique, who sent him a reassuring look as if to say 'you have a say in this'.

"I have ballet." Ashlyn added onto Logan's statement, which only fuelled Tyler's anger. He stood up from the table in anger, slamming his fist down.

"It's not going to matter if we die! How do you guys not realise that?!" Tyler shouted, earning a couple of looks from the tables surrounding around them.

"We need to balance this out, Ty. We can't let this control us, and I know for a fact you have shit to do this afternoon." Dom spoke back up, pointing a finger at his chest and giving him a disapproving look at his anger.

"We will take a vote on it later. Any objections?" Dom clarified, looking around the group. Tyler begrudgingly shook his head, gritting out a 'no' through a tensed jaw. Dom swore she saw one of his veins pop.

Dom had planned to hang out with Ashlyn that afternoon before she had to head out to ballet practise. She'd found herself growing closer to the freckled girl after their coupled near death-encounters together. She found that she related pretty heavily to ash over their couple weeks of getting to know each other.

Ash found quite a lot of comfort in Dominique's presence around her. She was growing closer to her, and for once, she wasn't apposed to their growing friendship. Maybe it was because she knew that Dom truely did care for her. Which was backed up from everything they had endured together; from the basement of the sorrel weed house, to Dom's comfort in her bathroom that night. Taking in Dom's solace was one of Ash's greatest comforts. Because she knew one thing for sure.

Dominique would always have her back.

The two girls chatted lightly as they hopped off the bus, but were cut off when they heard two pairs of footsteps leave the bus behind them, thumping against the pavement lightly.

As they both turned around, Dom was somehow unsurprised to see Aiden's figure hovering behind herself and Ash, accompanied by a sleepy Ben.

"Figured we would tag along with you two, check out where you head for ballet and spend the afternoon back at Dom's." Ash just scowled, still not used to his pushiness. On the other hand, Dominique froze in her tracks at the last words that left his mouth.

"Not my house!" She quickly interrupted everyone's train of thought. She turned around to see Aiden and Ben, who both sent her slightly stunned glances. She waved her hands in front of her face, a look of dread washing over her features.