Misery Loves Company

By: theinkslingerr

Track 17: The Date Saga (Part III)

"Give me your phone," Dom said slyly.

"W-what?"

"My dare is for you to give me your phone, so I can read your search history."

In addition to nausea, I was starting to feel light-headed. "No way!"

"Fair is fair, Miz," he taunted in a sing-song voice. "I did your dare, now you do mine. Hopefully you haven't cleared your search history recently."

I looked at Ethan for help, and all he did was zoom in on my terrified expression. I turned to Dan; dear, sweet Dan, but he just gave me a thumbs up. In fact, the whole crew was watching with rapt interest. No one said a word about how what Dom was asking would be a total invasion of privacy.

With a feeling of dread, I pulled out my phone and handed it to Dom.

"You still haven't gotten your screen fixed?" he scolded, tracing the hairline fractures on the display. I swallowed thickly as he turned the phone back towards me. "Password?"

I reluctantly typed in the four-digit code.

My chest started doing that thing where it thought it was a pinball machine as sweat trickled down the back of my neck. Sometimes I googled random stuff out of boredom or curiosity. I mean, who didn't? The problem was those searches always led me down a rabbit hole deeper than the one Alice fell into.

"Let's see, let's see..." Dom chanted, scrolling down. "The Beechmill bus schedule to Philly...hey, no invite? Random store, random store, random store. Is Jackie Chan dead...I was actually wondering that too! He hasn't done anything lately. Do belly buttons have a purpose after birth? Yes, surprisingly. Phone number to Pizza Hut...I'm disappointed in you, Miz! Dominos is way better..."

I struggled desperately to keep my face neutral, but it was hard with the crew snickering in the background. Ethan had one camera trained on me while the other filmed Dom destroying my life sentence by sentence.

Then something occurred to me. Something I couldn't believe I'd forgotten!

At precisely 7:41PM on Friday night I decided to google: rocco alden. So naturally, that  led to googling: rocco alden shirtless.

I could tell the second Dom laid eyes on the incriminating search, because he looked up quickly, a strange glint in his eyes. "Interesting..."

"Don't say-!"

"Rocco Alden shirtless?" His mouth curved into a sardonic smile.

I prayed to get struck by a lightning bolt that would take Dom out too. What were people at school going to think when they saw this? I'd be branded a bully and a perv. What would Rocco think? I was really considering moving to Canada now- except it'd be pointless because Blue Vendetta had fans there too!

"I don't blame you. Roc's probably got the best abs out of all of us." Dom lifted his shirt and peeked under it. "Mine aren't too shabby though."

I was barely listening, still paralyzed and mortified. The only silver lining in this whole thing was maybe Enid would finally get off my back about him. People lied, search histories did not.

Dom suddenly burst out laughing, making me wish I'd been paying attention. "Why is my left boob bigger than my right?"

There weren't any people sitting at the tables directly next to us, but I could feel everyone in the restaurant looking at me, trying to figure out why Dom and the whole crew were in hysterics. I practically dove across the table and snatched my phone from Dom. "It's normal! No one's breasts are symmetrical!"

He laughed even harder, choking as he slapped his hand against the table repeatedly.

The skin on my face felt like it was peeling from all the embarrassment. I'd started this game, but now I didn't know if I could finish it. I grabbed my purse, getting ready to disappear, but Dom noticed this in the middle of his delirium, got up, and sat next to me so I couldn't escape. "OK, OK. No more laughing. What do you want me to do?"

I was still flustered. The shame had dried up my creativity, leaving me unable to think up any vengeful dares...until our waiter walked by. "Excuse me."

"Yes, Miss?"

I paused to glance at Dom before asking, "Do you have any eggs?"

And just like that we spent the next hour and a half making each other do stupid dares or answer silly questions. I made Dom juggle three eggs in the middle of the restaurant while everyone cheered and laughed. Someone started playing "Cotton Eye Joe" on their phone, and every body lost it. Dom's cheeks burned with shame, but the egg he dropped on his face soon cooled them off. After he'd cleaned up and sat back down, I threw him a satisfied grin. The stakes had been raised, now we were out to humiliate each other.

In a friendly way- if that made any sense.

Dom got me back by daring me to give three strangers of his choice hugs for ten seconds each. Ten seconds didn't seem like a long time, but when the sixty-eight year old pervert you were hugging kept squeezing you against him, it was.

