SWNOVELS Chapter 63 — Sweetheart
-Jake's POV-
"She won't listen to a word I say. She just doesn't trust him, Nick."
Currently, Blake, Nick and I were sitting in one of Nick's rooms while Blake was explaining how things were going with Dominic to Nick. So far, he's had no luck in trying to get her to agree to what we had planned. Originally, I thought she was just being stubborn, but the more Blake told us about the way she had been acting, the more I began to speculate.
I'm not the smartest in the group-in fact, I may be the dumbest after Zack-but I knew women. They were logical, forward-thinking and cautious. They'll get played but will learn after they're played. Guys, on the other hand, will just get played over and over and never learn. Therefore, Dominic must know something we don't. Plus, with everything she's said to Blake, there's been something off about it.
'It's you who shouldn't be trusting him', 'he's deceiving you', they weren't things someone with just a personal vendetta would say, not about someone like their brother. This couldn't be right. There had to be something more. That something I could only ask Dominic about.
"How about I give Dominic a go?" I asked, cutting the guys off in the middle of their conversation causing the two to face me.
"Do you think you could get her to agree?" Nick asked with an amused confusion on his face which made me grin.
"I can try, can't I?" I replied, putting my hands behind my head. I turned to my brother after that and my grin faltered seeing his unhappy face. I wanted to roll my eyes at it, but I kept myself from doing so. I knew my brother. He thinks I'm going to try something stupid like taking Dominic away from him. He gets jealous quickly, especially when I'm involved, and no matter how hard I try, I can't convince him that I don't see Dominic like that. I actually wanted nothing more than for them to be together. I mean COME ON THEY BELONG.
Besides, Dominic scares me.
Yet, at the same time, the sibling side of me also found making Blake angry quite funny so I didn't mind all too much.
"Jake, can I talk to you a minute?" Blake said in a low tone before exiting the room. I looked at Nick and shrugged to which he shook his head, telling me I was allowed to go to Dominic if Blake let me. I took that as all I needed and followed Blake out of the room we were in and into another one.
"What are you trying to do?" he asked, clearly pissed as he looked me straight in the eye. Now if I was a nice person, I would have said something along the lines of, 'oh nothing brother, I just want to get this situation over and done with to help Dominic,' but I'm not so nice so instead, I replied, "Definitely not trying to steal your girl away from you," with some sarcasm and a chuckle at the end but then what I hadn't expected was for him to shove me against the wall as harshly as he could with his arm against my neck. Damn, I sure made him mad.
"You dare do anything with Dominic I swear-!"
"You're going to let a girl come in between us?" I asked back which made him pause but he didn't release.
"Not just any girl, my girl,"
I snapped "Fuck that Blake, I can't believe you'd think that low of me," I replied to him, finally losing patience. I pushed him away and walked out.
"Knock Knock!"
"What do you want?"
"No, that's not how it goes, sweetheart, you're supposed to say, 'who's there?' I'll try again. Knock knock!"
The door was opened to reveal Dominic standing there with a slight smile on her face. "Come in." I grinned back at her and walked in with pleasure.
"You really aren't into jokes," I said as I flopped onto the sofa.
"Your life is a joke," I heard her reply as she walked into the kitchen making me gasp, faking offence, as I got up and followed her.
"That was rude!" I exclaimed jokingly, and she chuckled back "You wouldn't find it rude if it wasn't true." She got me. "Anyway, tea or coffee?" she asked which made me light up.
"I haven't had a good tea in ages so that'll be my pick please," I sat on a chair at her dining table as I waited for her. I liked this. Casual talk. Recently, everything had been so tense, so it was nice to pretend like everything was normal for once. "What makes you think my tea is good? Also, 'please'? I didn't know you had manners," I glared at her playfully as she put the tea leaves inside the pot. "Well, to be honest, I didn't expect you to be a tea person in general," She carried on, making her way to the table.
I shrugged, "it seems maybe living in England rubbed off on me. Plus, I don't like water all that much, tea flavours it! How could someone not like tea?"
"We have that opinion in common then."
After that, she poured in our tea and as we waited for it to cool slightly, I sighed and was about to talk to her about the whole situation, but she seemed to predict this and stopped me, "if you're going to start talking to me about agreeing to what Arthur said, forget it."
"Can I at least ask why?" I asked and this time it was her turn to sigh.
"I'm almost 100% sure that Arthur is still working for that gang and that shit worth of a gang must have some kind of aim, so I am not going to do what they want!" My eyes widened. I knew it. I knew there was something.
