Quick update! Enjoy!

Yeck. My mouth tasted disgusting.

It was the middle of the night and my eyes were puffy and crusted from sleep. My sinuses were completely stuffed, which was I had spent the night sucking air through the desert pit that was my mouth.

I swallowed, and retched at the terrible taste. Water. I needed water.

My hand flopped around the nightstand trying to find the glass that was usually full and waiting for me.

The room was dark, and quiet. Only a slight sliver of light slipped under the door and it somehow angled itself to directly stab into my eyes.

Dreamland was dissolving in front of my eyes.

After a few seconds of groping around the desk, and knocking down my radio-lamp I was fully awake. That's nice. A pile of glass was now surrounding the edge of my bed and there was no way to turn on the light.

"Mason," I murmured. "Could you bring me a glass of water, please?"

Nothing. There was no sound outside, and no glass of water on my desk. This was strange. In fact, Mason should have shown up the moment the lamp broke.

"Mason?" I murmured again. "Mason?"

Still silence.

Urgh. He was ignoring me. Ever since Leslie left three days ago, Mason had been in the foulest of moods. He barely talked to me, and when he did it was in short snaps.

"Fine," I growled, and began scooting myself off the bed. "Ignore me. See what I care. I don't need you."

The medicine my mom had given me was really effective, so I was now strong enough to move around without falling on my face. I swung one leg over the side of the bed, and kept the fractured one propped up on its pillow.

The crutches were beneath my bed and I painstakingly leaned over the edge and reached around for the crutches. Every so often, my fingers would brush a piece of glass until I finally found the crutches.

I whipped them out and carefully brushed the glass out of the way and hopped on the ground. I wobbled a little, but soon found my footing and began the long painful trek to the kitchen.

The light in the living room was harsh, and there was no sign of Mason anywhere. His door was wide open, which was weird as was the front door, which was weirder.

"Mason? Did you runaway? I'm sorry for whatever I did, but I'm really thirsty and I don't think I can balance on the crutches and get water at the same time," I shouted to the empty dorm.

Only the eerie silence answered me and I began to get nervous. You're not supposed to leave a sick person alone. "Mason where are you?"

I hobbled into the kitchen and managed to pour the water without exploding and then I hobbled back into the living room. "Mason? Where are you? This is a really bad time to disappear. Leslie asked me to stop hating you, and I was considering it, but I can't do it if you're not here."

The faucet dripped in response, and a cold prickle went up my spine. Where was he? He couldn't have been that angry to just abandon me here in the middle of the night. Something must've happened to him.

I poked my head in his room. "Mason?" Empty.

What if we were robbed while I was sleeping, and they kidnapped Mason? No, that's stupid. They would've left a note. What if the school was evacuated, and they forgot about me? No, they would've checked every room.

Wait.

What if I died in the middle of the night and was in now in some kind of limbo. That was possible. The healing spell could've been faulty and instead caused my brain to boil out of my ears. Totally possible.

"Mason?" I whispered shakily. "Where are you? This isn't funny."

I lowered myself onto the couch and took three deep breaths. I needed to calm down. I wasn't dead, and Mason wasn't kidnapped. There was a reasonable explanation for this. Maybe he went to get something to eat. Yeah. He spent four days with me he should be starving by now.

But if that was the case, then he should've asked me. I would've let him feed if he kept himself under control and didn't act like a major jerk afterwards. But why would he leave in the middle of the night?

Unless, he was with a girl. He was probably making out with some harlot and drinking her blood. She was probably ooing ahing over how smart and wonderful he was. Not that I cared. Because I didn't. One girl, three girls, ten girls who was keeping count? He could do whoever he wanted.

I mean, whatever he wanted.

But if he was hungry, he could've asked me. That's my only problem. It's the least I could do after he waited on me hand and foot for almost a week. I was trying to be nicer, despite what Leslie had said. I hardly yelled, or threw things or yelled while throwing things. I thanked Mason, and apologized and once I even smiled.

Not that it mattered. All he did was frown and glare and drop my soup onto the desk so that it splashed everywhere. Maybe he was just cranky from hunger. And now he probably ran away with some rich trollop, happily sucking away at her neck on her yacht while I thirst to death.

"Damn it, Mason! You could've asked me!" I shouted angrily at dorm room limbo.

"Tell you what? What are you talking about?" Mason hissed angrily into my ear.

"WHAT THE F-"I shrieked and nearly bashed my head against the table. He caught me by the shoulders and brought back into a sitting position. I shook his hands off and turned to glare at him.

