I was hypnotized by those eyes. It was as if I could dive into them. They were such a deep, bottomless brown. They -
"Introduce yourselves, please." My thoughts were interrupted as the Russian guy spoke. Man, that accent was to die for.
"Um..." I said, a little confused. I was so mesmerized by those eyes that I couldn't even say my own name.
"Welcome, Um." he said with a sly grin. "And you're name?" he asked, indicating to Lissa.
"Wait, no!" I said. "My name's not Um. It's Rose." I narrowed my eyes at him, daring him to make another comment on my speech. Instead he just nodded.
"And... my name's Vasilisa," said Lissa, "But call me Lissa."
Again, he nodded to her, and then he walked up to the front of the room. "Well, everyone, welcome to Offense Defense."
"Office Depot..." I muttered to myself. I started to realize that no, they actually didn't sound similar. Oh well.
"What was that, Rose?" said the instructor.
I gave him my trademark smile. "I said 'what a lovely name.'"
This time it was he who narrowed his eyes at me.
"Rose..." Lissa warned me. "Be nice."
Instructor-guy cleared his throat. "As I was saying, Welcome to Offense Defense. I'm your instructor, Dimitri Belikov. I will be teaching you to defend yourselves today."
"No shit." I muttered sarcastically, making sure he couldn't hear me. The guys who stood in front of us heard me though, and they started laughing.
"What's so funny, gentlemen?" Dimitri asked sharply.
"Hot stuff back there. She's a real catch." replied one, glancing over his shoulder at me.
Dimitri strode forward to the guy who had spoken. "What's your name?"
"Jesse."
"Well, Jesse, I'd appreciate it if you would shut up and pay attention." Dimitri said. Then he turned to me. "As for you, Rose, keep your smart comments to yourself."
"Sure thing, Comrade." I said, unable to resist. The guy was Russian, after all.
He rolled his eyes and stalked back up to the front of the room. "Let's continue. You'll all start out my facing the other person on your mat. You'll practice punching and kicking with them."
Okay, easy enough. I turned to Lissa, and we stood facing each other. We stood awkwardly for a few seconds, and Dimitri came towards us. Great, another lecture.
"What's the problem?" he asked.
"Rose knocked out two guys yesterday. I'd rather not expose myself to her strength." Lissa said.
Dimitri gave me a puzzled glance. "You did what?"
"I didn't knock out two guys. I just... gave one a bloody nose, and hit the other one with a chair..." I mumbled, not looking into Dimitri's eyes. For some reason, I didn't want him to know about my encounter with Anthony and Miles. Besides, I endured stuff like that all the time. Of course, I would never hit my boyfriend with a chair, or punch him in the nose.
Dimitri, sensing my discomfort, changed the subject. "Well, don't worry Lissa. No one will be getting punched or kicked today. Your just aiming and striking out, but not making contact."
"Oh." said Lissa, as her face flushed.
"Well, let's get started then." I said. I pushed my fist out towards her, aiming for her shoulder. She easily dodged, and tried to kick out at me. I caught her leg in midair, and shoved it back down. We went on like that for a while, and Dimitri left us to go check on the others.
At the end of class, I was exhausted. After the kicking and punching thing, we had to do wall-sits for ten minutes. And then jumping jacks. And then push-ups. And then stretches. "Lissa, we are not going back there. I am exhausted." I wheezed.
"Yes we are. Tomorrow, at 6:00pm." she told me.
I groaned in response, and we kept walking. Offense Defense was only about a ten minute walk from our apartment, so we chose to walk instead of drive. But I really wished we would've drove.
A block from our apartment building, my cell-phone rang. "Hello?" I said.
"Hey baby," said a voice that was slightly slurred. "I'm waiting for you outside of your apartment."
"Who is it?" Lissa asked me, but I'm pretty sure she already knew.
"Um... Adrian." I said.
Lissa gave me a look, and slid her hand across her throat, telling me to not make any plans with him. But honestly? I can't turn down Adrian.
