The look on Dimitri's face was actually pretty frightening, if you were me (which you should be really glad that you're not, btw!) Aleksander stood up beside my bed and I straightened my dress.
Dimitri's hands clenched and unclenched as he began to speak, "I thought you were going to stay in the ballroom all night?"
"It was boring, Belikov, and haven't you ever heard of knocking?" I replied with a snarky tone. Mistake #1.
"Princess Hathaway, do you have any idea how dangerous that was? Most Guardians are in the ballroom and ones that aren't are busy at the gates, what if Strigoi had gotten through? I'm not here to protect you."
"Then the Guardians aren't doing their job!" Mistake #2. "Plus, Aleksander has had training, I'm sure he could've protected me just as much, so would you just calm down?" Mistake #3.
Aleksander opened his mouth to speak but Dimitri stopped him, "Prince, I'm very sorry for your loss and I know it must be unbelievably hard for you right now, but I must ask you to leave the Princess's room, now."
I gaped at Dimitri and then at Aleksander as he nodded at me and walked out quickly, I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at my damn Guardian, what the hell was his problem!?
"Am I going to have to begin following you everywhere 100% of the time? Guardian Petrov wouldn't mind taking over my class," he said with a glare as deep as mine.
"This is completely ridiculous, I'm seventeen years old! You're not my father and you're not the boss of me!"
"No, I'm not, but I am here to protect you and that's what I am going to do Rose!"
"Fine, but there's no need to shoo a guy out of my room, he's not Strigoi, he's a guy who just lost his mom and I'm his friend!" I was now shouting and I stood up, face-to-face with Dimitri, and we were pretty close to each other. I could see a vein in his neck moving with his anger and his fists were clenched.
He stared down at me, his nostrils flared and then his entire demeanor changed, all of a sudden it's like he was looking at me completely differently and I could see a flood of emotions in his eyes. For a second I felt too close to him, I felt like I wanted to kiss him. I think he felt a too, which is most likely why he pulled away. "Warn me, next time you leave Princess, I will be back in the morning," he said and turned around like a soldier, walking out of the room.
What the hell had just happened?
I grabbed my phone and texted Aleksander, he promised we'd see each other tomorrow and I apologized to him for Dimitri's behavior. I couldn't believe how relieved I was that Aleksander wasn't mad at me. We continued our conversation until it was late enough to go to sleep. But did I get to sleep? No. Lissa barged into my room through the conjoining door; I wish people would seriously stop doing that.
She, being my best friend, had tons of questions. If he was a good kisser, what was it like, what made it happen? And then she went on and on about how she knew I had a connection with him. I nodded and mumbled replies, my eyes never opening, and eventually I drifted off.
"Ugh, Rose! Rose!" she said, shaking me awake.
"Liss! You kiss Christian all the time, I kiss someone and BAM! It's like news to get to TMZ or something! Calm the eff down!" The moment I said it I regretted it, she'd woken me up and all I could think about was Aleksander, and then Dimitri, and more Dimitri. How he was looking at me and how I felt a pull in my heart as he stared at me with his eyes. Back to Lissa, Rose! "Wait, sorry… You know how I hate when you wake me up, look, nothing happened, just kissing. And Dimitri stopped it anyway. How did you find out?"
"I overheard Dimitri telling Alberta, he was pretty pissed."
I nodded, "He was…"
"Can I stay in here tonight? Please?"
"Sure, but I'm crashing as soon as I get pajamas on," I said and stood up reluctantly, reaching for my suitcase as my best friend went to her conjoined room and changed also.
Once we were both changed, we laid on my large king size bed and talked for a few minutes before we both drifted off to sleep. I dreamed of Dimitri and he was happy, we were happy, because we were together. My conscience was wondering why I was dreaming of my mentor instead of Aleksander, but I just went on with the dream, completely content.
The next morning Lissa woke me up, and I was glad that it was around the time I'd wake up on a regular weekend, she usually made me wake up early if we had a sleepover; so I was happy.
I took a quick shower and got dressed in some dark faded skinny jeans, black cashmere sweater and knee high brown riding boots. I dried my hair and let it down, it had small waves in it so I left it, it looked good and I was lazy, sue me. Lissa was wearing a teal sweater dress with black tights and tan Ugg boots, she always looked so cute. I laughed at the thought and told her she looked cute, which got her laughing too.
"Come on, I know you have a girl crush on me but I want to at least make it to brunch," she said with a wink as she grabbed her bag and opened my door, waiting for me to go out first.
"Yeah yeah," I said and grabbed my cell phone and room key, walking out and linking arms with her. I felt like someone was watching me so I turned around and spotted Dimitri about 10 feet behind us, he was back to being my full-time Guardian I guess.
I knew it was immature but I glared at him and turned when Lissa slapped my hand when she saw what I was doing, "What? He so deserves a glare."
She chuckled, "I know, but you need some food in you or Dimitri Belikov will be on fire." She whispered, "And the Moroi royals just can't afford to lose a hunky Guardian like that."
I smirked and shook my head, now I remembered why we were best friends. Once we got to the ballroom, which had been cleaned from last night's party and was now hosting royals dressed in casual clothing, along with caterers of brunch food.
I grabbed a plate and began loading my plate with all types of fruit and then some waffles and bacon. When the server only gave me two slices of bacon I looked at him like he was stupid, so he put two more and I smiled.
"Thank you," I said and turned around, running into Aleksander.
"Hungry, Princess?" he said with a smirk and I laughed.
"Yeah, I had a tiring night," I winked at him and started walking away, turning around to look at him. "Come join us, Prince, I request your presence."
He laughed and went to the bacon guy, who doesn't like bacon? As I sat down next to Lissa we were joined by Christian and then Aleksander, who sat beside me.
"Nice sweater," he said as he touched the hem, right by my hip. I laughed and bumped shoulders with him.
"Nice face," I smirked.
He chuckled and shook his head, putting his hand on mine and squeezing it a little, "I like you Rose."
That caught me off guard, but I smiled and tried not to blush as I replied, "I like you too, Aleksander." I did, but as I looked up and saw Dimitri staring us down, looking at my face then my hand covered by Aleksander, I was afraid that I didn't like him as much as I liked someone else – someone who made me so mad that I could punch something, someone who annoyed me when he bossed me around, my Guardian.
