Thank you for all the amazing reviews/favs/follows! I'm really glad you enjoyed that last chapter. It was a lot of fun writing it, too. You're all way too awesome! :) Well, here we go. Also, I'm going to put these lines in here to separate my notes from the story just so that it'll be a little easier to read.

I bounced up and down in my seat, my heart racing. I felt like every muscle in my body would melt from the tension that was coiled inside of me. What are we going to do? I thought desperately. I'd just gotten Dimitri back! There was no way I was going to lose him again, especially after what had just happened.

I stared out the passenger's side window of Dimitri's car, wringing my hands together. They were sweaty, but I hardly noticed. We'd come up with a plan to tell my parents – a plan I'd texted to Liss so she could cover for us – but we didn't know if it would work or not.

"Relax, Rose." Dimitri told me, eyes on the road. We were dangerously close to my house now. "Everything is going to be okay."

I turned to him, shocked. "How can you say that? We're this close," I gestured with my index finger and thumb, keeping them a couple centimeters apart, "to getting busted! God, I hope Lissa got my text in time."

His face looked grim as he replied. "I'm sure she did…" The look on his face told me he thought otherwise. We were going to have to do a lot of fast talking to get out of this one.

As we pulled up to the curb in front of my house, I felt like I was going to have a panic attack. I told Dimitri so. "I mean, if they find out… You could lose your job. You could go to jail! Your whole life will be ruined!"

He stopped me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You need to listen to me, Roza. Everything will be alright. We won't get in trouble as long as we stick to the plan. Understand?"

"Oh my God, you won't even have a chance to go to jail. The old man will kill you before that happens…"

"Rose!" he exclaimed, putting his other hand on my other shoulder and shaking me gently. "Have you heard a word I've said? We. Will. Be. Okay."

I felt my face turn into a frown, my bottom lip wanting to pucker out a little. "I'm scared, Dimitri. Scared for you, for us. Even if my parents believe us, what's stopping those people who nearly killed me from giving away our secret?"

He shook his head, gazing steadily into my eyes. "I won't let anyone hurt you." It was the only reassurance he could give me.

We got out of the car and up to my house. I grasped the knob, but it wouldn't turn. I pulled my keys out of my bag and put them in the lock, wondering why the door was locked if my parents were home. I soon realized that they weren't home.

I invited Dimitri inside, grabbing my cell phone as I did. I called my mom.

"Rose!" she gasped when she answered. "Where are you?! We came by Lissa's this morning to pick you up, but you weren't here. What happened? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, mom." I assured her. "I'm just not feeling all that great."

"Where are you?! We've been searching everywhere for you!"

I shook my head, gazing at Dimitri's back as he looked at pictures of me growing up on the wall. His touch was even gentle when he was just brushing a picture of me. "I'm at home. Mr. Belikov gave me a lift. I'll explain –"

"We're on our way." she quickly interrupted before hanging up. Nothing to do now but wait.

I walked over to where Dimitri was standing, his hand still on the frame of my picture. It had been taken when I was about four or five years old. I had on blue jeans and a pink jacket. My tennis shoes were white with pink roses all over them because my mom had been obsessed with dressing me in rose-patterned things. I was in the middle of a laugh, my eyes closed.

I actually remembered that day. Not too well, because I was little, but enough to know where we were and what we'd been doing. There was a stream next to me and I was standing in mud, but didn't really care. A huge rock was to my left, woods to the left of that. I sighed, getting Dimitri's attention.

"That was the last trip my parents and I took all together, as a family. We went to Oklahoma, staying in an RV that my dad rented. That stream next to me flows all the way to Texas, even though it looks so small. This was taken right before I'd stepped in a huge mud puddle. It took one of my shoes off when my parents pulled me out and we weren't able to find it again." I laughed, remembering what a fit my mom had thrown.

He looked at it a moment more before turning back to face me. "You were beautiful even then."

I shook my head. "No, I actually think I was much prettier back then than I am now. Everything was so easy then. I hadn't had a care in the world."

