Hey guys! I just want to say thank you to everyone who reviewed and added this story to their story alerts and favorites! Please review too though! I'm sorry I took such a long time to update but I've had so much work to do and tests to study for so I'm really, really sorry. So without further ado here is Chapter 2!

Chapter 2- Shock

Jill wasn't at gym again today. It's been three days since Dimitri and Sonya moved in with Adrian and he's been drinking everyday and Jill was kicked out of her classes for the past three days. Today, I would be going to have a nice little chat with Adrian and make him stop drinking whether he liked it or not when we went to Clarence's for Jill's feeding.

After class, I began walking to the room Jill shared with Angeline so that I could check up on her. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, too preoccupied in my thoughts. I felt really bad for Jill. Even though she was a Moroi, I still cared for her. She reminded me of Zoe, of a little girl who should be looked over no matter what, of something breakable. Adrian didn't give her what she deserved ad didn't care what happened to her and that infuriated me.

Ugh! Why did my thoughts always come back to Adrian? He had been in my mind since the last time I saw him. He was so infuriating! One second, he told me I was beautiful and the next I was just an annoying goody two-shoes. The day after we had our fight I went out and bought two pints of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and kept them in the freezer in my room. This is what I do when I'm upset and confused: eat chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Pigging out isn't my thing but Adrian had upset me so much for reasons I didn't understand. Ok, so maybe he did care about Jill and he was upset but that didn't give him an excuse to put Jill though what he was doing right now. Still in my own little bubble, I bumped into someone. "Oh! I'm so sorry. I didn't see where I was going!" I said hurriedly. The person chuckled and I lifted my head to look at Trey.

"No problem. It's okay. Penny for your thoughts?" he said charmingly.

"Sorry. It's just that there's been a lot going on lately."

"Do you want to talk about it?" I obviously couldn't say anything about the spirit bond so talking to Trey would have done me no good at all.

So instead I just said, "Nothing it's just that Jill's been feeling very sick and I'm really worried about her. That's all."

Trey didn't look so convinced. "Are you sure there's nothing else bothering you?" he asked, eyeing me curiously.

"Is it normal for a guy to tell you you're beautiful one minute then tell you that you're a good for nothing goody two-shoes the next?" I blurted out, completely surprising myself and Trey. I didn't mean to say that. I always kept my thoughts to myself! What was I doing? And I guess I shouldn't have said that. He didn't say I was good for nothing. I was just about to tell Trey to ignore my question when he covered up his surprise and answered.

"Woah Sydney. What guy got you this mad? Do you want me to hurt him?" I quickly searched my mind for something to cover up with.

"Oh, it's nothing. It's not something that happened to me. I was just talking to my cousin back in South Dakota and she and her boyfriend were just in a fight. I'm very protective of her," I said lamely.

"Well then, your friend is a very lucky person to have you as a friend." I began walking and he started walking with me too which was surprising because I'm pretty sure that he was walking in the opposite direction.

"Thank you." My mind began to wander off again as an awkward silence settled between us.

"So, Sage…" Trey began, his voice hesitant which surprised me. "Do you-um- do you maybe… want to go out sometime?"

This really shocked me. Not what I was expecting. Trey was a really great guy and everything but I wasn't here in California to date. I was here to protect a Moroi princess. I was here to help with research. I was here to protect my little sister. Besides, Trey didn't really make me feel special. Not like Adrian did when he called me beautiful. Oh God. Adrian is supposed to be out of your head Sydney. He is nonexistent. Back to Trey, Sydney. Focus! The poor guy was looking at me with a very scared look on his face, expecting an answer. I didn't know what to say. I had never really been on a date before. Ever. I had never had a boyfriend. And Trey was a really nice guy. Maybe I should give him a shot.

"Sure," I said, smiling. "I'd love that." He let out a sigh, relieved.

"Great. I'll pick you up tomorrow at six?"

"That's perfect," I said. Just then, Slate and his friends passed by.

"I still cannot believe Nevermore closed down," I heard Slate grumble to his friends as they walked past us.

"And I still cannot fathom how you managed to shut them down Sage," Trey said. I still do not understand how he came up with that idea or how but Adrian had helped me out a little. There goes Adrian. Again! Everything just seemed to remind me of him.

"I didn't shut them down!"

"Uh-huh. Says the girl who doesn't want anyone to get the same golden tattoo as her so she can stay Little Miss Smarty Pants," Trey teased.

"Hey! I'm not the only one with a tattoo you know," I shot back referring to the sun tattoo on his back. Then, Trey tensed up just like he did the last time his tattoo was in one of our conversations. He automatically tried to leave to avoid talking about it. Anyways, we had just reached the girls dorms and I was about to go up and check on Jill.

"Yeah, so I guess this is your stop. See you tomorrow," Trey said, leaving. Happily, I noticed. I went up to Jill's room eagerly, wanting to fill her in on what had happened. When I got to her room, I knocked on the door. Angeline opened it. She always did that just in case a Strigoi had decided to come knocking on this specific door in Palm Springs.

"Hello," she said, her expression bored. This girl was always bored and I'm serious. It was ridiculous and sometimes quite annoying to be around.

"Hey," I said, matching her bored tone. "Can I come in?" she moved aside so that I could go in. Jill was sitting on her bed and I was relieved to see that she looked great. No signs of a hangover at all. Weird. Maybe Adrian had finally come to his senses. "Hey Jill!" I said, much more excitedly.

"Hey Sydney!" she said, smiling brightly.

"How are you feeling?"

"Much better than yesterday, that's for sure. I think Adrian started feeling just a bit bad."

"I'm glad. I'll try to talk to him again today but controlling him is not guaranteed."