"Rose, are you there?" I heard Adrian say.
"Yeah, I'm...here." I said.
"Well get your ass down here and meet me at my car."
I hesitated for a moment, but said "Okay."
I heard the sound that indicated that the phone call was over, and I sighed. Adrian had hung up without saying goodbye. Again.
"Rose, you are not going with Adrian!" Lissa said.
"I have to. You know I do." I replied with a frown.
"Rose, you have got to stop seeing him." she told me.
"Liss, you know that if I stop seeing him then he'll just do something stupid."
"I just don't want you to get hurt." she whispered, as we rounded the corner to the apartment building.
I saw Adrian waiting for me, standing outside of his red Ferrari. "Go strait inside," I told Lissa when I saw the bottle in his hands.
"Rose-"
"Go." I said sharply. She gave me a sad glance but didn't argue. She turned around and walked inside of our apartment.
"Finally," said Adrian, when I approached him. "I've been waiting for fifteen minutes." His tone was angry.
"I'm sorry. We were out for a walk." I lied, shrugging my shoulders.
"Well," he laughed, "That makes everything okay then." He stepped towards me, and I shied away. "Get in the backseat." he said, placing a hand on my shoulder.
"Adrian, no... I need to rest." I said.
"No? Did you just say no?" his voice was raising in anger, and I shrank down.
"Not tonight, please. I've had a rough day." I whispered.
"You've had a rough day? Well, poor you. I've been getting that same damn excuse for a week Rose!" he yelled. "I haven't had sex in six days, baby. Six day!" he hissed.
I frowned. "Adrian, the last time I saw you was ten days ago."
"So?" he said with a cold laugh.
"So? So, you haven't had sex in ten days." I managed to say.
"No, six." Adrian gave me a cold smile.
"So... what, you're cheating on me?" I choked out.
Adrian stepped closer, and I stepped back, but I was now trapped against the side of the car. "No, but I need sex somewhere since your such a fucking whore!" he said. "Is that why you're tired, huh? Been getting too much action?"
"No, I-"
"Get in the car."
"No, Adrian."
"What did you say?"
"I said no. I'm not getting in your car." I said shakily.
"Yes you are." he growled. He jerked open the back door and shoved me in. He tried slamming it, but my ankle got caught between the door. I screamed in agony, and my body writhed as pain shot up my leg.
"Damn it!" Adrian yelled. "You can't fucking do anything right!" He jerked open the door again, and grabbed my hair. He threw me out of the car, and I crashed down onto the pavement. I let out another wail of pain, and tears slid down my cheek. Adrian's car rushed pass me, and I flinched away.
When he was gone, I tried getting up, but my ankle gave out and I screamed again.
"Rose? Rose, what's going on?" I heard someone say. I second later I saw a black-haired man rushing up to me.
"Christian?" I asked.
"Yeah, it's me. What the hell happened?" he asked.
"I... I fell." I lied.
Christian stared at me hard for a moment, but shrugged. "So can you walk?" he asked.
"No."
"Grab on to my shoulder, then." he said.
He helped me stand up and I balanced on one leg as I grabbed his shoulder. We started hobbling towards the building, and then we came to the stairs that led into the entrance. "Oh God," I said miserably. "I can't do this." Looking down at my ankle, I saw that it was slightly swollen, purple, and bleeding.
"Look, let's not even bother with the stairs. You're going to the hospital."
"No!" I said quickly. "No. I can't."
"You have to, or else your foot may have to be amputated. " he said.
"I seriously doubt that." I told him.
"Fine. We'll let Lissa decide."
"Deal." I said. I knew Lissa would side with me; she knew that I couldn't go to the hospital, or else they'd ask questions. She knew it, and she respected it.
And thirty minutes later, I found myself sitting with my arms crossed in a blue hospital chair. "This is stupid." I grumbled. "I don't need any medical attention."
"Yes you do." said Lissa. "Look at your ankle!"
"No thanks. It was pretty gross last time I checked." I replied.
