Duke University, 2001.

"Alaric!"

Alaric looked up from the book he had been furiously studying to find Katelyn, the most beautiful - in his opinion, anyway - girl in his year at college. Katelyn had long, thick, dark hair that fell to her waist in loose curls, bright green eyes and a slender body. Alaric had been all but infatuated with her since their first meeting; Alaric and Katelyn had met at the beginning of term when Katelyn had been staggering back to her dorm one night, intoxicated. She'd twisted her heel and fallen over. Alaric, who had been walking past at the time and had hastened to help her and despite her drunken state, she had remembered Alaric the next day when she'd seen him in the library. She'd given him a friendly smile and Alaric had felt himself falling hard.

It was an unusual friendship to say the least. Alaric wasn't popular like Katelyn, but he wasn't unpopular either. He had friends and people tended to like him, but he wasn't in the same league as Katelyn. Katelyn was outgoing, impulsive, an avid party-goer and enjoyed taking risks. Alaric, on the other hand, was quiet, sensible and made an effort to study and keep on top of his work.

Katelyn was well aware of Alaric's feelings for her. Their friendship had, somewhere along the line, developed into something more. They didn't consider themselves a couple, or atleast Katelyn didn't, but they weren't just friends either. Whether Katelyn returned Alaric's feelings or not, he didn't know. Katelyn would dismiss any attempt to discuss their relationship or any conversation that strayed too close to how she felt about him. Alaric's friends had once suggested that she was using him because he was clever, but this didn't make sense because so was she, and not once had she asked him to help her with her work.

Because Alaric was so in love with Katelyn, he didn't mind her impulsive, childish nature. In fact, he liked it. On the other hand, her impulsive nature meant that Katelyn would go out and get drunk, or go out and take drugs on frequent occasions. He hated watching her come in after a night out, hungover. It felt like he was watching her ruin her life, powerless to stop her.

Right now, she seemed to be sober. She was dressed in leggins and a long top and her hair was pulled back into a messy pony tail. Alaric couldn't help the smile that came to his lips at the sight of her. Katelyn sat down next to him and used her right hand to caress his jaw and pull his face round so that he was facing her. She very lightly brushed her lips against his in a teasing manner. He knew that move, she wanted something and she was trying to soften him up before she asked.

"Whatcha doing?" She asked cheerily, glancing at the books that Alaric had set out across the table.

"Studying." He replied quietly, giving her a small smile.

"Boring." It was ok for her, Alaric thought, being clever seemed to come effortlessly to her. "Hey," She started, as though she had just remembered something. Alaric suppressed a smirk, here it was. "There's a party tonight. You wanna go?" She asked him, using her most persuasive tone of voice. She pressed her lips to his again, grinning. Alaric groaned and pulled back. "I can't. I have tons of work to do."

"Please?" Katelyn pleaded, widening her eyes innocently and adopting the 'puppy-dog look'.

Alaric sighed in frustration. "I can't, Kate."

Katelyn pulled away and rested her head against her hand. "You never come out, Rick!" Katelyn whined, reaching out to take Alaric's hand. She threaded her fingers between his in an attempt to persuade him to come out.

"That's because my idea of fun is not the same as yours." Alaric replied, pulling their intertwined hands up to his mouth so that he could kiss Katelyn's hand.

"But I'll be there so we can have fun together!"

"I'm sorry Kate, I can't."

Katelyn pulled her hand from Alaric's in annoyance. Alaric braced himself, he hoped she wasn't going to throw a tantrum. "Fine." She muttered, turning away from him.

"I don't get why you're so bothered, Kate. It's not like I'm your boyfriend." Alaric snapped, annoyed at Katelyn's reaction.

"You're right." She replied shortly, getting to her feet. "Have fun studying."

Alaric watched as Katelyn stormed off. He sighed to himself but refused to let himself get worked up over it. They had arguments like this all the time. Katelyn's erratic temperament demanded it. She'd be fine in a day or two.

Despite this fact, Alaric couldn't help checking his phone every now and then, hoping that he'd get a call from Katelyn, or at least a text, but nothing.

For the tenth time in the past half hour, Alaric checked his phone again, sighing at the blank screen.

"You expecting a call?"

Alaric glanced up to see a dark haired girl sitting down opposite. It was Isobel, Katelyn's roommate.

"Katelyn." Alaric replied in explanation.

"Ahhh. Yeah she seemed pretty pissed earlier. Did you guys have an argument?"

Alaric shrugged. "Kind of."

"Don't worry about it. She'll drink until she passes out tonight, come home sometime in the afternoon with a hangover and forgive you." Isobel said kindly with a smile.

Isobel was beautiful, Alaric thought to himself, but people seemed to overlook her because she wasn't as outgoing as Katelyn.

Alaric and Isobel stayed in the library talking for hours. Alaric forgot all about his work that needed to be done and, more importantly, Katelyn. It was the early hours of the morning when they realised how long they'd been talking.

"Wow, I should really be heading back." Isobel said, hitching her bag onto her shoulder and standing up.

"You want me to walk you back?" Alaric offered.

