The Victim (Book #1)

Chapter 59

The lamp turned on as Brooks walked in with Damon and I looked down to see Dominic's legs, which I had inadvertently crushed.

"Oops!" I said, jumping off of him and laughing. Luckily, he barely noticed me stumbling because he was more concerned with the grown boy crushing his chest. He pushed Caleb off and onto the floor and sat up groggily, rubbing his hair. I wondered if he knew it was all pushed to one side and stuck there. It tended to do that.

"You fall asleep one second and you're crushed by two little monsters in the next." He said, shaking his head.

"Little?" Caleb and I protested. He gave us a withering look and then seemed to realize we had all just gotten home.

"Where have you guys been?" he asked, turning to Damon with a serious expression. Damon smiled sheepishly, and I imagined it was something akin to the face I'd made when Damon had caught me dancing with Magnus.

"We went out." He said, shrugging nonchalantly.

"I surmised that much on my own, actually." Dominic answered curtly, before turning to Brooks. "Where'd you go?"

"To see some friends," Brooklyn said with a still face. He had a perfect poker face, but it was a tell simply that he was using it now. It told Dominic that we needed to have poker faces. It told him we were doing something we shouldn't have been.

Dominic turned to Caleb but kept his face was still impassive as stone. 

"Which friends?" he asked.

Caleb tried to keep still, but his eyes grew a little, and he shifted weight to each foot, more than necessary.

"School friends. You don't know them, probably." He replied, looking at Damon and Brooks to check if what he said was okay. Damon gave him a discreet nod. I really didn't get all the theatrics. Was it so bad if he knew what happened? Why did he care?

My head hurt. I just wanted to go to sleep.

"Dominic, can I be excused to go sleep?" I said, raising my hand as if we were in school. I smirked a little to myself. And here I was criticizing their theatrics.

"Thanks for asking, Maya," he said with a smile. I smiled back and turned to face the stairs when he answered, "No, you may not."

I faced him again and my mouth fell open in surprise.

"Now you, Maya, you cannot lie. So, tell me what happened." He said, looking at me with a steely gaze that seemed so out of place.

"Whyyy?" I asked in a whiny voice that I knew he would hate. He chuckled, at my bravery, probably.

"Because if you don't tell me, I'm telling Mom. And she works for Child Protective Services. She will read you like a book, and probably be much angrier than I'm about to be." He offered, looking at me in a way that made me nervous. He was probably right. As soft as Charlotte seemed, she was tough as a whip. She would be mad.

"Okay, fine." I said, still smiling. The boys all groaned, and Brooks said "Maya!"

"Let the boys go and I'll tell you everything, but you can't be mad at them for any of it." I said confidently, pointing a finger at him.

Dominic thought about it and shrugged, saying "Alright. But you're accepting responsibility for all of your actions."

Caleb said "Maya!" But it wasn't a reprimand like Brooks was, it was a plead for me to protect myself. I gave him a wink with the eye that was not closest to him and went to sit by Dominic.

"Goodnight, gentlemen." Dom said to them all, dismissing them and laser focusing his eyes on me. I giggled and curled my legs up under me, facing him. Caleb, Brooks, and Damon all left the room and it got suddenly quiet. I missed the noise of the music and the laughter. Quiet was so... boring.

I tossed my head to one side and then smiled at what had happened tonight. I loved every crazy second of it.

"Did you have fun tonight?" he teased, rolling his eyes at my smile.

"Uh-huh!" I said happily.

"Tell me what happened. And why you're acting so weird." He said.

I nodded and then breathed in and let out a huge breath.

"Okay, well, basically Caleb heard this rumor about this guy in our class- that he was dating me! But he wasn't! And I told him that! So, then Caleb said 'we have to go beat him up!' and we got the other boys and Damon drove us to this house but it was a party and I didn't wanna go in because of danger but I did because I was mad and Damon basically said I was too scared to go which I wasn't I just don't like big crowds 'cause they make me tense so then I lost all the boys and this guy was being creepy but then I made a friend with this other boy, oh and this girl threw up, and then-"

Dominic cut me off.

"Take a breath, Maya." He said, still laughing at my Caleb impersonation.

"Can you keep going, but slower, and more coherently, please?" he asked. I nodded and tried to slow down. I even nodded my head slowly.

"Okay, so I found the boys because he was in the bedroom like Magnus told me he was, and Damon was going to punch him!" I said, grabbing Dominic's arm and shaking it. He smiled as if he approved.

"Dom, that's bad. We don't punch people." I said, glaring at him. He straightened his expression and said "Of course not. Proceed."

"Well, then the boy asked for just 10 minutes to spend time with me and talk and stuff and I said yes! I know that sounds dumb but it's not it made sense and I know him and he's cute so!" I protested and sped up my talking when Dominic had looked mad, but my hands flew over my mouth now as I admitted Asher was cute.

He breathed out a big laugh and I threw my hands over his mouth, muffling the sound and basically crawling onto his lap.

"Shut up!" I said. "Don't tell anyone!"

"Maya likes someone. Maya likes a boyyyy!" he sang in a very childlike way as I punched him repeatedly in his stupid giant arms.

"No, I don't! Don't tell!" I said quietly, trying to conceal my blush through a false angry expression.

He laughed at my pathetic attempt at being threatening and pushed me back over to my side of the couch.

"Go on." He said.

"That's all, basically! We talked for ten minutes and he said sorry for being such a big butt and now we're going to be friends!" I exclaimed, raising my arms in the air.

"And?" he asked, expression going serious.

"And what?" I squeaked out, hoping to avoid the rest of the night and distract him with the main events.

"Well, you missed a part." He said with a calm expression. I gave him an unsure look and hunched down in my seat, brushing my hair behind my ear.

"Which, exactly?" I asked.

"The part where you drank." He replied.

"Oh. That part."