Safe And Sound
Thanks to everyone who reviewed on the last chapter. I hope you all enjoy this one!
We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly – Sam Keen
Chapter Four
Wednesday September 5th 2012, 7:30 am, in bed.
The hardest thing I have ever had to do was summon up the energy to open my eyes this morning…and I don't lie. By the time I had finally managed to get to sleep last night it was well past two in the morning.
Reasons why I don't want to go to school this morning:
1) Mason came on to me and I'm not sure if he remembers it.
2) I'm tired as hell and probably won't be able to concentrate anyway.
3) I still don't know if I should call him Mr Belikov or Dimitri.
As much as these things made me not want to go to school, I knew I had to. The idea of seeing Dimitri was too interesting. Who knew what was going to come next when it came to him? I sure as hell didn't.
Wednesday September 5th 2012, 9:00 am, in form.
Walking into form was so much more awkward than I thought it was going to be. Dimitri's eyes were on me like a hawk as though he believed that I was going to scream at the top of my lungs about how I know where he went last night. Well, I was probably wrong. I was probably just being paranoid and absurd like usual.
"Rose, can I speak to you outside for a minute?" He asked just as I was about to sit down, forcing me to weave through the many tables to get out into the corridor where he was stood. Hmm, perhaps this was one of the few times where I wasn't being paranoid.
"What do you want?" I asked once the door of the classroom was closed as I tried to ignore the pounding of my heart and the moistness of my hands. How could he possibly make me feel this nervous with just one look? It's so unfair!
"I just want to apologise about the way I acted last night" He said with a look that told me that he had always tried to be professional…the idea that that was slipping away from him was a shock even to him.
"There's no need to apologise" I found myself saying as I replayed his lips on my hand over and over in my head. As much as I may say it's inappropriate, I enjoyed it and I wouldn't say no to having it happen again.
"Rosemarie, don't make excuses for me" Dimitri went on with a wave of his hand, the look of disappointment with himself still flashing clearly in his eyes. "What I did was unacceptable. You're a new student here. Well, kind of. You should be eased into these kinds of things. I should have kept my distance. You need to walk before you can run."
Honestly, I couldn't see where he was coming from or what he even meant by his words. Was what he did really that bad according to him?
"If I accept your apology, can we go back in?" I asked, feeling the grin rise to my face before I could stop it. Oh, he probably thought I was making fun of him now.
"Of course" He answered rather seriously. Was work always going to be this serious with him?
"Apology accepted" I smiled, but before he managed to open the classroom door, I grabbed onto his wrist. Oh god, what the hell was I doing!? His eyes left mine to stare at his wrist where my hand was gripping on for dear life before going back up to my eyes. "Does this mean I get to call you Dimitri now?"
"Indeed it does" He grinned, leading me back into the classroom. At least one mystery was solved now. I now knew what to call him.
As soon as I sat down by Lissa's side, she bombarded me with questions, "I heard you were at the pub last night with Mr Belikov, Mason, Adrian and Eddie. Am I right?"
"Yes."
"So, are you guys all friends again?" She asked.
"Yes."
"What did Mr Belikov want to talk to you for?" She asked. I guess this question was going to be harder to escape from. It's not like I could just say 'yes' again. She'd definitely know something was up if I did. What I was feeling right now was a weird thing to explain. Hell, it barely even made any sense to me. Lissa had been wonderful to me ever since Monday, but I felt as though I had to keep this to myself. I didn't know for sure if I could trust her. Time would tell.
"Oh, he just wanted to check if I was settling in okay" I lied, hoping that my brief hesitation wouldn't tell her that I wasn't telling her the truth. She eyed me suspiciously and my heart began to pound in my chest much like how it had when I was talking to Dimitri. She couldn't possibly know that I was lying, could she? Oh, but she could. I knew then that I would never be able to pull off a lie with her. She was way too perceptive for her own good.
Even so, she left it alone…but not before shooting me a pointed look that told me we would talk about it later. Oh, what on Earth was I supposed to say to her? The truth would probably be a good place to start.
Wednesday September 5th 2012, 11:15 am, Maths.
Recent findings out about high school:
1) Nothing can stay a secret for long…even if it's nothing really important and everyone already expected it. It always comes out.
