SWNOVELS Chapter 24 — Why Me?
-Dominic's POV-
"You're coming to the party, right?" Nick asked, and I shook my head no.
The party was one I was invited to now that I was somewhat friends with Nick and the rest of them. It was as if the school was celebrating the end of our war, but I knew better than to waste my time in something so trivial. Nick turned to look at me with surprise. "Why not?"
"All they do is get drunk and dance while in a high. It's not my scene. Plus, it's so loud and annoying." I rant in a monotone voice, looking out of the window while I did. "Oh, come on, you fight at a bar where all they do is scream and shout!" Nick argued which made me roll my eyes.
"Being the Mysterious Demon and being me is different. I'm not the same person as her and she's another part of me." I answer, and he doesn't say anything until we got in front of my house. My house's location itself was just proof of what I just said. Although my life is filled with drama, loud noise, danger, and chaos, my home was in a quiet place, peaceful, and it brought me tranquillity.
"Well, if you change your mind, just give me a call aight?" He says as I get out and I nod through the window.
"That won't be necessary."
A few hours had past, and during that time, I had finished catching up with schoolwork and trained for about an hour and a half already. Sweat trickled down my forehead as I gripped on a bar in front of me like my life depended on it. My legs wouldn't stop shaking in both pain and fatigue. They felt as if they would give in at any moment, so I sat on my sofa to rest.
However, just as I sat down, someone rang my doorbell. I groaned before taking in a breath and letting out a scream. After that, I pushed myself up quickly, ignoring all my pain, acting normal, and walked towards the door. When I opened it, I was greeted by five faces. Five drunk faces.
"Dominic!" They shouted in unison before falling forward but before they could fall on top of me, I moved out of the way and watched them laugh while on the floor on top of each other. I couldn't help noticing the smell of alcohol radiating from them causing me to roll my eyes.
"What are you guys doing here?" I asked them while closing my door, but I didn't get a response straight away and instead they all walked towards my training room. Jason did walk up to me though, swaying as he did.
"We went to a bang out party! But then it got boring, so we came here to give you company!" He shouted in my ear which made me push him away before sighing and walking back towards my sofa.
After a few minutes of watching the guys play around with my workout equipment, Blake walked towards me and fell onto a seat beside me. I watched as he swung a bottle of brandy in his mouth before setting it down on the floor next to him and then he turned to look at me, putting an arm through the gap between the sofa and my back to help him get closer to me in the process. This made me tense up and got ready to stop him if needed.
"You just work out?" He asked, and I nodded to which he smirked. "That's hot, like me." I laughed a little and kept watching him as he put his head on my shoulder. "You're hot, I'm hot, why don't you date me?" he suddenly said which shocked me and kept me quiet but then I reminded myself that he was drunk and meant none of what he was saying. "Dominic?" he called out and I hummed questionably in response wondering what he could want to say. He looked up into my eyes and then said, "I love you, Dominic,"
My eyes widened, and the pace of my breath quickened. I could hear my heartbeat and it was deafening. No. I pushed Blake off of me with shaking hands. No. I stepped back and stared at his face which now looked awfully confused. I looked around at the windows in the room, at my front door.
I then hurriedly went into my room, picked up a bag, locked some of my other rooms, threw a bunch of blankets in the room the guys were in and headed out.
When I was by my bike I put on my disguise and started driving to the bar, calming my breath on the way. I had to stay calm. When I made it to the bar's back entrance, I parked my bike and headed into Xavier and I's room. I huffed slightly grabbing a Monster from our mini-fridge and gulping it down.
"Rough night?" Xavier's voice came in.
"Annoying drunks," I replied grudgingly, and he nodded before asking, "Want me to set you up for a fight?"
"That would be great," I answered, warming up as he left.
When he came back, he informed me that I would be up against a guy I'd be able to easily beat. I nodded and walked towards the arena entrance. "Be careful, technically you shouldn't be fighting with those legs," Xavier says, his voice somewhat lower than normal but I shrugged it off and waved a hand at him, letting him know I was going to be fine.
The other fighter was announced and soon enough we were stood facing each other. When we were told we could start he wasted no time coming up and running at me, so I grabbed his shoulder and flipped him over my own before holding him down and punching his face a few times and after that, I kneed his rib cage, allowing me to hear a satisfying crack. However, while groaning in pain he grabbed my leg and jabbed it with his elbow which made pain shoot up my body, causing me to hiss in pain but I didn't keep still. Instead, I turned us around and held him in a headlock position, strangling him until, finally after some struggle, he fell unconscious and I was declared the winner.
Now that I had let out some steam I walked back into the room with a smile but that faltered when I was faced with Xavier. "What's wrong?" I asked him. His facial expression was hard. Smile non-existent. It was dark and chilling. "Xavier?" I said when he wouldn't reply to which he looked away momentarily going 'tch' before looking back at me. His face showed anger, but his eyes looked conflicted, sad.
"Mysterious Demon, I'm banning you from street fighting."
My world shook as those words left his mouth. Spinning. "What are you saying?" I asked stepping forward to help me keep balance.
"Dominic, I'm saying that I'm not letting you street fight anymore." He stated it as if he wasn't crushing me with every word. Street fighting's all I know. It's my life. He knew that. He couldn't just- "WHY?!" I shouted but he didn't reply, he just looked at my broken face before turning to walk away. It pissed me off. "Tell me why Xavier!" I shouted again and this time he did a quick turn, hand curled, coming at me ready to punch but all of my senses were alert. I was able to block his punch, grabbing his arm hand and pushing it away from me before going in with my own punch, "Answer me God Damn It!" I yelled, desperate. Punching him over and over and he didn't fight me back. I kept punching him until I was exhausted, I didn't have the energy to carry on and so my punches slowed down. Xavier then gently held my fists with one hand while the other wiped off the blood on his face. "Satisfied?" He asked knowing well that I wasn't. He hadn't answered me, but I understood that he wasn't going to. He betrayed me. He's going to let me go like this, so I pulled away from him harshly. I looked towards my leather jacket with angry tears in my eyes. He was the one who bought me that jacket when I won my first match. He taught me everything there was to know, he brought me up, he made me stronger. That jacket was a symbol of our time together and so I turned and left it behind.
The night was cold, but I refused to go home because the guys were still there. I had nowhere else I could go. Nowhere else I wanted to go so I spent the night alone roaming outside. I didn't know what I was supposed to do. Everywhere felt like it was suffocating me. I didn't want to be here anymore. I didn't want to be in America anymore.
It was around 6:30 am when I went home. I heard voices and muffled sounds as I came in and saw the guys sitting around the dining table in the kitchen. I walked past them, completely ignoring their presence and gathering a few important things in my bag. "Dominic!" Someone called, and I looked to see Nickolas rushing towards me. "where were you?" he asked while putting a hand on my shoulder, but I shrugged his hand off of me and carried on. When I was done, I made my way towards my front door again.
Before I left, I looked back at the guys one last time to see them looking back at me with concern. My eyes drifted longer on Nick and Blake, but I told myself to hurry, so I said, "the keys are on the kitchen shelf; take it and leave when you're ready." Then I left.