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"How can you be so sure?" I asked before getting ahead of myself. She looked down at her cup before replying, "He's not the brother I once knew,"
I picked up my glass of tea and thought a bit as I drank it. "Why didn't you tell my brother that?" I asked still confused but slowly making sense of it all while also realising that the tea was in fact good.
"Blake was there every time Arthur acted dodgy. He was there when Arthur lied to me, when he said I wasn't his sister, he was there! I expected him to believe me when I said that he couldn't be trusted but...he wouldn't listen to me. He's stuck to the idea of protecting me, so I gave up on trying to convince him. The only thing I care about now is protecting him and the rest of you."
That was enough for me. I came up to my conclusion and put a hand on her shoulder which made her look at me as I said, "Don't worry sweetheart, I believe you and I'm going to help you. You can trust me, I promise! So, tell me what you've got,"
I entered Nick's house whistling optimistically but my whistling came to an abrupt stop when I saw everyone there, looking at me. Arthur included.
"How'd it go?" Nick asked, breaking the awkward silence. I glanced at Blake to see him fiddling with a gun which caused me to hesitate but after a second I grinned and replied, "I mean, I think it was obvious how it was gonna go, I wasn't any better than Blake. We just drank tea and... talked" I said that last bit slowly, knowing it would trigger Blake, which it did (evident in the way his hand clenched around his gun), but he then looked at me and relaxed. He looked at me guiltily which made me smile back reassuringly.
The rest of the guys paid no attention to us except Arthur who stared at me as if he wanted to ask something but kept himself from doing so which was interesting, but I decided to wait.
"Jake," someone called. I stopped myself mid-kick and turned to the door where Arthur stood.
Remembering what Dominic and I had talked about, I grinned at him and acted casual, "What's up man?" I asked which made him noticeably relax, confirming my suspicion about him. He was probably also worried that I had found out about his intentions.
"I was wondering if Dominic was...okay when you went to see her,"
This was probably why I'd doubt anything Dominic had told me. When asking about Dominic and her health, Arthur always looked genuine, concerned, like any brother would be. If he was worried about her health then why would he be planning something horrible to us later...unless-!"
"She's not doing well," I lied, making Arthur's face fall into worry.
"W-what do you mean?"
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"I mean exactly as it sounds. She smokes a pack of 20 a day, overworks herself and drinks all night. She's making herself worse and slowly killing herself," Those were probably the biggest lies to ever be said. Dominic was doing nothing but getting better. She even quit smoking from what Blake told me and from what I had seen which is a huge step for her. Something we were all proud of her for.
At this point though, Arthur looked distraught. "Why?" he asked softly, at a near whisper. I'd feel bad for being a jerk if it wasn't for what I had found out today.
"I don't know Arthur, why don't you tell me?" I asked seriously but then lightened up a bit, so I didn't give myself away. "I'm kidding. What would you know about it anyway? You're trying to protect her and us. I guess girls will always be a mystery huh?" I said, patting his back but he didn't reply. That was enough for me.
After that, I left the room to see Blake standing by the door of the room opposite us. He looked at me but didn't seem to want to say anything, so I shrugged. Time to get drinking with Zack!" -Blake's POV-
"She smokes a pack of 20 a day, overworks herself and drinks all night. She's making herself worse and slowly killing herself"
That couldn't be right, could it? I was there as much as I possibly could. Of course, it was less now than what it used to but that couldn't mean she would start doing things like that behind my back. After what we talked about? After her agreeing to quit? Was I really not supporting her enough? Not there for her enough?
After Jake exited the room looking like his causal self, I had a feeling what he said wasn't accurate, he would have been more serious if he was but if that was true then why would he say something like that to Arthur? Either way, I decided to trust him. As long as it wasn't true, and Dominic was safe. That was all I cared about and so I needed Arthur's plan to succeed.
-Arthur's POV-
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I was killing her. I was the reason she was killing herself. I had broken her more than she was already broken. 'She's not my sister'? Was I insane? I want nothing more but for us to be the way we used to be. This was a lot worse than what that fucking gang was planning and I fucking hated it!
I wiped my damp eyes and told myself to focus. Everything could get a lot worse for her if I didn't do what they wanted me to.
Just then Jake's words ran through my head, "What would you know about it anyway? You're trying to protect her and us." Could he know something? No, it would be impossible.
"Hey man, you alright?" I looked back to see Blake at the door. He seemed to be the person who wanted my plan to go through the most.
"Yeah...I was just thinking, it's time to start the plan."