A/N: Thank you stardreamer26086 for leaving the 100th review :)

Of course I thank everyone as well who reviewed, followed and or favorited my story.

Enjoy the next chapter :D

Chapter 22

The guests enjoyed themselves, the food was fantastic and Dimitri and I loved being an open couple every second.

We sat at one table with Lissa, Christian, Adrian, Sydney, Eddie, Jill and Mason. The mood over all was light. The only sore point was Masons crushed feelings. I took him to the side when the rest of my friends went to the bar.

"Hay, can we talk?" I asked him. He said nothing but trailed behind me. We sat down on some chairs in the entrance hall of the hotel.

"What do you want?" he asked bitterly. This broke my heart and tears started welling in my eyes. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for hurting your feelings, Mason. This must be hard, but I need you to understand, I never wanted to hurt you with this. It just happened and even if I never met Dimitri or got to know him better, I don't think that I could've developed the same feelings for you. You've always been like my brother and one of my best friends." The look he gave me made my tears fall down which softened his grimace. "Sorry Rose. It just hurts to see him happy with him. Don't get me wrong. I love to see you happy, but I'll need some time to get used to seeing you with someone else. You might not have noticed it, but I had a crush on you for as long as I've known you."

This really surprised me. I knew he liked me for quite some time now, but this long?

"Okay, I hope we can still stay friends in the long run?" He nodded and left me sitting here.

Sorting my thoughts I was taking back to the here and now when I heard a male voice. "What got you here all alone? Waiting for me?" The voice was one I would recognize every time. Jesse. Even after all these months he still wouldn't want to understand that I wasn't interested in him.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him annoyed. "I'm here to visit my uncle and give him something from my father. He stays here for the next week. But what are you doing here? Are you waiting for me? I knew you couldn't resist my charm for very long." Sitting next to me he leaned in closer and put his hands on my knees.

"Take your hands off of me, before I rip them off your body." I threatened him. He simply laughed at me, but only until he heard a pissed of male voice with a Russian accent. "You heard her. Take your hand off of her, or I'll volunteer to help you with this task." If Dimitri would ever look at me with the same pissed off look, I would probably shit my pants.

"And who are you?" Jesse pretended to be tough, but his voice belied his act.

"I'm her boyfriend and more than willing to get rid off hormonal teenager who can't accept a no." Towering over the seating Jesse he growled lowly.

"What is going on here? Jesse, I'm waiting for you." Another man's voice piped up seemingly out of nowhere.

I couldn't help but sit there quietly and watch everything play out in front of me.

"Uncle, this man just threatened me for no reason." Jesse pointed to Dimitri who looked up just then.

"Howard?" Dimitri asked. My God, does this man know everyone around here?

"Dimitri, what are you doing here?" the man greeted Dimitri friendly. "I was looking for my girlfriend and found your nephew unwilling to accept a clear no. What are you doing here? Does Ivan know you're here?"

Shaking his head at Jesse, the man who turned out was named Howard answered Dimitri. "I'm sorry for my nephews behavior. He clearly got it from his fathers side. My sister clearly doesn't have a good taste in men." This made Dimitri chuckle and Jesse look pissed off. "My son doesn't know I'm here yet. I wanted to visit him tomorrow."

Looking over at me he smiled friendly. "And you're Dimitri's girlfriend? Finally a girl who captured this rock's heart." He teased, smiled and gave me his hand. "I'm Howard Zeklos. Sorry about what my sorry excuse for a nephew did."

Smiling back at him I took Dimitri's hand as he stood next to me. Now we were all standing, but Jesse who sat down silently, seemingly very frustrated. This must be hard to hear your own family talk so openly and badly about you and your father. Hi personality however made it easy for me to understand how his own uncle disliked him.

"I'm Rose, yes. Nice to meet you. And you're Ivan's father?" I asked him and eyed him from up and down. I could see some resembling in his face. Even the way he smiled reminded me of Ivan.

"Yes. You know my son? How about we'll continue this tomorrow at the hotel's restaurant and the three of us can have lunch with Ivan." Agreeing and leaving to head back to the party I thanked Dimitri for saving me.

"Not that for. I'll always help you. Especially if a guy doesn't have any manners." He furrowed his brows so I stopped him and kissed his lips.

"Thank you. But you know what I don't understand?" I asked him as we reentered the ball room. When he shook his head I told him. "How can someone as cute and nice as Ivan be related to such a piece of trash like Jesse?"

"So you think Ivan is cute?" he stopped me. "Is that really the only thing you heard?" I laughed at him. Smiling down at me he gave me a tender kiss. "I love you."

Butterflies danced in my stomach. "And I love hearing this." Before we could continue our lovey-dovey exchange, my father called for everyone's attention.

"Thank you all for joining us. The most of you have been at our birthday party not that long ago. The more we are delighted to see you again today. We're here to celebrate my live together with this amazing woman. She not only gave me her heart, but also our amazing daughter Rose." I blew him a kiss and he smiled, love radiating off him. "Not to forget about our other daughter. She might not be ours by blood, but we love her nevertheless. And I know for sure that if your parents would still be here, Lissa, they couldn't be prouder than we are to see how you turned out to be." She wiped away a tear and smiled at my father.