"Oh trust me. I know," Jill said, rolling her eyes. "So, how was your day?"

"Well, I do have something to say," I began. Jill perked up and even Angeline looked at us curiously from her guardian stance in the corner of the room. "Trey asked me out!" I blurted.

"On a date?" Jill asked, her face filling with glee and shock.

"Yes!"

"OMG! Please tell me you said yes! Please, please, please tell me you said yes!"

"I did!"

"OMG! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Jill squealed. Wow, she was even more excited than I was. "When is your date?"

"Tomorrow night," I said. Her face fell. "What's wrong?"

"That is not enough time to pick out an absolutely gorgeous outfit for you! Don't worry though! I'll still make you look absolutely that Trey won't be able to take his eyes off of you for the whole night." Then she began her cute rambling of what I was going to wear. How amazing I would look. How perfect the date would be. I honestly still didn't know if I had made the right choice. It seemed like the absolute right choice. But for some reason, my mind still kept drifting off to Adrian and his comment on how I was beautiful. I really needed to have a talk with him. Suddenly, I remembered how we were supposed to meet Eddie in two minutes to head to Jill's feeding.

"Jill, I'm sorry. But we have to meet Eddie now," I said interrupting her rambling.

"Okay," she said. Sure enough, Eddie was already waiting for us. "Eddie! Guess what? Sydney and Trey are going out on a date tomorrow!"

Eddie's guardian mask slipped and his face showed surprise. Come on people! I know I lacked social skills but not that much. "Seriously?" he asked, a smirk on his face. Jill nodded her head up and down like a bobble head. "Congratulations!" We all piled into Latte and headed off to Clarence's. I dropped them off and headed off to Adrian's house to pick up Adrian, Sydney, and Dimitri.

The thought of seeing Adrian made my heart spiral uncontrollably for unknown reasons. Would he be angry and mad? Was he trying to kill Dimitri or was he being a noble gentleman? I was actually really nervous. I really wanted to patch things up between us but didn't want him to get off easy. I pulled up in front of the house and climbed out of the car, took a deep breath, and rang the bell. Dimitri opened up.

"Hey Sydney," he said.

"Hey. Are you guys ready?" I asked.

"Sonya's still getting dressed and Adrian is in the kitchen."

"Can I speak to him?"

"Sure," he said, letting me in. I walked into the kitchen and saw him sitting at the table, facing me.

"Hey Sage," he greeted me, his voice nervous. Great, maybe he was feeling a little ashamed.

"Hello," I replied, my voice cool. I stood there, waiting for an apology. And it did come.

"Look, I'm really really sorry about the way I acted a couple of days ago. I know I hurt Jill and I feel awful but I couldn't take it anymore. Not after seeing Belikov and knowing that I would actually have to work with him. You don't understand how it feels to let something go and then watching it come back to haunt you. I just thought that maybe now things were going to get better. I would be able to forget about what Rose did to me. Then he shows up as a constant reminder that I will never be enough for her or for anybody." He looked so sad. So embarrassed. So lost. So afraid. Genuinely sorry and I just had to tell him my story.

"You think I don't know how it feels? Every time I work with Keith I know how you feel. He raped my sweet older sister. He was my dad's golden boy. Dad loved him so much. More than me or any of my sisters. We didn't tell him and I don't think he would have even believed us. Keith was his little perfect boy. So we didn't tell him but when I met Abe, I made a bargain with the devil. He staged a Strigoi attack and took out Keith's eye. I know it sounds sick but I am happy it happened to him. He truly deserved it." Adrian looked so shocked and we just staring at each other for a long time until he finally broke the silence.

"Wow Sydney. So we've both done a ton of horrible things in our lives, huh?" He just said my first name and I had no idea why the way he said it made my heart splutter.

"Yeah," I said. "But we have a chance to make up for it. We can't always run away from our problems Adrian. I faced Keith and now it's time for you to face Dimitri."

"And the sad thing is you're right. I can't keep running from what's going to happen. I have to accept what has and will happen. I'm still very sorry though."

"It's okay but you have to start getting yourself back on trach and that means: no alcohol, no smoking, and no girls. Got it?" I said sternly.

"Fine," he said reluctantly. "At least I'm still my good looking old self." That actually made me smile. It showed me the real Adrian. The one who was on his way to recovery before Dimitri showed up.

"So how's life been here?" I asked him curiously.

"Well, Belikov isn't so bad. It would've been easier to hate him if he wasn't so nice. How are things going on your end?"

"I am going on a date with Trey tomorrow," I said. For some reason Adrian's smile slowly faded and he tensed up.

"Well-uh- that's great. I'm happy for you," he said, not sounding very happy at all.

"Hey guys. I'm ready," Sonya said appearing in the doorway wearing a green tank top and skinny jeans with her red hair in a ponytail.

"All right. Let's go," I said. We all got into my car with Adrian next to me in the passenger seat.

As soon as we got to Clarence's, I knew something was wrong when I saw the wide open door. Dimitri had also sensed it and instructed us to stay behind him. When we walked into the house, the sight that greeted us was truly surprising. There was Clarence and Dorothy tied back to back with tape over their mouths. Jill, Angeline, and Eddie were in a similar predicament except they three tied much more tightly to each other. And there, standing in the corner with a malicious smile on his face, stood Trey.

"Well, well, well. Look who decided to join the party."

So? How was it? I hope you guys liked it! I want opinions about what I should call these new people Trey belongs to. I was thinking Litars, Tritites, or Shirirs. Tell me what you think and give me suggestions. Please, please, pretty pretty please with Adrian on top review! Constructive critisicm is appreciated!