Wow, thanks for the awesome reviews :) I'm glad you guys liked the first chapter. I just want to clarify that everyone is human in my story, but you probably already figured that out. I've tweaked the characters a bit so that they seem more human, as you'll see when I mention Dimitri's height. Now let's see what happens next…

Anthony shot straight up out of his chair. "Rose?! What are you doing here?"

I looked at him, incredulous. Oh my God, I thought. I got a creeper. I should've known he was too good to be true. "No, what are you doing here? Did you follow me?"

"Excuse me? Follow you? Why would I have followed you here?" he asked.

Shit. That's right, because I'd told him I was eighteen, I'd also told him that I was in my freshman year of college. Quick, Rose, change the subject. "Never mind that. Why does it say you're name is Dimitri out there?"

The corners of his mouth turned down into a small frown, but he quickly masked it. I'm not the only one who's been lying… He took a deep breath. "Why don't you sit down over here?" he said, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. It was the wooden one, but, at this point, I didn't care.

I took a moment to study him before sitting down. He was about six feet and two inches tall, which meant there was a lot of him to take in. His almost-shoulder-length brown hair was tied back at the nape of his neck. I'd never seen it this way before. I remembered running my fingers through it when we'd been making out, wondering how he'd gotten it to be so soft.

He was wearing black slacks and a button-down white shirt, but there was also a black coat on the back of his chair. Even though his shirt was long sleeved, I could still see some of his muscles through it. His muscles weren't bulky, just toned, which was one of the things that had attracted me to him in the first place.

Okay, so I had totally dumbed my summer experience with Anthony down for Lissa. Sure, we'd started the summer just getting together and occasionally making out, but I had developed feelings for him over the three months we spent on the Shore. I still had no idea how exactly he felt about me, making my heart race even faster as I sat down.

"Why don't we start with you telling me what it is you're doing here exactly?" he asked, giving me his full attention. I noticed he had a notebook and pen in front of him, like he was getting ready to take notes. But those were forgotten at the moment.

I shook my head. "I'd actually like to start with why it says your name is Dimitri out there."

He sighed. "My name is Dimitri. I told you my name was Anthony because…well, long story short, I didn't think I'd ever see you again."

"How did you get your friends to all go along with it? They called you Anthony, too."

"Well, it's kind of a game we play. Each summer, we go on vacation. So we like to each give someone we've never met before a fake name. I picked you this summer."

I felt the overwhelming need to come around the desk and smack him, but I managed to control myself. "I…don't know what to say."

"I'm sorry." He started to put his hand over mine, but stopped himself. "If I'd known we were going to be spending so much time together, I wouldn't have picked you."

I glared at him. "Did it not occur to you that you could tell me your real name at any other time? Say, after the first week we spent together?"

He kept calm. "Again, I'm sorry. There's not much else I can say." He paused for a moment. "It's my turn to ask a question: why are you here?"

"Uh…" My heart started to race and I had butterflies in my stomach. I had to think of something, anything, to tell him, other than the truth. But no matter what I told him, as the school's counselor, he'd have access to my school records. All of my information was there, including my age. I had two choices: lie my ass off in the hopes that I could talk my mom into moving immediately, or tell the truth and hope that…Dimitri…didn't hate me.

I cast my eyes down. "I go to school here."

Because I was looking down, I couldn't see his reaction. But I was trying my best to picture it in my head, and it wasn't pretty. I waited for him to yell at me, tell me to leave, or do something equally horrible, but there was nothing but silence.

When I looked up, I realized that Dimitri would do none of those things. His face gave nothing away, but I knew he was upset. Over the summer, I'd realized that I could read how he was feeling pretty quickly, and that he could do the same with me. It was one of those things that made me think we should be more than make out buddies, that we had a connection. But clearly that wasn't going to happen, especially now.

He cleared his throat. "You're in your senior year?" I nodded. "And you're eighteen, right?"

Oh, God… I knew that everything we'd had over the summer was going to disappear with my next two words. "I'm seventeen."