"There you are," I growled. "Tired of the little tramp already?"

His eyes widened from annoyed to confused. "What are you talking about?"

"You could've asked me if you were hungry, Mason. I would've let you feed," I said and peered at him from the top of the couch. "You don't have to go running off with girl every time you want a snack."

He was about to say something, but then he closed his mouth and crossed his arms. "Go on."

"I know that I might not have been the easiest to deal with, and you have every right to let me fend for myself, but instead you've taken care of me and I'm grateful for that and the least I could do is let you take some measly blood," I said and turned back around to glare at the blank TV set. "But if you want to roll around in the hay with some girl, fine. I don't care. In fact, why don't you go back go back to your yacht with your girlfriend and just let my rot in limbo by myself."

I stiffly glowered at the wall while he didn't make a sound. Deep down, at the bottom of my soul I realized that how terrible that whole speech sounded but at the moment I didn't care. I woke up pissed, I was hungry and my roommate decided to abandon me for a hussy!

"Elyse," Mason said.

I grunted.

"Look at me."

I turned and narrowed my eyes when our noses nearly touched.

"You do realize that this is a school, right?" he asked. "And that while you're sleeping, I might have to go to class? And when you start screaming out my name for no reason I have to leave class early to see what's the matter with you?"

I stared into his dark, honey colored eyes and then looked at the wall. That kind of made sense.

Except-

"Don't pull that crap. It's twelve o clock at night," I sneered.

His brows furrowed over the bridge of his nose. "It's two in the afternoon. You've been asleep for thirty two hours."

He smiled wryly and I grinned. "Ah. I see. Education is a wonderful thing. You should get back to it. I'm going to take a shower."

I grabbed for the crutches and managed to pull myself up, but he yanked my arm and sent me flying into his chest. "Not so fast. So there really is a heart underneath all that rage and anger. You're actually offering to let me drink from you?"

I sighed and nodded. It was the truth, and I wasn't one to go back on my word.

"Really?" he asked skeptically. He didn't believe me. "Ok. I'm hungry now. Are you going to let me drink?"

I rubbed my forehead and shrugged listlessly. "That's what I said. I'm really grateful to you, so go ahead."

His grin fell and he let his hands drop. "You're serious?"

I wobbled a little, but held myself up on the crutches. "Yes. Anytime you're hungry. Thank you for taking care of me."

He looked doubtful, and his hair fell over his eyes in a way that made him look like a lost child. "You're welcome?"

I pushed me sleeve up and held my wrist out. "Go ahead. Bon appétit."

He softly took my wrist and then glanced at me. "You're serious?" he repeated.

"Look, if you want to go back to your harlot, that's fine too. I'm not forcing you-"

"No! I mean, if you're absolutely sure that you won't hit me." He gave me one more tentative glance before gently plunging his fangs into my arm. He wasn't using any glamour to make it feel good, there was a tiny sting and then numbness.

"You know, I've been thinking a lot about what Leslie said –OUCH!" Mason's fangs sliced a tiny line down my arm and he jerked up.

"What? What did Leslie tell you?" he hissed suddenly.

His grip on my wrist turned from tender to bruising, and the bandages chafed my raw palms painfully.

"Ouch, damn it! He told me to stop hating you!" I yelled and yanked my wrist away with a frown. "What's wrong with you?"

His eyes widened and he lowered his head again. "Sorry. Nothing. What were you saying?"

"He was right, and I'm going to try to be nicer starting now. And I notice that every time I try to make a new start you end up doing something terrible to me, so could you please keep yourself under control for at least a week? Deal?"

He looked up again, but this time his eyes were softer. "Elyse, you don't really think that I would purposely hurt you?"

"Deal?" I repeated and he sighed with a defeated look.

"Deal."

"Here," Mason said and held the spoon to my lips. "Open."

I rolled my eyes and did my best to scoot the chair back with the one sore, raw foot wrapped in bandages. "Mason-"

He effortlessly pulled me back to the table by hooking his foot under the chair, "It's still warm."

"I don't-"

"I made it the way you like."

"Listen for a sec-"

"No carrots and no-"

"MASON. For the last time I don't need you to feed me," I growled and snatched the spoon from his hand, sending the rice sprinkling to the ground. "It's the same thing every day! My leg is broken. Not my arms. Besides, I'm not hungry. I'm already full from the grossly unnecessary breakfast you made."

He sighed and stood up, picking up the plate and utensils while he pouted huffily. "You were licking the plate clean, so don't start complaining."

