a/n: Thank you for the reviews for last chapter!

The forty minutes after Christian walked into her World Civilization class were the longest forty minutes of Rose's life. When he realized she wasn't going to look at him, he finally looked away, and Rose shrank further down in her seat.

She was crazy to think that she could keep this a secret in the first place. It was just her luck that Christian would waltz into town and put two and two together.

When Dimitri announced that class was over, Rose threw her notebook into her bag and not bothering to zip it, flew past Christian and out the door. But she should've known better; she'd barely taken three steps out of the classroom when a hand clamped on her elbow. With a sigh, she came to a stop and spun around. "Chris—"

"You're banging your teacher?" he said accusingly.

"Banged," Rose hissed. "Past tense. It's not going to happen again." She looked around and realized there were more than a few curious stares coming their way. "And would you please keep your voice down? People are staring."

Christian's gaze swept the hallway, and then his eyes returned to his friend. "Rose—"

"Everything OK, Ms. Hathaway?"

Rose turned around to see Dimitri standing there, his eyes on Christian's hand that was still gripping her elbow. She swiftly pulled it from his grasp and Dimitri instantly lifted his eyes to hers. "I'm fine, Professor Belikov," she said weakly.

A single nod and he was on his way.

"That was sweet," Christian said dryly. "Everyone loves a white knight."

"Not here," Rose said, eyes blazing.

When Christian turned on his heel and strode out of the building, Rose knew she had no choice but to follow. He never stopped until they were halfway across campus standing next to the corvette he'd driven up in on Friday night.

"So…when is the Ozera library going up?" Rose asked wryly.

"It's the second week of classes, Rose. I didn't have to buy my way in. I only had to transfer," Christian told her.

"Oh," she said as she put her hands in her pockets and looked down at the ground.

"You're banging your teacher?" Christian asked.

Rose sighed as she lifted her head to meet his gaze. "I told you…banged. It's over."

"It's the second week of classes, Rose. Are you really going to be able to stay away from him for the entire rest of the semester?" Christian asked doubtfully.

"Well, it doesn't really matter since he has no problem staying away from me," she responded.

"How do you know?" Christian pressed. "It hasn't happened yet."

"You know what, Chris? Where is this…paternal crap coming from?" she asked impatiently. "You've never cared who I was banging before."

"I thought you said banged!" he exclaimed.

"That's what I meant. Past tense. Banged," Rose corrected. "Why is it bothering you so much?"

"I told you yesterday…you're walking around with this…starry eyed look and I just don't want you to get hurt," he mumbled.

Rose stood there for a moment, stunned. "You what?" she asked in surprise.

"I don't want you to get hurt," he said more forcefully.

"Chris—"

"Sure, you talk a good game," he went on. "But I know you, Rose. I've known you a hell of a lot longer than I've known Lissa. And I know how hard it was on you that your parents were never around. Even though it had nothing to do with you and everything to do with them. And then Lissa's parents died—"

"Ok, enough."

"And you were devastated," he went on as if she hadn't spoken. "But Lissa was so lost in her own grief that she couldn't see yours."

"That wasn't her fault," Rose said, immediately jumping to her friend's defense.

"I'm not saying it was. No one was to blame, Rose. But you're always there when someone needs you. Who's there for you?" Christian wanted to know.

"I don't need anyone," Rose insisted.

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Rose," Christian said doubtfully. "Maybe one day you'll start to believe it."

Rose took a deep breath, trying to rein in her impatience. "I don't understand what all this has to do with the fact that I banged my teacher," she said.

"I'm not surprised, Rose," Christian told her. "This is just going to be another thing that happened to you that you just toss into a box and don't deal with."

"Well it's my box," Rose muttered.

"Your box is overflowing, Rose," he told her.

"What?"

"You don't need to be out banging random strangers," Christian told her.

"That's not any of your business," Rose said angrily.

"It is, Rose," he argued softly. "I've seen you change over these last few years. You keep everything bottled up and you go on like things are OK, but they're not."

Rose was getting more irate with every word he spoke. Who was he to tell her she was changing? For the worse? He'd been one of her best friends, and then when he'd started dating Lissa, she'd hardly seen him at all. "I don't want Lissa to know about this," she said, changing the subject.

"You want me to lie to her?" Christian asked.

"No," Rose said. "If she specifically asks you if I slept with my teacher, you can tell her that I did. But I don't want her to know unless she specifically asks."

"I'm not going to lie to my girlfriend, Rose."

Rose shrugged. "OK. But where are you going to live, Christian?"

"At the apartment," he answered.

Rose's gaze narrowed. "You can't add your name to the lease unless Liss and I both OK it."

"You wouldn't do that to Lissa," Christian said.

"I would if I was really pissed off," Rose told him.

"You're punishing me because I care about you?" he asked.

"If that's how you want to see it," Rose said casually.

Christian laughed humorlessly. "Fine, Rose."

Rose nodded, turning to go.

"I'll call the landlord and see if she has another vacant apartment," Christian said.

"What?" Rose asked in disbelief.

"I'd do a lot of things for you, Rose. But I won't lie to Lissa."

"Fine," Rose ground out. "But I want to be the one to tell her."

"Well, you have plenty of time," Christian said dryly. "I'll be busy looking for an apartment."

Rose reached over and slapped Christian on the back of his head. "Like I'm not going to let you live with us," she said.

Christian's eyes widened. "You had me convinced."

Rose grinned a she nodded her head. "I do a good bitch," she agreed.

"Rose—"

"You can live with us, but…no more of this…emotional chatty shit," she told him determinedly. "I don't like it."

Christian nodded. "Got it."