"Have you been seeing Mason since the last time we talked?" he asked, snapping me out of my memories.

"I haven't really been paying attention, but no. Every now and then, I catch a faint glimmer of…something in the corner of my eye, but it hasn't been Mason, as far as I know. Actually, it probably is him. Now that I think about it, that glimmer only shows up when I talk about him." I explained.

Speak of the devil. Mason appeared beside Dimitri and I, his form flickering in and out. Dimitri noticed where I was looking and understood immediately. He grabbed my hand for a heartbeat, saying, "I'll just go outside and wait for your parents." But I knew what he really meant. He was giving me time to say goodbye, for good.

"Thank you." I whispered as he turned to leave. I turned to Mason when the door shut. "So, I guess this is goodbye…"

Mason nodded, looking sad. It occurred to me that he only acted and looked the way he did because my mind had made him that way. Sometimes I could be a bitch, even to myself. "Yeah, it is."

"Mase –"

He put his hand up, signaling me to stop. "I already know. I'm really a part of you, remember?"

It was my turn to nod. Tears were prickling in my eyes. "Even so, I wish it didn't have to be this way. Can you just…pretend that you really are him for a minute? Please?"

"I can do anything you want me to." he replied. Without needed me to tell him, he stepped forward and gave me a hug. He didn't feel as warm as he had before, but it didn't matter. Even having an imaginary Mason there was enough. "I love you, Rose. And I'll miss you."

A tear slipped down my cheek, leaving me feeling cold. How had I gone from being so euphoric this morning to so miserable right now? When I heard the sound of a car pulling in our driveway, I broke away from him. "Will you be okay?"

"Who, me?" He winked, giving me a genuine Mason smile this time. "I'll be fine. It's you I'm worried about, with everything that happened. But I can rest easier, knowing you have Belikov to protect you."

I smiled back at him. "That sounds a little like something the real Mason would say."

He shrugged. "Maybe I can channel the real Mason. Who knows?"

"I love you, Mase." I told him, serious again. "I hope I get to see you again someday."

"Oh, I'm sure you will. And when you do, I'll have a lot to say about your new boyfriend."

With one last smirk, Mason faded away for the last time. Another tear slipped down my cheek, but then I heard something that made my heart swell in my chest. If there had been any noise in the house, I probably wouldn't have heard it. "Don't be a pansy…"

I wiped my face, a kind of half-laugh, half-sob escaping my lips. I could now hear my parents in the front yard, talking to Dimitri. My guess was that he was stalling them to give me a little more time. I took in a quick, shaky breath, running to the downstairs bathroom to splash some cold water on my face.

My parents walked in as I came out. When they caught sight of me, they both ran forward, surprising me when they took me in both their arms.

"I am never, ever letting you out of my sight again." the old man told me, his voice stern. That shocked me so much that I couldn't even reply. Hadn't he been saying my mom was babying me this whole time when she did stuff like that?

I finally got my voice back and, in my true nature, gave him a smartass remark. "Hypocrite."

With that, things got back to semi-normal. We all – including Dimitri – sat down at the kitchen table as my parents demanded what happened to me. I caught Dimitri's gaze and he nodded so slightly that only I'd been able to see it. With a deep breath, I launched into the story we'd come up with.

"Well, last night I got sick. I went to bed, hoping I would feel better in the morning, but I didn't. For some reason, I decided to go get breakfast this morning when I woke up. I didn't really think anything of it at the time, probably because I had a bad headache. Oh, and that was another thing I needed, medicine. Lissa was out of pain relievers.

"After that, everything's kind of a blur. I was walking slowly to the donut shop in town because my head had started to pound even harder than before. Before I knew it, everything started to sway. The next thing I knew, I was being woken up by Mr. Belikov."

Dimitri took over. "I'd gone out this morning to go grab the morning paper when I saw Rose laying down in the middle of the sidewalk. I'd thought that maybe she'd gotten hurt again, so I ran over to see if she was okay. She was, but she couldn't think straight. She kept saying something about medicine and how hot she was, so I brought her into my apartment complex and sat her down in the lobby where there was air conditioning.

