Chapter 3

"A Moment, a Love, a Dream Aloud"

"This is Sebastian. He'll be visiting with us from the French pride." Valentina said, patting him on the shoulder. He was easily 6' 2" or 6' 3". He had green eyes, brown hair, and fair skin. Jasmine, Chloe, and Natalia all had their eyes glued to him, and Alek just scoffed at the way they were acting. Another male Mai was definitely not what he needed when he had feelings for Nat. "I'm sure that you'll be welcomed here." She smiled at him.

"I'm very sure that I will." He flashed a smile at Nat, taking her hand in his. "Mon chère, mademoiselle." He kissed the top of her hand, and Alek swore that he would have punched him right in the face if there weren't so many people. Sebastian could sense that he wasn't being well-received by somebody.

"You're very sweet." She laughed, obviously being extremely smitten by his charms. "I'm Natalia." She couldn't help but hear Alek scoff from behind her. He was constantly getting on her nerves, and she didn't think that he was going to stop any time soon.

"Natalia, I would ask you to the cinema if you were not already taken." He let go of her hand, looking up at Alek. Sebastian wasn't intimidated easily, but the looks that Alek was giving him made him think twice about his actions. Competition over a mate was most definitely something that was dangerous.

"Oh, I'm not taken! I'm very, very, very un-taken, actually." She stepped on Alek's foot, and he cringed. Nat didn't know what he was pulling, but she didn't like it at all. "He isn't my boyfriend." Somehow, people always thought that. She didn't like it when he followed her around, but it was something that she had to deal with.

"In that case, it would be an honor to escort you to the cinema if it pleases you." His green eyes glittered, and Nat could swear that her knees were beginning to buckle under her. What was it about the French? Was it their accents? Was it their tendency to be old romantics? She didn't care.

"Don't say yes, don't say yes." Alek pleaded with her inside his head. This couldn't happen. It couldn't. All he needed was some more time to prove to her that he wasn't a jerk all the time. It was getting harder to hide his feelings with every day that passed.

"I would love to go."

"Mon chère, mademoiselle." Alek mimicked Sebastian's accent mockingly, walking around Chloe's room. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "He thinks he's so charming! You know what? I don't buy it! I think he's hiding something!" Alek hated him with the intense fire of a thousand suns. He couldn't stand anything about the French Mai. The only thing he was good for was going back home.

"I think you're hiding something, too." A coy smile appeared on Chloe's lips as she closed her laptop. "You're jealous." Alek crossed his arms over his chest, turning to face her. He couldn't hide it from her, and he knew that it was a waste of his time to try. After all, it wasn't like he didn't get jealous, because he did. He just tried to act like it didn't bother him.

"The way he acts around her just makes me want to punch the look off his stupid French face!" He was so angry he didn't know what other terms to use besides "stupid French face". You know what? Maybe "punch" wasn't the right word. More like snap his neck. But then again, he knew that getting in a fight with another Mai was something that wasn't well-received by the others. They were already being hunted down, and they didn't need more problems on their hands.

"Look, Alek. All you have to do is tell her how you feel." Chloe shrugged. There, problem solved.

"Wow! Why didn't I think of that?" Alek grinned, laughing. But then his smile turned into an incredible scowl, and he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Oh, right. Because I don't want to look like an asshat." He rolled his eyes. How was this Uniter thing going to work if she couldn't even deal with a relationship problem? Chloe groaned, falling back onto her bed.

"Why don't you just wait it out, then? It isn't like they're going to get married or anything." Chloe mumbled. He shot her an incredulous look, and she realized that she had made an incredibly stupid mistake. "I'm sorry! Jeez!" He sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was beginning to regret asking her for advice. He made a mental note to never do it again.

Alek's phone buzzed, and he plucked it from his pocket. It was a text message from Jasmine. "Jasmine's going to be here in a minute or two. Time for me to go." He was glad that this conversation was over. Talking to Chloe had only made him feel worse about the whole ordeal. He put his foot on her windowsill, using it as leverage when he jumped out.

He landed on the ground with a slight thump, and he decided to walk into town to get his mind off things. When he neared the coffee shop, he saw Natalia sitting across from somebody. He used his hearing to narrow in on the other person's voice, only to find the voice speaking English with a French accent. Sebastian.

Would Alek ever get a break? The one girl that he had actual, genuine feelings for just happens to get with another Mai? He tried to reevaluate how he felt more than once, and he knew that the way he felt something in his chest when she was around wasn't going away. When she was with Sebastian, he felt sick to his stomach. Normally, he didn't care what people thought of him, but with Natalia, it was everything. He wanted her to know how much he cared about her. He wanted her to know that he could be a real person, and that his sarcasm and over-confidence wasn't all that was left of him.

Because if she was with him, it was because she wanted to. Not because she was forced to because there was nobody else. But now that there was somebody else, he had to fight for her to notice that he was still around. He didn't want her to want him to disappear.
He wanted to be there for her.

He just stood on the sidewalk, looking at how happy she was with him. He didn't know if he could make that happen, but he was going to do his best to try. For the first time in his life, Alek Petrov felt invisible to someone. He couldn't understand the feeling at first, but when he saw her laugh, he knew that it was there. She wasn't his, and now it didn't look like she was ever going to be. Suddenly, she looked up, and her eyes met his.

But when she blinked, he was gone.

OH MY GOD THE NINE LIVES SUMMER FINALE PULLED ME IN SO MANY DIRECTIONS

But on a sidenote: I think this chapter is kind of short, and I'm sorry about that. :(

REVIEW!