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And then the imagery was gone and he returned to the real world where his father sat counting his money, perfectly healthy before him. Dominic stared at the muzzle of the gun for a moment longer … and then he started cleaning it.

Eight

You Don’t Want To Meet Me In The Pit

Dominic, Age 18

“Do you want to be partners?” Bristol asked with a smile when the history teacher asked them to pair up.

Dominic was caught off guard, but he finally answered, “Yeah.”

Bristol scooted her desk closer to him, causing screeching noises when the rusty legs scraped across the dirty, tiled floor.

The once cute, little blonde girl had turned into a pretty teenager who all the boys in high school wanted to either kiss, date, or fuck. Ever since that day on the playground, they had stayed friends. She was actually one of the only friends he had besides Anthony. The boys at school kept their distance from him for obvious reasons, but the girls only kept theirs when he never paid them attention.

“Why are you acting all surprised that I asked to be your partner?”

“I don’t know.” He laughed at her lighthearted question. “I just thought you’d ask one of your friends.”

She playfully hit his arm. “You are one of my friends, silly.”

“You know what I mean; your popular friends.” He had wanted to use a different word to describe them but thought better of it.

“Well, you would be one of those, too, if you actually talked to people.”

What she said was mostly true. He was sure he could squirm his way to the top of the high school totem pole, like Matthias and Angel had done in middle school with their looks and charm. But Dominic didn’t want any of it.

“I’ll pass.” It wasn’t like he was unpopular, per say. Everyone just stayed the fuck away and gave the large senior a wide berth.

Bristol looked at him through her lashes. “You know, we could be more than friends …”

“We’ve talked about this, Bristol.” Dom’s gut sank, feeling bad for having to let her down for the hundredth time.

“I know.” She gave him a big, cheesy smile. “I just like making you feel bad.”

He had a smile of his own. I should have known. Bristol wouldn’t be Bristol if she didn’t tease him or give him a hard time. It was why he was able to keep her as a friend.

“Now, are we going to get started on whatever the hell this is?” she asked, looking at the project rules she didn’t understand when the teacher had gone over them. “Or, are we going to fail this one like the last one we did?”

“I shoulda told your ass no when you asked to be my partner, huh?”

“Well, Dom”—she gave him the side eye—“it wouldn’t have been the first time you turned me down ….”

The silence between them was only slightly awkward until they both busted out laughing and began the project, seriously this time.

On the outside, Dominic looked like his brain was focused on the project, but on the inside, his mind swirled with thoughts of what she had jokingly said. He knew they were jokes, but he also knew they were jokes with truth behind them. Funny jokes were all created the same, with a little trauma.

He should have stopped being friends with her in the sixth grade when she had asked him to be her boyfriend the first time. He’d known when they made it to freshmen year in high school and Bristol asked again, in hopes that he’d grown over the summer or changed his mind, he shouldn’t have continued talking to her. Dominic, however, couldn’t resist since she was his only friend in school. She helped make his life bearable, and every time she asked to go out, he hated himself a little more for not having the decency to let her go.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like Bristol. He did. But she deserved a hell of a lot better than a Luciano.

Dominic knew the path he walked led him to hell; whereas, Bristol’s path led to a white picket fence. He wouldn’t let his life of murder and guns ruin the future she should have. The future she deserved. So, no matter how much he liked her, he had promised himself they’d never be more than friends.

When the last bell rang for the day, Dominic and Bristol exited the classroom together, laughing their way into the hall.

“We’re going to fail that project, aren’t we?”

“Probably.” Dom shrugged. “But at least it’s the last one we could possibly fail since school’s almost out.”

Bristol looked down at her feet, clearly saddened by his words. He knew why. She could probably see it in his eyes that he planned to cut her out of his life the second they graduated high school.