[BREAK]

I was walking to my third period class – Government – when I ran into Lissa. She was crying again. I grabbed her arm. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Lissa's eyes went wide. "You mean, you still don't know? The counselor was supposed to tell you…"

My heart sank down into my stomach. "Yeah, uh, we didn't get to talk about whatever it was he was supposed to tell me." I considered telling her about Anthony actually being the counselor, and that his name wasn't Anthony at all, but figured that it wasn't a conversation that needed to happen in the school hallway. "He wanted to get to know me first." That technically wasn't a lie. "He sent me back to class and told me to come back after lunch."

It was true. As soon as I'd told him how old I was, he told me we were done and shooed me out. I made it to my second period class ten minutes before the bell rang, but no one was talking and there wasn't even a lesson, so I just went through my and Dimitri's conversation again and again. Right before the bell rang, an office aid brought me a note from Dimitri saying to come by his office again after lunch.

Lissa shook her head. "Look, I'm just going to tell you. Your parents wanted me to keep this from you until you talked to the counselor about it, but I can't hide it from you anymore. Last night, there was an accident…"

Lissa kept explaining, but I wasn't listening. As soon as she said there'd been an accident, it was like my mind snapped itself back together. The walls that had crumbled so effortlessly last night came back up and I remembered everything.

"Rose?" Lissa took me into her arms. "I'm so sorry for keeping it from you. But they said you'd forgotten for a reason and that telling you might hurt you in the long run."

I shook my head, tears finally falling as I did. "How could I forget something like that? How is that even possible? I forgot that one of my…" I forgot that one of my best friends died. I couldn't talk anymore. I was crushed.

Lissa just held me and kept everyone else walking in the hallway away from us. "Look, why don't we call your parents to come get you?"

"No." I stood up, wiping tears out of my eyes. "I can't leave without seeing… Eddie! Where is he? Is he okay?"

"He stayed home today. I don't think he's coming tomorrow, either. Mia, Christian, and I were going to go by his house after school. Do you want to come?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, I think –"

I was cut off by a teacher I'd never met before. She must have been new. "Excuse me, girls. If you need to talk, the counselor is available. If not, I'm afraid you really must get to class." The teacher was pretty. She had fair skin and bright blue eyes. Her hair was honey colored and came down just past her shoulders.

"No, I'm okay." I said, wiping my eyes once more. The last thing I needed was to see Dimitri again. "We'll go to class."

"Are you sure?" the teacher asked, concerned.

I nodded and Lissa agreed, "We'll both be okay. Thanks, anyway, Ms. Amos."

"Alright then. Remember, the counselor is in his office if you need to talk." She turned around, so we started to walk, too. Until we heard her say, "And girls?"

"Yes?" Lissa and I said in unison.

"I'm very sorry for your loss."

[BREAK]

My third class period went by uneventfully. I tuned my teacher's lesson out, thinking back on last night. It amazed me how easily my mind erased things from my memory. I still couldn't remember everything, but I had bits and pieces.

I remembered that Mason had been shot in a hunting accident when he was out with Eddie. I remembered Mason's parents being upset and then just knowing that Mason was…dead. I knew there were some things that had slipped through the cracks, but I didn't want to think too hard on it. I feared that I would remember something that would just be too much and break down.

None of us said much at lunch. I sat down on the other side of the table than usual so I could comfort Mia while Christian comforted Lissa. I picked at the nachos we were having for lunch, mostly just moving them around my plate. Every now and then someone would come up to our table and tell us how sorry they were.

"So we'll meet up at the front of the school after the last bell?" Christian asked me, Lissa, and Mia.

Lissa nodded before turning to Mia. "Rose and I have last period together. You're in Mr. Martinez's class, right?" Mia nodded. "Then just wait for us outside his classroom. We have to go by it to get to the school's entrance anyway."

"Christian, what class do you have?" I asked.

"Rose?"

I turned around and saw Dimitri standing right outside the secretary's office. He was looking at me expectantly. "Shit, that's right." I mumbled to myself before turning to my friends. "I have to go see…Mr. Belikov. I'll see you guys later."

Dimitri said nothing as we walked to his office. As we walked through his waiting room, I noticed that there wasn't anyone there. That struck me as odd since there'd been a death at the school.

I voiced my thoughts as we sat down in his office. "I've seen most of the students who needed to talk already. Mason had a lot of people who cared about him." he answered.