"With such an amazing wife, and the two most amazing daughters I'm beyond blessed. I want to thank them for making my life worth living. I love you. Seni seviyorum." Everyone clapped and my mother kissed my father. "Just as much as we love you, Abe. Thank you for the most amazing 18 years of marriage and even more years before that." My mother added.

After such a sweet speech it got sweeter when they handed out the cake. When it was my turned hugged them. "It was a beautiful speech." Dimitri told my father. "If you're playing your cards well, you'll might be able to give a similar speech in some years at your party." Winking at him he gave us two plates and we walked to our table.

"Did he really just gave me his sort of blessings for our relationship?" he muttered under his breath. Chuckling I nodded my head yes. "Apparently so." We sat next to my friends and couldn't stop laughing.

"Are you two alright? Or do you need a doctor?" Eddie asked us, looking suspicious. "No thanks." I laughed and we sobered up, eating the delicious cake. The rest of the night was spent joking around, dancing and drinking, but not too much alcohol. My parents reminded us that we were still underaged and therefore shouldn't even have a single drop of alcohol. Dimitri got along with my friends pretty well. He stayed sober since he was driving us home later.

"Mr. Belikov." A woman and a man greeted him. "Mr. and Mrs. Johnson." He greeted them back. They chatted for a while. Apparently they were business partners. "We hope you enjoyed the concert. Someone told us that you enjoyed country music and we are co-owners of the concert hall they were hosting this event at." They smiled at him. My head snapped up. I completely forgot about the concert.

Shaking his head Dimitri was hesitant to answer. "Thank you again for this generous offer, but I wasn't able to make it to the event. Something important came up, but a friend of mine really enjoyed it." The Johnsons exchanged a look before Mr. Johnson took something out of his jacket pocket. "Then here, maybe this time luck will be on your side. We're really happy how our deal turned out." With that they said goodbye and Dimitri turned towards me. "How about this time we really go there together?" wiggling his eyebrows I laughed at him and nodded.

My friends looked at me quizzically. "When we first started dating they wanted to gift Dimitri these tickets but shortly before the concert we broke up and than I went crazy again and after the hospital we kind of forgot about this." I stopped immediately, realizing that I just slipped up big time.

"You're together for that long?" Jill asked.

"You broke up and got back together during this time?" Sydney pointed out.

"You've went crazy? As in cutting yourself again?" Eddie questioned.

"You've been admitted once more?" Adrian growled.

They spoke at the same time.

"Wait you've done something like this before?" Mason stared at me. He haven't been there when it happened the first time.

"And why aren't you as outraged about this as we are, Cousin?" Adrian turned towards Lissa.

"Guys, calm down okay." Collectively they looked at me. "It's true, I made that same mistake. And I'm sorry, I really am. But I'm in therapy and I swear I'll never let myself stoop so low again." Putting my hand over Dimitri's resting on my shoulder I took his strength. "Lissa knew about this, of course. She lives with us, so there was no chance of her not noticing it."

Eddie interrupted me. "Is this the reason you two were fighting? Because you cut yourself again?" his voice was filled with anger and hurt.

Shaking my head slowly, I filled my friends in on what happened. About how Lissa found out about Dimitri and that I cut myself after he broke up with me and how we fought after that. All the while Dimitri was rubbing reassuring circles into my shoulders, which helped me to no end to stay calm and keep the tears from wailing up.

"Oh, Rose. You should have told us something about this sooner." Sydney chastised me and the others agreed.

"Again, I can't tell you how sorry I am. But I promise that it wasn't as bad as the first time. This time around it was easier to get over this, to forgive myself for being so weak and dumb." My apology was cut off.

"You're not dumb and not weak." Jill reassured me.

"She's right. We love you and we only want you to be happy." Mason said and I could see how much it cost him to say this. The glances he gave Dimitri showed me that he blamed him for my actions.

"Thank you. I love you too, but I don't want you to blame anyone but me. Dimitri isn't at fault for my decision. Do you get this?" I watched as all my friends nodded, even though Mason was very hesitant at first but gave up after I gave him a stern look.

Pointing my gaze at Dimitri I waited for him to agree as well. His confused eyes stared at me. "You too, Mister. I know you still blame yourself. But I want you to finally realize that I'm the only one to blame for my actions." After some moments of a staring contest he let his head hang down. "Now that we cleared this, I want to enjoy the rest of the party.

My friends left me behind with Dimitri. "Thank you." I said and kissed his head.

"I haven't done anything." He muttered, but I lifted his head. "You have. Dimitri, you and your love gave me an additional reason to take care of myself, to keep fighting for life and to never do something like this to me again." These words really seemed to touch him. Taking my hand he silently led me towards the other dancing couples.

Starting dancing the song soon changed and we heard the beginning of 'Perfect' by Ed Sheeran. Putting my arms around his neck I toyed with his long hair which was pulled back into a pony tail. Quietly, almost whispering he sang along to the music and I was filled with the whole love I felt for this man. I was surprised I didn't burst from this massive emotion. This was the perfect ending for tonight.