Page 138 of Ominous: Part 1
“No.” Dom shakes his head, his eyes still on the ground, but he doesn’t kneel. “No, man. Fuck that. This is fucking…You were fucking with my girlfriend!”He snaps his head up, the fight back in his eyes, and I see his jaw clench as he searches his friend’s gaze for… something. “You were fucking with my girlfriend and—”
“I don’t think you should argue with me, Dom.” The way Eli says the words, so pleasantly, it’s like he’s taunting Dominic with some sort of strange threat I don’t understand.
Dom’s chest is heaving, rising and falling so fucking fast as he glares at his so-called friend.
And then, I don’t know if it’s because he’s drugged up, or because he’sfuckedup, dealing with Winslet’s disappearance and his parents and everything that comes with it, or because the threat worked, but shocking me, in what feels like slow motion, Dominic, hanging his head and without more arguing, as if he’s compelled by every word Eli speaks, sinks to one knee, pressed against the concrete, then the other.
And Eli still doesn’t release his wrists, forcing Dom’s arms up with the position he’s taken, kneeling.
Secondhand humiliation thrums through me, and I take one more step closer.
This time, Eli doesn’t say anything to me.
He just takes Dominic’s wrists in both hands, and presses Dom’s palms to his lower abs, Dominic’s fingers splayed, covering part of Eli’s tattoo.
Dom hangs his head, and I realize the heel of his hands are dangerously close to something of Eli’s I don’t want him to touch.
I swallow the lump in my throat and find my voice. “You wanna dick measuring contest now?” I ask, my words sharp as I stare at Eli, still smiling down at Dominic as blood drips from the latter’s nose, splattering on the cement. “I could get the ruler and count the inches.”
There’s a small laugh behind me, from one of the girls, Janelle, I think, and I’m grateful for it. This moment is sick, and I want to get Eli alone.
His mom is alive and he’s fucking deflecting with torturing Dom.
Eli turns his gaze to me, and I’m struck by the intensity in his eyes.
Frozen to the spot, all my snappy remarks get stuck in my throat.
“You’re not touching anyone’s dick but mine.” He speaks coldly, and more than what he said, I’m shocked aboutwherehe said it.
Here. In front of his friends and his cousin.
Dom’s shoulders shake and I blink, realizing in the midst of my fight with Eli, he’s crying. He’s still staring at the ground as he says, “I’m sorry, please just let me go.” It sounds like a plea, broken and hoarse, and I know he wants to get out of here as much as I want to get Eli alone. “Just let me fuckinggo.”
Eli keeps staring at me. He doesn’t say a word.
“Let me fucking go, man,” Dom sobs, lifting his head. I notice it out of the corner of my eye, see the way Dom presses his fingertips into Eli’s lower abs, but he doesn’t dare scratch him. “I’m fucking sorry, okay? Please let me go.”
Let him go, let him go, let him go.
You made me drag this out.I swear I canhearEli say those words inside his head, that cocky fucking smirk on his face, his full lips curved upward.You did this to him.
He stretches it out. Longer, and longer, and before I can figure out what to say to make him stop, he finally hauls Dom to his feet, only to shove him against the glass door again. Dom snaps his head up, his gaze wary as he stares at Eli.
Eli presses his temple to Dom’s. “You look pretty on your knees,” he says softly, and I hold my breath, waiting for him to say something about his sister.
Don’t, don’t, don’t.
But I realize, maybe, that was all in my own twisted head, because all Eli asks is, “And now you’re going to go home, right?”
Dominic looks defiant for one second. Two. But after a long, long moment, in which I want to scream at him to just agree, he nods.
Eli does, too, and he says, cheerfully, “Good talk.” Then, all at once, he releases Dom, who sags against the door. But Eli doesn’t wait for him to leave like I thought he would.
Instead, his eyes cut to mine as he spins around, and he closes the space between us in seconds, grabbing my wrist.
When I recoil, he narrows his eyes. “Get over yourself, baby girl.” He yanks me close to him and puts his arm around me, pulling me close to his side, and I’m amazed his skin is so fucking cold. I’m too stunned to even look and see if everyone is still in the pool, and no one says a word as Eli walks me toward his house, pulling open the door with an ease that confuses me, especially when he shoves me through it, slamming the door behind us and flipping the lock.
My stomach hurts.