2) News travels fast here. Seriously, people that I don't even know are talking about how I went to the pub with Mason, Adrian and Eddie and happened to have a drink with Dimitri whilst I was there.
3) Not everyone's nice about the news that travels fast. Especially not girls. It's weird. They all seem angry that I had a drink with him.
By the time Maths had finally came around, I was relieved. I'd be sitting next to Mia. I wouldn't have to put up with any awkwardness because I knew that she wouldn't be bothered about my drink last night. She'd probably press for a few details and then find something more interesting to talk with me about.
I was wrong.
She said nothing as I sat down. She kept her head facing forward and kept completely on her side of the desk as though she was afraid she was going to catch something from me. Her face held a stony glare and her movements were rapid and savage. For instance, snatching the eraser from my hand as though it was a bomb about to go off at any minute, scratching my palm roughly with talon-like fingernails that were painted a dangerous shade of red.
Wow, she was really pissed.
Perhaps she was just having a bad day…or she was annoyed at me. The latter seemed more likely. Well, she was perfectly civilised to anyone else who spoke to her.
"Mia, what's wrong?" I finally asked after several disgruntled sighs every time I looked over at her book to copy an answer. She whirled on me in an instant, but simply glared once more.
"I heard about you little rendezvous at the pub last night" She answered, her lips set in a straight line. As soon as she finished speaking, she tightened her lips until I could barely see them. Oh God, she really was angry about that.
"It was hardly a rendezvous" I sighed, feeling an anger bubbling up inside of me that I hadn't realised was there beforehand. Why was everyone acting as though I was the bad guy? I hadn't done anything. I hadn't even wanted to go to that stupid pub in the first place!
"Well, what would you call it?" She asked, going straight back to her work and scribbling answers on the page angrily.
"I would call it a misunderstanding" I answered, clenching my fists under the table. Where had this zero to one hundred rage came from? "It's not like I chose to go for a drink with Mr Belikov" Calling him by his first name seemed too risky at this point. "I went with Adrian, Eddie and Mason and Mr Belikov just happened to be there. The guys were the ones to ask him to sit with us. I barely even spoke to him." Mentioning him kissing my hand also seemed too risky. Perhaps that little detail could be saved for a later day.
"Well, next time you have a little drink with Belikov make sure you text me and I'll come down" Mia sighed with a grin. She must have a huge crush on that man. Yep, not telling her about the brief kiss on the knuckle was definitely a wise choice.
"Of course I will" I smiled, pleased that I had gotten over the first argument I had ever had being back here.
"Glad we got that sorted" Mia commented with a flick of her blonde hair. "I've been dying to tell you something." Oh, how I love my little gossip girl. "Mason broke up with Avery today." My jaw dropped. I mean it literally dropped. I was surprised it hadn't hit the table. Maybe he had finally decided to listen to my advice. Oh, this was fantastic!
"What!?" I exclaimed, no longer caring that I was in a class. "What happened? When did it happen?"
"Just before this lesson" Mia answered, looking rather smug that she had gossip for everyone. No wonder news travels fast. Mia's probably the one spreading it to everyone she sees…even if she doesn't know them. "Mason just walked clean up to her and said what he thought about her. So, everyone knows that Avery is a possessive bitch. Isn't that great?"
"Too great" I laughed, feeling as though the world was finally beginning to make sense once more. Maybe there would be a way for us to be on top instead of Avery. "How's Mason feeling, though?"
"I think he's taking it a lot better than I thought he would" Mia assessed. "I think he's just glad to be a free man once again. Obviously he'll be sad about it, but I think he knows it's for the best. I just wish he'd let us all be there for him. I wish he'd stop letting the popularity go to his head."
"Well, if I managed to become friends with him again" I went on, "I'm sure you could too. He's changing. I'm sure of it."
"You can get us all in with the guys again" Mia said, her eyes lighting up like neon lights down in the city as her brain formed a plan. Something told me that her plan would probably be horrifically awkward for me.