I looked down. "Yeah. He did." I don't think I realized just how much I cared about Mason until then. The thought that I would never see him again twisted my heart and made it ache. A memory suddenly flashed through my mind.

"It's so unfair!" I'd yelled. I was in my room with Lissa, Mason, and Mia. Christian was at his house, getting ready, and Eddie was going to meet us at the school after his dentist appointment. "You set off one little smoke bomb in the girls bathroom and they hold it over you for life."

Lissa laughed. "I don't think I'd call a smoke bomb that filled the whole hallway 'little'."

I glared at her. "You're missing the point. That smoke bomb is costing me my sophomore prom!"

My parents and the school decided that the most proper punishment for me was forbidding me to go to our prom. From what I'd heard, most schools only had a senior prom, but our school had a prom for each grade.

"Rose," began Mia, "it's not going to be a lot of fun. We're just going to be drinking punch that's way too sweet and dancing to way too many slow songs."

"Yeah, you wouldn't have any fun without a date." Lissa laughed. Just then her phone went off. She stepped out in the hall to answer it.

I sighed and flopped onto my bed. "It'd be fun if I went with you guys."

Mason laughed and touched my arm. "Rose, I think you setting off that smoke bomb was more fun than the dance will be."

I looked up at him and smiled. That was one of the things I loved about Mason; he had a wild streak. He was usually a little shy and reserved, but if I told him I was cutting class or sticking a frog in someone's locker, he was front and center. "Thank you for acknowledging my awesomeness."

He blushed a little, his smile growing wider as he did, showing off a dimple in his chin. "Hard not to." He shrugged.

"Uh…" I looked over at Mia, who was looking back and forth between me and Mason. "I'm gonna go see if Lissa's ready yet." She got up and left without giving us another glance.

I sighed again. "It's still not fair…"

"If you want, I can stay here. We can hang out tonight." Mason suggested, shrugging.

"You'd miss the dance to sit around with me and watch TV?" I asked, skeptically.

He shrugged again. "It'd probably be more fun than going to the dance. We could rent a couple movies and play some video games. If you want, that is."

I hopped up off my bed and threw my arms around him. "Thanks, Mason. You're the best!"

"Rose? Are you okay?"

Dimitri's voice brought me back to the present. I felt the prickling sensation in my eyes that told me I was going to cry. I could still feel how warm Mason had felt when I hugged him. I took a deep breath and looked up at Dimitri…and the way he was looking at me made yet another memory surface.

"Damn." I muttered, looking at my knee. I'd been walking down the path from the backdoor of our rented beach house to the beach. The path was made out of stones, one of which I tripped on at the bottom of the path. I'd fallen and cut open my knee.

I sat down in the sand, brushing the dirt and rubble carefully off my knee.

"Rose? Are you okay?" I looked up and into Anthony's eyes. I wanted to say that I was fine, but the words were stuck in my throat. I could tell he was genuinely concerned for me.

Just like he was now. "Yeah, I…" I scanned Dimitri's face, looking for a sign that told me how he felt about me, but got none. No, that wasn't exactly true. I'd been looking for a sign that he hated me. In my mind, there was no way that he could ever feel the same way about me again. But the way he was looking at me said something completely different.

"No." I finally admitted. "I'm not okay. I just lost one of…one of my best friends."

"I'm sorry, Rose. From what I understand, Mason was a pretty great young man."

I nodded. "Yeah, he was. One of the greatest."

Dimitri grabbed his notebook and pen. "Could you tell me what happened last night, from your perspective?"

Oh. I'd been completely oblivious to what was actually going on here. Dimitri wasn't concerned for me because he still liked me; he was concerned because it was his job to be concerned. Yeah, that hurt a little.

So I launched into the events of last night, stumbling every now and then. Dimitri was actually a pretty good counselor. He helped me remember some details that I'd forgotten and given me advice on how to continue to regain the memories I'd lost. For a while, he just let me talk. If it had been anyone else in front of me, I wouldn't have been so open. But things just felt…comfortable with Dimitri. I knew him – well, for the most part, I did.

At last, Dimitri put his notebook down and said, "All right. I think that's enough for today."

I nodded. "Thanks for the talk. It helped."

He gave me a small smile. "That's my job, Rose. But you're welcome."