I rubbed the spots on either side of my eyes and tried not the launch the spoon at his head. It had been a week since my promise, and things were going as smoothly as they could. I don't know why I was being so docile, but one of my theories is that my mother put sedatives in the medicine she sent. "I never said you were a bad cook. I just think you need to ration how much you make. Why don't we invite your friend for lunch, uh Gary? Leslie? What's his name? We haven't left the dorm for over a week," I said and hobbled over to the kitchen where he was cleaning the dishes.

He threw me a sharp look, and raised an eyebrow. "Why? Am I driving you insane already?"

"No, I'm fine. I just don't want you to go crazy being cooped up in here with me 24/7," I said.

He turned back to the sink, but not quickly enough to hide the grin that suddenly appeared. "Oh. So…you're fine about being here with me, you just want to make sure I'm comfortable?"

I rolled my eyes and hopped back into the living room. "No, I'm not just fine. I'm happy being here with you and I just want to make sure that you're happy too. That's all."

The past few days have brought me as close to happiness as I was wont to get with a broken leg and bruised body. Surprisingly, Mason was a big part of that overall happiness. Very surprising indeed.

It seemed like when we were away from people, and distractions and when I was healthily sedated, Mason and I got along pretty well. A little too well. A LOT too well.

He poked his head from the doorway and furrowed his brows. "You want me to be happy?"

A long second passed and I looked away while trying to ignore the heat in my face. "Well, y-yeah. Why wouldn't- that's the door! Must be Ivy."

Like a raft in a storm, there was the soft knock that signified Ivy's daily visit. It was pretty tough when she found out 'how' I broke my leg, but she got over it.

She trotted in with a little plastic bag held behind her back.

"Hey, guys. How's everyone-"

"Good, good we're all great. Inside the room now," I chattered and propelled myself into the room.

"She's really jumpy today," she remarked to Mason. "Is it all the painkillers? What's with-"

"IVY, GOD DAMN YOU! COME HERE!" I screamed, and she came scrambling into the room. "Did you bring the stuff?"

She nodded and dumped the contents of the bag onto my bed. One greeting card, some gum, a cupcake, three crayons and a lighter.

I grabbed the card:

Only for you does my heart beat so

And with thoughts of you it begins to glow

For you are my reason for living its true

So my dear, please believe me when I say

Thank You.

"Oh my god," I groaned. "Could you have found something more sickening? I just wanted a simple 'thank you card.' Literally! It just had to say 'thank you' on it!"

"But this is lovely!" Ivy chastised. "And he deserves so much more than this after all he's done for you. You need him!"

"First of all," I said and threw the card down. "It sucked. And second of all I do not need him. He's merely helping me out, that's all."

"Really?" she said and rolled her eyes. "Ok, let's just see about that."

She grabbed both of my crutches and threw them across the room.

"Hey!" I shouted and braced myself against the wall. "What are you doing? Give them back!"

"No."

I glared at her. "Fine. MA-"

The vainglorious smile that grew on her face stopped me from completing his name. Damn it. She was right. The kindness I had shown had turned into dependency. All I did was follow him around, wait for him to come back from class and then follow him around until I fell asleep.

"Ok! I admit it. I need him! I'm already giving him that stupid card. What else do you want me to do?" I asked furiously.

She smiled and handed my crutch back. "Well, I was thinking that it would be nice if you offered to take him out to eat. He's always cooking your weird pixie food cravings, and I hardly ever see him eat lunch-"

She didn't notice how my face flushed when she said that.

"So a nice dinner would be a good 'thank you' gift, right?" Ivy said sweetly.

I rolled my eyes and hopped onto my bed. "Whatever. I'll do it. Hand me the card please."

I grabbed a pen and scribbled out the stupid poem and instead wrote 'Thanks. You're cooking's not bad, but I want to go to a restaurant tonight' on the side. Ivy sighed and then ruffled through the other things on my bed. "Why did you have me buy a lighter?"

Mason was lying on the couch and channel surfing when I dropped the card onto his chest. He quickly sat up and looked at me. "Seriously?"

I shrugged and began hopping back to my room. "It's so you won't go crazy."

He flashed in front of me, and held me by the shoulders. "You're welcome." And then he pulled me into a tight hug.

From my room, Ivy gave me the thumbs up and I angrily gestured with my eyes for her to get the hell out.

She knew when to make a good entrances, but she really needed to learn when to leave.

I am so tired. I'm sorry if this chapter sucked. Have a happy summer.