I retaliated by making him remove Dan's socks with his teeth. He almost gagged, but everyone else was loving the exchange of embarrassment, laughing and egging us on as they ate their meals. Even the manager and kitchen staff came out to join the festivities for a few minutes.

It continued this way until Dom picked "Truth" for me, and asked, "Obvious answer aside, why'd your mom name you Misery?"

I froze, totally caught off guard. "Huh?"

"Why'd your mom name you Misery?" he repeated, pushing aside the mouthwash Dan went to buy him after the sock dare. For the first time all night Dom didn't seem to be teasing me or trying to irritate me. He just sat there waiting patiently, a look of genuine curiosity on his face.

I stared down at my hands, pulling a hangnail on my pinky. I'd been asked this question countless times and I still didn't know how to answer it. Yes, it was obvious that my mom (and dad) hadn't been thrilled about my arrival, but why had they kept me and saddled me with a name that told the world I was the cause of their distress?

"You never asked your Mom?" Dom probed gently.

"Not really," I answered, raising one shoulder.

But I had. Once when I was a little kid, and her response had been, "Don't think about it too hard. Words are just words."

Even at a young age, her apathetic non-answer had devastated me and I never asked again.

"You don't wanna know why?"

I couldn't look up. It was safer to hide my expression from the cameras. "Doesn't matter. We all know what it means."

I expected him to keep probing and asking more questions, because once people started down that line of inquiry they never stopped. How does that make you feel? What does the rest of your family think? Are you going to change it once you turn 18?

"Fair enough."

My head snapped up. "Aren't you...I mean- that's it?"

He simply smiled. "Your turn."

For the rest of the night the subject of my name never came back up, Dom didn't try to fight anyone else, and my phone was left alone. The time passed with humor and mischief, and once again I saw a side of him I'd never seen before.

~~~

"Alright guys, that was great," Ethan said with a clap. "Really funny stuff. Let's wrap up! There's a boathouse and a little pier nearby. Maybe we can go there and get some more footage of these lovebirds. A moonlight stroll would be the perfect way to end the date."

Everyone must've sensed my reluctance to extend the shoot, because Dan added, "We'll make it quick."

The whole crew watched my internal debate, pleading looks on their tired faces. "OK..." I said after a while. Once Dom had dropped that egg on his face, he'd been pretty tolerable and hadn't made any more lewd comments. That didn't mean I wasn't uncomfortable around him. I still was, but not as much as when the date began. I was surprised, but it had actually been fun in a weird way. If we could keep this up through "the moonlight stroll" then I'd be home with Dennis before 9.

"I can't swim, so you'd better not push me in," Dom joked, grinning at me.

"Don't give me a reason to." I stood up and smoothed down the front of the skort. I couldn't believe I'd let Enid talk me into wearing something this short.

He pretended to be wounded. "Man, when you open up, you're actually pretty mean."

"Thank you."

"It's Lickitung by the way"

I inched further from the table, growing weary. "Huh?"

"My favorite Pokemon is Lickitung," Dom said.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, laughing nervously. "Thought you were being...never mind. Lickitung? Why does that make so much sense?"

He grinned, one golden eye brow lifting. "Because you have a dirty mind. Let's go."

"Uh-huh. I need to use the bathroom first." I didn't want to be out there looking for a porta-potty in the dark.

I found the restaurant's bathroom in a short hallway toward the back. The first stall was already occupied, so I slipped into the second one. As I was washing my hands I looked up and caught myself smiling a little. I had been dreading this entire day, and while some parts of it were rocky, others were a goofy, pleasant surprise.

I smoothed down my hair, grateful it wasn't getting puffy and opened the door leading back into the hallway. I took one step and crashed into something hard.

Dom was standing there, green eyes bright as a variety of emotions swept across his face. I figured he'd wait for me, but not right in front of the door; which suddenly closed behind my back, trapping me against it and him.

"You know, I...didn't want to come today," he said quietly.

"Me either." Confusion made me blunt.

"But I'm glad I did."

And before my mind could truly comprehend those words, Dom's tongue was down my throat, one hand steadily making its way down the small of my back. Right before it reached the point of no return, his hand shifted and latched onto the door handle instead. Then he pushed, and we went stumbling back into the women's bathroom.

~~~

Author's note: Everybody was arguing over whether Rocco or Josh should get the first kiss. Now y'all don't have to worry. >: )

(Yes, I know I'm the worst, but please hit that orange star anyway)

Who else is worried about what Enid's gonna do when she finds out?

Song: Discipline by Nine Inch Nails (Fits Dom verrrrry well)