I smiled back at him, but quickly stopped when I remembered what had happened that morning. "Hey, um, about us…"

"There is no 'us'." he said, quickly. And then, "I mean, other than me being your counselor and you being my client."

I nodded. "Of course. Right." But it didn't feel right. I didn't feel right. Between Mason's death and finding out that the guy I liked wasn't who I thought he was, I was a complete mess. But it wasn't like I could talk to Dimitri about himself. I went to stand up, but Dimitri stopped me.

"I'd like to see you the next couple of days." he said, making my heart do a leap in my chest. "I'll put you down for tomorrow at the start of sixth period, that way you won't miss the same classes every day. Is that alright?"

I gave myself a mental slap in the face. It was no mystery that he'd been talking about seeing me in the client/counselor way, not romantically. "Sounds fine."

But it didn't.

[BREAK]

Eddie looked horrible.

We'd all gone to his house as planned after school. His parents hadn't wanted to let us in at first, but they gave in when we told them we just wanted to make sure he was okay. They'd only given us ten minutes to see him, but that was more than enough.

Because Eddie wasn't doing anything. He lay in bed, staring at nothing the whole time we were there. He didn't say a word to any of us or even look at us. As my friends tried to get Eddie to snap out of it, I went to the living room to talk with his parents, Amy and Bob Castile.

"Has he been like this the whole time?" I asked.

Amy looked at Bob, who nodded and took the tray of snacks she'd had in her hands. Every time we'd gone over to Eddie's house, his mom made us snacks as soon as we walked in the door. She was one of the sweetest women I'd ever met and I felt bad for her. It was obvious that she was in misery. She was a great mother to Eddie, so it was no wonder that she was worried to death over him.

"Ever since he got home from the hospital last night. He won't even eat anything." Amy answered me.

I frowned. "Don't worry. Eddie's strong. He'll be back to his old self soon. I think we just need to let him…grieve. And process what's happened."

Bob returned to the room from taking my friends the snacks Amy had handed to him earlier. "I think it'll be easier for him after Mason's funeral."

I felt a stab of pain in my chest. I'd never imagined that I would be going to a close friend's funeral so soon in my life. It wasn't like I was looking forward to going to my friends' funerals when I was older, but it was a reality that I had thought about before.

"Do you know when his funeral is going to be?" I asked.

"They're having a viewing in the auditorium after school on Friday and the actual funeral will be at Tucker's Funeral Home Saturday morning. I'm surprised Rebecka and David got things together so fast after…" Amy didn't have to finish. We all knew what she meant.

Bob wrapped his arm around his wife. "I don't know if it's true or not – you know how gossip is in this town – but I heard that Patty and Sid are in town and that they're the ones who planned the funeral."

My confusion must have been obvious because Amy looked at me and said, "Mason's grandparents." She turned back to her husband. "I hope they don't stay too long, if it's true. Those two…"

"I know." This time, Bob clarified for me. "Patty and Sid have a pretty bad reputation. I heard about Rebecka's outburst at the hospital…" Bob's jaw tightened. He was mad and I didn't blame him. Rebecka's "outburst" had been directed at Eddie. "Let's just say that Patty and Sid were the one's she got her attitude from. They all shoot first and ask questions later."

I grimaced at his use of "shoot", but neither of Eddie's parents noticed. "I'm going to check on Eddie and then we'll let him…rest."

They nodded and let me go. Eddie was in the exact same position, staring at the exact same spot on the wall. "Anything?" I asked my friends, but it was more directed at Lissa.

"Nope. He hasn't moved a muscle." Christian told me.

"You know, he probably doesn't appreciate us talking about him like he isn't here." Mia interjected.

Christian shook his head. "Well, it's not like he's protesting."

With that, Mia and Christian got into a debate on what type of conversations are appropriate to use around Eddie and what aren't. But I wasn't listening. I was too focused on Lissa.

She was holding Eddie's hand and had a hard look of concentration on her face. I sat down next to her and that was when I noticed she was sweating. I put my hand on her shoulder and, without saying a word, she let go of his hand and sighed.

"I think it's time we went on our way." I told everyone and they all agreed.

We walked back to the school, which was the midpoint between everyone's houses.