"I brought her some medicine from my apartment and sat down with her to make sure she was okay. She dozed off every now and then, but the medicine eventually kicked in and she came back to her senses. She'd had no idea how she got there."

My turn again. "I really didn't. It felt like one second, I was outside and the next, I was in some strange building with Mr. Belikov. He explained to me what happened. I think that being sick and the heat made me pass out. After that, he told me that I needed to eat something, so he ran down to the donut shop while I cooled down in the lobby some more. We ate and that's when I got the text from you."

My mom shook her head. "But what about the text you sent me? You said you were okay."

Shit. I'd forgotten about that. Dimitri couldn't save me from this one, but luckily I was thinking on my toes today. I gave her a confused look, which wasn't too hard. "I did? I don't remember…"

Dimitri stepped in. "What time did it say the text was sent?"

My mom grabbed her purse and looked around until she found her phone. She handed it to Dimitri, telling him that she didn't know how the damn thing worked. It was true – my parents had only just now started to learn how to text because of my incident.

"It says that she sent it a little after ten this morning. I found her at almost eleven, so it fits the time frame." Dimitri shrugged.

"Well," my dad began, pouring everyone cups of coffee at the counter. "I can tell you one thing, Rosemarie. You are grounded until further notice."

I snapped my head up to look at him. "Grounded? Why?! I didn't do anything wrong."

My eyes locked with Dimitri's for a split second, but it was long enough for me know what he'd say if we were alone right now. Let it go, that look said. We just got away with it. Being grounded is a small price to pay.

My mom got up to help my dad bring the coffee mugs to the table. "You worried us to death and that is why you're grounded." She turned to Dimitri. "Would you like some milk or sugar? We have creamer as well." Dimitri politely declined and she focused her attention back on me, her face softening. "Sweetheart, this isn't a punishment, so much as it is for your protection. We now know that even sleeping over at Lissa's isn't safe enough."

"But you can't keep me holed up here forever out of fear." I explained, thinking I'd made a really good point.

My dad, apparently, thought otherwise. "No, but we can certainly keep you here until the police find out who tried to kill you."

And with that, I knew this discussion was over and that I was grounded. Indefinitely.

[BREAK]

"Thank you for your hospitality." Dimitri told my parents as he stood in the doorway of our front door.

Everything had worked out alright, except for me being grounded. Lissa got my text, but, fortunately, we didn't really need her to know about our plan. She'd already told my parents that morning that I hadn't been there when she woke up, so it worked out for everyone. She'd told them that she thought I'd already gone home because I was feeling bad the night before. I hadn't talked to her yet, but I wondered if she was gaining some sort of new psychic power.

After the talk with my parents, they'd invited Dimitri to stay for dinner. At first he told them he couldn't stay, but – after their protests, "It's the least we can do for you saving our daughter. Twice." and seeing the look on my face, begging him to stay – he finally told them that he needed to go home and take care of few things before coming back for dinner.

I'd lounged around while he was gone, going down to the kitchen to help my mom prepare lasagna, homemade garlic bread, and salad. When he finally got back, we sat down at the kitchen table and had dinner together for the second time. This time, though, there was no awkwardness. I sat there, looking around my table, thinking that it couldn't get any better than this.

But dinner was over now and he had to go back home.

"It was our pleasure." my mom replied, putting her arm around my dad. "You're welcome to come back anytime."

Dimitri smiled at her, looking genuinely pleased. "Thank you, I'll make sure to keep that in mind. Goodnight." After my parents chorused their goodnights, Dimitri looked straight at me, careful to mask his face. "Goodnight, Rose. I'll see you at school."

"Okay, see you." I replied, trying to sound like I was talking to Fink instead of Dimitri. It must've worked because my parents didn't suspect a thing. "Goodnight."

As soon as the door was shut, my dad murmured, "Alright, I'll admit it. He's one of the good ones."

