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I got in the back and we all rode back to my mom's apartment, a slight tension in the air that left all three of us a little quiet and subdued.

Dpov

I ended the conversation with Roza before I could say anything I might regret saying.

I know it's not her fault, but I was just having a bad day, and worrying about her was making it worse.

On top of watching Christian run laps all night, all I could think about was Roza and how I know she isn't happy, whether she admits it or even knows it yet. And I understand.

She's been cooped up in the apartment for weeks and I'm barely there. And all her other friends have been busy, especially Vasilissa. She barely has time to talk to either one of us these days.

Our phone calls slowly cut down from being daily to weekly then bi weekly. Now I'm lucky if she has time to call at all.

And I still have all this crap floating around my head about Tasha and that damn letter she sent me last week. I know she's lying, that she has to be lying, but I can't stop thinking about it. And I have no idea what to say to Roza, or Christian. I don't know if I should say anything at all. After all, a lying, attention-seeking Natasha is the least of our worries. I'm still getting the stupid, random hate emails and letter, which I also have yet to inform Roza about. And the only way I'm keeping that a secret now is because she's always asleep when I go to check my PO box.

After everything with Tasha and Roza and the surgery and now this. I might start pulling my own hair out.

I looked up from staring at the pages in a book I'm attempting to reread to see Christian fall on his face into the dirt again. For a moment, he just lays there, then he gets back up and walks toward me with a slight limp, looking too tired to be upset that all were doing for his training is running.

"Can I stop now."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I said no."

"Didn't you just see me fall? Again."

"Yes"

"I think I sprained my ankle."

"I watched you fall and you're fine. At most, it just hurts a little more than it should. You're fine. Go run."

"How many laps left?"

"You don't need to know that."

"I'd kinda like to know how much longer I'm going to have to sweat my organs out on your whims while you stand there and read your stupid books and talk to Rose all night."

"That does not concern you and yes, you will keep running until I say so. You've barely run three miles and it's been almost two hours. I can jog 10 miles in two hours. So until you can at least run a mile in less than half an hour, don't expect to be doing anything else or advancing in any way. You need to learn how to run before we start training."

"I know how to run. And of course you can run that distance in such a short amount of time. You're you and I'd just-"

"Just another weak, defenseless moroi who can't even run, let alone follow directions without being an ass about it?"

On that note, he just kept running, a little slower each lap.

I'll need to build up his endurance. He's still slower than a lot of the freshman novices. But at least he's breathing better.

A month ago he couldn't go half a mile without a break because he'd developed this terrible habit I've seen in a lot of inactive people: involuntarily holding his breath during cardiatric-related exercises.

Soon after noticing this, my mind drifted back to Roza.

I'll have to end training early to go pick her up. Oh well, I'm only here so Christain doesn't hurt his ego too much.

An hour later, Christian was showering off in the public gym shower room and I was already heading to my car. Normally, I would just walk, but since Roza's accident, I need to be as fast as possible.

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