"I'm going to head home. I don't really feel like hanging out tonight." Mia told us, her sadness written all over her face.

I nodded and stepped forward to give her a hug. It lasted a little longer than our usual ones. "Call us if you need anything, alright?"

She agreed, giving Lissa and Christian hugs before going on her way.

"You wanna go to my house?" Christian asked Lissa.

She glanced at me and we made eye contact for a moment, but that was all it took. We'd joked about how we were so close, we might as well be sisters, and right then it felt more true than ever. "Actually, I'm going over to Rose's house for dinner. I'll come by after, though, if it's okay with Tasha."

Tasha was Christian's aunt. She'd been taking care of him ever since his parents died in a car crash when he was little. We all liked Tasha, but even Christian would admit that she was a little promiscuous.

Christian shrugged. "I doubt she'll have a problem with it. She has a date tonight."

Lissa smiled and rolled her eyes. "I guess that means she won't be home until late, huh?"

Christian reached forward and wrapped an arm around Lissa's waist, pulling her close. "Yep. And she'll be a little preoccupied anyway." His voice now had a husky edge to it.

Lissa lifted her face up to his and they kissed. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with the two of them kissing, but when they're this close to tying their tongues together, I don't want to see it.

I grabbed Lissa and pulled her away from Christian. "Lissa, he's trying to take your soul! Don't look into his eyes! Turn around and run. Run!"

Lissa giggled and jogged toward the road, pretending to be afraid. "Ha ha, Rose. Very funny. I'm sure if Mason – "

The fun mood was immediately replaced with a dark one. I was pretty sure Christian was going to say something along the lines of, "If Mason were here, he'd put you in your place". He'd always teased me about Mason liking me, and I figured it had just slipped his mind that Mason…was no longer with us.

"I'm so sorry. I-I forgot." Christian quickly apologized.

I shook my head. "No, it's okay. I wish I could forget sometimes."

Lissa made it back to us then. "I'll call you when dinner's over at Rose's. I love you."

"I love you, too." he replied to her. And then to me he said, "Sorry, again. I'll see you later, Rose."

[BREAK]

Lissa didn't call Christian right after dinner like she'd said she would. Instead, we went upstairs to my room to talk. That was the whole point of her coming over in the first place. She sat on my bed automatically, she was so used to coming over.

"So…?" I said, closing my door behind me. "What did you find out?"

In eighth grade, Lissa had started to act weird. There were times when she would freak out at school for apparently no reason, running to the bathroom without getting permission first. She'd stare into space, sometimes when she was in the middle of a sentence, and start mumbling incoherent nonsense. When I asked her about it, she said she was fine and that she'd spoken with her parents about it, who were going to take her to the doctor. But she'd been lying to me.

It wasn't until I went over to her house one day when her parents weren't home that she finally told me what was really going on. I'd gone up to her room to find her face down on the ground. I freaked and ran off to find her brother so he could do something. He was a couple years older than us, so I figured he would know what to do in that situation.

We were in the process of trying to get her up on the bed when she woke up. She started going on and on about darkness and thoughts. After about five minutes, she started insisting that she was fine and Andre believed her. I didn't. I grilled her for an hour, telling her that whatever it was she was hiding would probably be easier to handle if she had someone to talk to. She made me promise over and over that I wouldn't say a word to anyone, especially her parents, if she told me what was going on.

Once I'd promised at least fifty times, she told me that she thought she was psychic. She told me that when she first started noticing something weird was going on, she thought she was sick because she kept getting really hot and then really cold. But then she started to feel these weird, tingling sensations all throughout her body, so she knew it wasn't sickness.

She told me that she'd been having dreams that were coming true, but she never knew when they would happen or if they were important or not. One time she dreamt about Maxine Brown's death – she died of natural causes, being 102 years old, the oldest person in our town – two weeks before it happened. Another time she dreamt of me giving a popsicle to a five-year-old girl – I was going to eat it, but she was so sweet when she asked if she could have it that I couldn't resist – the night before it happened.

She started writing all her dreams down, going back and marking the ones that came true with a star on the top of the page. She showed them to me that night. I remembered some of them, but weren't there for most. I'd thought that was all she was going to tell me, but I was sadly mistaken.