"How am I supposed to manage to pull that one off?" I questioned with an air of disbelief radiating off me. When I came to this school, I didn't expect to be asked to perform miracles. If Mason was going to talk to Mia again, it would have to be Mia to put in the effort and do the work. I couldn't possibly sort out this problem for them, could I?
"It's really quite simple when you think about it" Mia sighed as though this plan should have come to her ages ago. I never thought I'd see the day where I would be a pawn in Mia Rinaldi's grand scheme of things. I couldn't tell if I should laugh or cry. "All you need to do is make plans with them and invite a couple of us along. Not too many or it'll be obvious what we're trying to do. Surely things would just work out from there. They couldn't possibly not want to be friends with us once they got to hang out with us properly again. Oh, I'm a genius."
I had to hand it to her. She's quite a genius for coming up with that. Although it was so plain and obvious, it was brilliant. It couldn't possibly fail. Mason would never know what we were up to…and the idea of it didn't sound too awkward. Well, I'm sure the first few minutes of them meeting each other once more would be deathly awkward, but that's inevitable.
"Okay, I'll help you" I sighed. "I'll get back to you on what we're going to be doing."
"Thanks, Rose" She smiled widely, giving me an affectionate pat on the shoulder. "You're the best."
Wednesday September 5th 2012, 1:00 pm, lunch time.
I forced Mason to come with me to Dimitri's. I figured he could use the company of a friend after the break up. If it had been me, I would want the comfort. It didn't matter about the awkward encounter last night. Mason's wellbeing meant a lot more to me.
Dimitri didn't mind me bringing Mason. In fact, he seemed quite pleased to see Mason again. As long as I did my design, he had no trouble with him being here.
"So, how did she take it?" I asked, drawing a sketch of big ben. "I can't imagine she'd be too cool about it all."
"Nope, she wasn't" Mason sighed sadly. "She told me she hated me. She told me I was vermin and she told me that one day she'd kill me. I guess it's just the usual stuff for a girl as dramatic as her."
"Who on Earth are you talking about?" Dimitri asked, taking his eyes off the laptop on his desk for a moment to stare us down. Was student talk really that interesting to teachers?
"Avery Lazar" I answered, already feeling giddy about having a bitching session about that witch of a girl. "Mason just broke up with her." Dimitri moved away from the laptop and took the seat beside me, filling me with his scent.
Note to self: always choose the seat next to Dimitri. He smells so goddamn good.
"So, I'm guessing it didn't go very well" Dimitri deducted. "There'll be other girls, Mason. She just obviously wasn't the right one for you."
"That reminds me" I interrupted. "Mason, you need to do something with me. Come round to mine or something soon."
"Sure, I'll drop by tomorrow after school if you want" Mason answered. I tried to block the look of happiness on his face. He couldn't really like me, could he?
"That's perfect" I said with a bright smile. Surely I'd gain more friends if I was the one to end the feud between the two gangs. It was a perfect way to stop all the rumours going around the school about me. It's a long shot, but maybe people would stop asking me if I had been a prostitute.
"You know, you're also more than welcome to come back after school to get this project done" Dimitri jumped in with a warning look at Mason. What was wrong now? "I honestly wouldn't mind staying back to help you. I really want you to get a good grade in this." Wow, he turned eager pretty sudden.
"Thanks, Dimitri" I said awkwardly, trying to ignore the funny looks I was getting off Mason. Why do these things happen to me? "I might do that some time…once I've settled in."
"You're welcome here any time" He added.
Wednesday September 5th 2012, 3:30 pm, walking out of school.
As soon as I fell into step with Mia, Lissa and Christian, I draped my arm loosely around Mia's shoulder. I was completely unable to keep the smile off my face. Mia was going to be so pleased that I managed to swing this. I was utterly unable to guess how Lissa and Christian would feel about this.
"You three are coming over to mine tomorrow after school" I said with a look at each of them. "Meet me outside the gates after school tomorrow. I've got someone to give us a lift there."
As if on cue, Mason walked past. "See you tomorrow night, Rose." He said, completely oblivious to what would be waiting for him. Lissa's and Christian's jaws dropped.
"You didn't!?" Lissa gasped in shock and possibly nervousness.
"Oh, but I did"
Hope you all enjoyed this chapter and thanks for reading!
Baby You're My Immortal