Page 84 of Counterpoint
Dominic let the throw slip away from his head as he drank the tea. When he finished the mug, he set it down in front of himself, and lifted those beautiful eyes to stare at Adrian. “I met Ray Van Zeller in high school. He’s got this brain that’s full of words and music and—” Dominic shook his head. “He’s wicked smart, but struggled a lot ’cause people saw a skinny kid wearing hand-me-downs who had a hard time with shit, so no one took the time to get to know him.”
“You did, I bet.”
Dom shrugged. “Not at first. We had a homeroom teacher who decided that rather than seating us alphabetically, to alternate. Bottom of the alphabet, then the top. So Ray ended up in front of me. Turned around and said hi. First kideverto do that with nerdy me.” He paused. “And I was a complete nerd, every stereotype, and I got picked on a lot. I don’t even know why, but I could never dress cool. Even if I came in with the hottest T-shirt and perfect jeans, I’d get pushed around forthat.”
Kids were awful. Hell, adults were awful, but kids...they could be so damn cruel.
“But Ray? He’s outgoing. Always was. Still is. You should see him onstage. He just...lives and breathes the music and the crowd and—” Dominic got this faraway look, one of deep passion and love. “He didn’t care what people thought. Just was himself.”
This was the piece of what Adrian had been missing. The spark in Dominic he’d seen but never quite understood. “You love him.”
Dominic started, then laughed. It was a pure sound, and one that melted Adrian’s heart a little, because it sounded like joy. “He’s my best friend. Like a brother. So yeah, I do. But not like I—” Dominic’s smile dropped away, and he looked down at the mug sitting before him.
Adrian waited and held his breath.
Slowly, Dominic looked up and locked gazes with him. “I don’t love him like I love you, Adrian.”
Adrian let go of his sock. “Babe.” There were tears in Dominic’s eyes. In his own, too.
A sad chuckle. “Not how I was supposed to tell you who I was and what I wanted.”
They’d get through this. “It’s okay.”
“Yeah. Yeah, maybe it is.” He blew out a breath. “Anyway, Ray and me? Became friends. Then he found out I could play guitar, ’cause my parents read this thing that said music was good for math and they thought I should be a scientist—” He broke off. “Fuck, I’m rambling.”
Adrian resisted the urge to utter the wordsit’s okayagain, but it was. Fuck, it was just fine. Rambling, talkative Dominic. Who loved him.
“Anyway, he started trying to get me to play the songs in his head. And he’d write and write and write words and music in this odd shorthand he had.” Dominic shook his head and laughed. “God, we were soyoungback then!”
“When did you first play music together?” Adrian absently gripped the toe of his other sock.
“Summer between freshman and sophomore years. We were fifteen and thought we were the hottest shit ever.” Dominic gave a rueful laugh.
Adrian eyed the magazine. “Well, you weren’t too far off the mark.”
Dominic’s gaze followed his, and he gestured at the coffee table. “Can I see it? I haven’t read it.”
Adrian grabbed the copy and handed it over. “I only flipped through the photos.”
Another chuckle. “You and about a million other people.” He thumbed through the copy. “Sometimes it’s really surreal to see this. Like—I remember the photo shoot and the interview, but it’s...far away. I mean, this one must have been months ago. We just did one, recently, too. They all kind of blend together.” He touched a photograph of himself. “It feels like I’m someone else on these pages. Like it’s a dream.” His eyes were glassy when he looked at Adrian. “Or this, me now, is a dream. I never know which.”
Oh.Understanding ripped through Adrian. Dominic washiding. He was hiding both halves of himself from each other. Here was the heart of Dominic’s terror and fear, that if one was the truth, the other was a lie.
He put his hand over Dominic’s. “Maybe both are real.”
He’d seen Dominic the musician. He’d seen the strength, the knots, and the twines that held him up, like the tattoo on his shoulder that Adrian loved so much. He fuckingknewevery part of Dominic was real.
“No. They can’t be.” Dominic’s chuckle broke Adrian’s heart. “Domino exists because when Ray asked me to get up onstage with him our sophomore year for the talent show, I spent the rest of the evening after puking and shaking and the rest of that week trying to will myself invisible. Everyone thought Ray was great and marveled at how a fuckingdorklike me could play the guitar. Didn’t believe it.”
Because kidswerecruel. But Dominic was both shy and fearless. Both timid and strong. Adrian suspected all of it had been hard-won. His skills. His education. So much he didn’t know about this man he could very well love forever. “So you made a persona.”
Dominic nodded. “I could besomeone elseand get onstage. Someone not a dork or a nerd. A person no one would suspect was me because Dominic Bradley isn’t a rock star.” He paused. “Domino always knew he was one. From the moment he set foot onstage.” His eyes fluttered shut and his breathing slowed. A memory, probably. Reliving the experience. “I’m Domino when I’m there.”
Adrian squeezed Dominic’s hand. No, he hadn’t known Dominic that long. A month and a couple weeks, really. Enough to start passionately loving the man, to see the possibilities that lay down the line if things continued. He didn’t know that much about Dominic’s past or Twisted Wishes or any of it, but he was damn sure that Dominic and Domino weren’t two different people, persona be damned. Because even in the photos, there were glimpses of the man he knew, and now he had a name for the steel and fire he saw in Dominic. The strength that lay at the base of him.
Adrian rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“You’re not saying something,” Dominic muttered. “What aren’t you saying?”
