Chapter 12 #2
“Beer it is, then,” he said. “Then we can celebrate if they all suck or drown our sorrows if they’re all good.”
That wasn’t what I’d had in mind, but I had to admit that it sounded appealing. “Good call.”
When the weekend came, it was clear my father agreed.
I was sitting on the loveseat in my parents’ living room, feet tucked under my bum, while my father answered the doorbell.
He came in with a case of beer in his hands and a wide grin on his face.
“The Hughes are here,” he said. He raised the cans slightly and said, “Dom remembered the beer I like.”
Dom walked in behind him, his sock feet sinking into the plush carpet. He had on a long-sleeved Henley and jeans, so unlike the clothing I was used to him wearing. “I couldn’t forget what you like, Tim.” He looked at me and jerked his head towards the kitchen. “I’m going to say hi to your mom.”
I could already hear our mothers laughing, while my dad was telling Dom’s father to come see the drink options in the fridge. “See if there’s any food ready when you come back,” I called as he disappeared into the kitchen. Surely, something had to be ready by now.
A few minutes later, he was back, with an assortment of crackers and a cheese tray. “The counter in there is absolutely covered,” he said, shaking his head. “How many people did your mom invite over?”
“Just your family,” I said. “Well, she invited Kendra and Alexis, too. But they have midterms next week, so they said they have to study.”
“She is going to have leftovers for days,” he said before heading back into the kitchen. A moment later, he was back again, this time with a dip. He placed it down carefully beside an artfully arranged pile of napkins and a small stack of plates.
Once he had everything settled, Dom flopped onto the loveseat beside me.
He had one arm over the back of the couch and the other on the armrest, while he rested a foot on his knee.
He looked at me and grinned, and I couldn’t help but smile back.
I was a bit surprised he hadn’t chosen a spot on the couch or one of the chairs my parents had set out, but I was happy to have him close. “You aren’t eating yet?”
“I don’t want to look like a pig when our parents come in,” he said. “They might judge me if I ate half the food before they got a chance to eat.”
“There is no way they’d be surprised,” I said.
I turned my body so my knees brushed against his leg.
“Do you remember how much you could eat five years ago? Your parents must have spent more on food than they did on skating.” Between a growth spurt and the amount of exercise he got during the season, he ate enough to feed a small family on his own.
My father walked into the living room and sat in his usual chair, while Dom’s father sat near him.
They both had beers in hand. “If you want something, make yourselves at home,” he said to Dom and me.
“You know where everything is. If you want some of your beer, I put the cans in the door of the fridge.”
My mother came in then and sent a stern look at my dad.
“You could at least get up and get it for him, Tim. He was nice enough to bring some.” She turned to look at Dom and me on the loveseat.
I suddenly felt like she was looking at how we had chosen to sit close to each other.
I told myself not to be stupid. It must be residual paranoia from Brandon.
“Please, dig in. Hazel, did you not tell Dominic to help himself?”
I bristled at the comment. “He wanted to wait for everyone,” I said defensively.
My mom looked skeptical, but Dom came to my defence. “She told me to help myself. I didn’t want to be rude.”
“Nonsense,” my mom said, as though it was the most ridiculous thing she’d heard. “We have plenty of food, and you are family. Help yourself.”
That seemed to convince him, because he slid off the loveseat and started filling up a plate as our mothers got settled on the couch.
Maybe he’d realized that my mother would be more offended by him not eating than she would be by him pigging out.
Sure enough, she smiled at Dom when he settled next to me again with an overflowing plate of food.
I got a more reasonable plate for myself, making sure it would not slip off and fall onto my lap. I had just gotten settled again and was crunching on veggies when my mother said, “Tim and I would like to thank you for standing up for Hazel last Friday, Dom.”
I didn’t know where to look. My eyes darted between the parents before settling on Dom.
His mouth was full, so he shook his head until he could swallow.
“It was nothing,” he said. His dark eyes darted over to me, and I bit my lip.
“It was directed as much at me as it was at her.” The bruise on his cheekbone was fading, turning yellow and mottling into his skin, but it still drew my gaze like a magnet.
I wanted to melt into the floor. I had only given my parents the most basic overview of what had set Brandon off.
My focus had been on him not trusting me and his jealousy of all the time I spent with Dom.
I had not mentioned the fact that Brandon was convinced Dom and I were going to hook up.
There was no way I was going to let the conversation move in that direction now.
The accusation had been embarrassing enough in front of our friends.
It would be exponentially worse in front of our parents.
“Mom,” I said, pleading for her to shut up with a glare.
“Hazel,” she said, her voice harsh. “I think it’s important that we tell Dominic how much we appreciate him standing up for you.”
“He wouldn’t tell us why he got punched,” his mother said, looking disapprovingly at her son. “We were convinced he had done something stupid.” Directing her question to her son, she added, “Why didn’t you tell us you were sticking up for Hazel?”
“It was a complicated situation,” Dom said.
He kept his eyes on the tower of crackers he was fiddling with, as though it was the most fascinating thing in the world.
“I didn’t want to talk about it. Frankly, I’d rather not get into it now, either.
” His tone made it clear that he would shut down any further questions.
The silence that followed made me uncomfortable.
I felt more like a child than I had in a long time, with the adults all turning to look at us with questioning eyes.
I felt more like I was an animal in an exhibit than I did when I performed.
My appetite was gone, but I pushed around some of the dip on my plate and forced myself to take a bite just to have something to do.
The view on the screen changed. The trio of announcers were replaced with the order the skaters would perform in. “Do you mind turning that up, Dad?” I asked. “I want to hear what they have to say.”
My father obliged. With the familiar voices filling the living room, I relaxed.
Nobody would dare interrupt when I was trying to get an idea of my competition, right?
The announcers had all competed at the elite level in the past. Hearing what they said to keep an eye out for over the next couple of hours would give me something more productive to focus on.
The first flight of skaters was unlikely to pose a problem for us.
With the free skate, the pairs who had done the best on the short program would be a part of the final group of skaters.
With the way they broke everyone up for these early events, the pairs that we expected to be our biggest competition for the upcoming season would be in that group.
The two highest ranking pairs were the two we knew we would need to monitor, one from Russia and one from the United States.
But it would be stupid to count out the others.
One pair I wanted to see was very young, fresh out of juniors and new to the senior circuit.
While they would need to increase their points to close the gap between them and the others, they could certainly be a threat in the near future.
When the announcement came that the skaters had to get off the ice after their warmup period, I sat up a little straighter.
Out of my peripheral vision, I saw Dom lean forward and place his plate on the edge of the coffee table.
I looked over quickly, watching as he rested his elbows on his knees and his chin on his intertwined hands.
The announcement of the first pair brought my attention back to the TV.
I twisted so that I was resting against the back of the couch, getting comfortable.
As soon as the program started, I zoned out everyone talking to focus on what was happening.
I could hear that people were talking, but the words weren’t registering.
All my focus was on the technical parts of the skates I was watching.
The only thing that broke my concentration was a nudge from Dom.
I had been so focused that I hadn’t even noticed him move from his earlier position.
With one of his arms over the back of the loveseat again, he leaned over to whisper in my ear. “I don’t know why Olga was so worried we wouldn’t get that lift. Ours is way better.”
I elbowed him back, harder than was strictly necessary. “That’s not nice.”
“Maybe, but you haven’t smiled since this started, and I wanted to make you happy,” he whispered, his breath tickling my ear.
I suddenly felt very warm. “I wasn’t smiling because I was trying to examine everything. Something you should be doing too, you know.”
“You are very concerned for somebody who is going to have mastered the quadruple twist before competing against most of these people.”