Two Doms

I stormed away from Lucy's office, not sure where I was going. Not to my— I gritted my teeth — to our dorm room, that was for sure. And not towards the Dean's office. I couldn't possibly handle seeing all those people celebrating my loss.

And not towards any of my classrooms, where I had to see Nick every day. And not towards the field where I had to watch Nick's training.

I took a path at random and stalked out behind the buildings at the north end of campus.

I... I swore at Lucy. I had said... I had said fuck. Multiple times! I didn't do things like that. I was nice. I wasn't the spoiled, entitled brat Nick kept saying I was. Harry knew that. Luisa knew that. I'm sure my parents would agree, too. I was respectful, and I kept to myself, and...

But now I got angry all the time. I hit people. I said fuck in public.

Like Nick.

I clenched my hands into fists and picked up the pace, skipping over cracks in the pavement as it wove between the trees.

This was not the type of person I wanted to be. I came to Great Oaks because I thought it would give me the freedom to be my true, authentic self. And my authentic self was not selfish, or rude, or bratty! My authentic self was...

Gay?

Or maybe a girl?

And... besides that, who was I?

Well, I wasn't sure. And there was no way for me to find out with Nick still in the picture!

I realised that the pavement had turned to dirt under my feet a couple of minutes ago. Without knowing it, I had reached the end of the path. I looked up to see where it had taken me.

I gasped. It was a tree.

It was a big tree. Gigantic, in fact. It towered over me, like a skyscraper, and its canopy spread out, blocking the sky for at least a hundred feet in any direction. 

I had reached the Greater Oak.

I had read about it while I was researching the school. There were many oak trees around the Great Oaks campus, but there were two in particular that had given it its name. The Lesser Oak, which was by all accounts still enormous, was somewhere on campus. But the Greater Oak was up here, at the top of a hill, looming over the college like some kind of guardian.

I approached the ancient, gnarled trunk. There were lights embedded in the ground around the base of the tree, flooding it with dim light. The sun couldn't penetrate its vast canopy. The ground around it was just mulch, from fallen leaves and bark. Under the shade of the Greater Oak, no other plants could grow.

I didn't have any other options.

I sat down against the trunk of the Greater Oak and did what I always did when things seemed completely hopeless.

I called my father.

He didn't answer, of course. I hadn't really expected that he would, at least not on the first call. He was a busy man. After the phone rang four times without a response, I hung up. I could have left a voicemail, but I knew how frustrating Father found it when he checked his voicemail and realised that it was just me, not one of his colleagues or clients.

I waited the requisite half an hour, watching the ebbing sunlight cast longer and longer shadows over the campus. Again, Father didn't answer. I sighed and called his business line.

"Good evening, Dominic," said the chipper voice of Father's PA, Nicole, "Your father isn't in the office at the moment. May I take a message?"

"Yes, thank you Nicole," I said, "It's... actually quite personal."

"Don't worry," she said brightly, "There's nobody else in the room right now."

"Right," I sighed, "Well, it's... I've had an issue with my accommodation at Great Oaks College. I was wondering if maybe Father would be alright with, possibly, helping me find a place to stay... off campus?"

"Oh!" said Nicole, "He actually mentioned something about this earlier!"

I gasped, "Really?"

"Yes!" said Nicole, "He had just returned from a guest lecture at his old college, and he was talking about how much he regretted not sending you there. In fact, he had me investigate the transfer process, just in case there were any issues at your current school. I could get that started right now! Or I could let your father know that—"

"No!" I blurted, "No, Nicole, that's... that's fine, okay? Just... just forget about it, actually. Don't tell Father I called."

"Hmm," said Nicole. My heart raced. As bad as things were here, I could not go home. I gripped my phone tight, and looked up at the all-encompassing branches of the Greater Oak. I just couldn't.

After what seemed like an eternity, Nicole chirped, "Okay!"

"Thank you, Nicole," I said, "That... that'll be all."

"Have a good evening, Dominic!" she said.

"I will," I answered, numbly.

I put down my phone.

That was it. That was my last possible lifeline, and it had failed me. I would be here, sharing a room with Nick, repressing every impulse, for the rest of the semester.

There was no solution. No higher power I could turn to. This was it.

Sometimes life just fucking sucks.

I buried my head in my hands and cried.