Just then the doctor walked in. "Well well well, it seems that you've simply bruised your ankle. It isn't broken, or even twisted. May I ask what happened?"
I glanced at the doctor and stared right into her eyes. "No, you may not."
She gave me a puzzled glance. "Ah, well then. I suppose you're all set to go, right after I bandage it up. You'll have to stay off of it tomorrow."
"I can't! I have to go to work!" I told her.
"I'm sorry, but unless you want to endure a lot of pain tomorrow, I suggest that you rest." she told me sternly.
I sighed and slouched down into my seat as she began wrapping my ankle. When we were finished, I hobbled as quickly as I could to Lissa's car. I jumped into the passenger side before Christian could, and grinned triumphantly when he sat in the back.
"Lose the smirk, Hathaway, or I'll leave you at the bottom of the stairs." he told me.
"No you won't. Lissa won't let you." I said.
He rolled his eyes and buckled up as Lissa joined us. We started driving back to the apartment in silence. I kept staring out of the window, lost in a daydream of a hot Russian guy with shoulder-length brown hair and chocolate eyes.
"Rose?" Lissa's voice broke me from my thoughts.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"What did Adrian do?" she said quietly.
In the mirror I saw that Christian was asleep. With a sigh, I told her what happened.
"I'm glad that your foot got caught, then. He probably had much worse planned." she told me when I finished.
"Liss, he just wanted to... spend time with me." I said.
"In bed." she replied.
"Look, he's my boyfriend, okay?" I told her, growing defensive.
"And Christian's my boyfriend. He didn't slam my foot in a car door."
"But it was an acc-"
"Or try and drag me off so that he could take advantage of me." she kept going.
"He doesn't take advantage of me!" I said, raising my voice.
"Rose, you've never called him and asked to hang out with him! He always calls you. And you always end up going over to his house and getting naked with him! Can't you see that he's just using you for sex, like some whore or something?"
I stared at her in disbelief. "You think I'm a whore?" Funny. Adrian had called me a whore, too.
"No Rose, that's not what I meant!" I didn't give her time to finish explaining, because just then we pulled into the apartment building's parking lot. I got out and slammed my door, and limped as fast as I could to the door. When I got to the stairs I didn't even bother for grace. I just crawled up them.
Lissa was right behind me, with Christian following close behind. An elevator was just arriving as I got to them, and I quickly held down the button to close the doors before Lissa could get on. When the elevator dinged and the doors opened, I got off and headed to our apartment. Lissa and Christian were standing in front of the door. Damn, they took the stairs, I thought.
"I don't want to talk about it Lissa." I said as I pushed past her.
"Adrian was going to rape you, Rose! Face the facts! He's using you. I'm just trying to protect you."
"Yeah, let's face the facts." I said in a whisper. "Everywhere I go, guys look at me like I'm a piece of meat. Everywhere I go, something bad happens. Something gets ruined. Everywhere I go, I just end up regretting something." I turned and walked into my bedroom, slamming the door and then locking it.
"Rose, open the door!" Lissa pleaded. "I'm sorry!"
"Go away!" I yelled. "I don't care!"
Through the door I heard the muffled voice of Christian. I heard two sets of footsteps walk away.
I stared at the door and then turned to my bed. I laid down and buried my head in the pillows. And for the first time in a long time, I cried. Yeah, I cried earlier, but that was because of pain. Physical pain. This; this was emotional pain. Mental pain. And I was so tired of enduring it. I was so tired of sucking it all up. So I let out in big sobs. I cried. And cried. And cried. I cried myself to sleep.
And I had my first nightmare about Adrian.
So, how are you liking this story
so far? Rose is a bit emotional, huh?
And I know, I know: Adrian isn't really
a bad guy in Vampire Academy. But I like
using him as the evil one ;) And so far, the
characters are Rose, Dimitri, Lissa, Christian,
Adrian, Miles, Anthony, Tasha, and Stan. In the
next chapter I will introduce Mia and Mason, along
with Eddie. I'll try to make all characters like they are.
~ VampireElite