It turned out that Lissa could…feel things. It would happen to her spontaneously, taking a lot of energy out of her when it did. She could feel how people around her felt, but most of the time it only happened when it was a really strong emotion. When I found her on the ground, it was because she'd been feeling the grief of her neighbors next door. The grandma of the family had just died, so Lissa was taking in the grief of four different people constantly. It'd drained her.

For a while, things stayed like that. Liss and I tried to figure out what exactly was going on, but we never got anywhere. I tried to get her to go to her parents about it, but she refused. Finally, she agreed to tell Andre. She told me that if Andre believed her, then she would tell her parents. It turned out that she'd made the right decision to tell Andre first because that was when we found out people would think she was crazy if they found out the truth. It had taken some serious fast talking to get Andre to keep the news from their parents.

We kept her abilities a secret from the rest of our friends, thinking they'd also think she was crazy if they found out. It was getting harder and harder to keep it from them because Lissa was always being bombarded with other people's emotions.

Then we did some experimenting. I had Lissa try her hardest to feel my emotions, even though I wasn't feeling a strong emotion. We'd been trying for an hour when an idea finally occurred to me. Without saying a word, I grabbed Lissa's hand while she was trying to feel my emotions. Her eyes snapped open when I did. She'd felt my emotions.

Since then, we knew that she had to touch someone if she really wanted to know what they were feeling. She'd also learned how to shut other emotions out. But the biggest thing we learned was that if she was running low on energy from reading people, she could take some of mine. Well, she could take some of anyone's, but she didn't feel right taking people's energy without permission. Weird, right?

"It was weird…" Lissa answered. "I could feel his emotions, but it was also like…"

I sighed. When it came to her…well, powers, I guess, she had a hard time finding the words to explain to me what happened. "Like…?"

She looked up at me. "Like I could see into his mind. It wasn't clear, but that's what I felt like I was doing. Every now and then, a thought would pop into my mind, out of nowhere. They weren't clear, like the message was getting distorted when it passed from Eddie to me. I hadn't even known they were Eddie's thoughts, until I heard his voice."

"You heard him?" I asked, astonished.

She nodded. "Yeah. It was like he was speaking right to my mind. He's devastated, but that's no surprise. It's nothing…too serious. I think he just needs some time."

"That makes sense." I sat down on my bed next to her. "How are you feeling?"

"A little tired, but it's nothing sleep can't handle."

I held out my hands. When she shook her head, I told her, "I don't mind. Really. Besides, I'm going straight to bed when you leave and you're going to Christian's, so…" She still looked hesitant, so I added, "It's fine. Go ahead."

I could tell she didn't like it, but she grabbed my hands and focused. I felt a tingling start on the top of my head and make its way to my feet. I was suddenly hot and felt a sweat break out on my forehead. As soon as Lissa let go, I felt my body sag, exhausted.

"Thanks, Rose." Lissa told me. "Now get into bed. I'll see you tomorrow."

I smiled. Lissa looked much better than before. I couldn't believe that I hadn't even noticed the bags she'd had under her eyes. "Bye," I called as she left my room.

I changed into some pajamas, brushed my teeth, and climbed into bed. I was glad that my teachers had given me a break with homework because there was no way I'd be able to get it done if I had it. Turning on my side, I let my mind wander.

The first thing it came across was Dimitri. I was still shocked that he'd ended up here and that he'd lied to me about his name. I couldn't really say much, though, because I'd lied about something much more important. If anyone ever found out about our relationship over the summer…well, it wouldn't be good.

I was torn. Part of me was happy that Dimitri was here. I'd been upset toward the end of summer because I figured I'd never see him again, so the fact that he was in the same town as me had me floating on cloud nine. But another part of me was dreading tomorrow. Not only did he now know that I was a minor, but he was also now my guidance counselor. He'd also made it very clear that there was no "us".

I thought back to our last night together at the Shore.

I was wrapped in "Anthony's" strong arms, watching the sunset. There was a melancholy feel to the evening, making me feel bitter sweet. I was happy to be in Anthony's arms, but deflated that tonight was the last time I'd get to see him.

"You have the most beautiful hair…" he'd whispered to me, taking a strand in his hand. "Especially at sunset, when you can see all the different colors in it."

