12 - midterms

Amina

<>

The semester felt like it was breezing through so quickly. It was already time for midterm season.

There was nothing I hated more than exams, especially the multiple-choice ones. It was like professors were constantly trying to trick me and I hated it.

The girls and I decided to have a study night, renting out a room in the library and bringing all of our books and notes to study.

As I'm trying to review my notes the loud sound of crunching could be heard across from me. I look up to see Kendra chomping away at a bag of chips.

I wait patiently for the crunching to stop, but it never does. Out of irritation, I throw my pencil directly at her, hitting her on the head.

"What was that for!"

"Your loud ass munching! Some of us are trying to concentrate." I exclaimed, motioning toward my textbooks.

She chuckles as she puts her chips down. "Fine, I guess I'll starve." She wipes her fingers before picking up her notebook.

Silence filled the room as we continued to study. I was reading, memorizing key terms, and writing important facts. Bianca could be seen doing the same, writing religiously in her notebook. Suddenly Kendra placed her book down, looking directly at Bianca and me.

"This is boring." She announces.

"It's not supposed to be fun." Bianca responds.

Kendra pushes her books away from her onto the table. "Yeah, but we can make it fun. Let's play some music or something! I feel like I'm going to fall asleep." She pulls out her phone before selecting a song.

Tori Kelly begins playing from the small speaker on her phone, making Bianca's ears perk up. The two begin singing along to some song that I hardly knew the lyrics of, making it impossible to concentrate.

"Guys!" I exclaim.

They begin laughing as Kendra pauses the song. "You need to relax Ami. Maybe you need Dominic to break your back in because you have been cranky lately."

I frown at her, "I told you I am not involved with Dominic!"

"Oh right, now it's Aaron." She says distastefully.

"And what's wrong with Aaron?" I ask with a raised brow.

She shrugs, "Nothing really. I just get bad vibes from him."

"So you prefer Dominic? The alleged drug dealing murderer?"

She shakes her head, "I've never gotten good vibes from Dominic, but I didn't get bad ones either. Aaron's vibe just feels weird, and it feels unnatural."

"I think Dominic seems nice," Bianca says from the corner, gaining looks from Kendra and me.

"Nice?" I scoff, "He's a fûcking asshole."

"Uh oh, what'd he do to you this time?" Kendra says resting her chin against her hand.

I sigh, recalling his rude statement. "The other day when we were driving back home I accused him of being jealous of Aaron and me. He responded by saying he can't be jealous because he already fucked me." Both girls gasp as I nod my head. "Still think he's nice?"

"Have you fucked Aaron?" Kendra asks bluntly.

"No!"

She shrugs, "Then he has a point."

"You know there are things that matter more than sex right?"

"Yeah but not to men. If anyone should be jealous it's Aaron." Kendra hesitates, "He knows right?"

"Knows what?"

"That you've fûcked Dominic."

I feel my face heating up, "No! Stop saying it like that. Why would he know that?"

Her eyes widen, "Why wouldn't he? You're constantly around him and hanging out with him."

"I don't need to tell him anything we're not even official."

"If you had nothing to hide you'd tell him no problem. You're probably still hooked on Dominic huh?" She asks with a grin.

I scoff, "I was never 'hooked' on Dominic, thank you very much."

She chuckles, "Right."

I roll my eyes at her, she always thought she was right.

"You can't build a relationship on lies." Bianca adds in.

"I'm not lying, he never asked." I respond with a shrug.

"Not to Aaron. You're lying to yourself."

I sigh in irritation, picking up my notebook. "Shouldn't we be studying?" Both girls chuckle as we continue studying for midterms.

The remainder of the time goes by smoothly, each of us focusing on our tasks at hand. As I'm reading over my fundamentals of management textbook, my phone beeps with an email notification.

I pick up my phone, looking it over to see what had come up. My eyes widen in excitement as I read it over.

"Guys I got it!"

They both look up at me in confusion.

"Got what?" Bianca asks.

I raise my phone, "The internship! I got it!"

"Congratulations!"

"Ooh, this calls for celebration. Burgers on me guys!" Kendra cheers.

-

We arrive back at the apartment after studying and grabbing food to eat at a drive-thru.

"Oops I forgot my water bottle, can I get your keys?" I ask Kendra as we enter our apartment. She tosses them to me as I tell her thanks. I make my way back to the parking lot and unlock her car, getting my water bottle from the backseat.

As I'm walking back I decide to stop by the mailroom to grab whatever had been dropped off today. When I enter through the gates of the room I stop in my tracks as I make eye contact with the one person I had been avoiding.

"Amina." Dominic says calmly. I turn around immediately to leave, and instantly I hear him following me. "Amina wait!" He grabs my arm, turning me to face him.

I push him off me angrily, "What the hell do you want?"

"I need to talk to you."

"Okay? I don't see what that has to do with me. I don't want to talk to you." I begin walking away but I hear him following behind. "Leave me alone!" I call from behind me.

