As A Friend

Prologue

Shout out to @circusities for the beautiful cover.  She is in the cover making business so go to her with any requests. Be patient though because, like many of us, she is a student. Anyway, on to the book.  :)

Dominic's head shifts in my lap as I flip to the page five out of twenty in our Introduction to Comparative Politics reading. My eyes threaten to close as I read the page aloud. Once I reach the halfway point, Dominic releases a noisy snore. I shift the paper and find that he's dead asleep. I tilt my head back onto the lounge couch and groan.

"Dominic," I hiss as I lightly touch his shoulder. When he doesn't wake, I shove him off of my lap. He lands on the carpet with a muffled thud and jolts awake.

"Dude," he groans as he sits up and looks at me. He slowly rubs the sleep from his dark green eyes and flights back a yawn. "What the hell was that for?"

"How are you going to pass the quiz on Friday if you're sleeping during the reading?" I ask him.

"I'm tired," he complains. "We've been studying for hours."

"First of all, it's been two hours and you've been dozing off for the last thirty minutes" I retort as I stretch my legs.

"Nova," he whines as he crawls back onto the couch. He sits beside me and puts his head on my shoulder. "I'm tired."

"You don't think I'm tired, too?"

"No I do." He closes his eyes now. "You're probably exhausted. That's why we should call it a night and just go to bed. We don't even have to go back to our dorms. Just sleep. Right here." He wraps his arms around me and in a sideways hug and I shake him off.

"Dominic, wake up!" I push myself into a standing position and he cranes his neck to look up at me.

"I have an 8AM tomorrow and I don't want to go," he whimpers. "It's already midnight and I still have to walk back to the dorm and shower."

I sigh loudly when I realize that his sleepiness is going to cut this study session short. I begin packing both of our bags as he sits on the couch contemplating how he can get the most sleep. When I stand up and extend his bag for him, he reaches his hands out. I sigh, drop his bag, and grab his hands. I try my best to tug him up but the 6'0" ex-athlete still bears the muscle mass from his old hobby. I audibly struggle and finally get him onto his feet. I hand him his backpack and lead the way to the main road.

He starts towards my dorm and I grab his arm. "Your dorm is over here." I point at his building and he shakes his head.

"I have to make sure you get back safe." He fights through a yawn. "It's midnight. I'm not going to let you walk back alone."

"You're ridiculous," I grunt and he continues in the direction of my dorm.

That's my best friend for you. The old star of the high school baseball team who still carries his fame with him to the small, local university. An odd pair we are- the esteemed athlete and the introverted mathlete. It started pretty realistically; I was his tutor. One thing I can say about him is that Dominic isn't stupid. I would not be able to tolerate him if he was stupid, no offense to stupid people. He didn't even really need a tutor; he was a B average student. He just wanted good enough grades so that he would be considered for academic scholarships, too.

Another thing I can say about Dominic is that he approached me for help. He didn't have coach do it like other athletes or have a teacher call me to their classroom and guilt me into doing it. He came to me and that's honestly what made me agree. He offered to pay me but I declined, figuring that it'd help me study, too. He kept offering up things to repay me (which he denies now and claims that they were early attempts at starting a friendship). He'd suggest that I show up to parties or ride the baseball bus to the games. I'd always politely decline and dodge any questions about my personal life. He'd started giving me rides to and from school on the days he didn't have early or late practice. It wasn't until he started making plans with me to do things I enjoyed, like movie nights or casual trips to the mall, that I actually realized he wanted to be friends with me. He tells me that it was because of my sense of humor but I can't help but feel like he thinks he owes me that much.

"Thanks. Go take a shower. I can smell you from here." He flips me the bird as he turns in the direction of his dorm building. I stand for a minute and watch before calling out to him, "text me when you get back!"

I enter my building and let out a hushed sigh. Dominic and I are polar opposites but for some reason he insists on keeping me around. While he may be nice to me, it's not that way with everyone. I wouldn't call him an asshole but he definitely isn't the greatest guy around. The high school stardom got to his head and he definitely had his fair share of encounters with girls. Even here at University, despite the fact that we've only been here for two months, he's gotten around a bit. It's one of the few things we refuse to talk about but I can't help but listen in the bathrooms and cafeterias to the girls talking about Dominic Pierce.

As you may have guessed, I created the "no relationship conversation" deal. It was very early on in the friendship when he started to get curious as to how an antisocial nerd dates. I made it clear that that's one thing we will not talk about. He barely agreed and would occasionally slip up and ask me to guess who he hung out with last night, to which I'd raise an eyebrow and he'd shut up. I think he sometimes forgot that I'm not one of the guys and that I will actually call him out for hurting girls. Not to mention, I didn't want to deal with any potential teasing at my lack of experience or better yet lack in desire to gain experience. He seemed genuinely shocked when I told him I hadn't gone to a party; imagine his shock if I told him I've never kissed anyone. He'd probably have had a heart attack if I went as far as to say that I've never really wanted to.

I never realized how much my best friend got around until a little while into our friendship when we'd be hanging out at the mall or the arcade or whatever public place we deemed worthy of our presence. On many occasions, girls of all shapes and sizes would approach us and make a rude comment to either me or Dominic. In the beginning it shocked me and Dominic would apologize but after a while we'd ignore it or crack jokes on it, depending on the quality of the insult.

I've never looked at Dominic as a prospective romantic partner and I can confidently say the same for him. I think we're just too different. My parents even realized we weren't a thing when he would come over just to take naps in my bed, even when I wasn't home. They like him, for the most part. They don't really like how my younger sister tries to throw herself at him when he's there, but they can't exactly help that. I think his parents like me, too. They called me a good influence on him and always invite me over for meals and whatnot.

I reach my room and change my clothes, trying not to wake my sleeping roommate. I check my phone for Dominic's text before heading to the bathroom. I know deep, deep, deep, deep down that if Dominic wasn't so careless with romantics and relationships and if I wasn't so emotionally guarded that I could potentially, probably, maybe have a thing for him. But because he's as stupid as he is and because I'm as stupid as I am, that will thankfully never happen. My phone buzzes from its place on the sink and I glance down at it, sighing in relief when I see Dominic's text. So he didn't die on the way back to his dorm. I leave my toothbrush in my mouth as I pick up my phone to reply.

Dominic: I'm home. You can sleep now.

Me: Shut up.

Dominic: Love you, goodnight.

I remind myself that we're just friends. He means it as a friend and that's all.

Me: Shut up again.

He sends a kissing emoji and I roll my eyes before smiling into the mirror. What an idiot.