I smiled. "Really? What colors do you see?"

"It's mostly brown, but there's some red and a few parts look a little blonde…"

I turned around, still in his arms but now facing him. "You're lying. I am not, nor will I ever be, blonde. I don't think it'd look good on me."

He ran a hand through my hair and shook his head. "I think anything would look good on you."

I blushed, but tried to hide it by saying, "What if I wore a trash bag? You think I'd have the whole hot-hobo look going on?"

"Touché." He laughed, but it was short-lived. His face fell and he sighed. "I wish this wasn't our last night together."

"Hey, don't go getting all serious on me tonight. This is our last time to have some fun."

"You're right." He looked around. "Come on. I have an idea."

We got up and ran to the beach house he and his friends had been renting. "You're idea is to go back in the house?" I asked, as he opened the door.

He laughed. "No, my idea is to have the whole house to ourselves while my roommates are still on the beach."

"You know that won't last long."

"That's why we have to take advantage of the situation before it passes us by."

With that, he led me into his room. I started to walk to his bed as he closed the door, but he grabbed my hand and pulled me back…right into his arms. His lips found mine as his hands went to my hips. I wrapped my arms around his neck, trying to pull him closer to me even though that wasn't possible. There was no space between us now.

He turned, pushing me up against the wall. He took my hands from around his neck and pinned them to the wall as well. His mouth moved to my neck, where he left a trail of kisses up to my ear. "Wanna move to the bed?" he breathed. I nodded.

He picked me up and, in seconds, we were on the bed. He was on top of me, but that wasn't the way I wanted it, so I rolled over. With me on top, it was my turn to pin him down. I grabbed his wrists and brought them up above his head. "Don't. Move." I whispered. He let out a low moan in response.

I sat back up and took off my shirt. A rush went through me when I looked down and saw the expression on his face. Total awe. I took his hands and put them on my sides. "You're allowed to roam." I assured him when I saw he was surprised I'd put his hands there.

He moved his fingers across my skin and a shiver went through my body. "Oh, Roza…" he whispered.

Looking at him right then, seeing the ravenous expression on his face, hearing the way he said my name…it all made me want him. I'd made up my mind. I didn't care that I probably wouldn't ever see him again, it didn't matter. All that mattered was that I wanted him and he wanted me. Oh, and he wanted me.

I reached for him, making him sit up. As I went for the bottom of his shirt, he reached down and took it off swiftly, already knowing what I wanted. I ran my fingers along his chest, loving the feel of his skin.

Without any warning, he rolled over so that he was on top of me again. If I hadn't already known he wanted me, I would have then by the bulge I felt between his legs. I rolled my hips, making him moan as our most sensitive spots came together. He bent down and began kissing me again.

"Hey, uh, Anthony!"

"Anthony" sat up and groaned as someone proceeded to bang on his door. "What?!"

"Sun just went down. We're about to set off the fireworks. Come on."

I looked at him and he looked at me. His eyes roamed all over my body. A few more moments passed as he decided what he wanted to do – and I suspected he wanted to stay inside with me, if you get my drift – when someone knocked again.

"Coming!" he yelled before sighing. "They aren't going to stop until I get out there." he told me.

I nodded, feeling rejected, even though I knew that wasn't the case. "Okay." I said, trying not to let my voice waver. I'd just grabbed my shirt when he brought me back down to the bed.

"It's not…that…I don't…want to." he said, in between the kisses he was leaving on my neck and chest.

I nodded. "I know, it's just – "

"I get it." He got up and pulled his shirt back on. "I feel the same way right now."

Once we were both dressed, we headed outside. Before we got to the group, though, he pulled me to him. "Maybe we can sneak away later…"

Little did he know that that would never happen.

I turned into my pillow, squeezing my eyes shut. I wished that memory would just go away, like the memories of –

I opened my eyes. I couldn't believe it. How had I forgotten Mason? How could I lay here, thinking of Dimitri and how I wished things weren't so complicated when Mason was dead? Especially when Mason himself had had a crush on me that I couldn't return?

This time I didn't squeeze my eyes shut. I let the tears come. I sat there crying, thinking the same thing over and over again – I'm the worst friend in the world, why did this have to happen, why couldn't it be me instead – until I fell asleep.

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