"Just let me apologize!" He urges as he follows me through the complex. I continue to walk faster but he does the same.

I continued speed-walking away from him, but as I looked back I realized he was no longer behind me. I let out a sigh of relief before returning to my normal pace. Suddenly I was pulled into a corner and pressed against a wall. Before I could scream a hand went over my mouth.

"Don't scream." Dominic said as he stood in front of me. I was pressed against a wall lightly with Dominic standing in front of me. Our bodies almost touching but not quite. His eyes stared into mine as his hand covered my mouth. Even in the moonlight, his eyes were warm and bright. I snapped out of my temporary trance before kicking his shin.

"Ow!" He exclaims as he bends over in pain, rubbing his newly bruised leg.

"Are you psychotic?" I exclaim.

"You kicked me!"

"You dragged me into this dark corner!" I exclaim back.

"You were running away!"

"I didn't want to talk to you clearly! You can't just force me!"

He stands upright, "I'm not forcing you to do anything. Just hear me out." He winces, "Fûck! You kick hard. You wearing boots or something?"

I scoff, "I wish, then maybe I could do some real damage."

He sighs, "I deserve it."

I nod in agreement, "You're an asshole and I have nothing to say to you."

"Just hear me out for a minute and I promise I'll leave you alone."

Oh, how the tables have turned.

I sigh, leaning against the cold brick wall. "Fine, go ahead."

He looks up at me, standing in front of me before letting out a deep breath. "I didn't mean what I said."

I stand there unimpressed by his form of an apology. "Okay and?"

He sighs, "I'm sorry okay? I really am, I didn't mean to make you upset, it just came out."

I cross my arms in front of me, still unimpressed. "Wow. Who knew you had it in you to apologize?" I reply sarcastically.

"Do you forgive me?"

"Why should I?"

"Because I didn't mean it." He admits. "Aaron's a lucky guy and maybe I am jealous."

My eyes widen, "Oh."

"I said maybe. Don't go thinking too much."

I roll my eyes, "Don't worry I'm not."

"Good. So we're good?"

"I guess."

"Good."

There was silence for a moment as we both stood there awkwardly. It was strange to see Dominic act this way. To see him feel regretful of his actions and apologize was weird.

"Why did you put so much effort into trying to apologize? Why do you care if we're good? I thought you preferred if we didn't talk?" I ask suddenly.

"I can't change my mind?" He asks looking away from me, "Anyway are we just gonna stay in this corner? Let's head back upstairs."

Instead of pushing the subject, I chuckle, "Okay fine."

As we walked I couldn't help but feel curious about Dominic's feelings toward me. He admitted that he might be jealous of Aaron and me, but why? Did he like me? I shrug off the stupid question, of course not.

We made it up the stairs to my apartment where he walked me to the door. "I'm sorry again about what I said. I really didn't mean it. Our time was fun and I shouldn't have brought it up like that." He admits after a moment.

I was taken aback by his second apology. "Thank you. Our time was fun wasn't it?"

"Very." He says with a chuckle. He pushes some hair away from my face, draping it behind my ear. "Maybe one day we'll get to do it again. When you finally dump Aiden." His hand lightly positions itself under my chin, making me look up at him.

I narrow my eyes at him, "It's Aaron and you know that."

He chuckles, "I like Aiden better."

There was silence for a moment as he gazed at me, keeping me in position to look at him. And I did, those brown eyes once again melting me under the moonlight. His gaze traveled from my eyes to my lips, and then back to my eyes as he suddenly pulled away.

"Good night Amina." He said suddenly as he let go of me. Not even waiting for my response he enters his apartment.

"Good night Dominic." I mumbled to myself after he left. I let out a sigh before turning toward my apartment. I enter my apartment shutting the door behind me, still thinking about Dominic's words.

Maybe I am jealous.

I couldn't stop thinking about what he meant by that. Even though he told me not to think too much into it, how could I not?

The sound of throat clearing interrupts my thoughts. I look up at Kendra, who sits at the dining table facing me.

"Huh?"

She points at my hand, "My keys?"

I look down, remembering the whole reason I went outside in the first place.

"Oh yeah sorry, here you go." I say as I toss them to her.

She chuckles, "Dominics got your mind all twisted doesn't he?"

I raise a brow, "What makes you think it's Dominic?"

"Girl these walls are thin, how many times must we remind you? I heard you guys outside."

I sigh, taking a seat on the couch in the living room. "He's so confusing."

"What are you confused about? Aren't you with Aaron?"

"Yeah but-"

"But you'd drop Aaron for Dominic in a heartbeat."

"I never said that. Dominic isn't even an option we're just..acquaintances. Yeah, we're acquaintances now."

She nods, "Right, acquaintances." She chuckles before standing up, "I'm going to bed. Don't stay up too late thinking about it."

"There's nothing to think about!" I call back to her.

I think.

———

Team Dominic or Team Aaron??

- AuggiePooh_