Isobel hesitated. "Sure." She said with a smile.

Alaric gathered his books together and forced them into his bag before standing up. They walked through the cold streets towards Isobel's building talking about what they were studying. Isobel, as it turned out, was studying parapsychology.

"Yeah, all that stuff about vampires fascinates me." She said lightly to which Alaric laughed. Vampires, it was amazing what some people would believe in.

They arrived outside Isobel and Katelyn's room - Alaric knew only too well where it was having been in there plenty of times - and Alaric found himself not wanting to part with Isobel. Isobel was so different from Katelyn and he liked it. They stared at each other for a long moment and Alaric found himself inching towards her. Isobel didn't seem to mind. Once they got close enough, Isobel leant forwards and pressed her lips to Alaric's before pulling back and watching him nervously.

"Would you like to come inside?" She asked, still surveying him with a worried expression.

"I'd love to." Alaric replied with a grin.

A smile broke through Isobel's worried exterior and she turned to open the door and let them both in. He glanced over at Katelyn's side of the room which was surprisingly neat given her personality, except for the bed which was strewn with clothes and makeup. Alaric felt a pang of guilt for what he was doing before deciding to ignore it. It wasn't like Katelyn was his girlfriend, right? It wasn't like she particularly cared about him, either. His friends were right, he thought bitterly, Katelyn had been using him.

Alaric awoke in the morning alone in Isobel's bed. He sat up and ran a hand through his hair, waiting for all the amazing memories from the night before to come rushing back.

"Good morning." Came Isobel's voice. She was coming out of their ensuite wearing only silk robe.

"Hey," he replied, giving her a tired smile.

"I was gonna take a shower, but you can go first if you like?"

"No, it's fine." Alaric said, getting up from under the covers. "You can go first."

"Ok," Isobel replied, giving him a light kiss on the lips before hurrying back into the ensuite.

Alaric wandered over to Katelyn's bed, the guilt that he had felt last night coming back to him. She was erratic, impulsive and crazy, but he loved her for it. He had hoped, long ago, that she'd felt the same. Maybe she did like him, but she'd never love him the way he loved her, he thought to himself sadly. He thought back to his night with Isobel, he could see himself with Isobel in a relationship that was more than what he had with Katelyn. Obviously they'd have to talk to Katelyn about it first - that was a conversation he wasn't looking forward to having. He made his way back over to Isobel's bed and sat down. He glanced at the clock, it was 10:30am. He wasn't worried about Katelyn coming back, she often didn't return home until the afternoon.

Famous last words. Mere moments after the thought had presented itself in Alaric's mind, Katelyn came falling through the door still half drunk. Her hair was tousled and her make-up smudged. She was still wearing last nights clothes and looked absolutely exhausted.

"Alaric?" She said, her eyes falling on his half-naked body in confusion as she closed the door behind her. "What are you doing here?"

Alaric stared at her, his mind working furiously to try and pluck an excuse out of the air. For what other reason could he have been half-naked in her room, his clothes strewn all over the floor.

As if she had been able to read his mind, Katelyn's gaze fell on the clothes on the floor. She looked back up at Alaric in suspicion, he could see her putting it all together, when Isobel came out of the ensuite wrapped in a towel. She stopped short when she saw Katelyn stood there.

"Katelyn!" She exclaimed in shock, glancing nervously towards me. "We were, uh, just…"

Isobel looked at me helplessly. Alaric saw the answer click in Katelyn's eyes.

"Kate," he began, not sure what he was going to say.

"Yeah, I got it." Katelyn snapped. Without waiting to hear anymore, Katelyn turned on her heel and slammed out of the room.

Alaric pulled on his clothes from the floor and raced out of the room after Katelyn, leaving Isobel alone in their room.

He searched the campus from top to bottom, going back and forth in search of Katelyn to no avail. He even went back to their room to see if she had gone back. Isobel informed him that she had not seen Katelyn either.

Sighing, he headed over to library in the hope of losing himself in his work. Despite the fact he had spent the night with Isobel and, to put it lightly, immensely enjoyed himself, he still loved Katelyn. Though she might not realise it, Katelyn was everything to him.

Surprisingly, he eventually found Katelyn in the library. She'd obviously decided to shower elsewhere instead of using the ensuite that her and Isobel shared for her hair had been washed and pulled up into a ponytail and all her makeup had been washed away. She was wearing a grey hoody and leggings and was curled up in the far corner of the library, seemingly engrossed in a book. She looked more childlike and vulnerable than Alaric had ever seen her. She didn't look up from the book as Alaric approached, or when he sat down next to her, or when he tried to speak to her. She completely ignored him.

"Katelyn, please talk to me." He begged her, his eyes fixated on her stone cold expression. She ignored him.

"Kate?" Nothing.

He took her hand and attempted to thread his fingers between hers. She snatched her hand away with a glare, but still, she didn't speak.

"I'm so sorry. Really, I am." He paused, he'd never known her to be so cold. "Kate, I love you."

Without a word, or even a glance in Alaric's direction, Katelyn put down the book she'd been reading, stood up and walked away leaving Alaric on his own.