"Told you." my mom replied with a smile on her face.

I told them that I was going upstairs to do some of my makeup work – they had no idea that I'd already finished it all – and ran off to my room. I listened through the door for a minute or two, trying to determine that they weren't spying on me. When I heard the sound of dishes clanking around, I grabbed my phone and flopped down on my bed, dialing Lissa's number.

She picked up on the first ring. "Oh my God, what happened?!"

I explained everything to her, telling her not to worry about it. When I finally got her to calm down and answered all of her questions, I dropped the bomb on her. "Liss, I got another text from a blocked number, but this time… This time there was a picture attached to it. One of me and Dimitri."

She gasped. "What? How?"

"I don't know." I breathed. Just talking about it scared me half to death. "It was taken outside your gazebo last night, when Dimitri and I were hugging. It looks…really intimate."

"What are you going to do?" Lissa asked.

A small, hysterical laugh rolled up and out of my throat. "Again, I don't know. The message said that we needed to come clean or 'face the consequences'."

She didn't say anything for a moment. "Okay, here's the deal: I think you and Dimitri should spend some time apart. Wait and hear me out before you say anything. If whoever it is notices you two aren't with each other as often – which they will because they're obviously stalking you – they might think that you told your parents and they made you stop seeing each other."

I was going to protest even after she'd said to hear her out, but I stopped, thinking about it. "Actually, that might just work. Liss, you're a genius."

"Tell me something I don't know."

I rolled my eyes, telling her that I had to get off the phone so I could call Dimitri and let him know about the plan. We said our goodbyes and I did as I told her I would.

It came as a shock that Dimitri was even more frustrated than I was when I told him about the plan. "Why do things like this keep happening? It's going to be unbearable being away from you. Especially after…"

He didn't need to finish. Flashes of our time spent together in his bed, our bare skin coming together, flew before my eyes and I sighed. "I know, but it's for the best. And it'll actually be much harder for me than it is for you, though. I have something I need you to do."

"No matter what task you put me on, Roza, it will always be harder on me. What do you need me to do?"

"Well, for starters, we need to cancel our lessons in Helena. We'll still train, we'll just have to do it in the gym or over here at my house. We won't have all that equipment to use, and I'm sorry about wasting your money, but I think this is more important right now." I explained.

I didn't need to see him to know he was nodding. "No, it's alright. You're right about that. Besides, we don't need all of that equipment anyway. I'm going to focus on teaching you hand-to-hand combat from now on. You're already a fast enough runner, so we can forget about running for now."

"Alright. Maybe we can use the track to practice if we can't find anywhere else. Anyway, I'm going to talk to Eddie and Christian, see if they'll help us."

"You aren't going to tell them about us, are you?" Dimitri asked, clearly skeptical.

I rolled my eyes. "Have a little more faith in me, comrade. No, I'm going to tell them what they need to know, that's all. Basically, I'll tell them that I think I'm being followed and that I need their help looking out for anyone acting suspicious. That's also where you come in. Instead of us being actually together, would you mind following me around? You'd have to stay away from me so it doesn't look like we're up to anything, but I thought that if someone is stalking me we could catch them by having someone else stalking me.

"I know, it sounds weird. But if you stay a distance away from me and just watch what's going on around us, you might be able to find out who this is when you notice them following me everywhere." I concluded.

There was a long pause and I actually looked at my phone to make sure it hadn't disconnected. "Hello?" I asked.

There was a mumble before Dimitri answered. "Yes, I'm here. That sounds like a good plan. I'm proud of you, Roza."

"Well, thank you. It's nice to have my genius acknowledged." I stopped when I heard a sound over the phone again. "What are you doing over there?"

He laughed, but it sounded funny. "Sorry, I'm eating." he informed me after a moment of silence.

"Eating?" I asked, confused. "But we just had dinner."

"I know. I'm having cookies."

For some reason, that had me bursting into hysterical giggles. I could hear Dimitri saying something over the phone, but I couldn't tell what he was saying. I was too busy rolling around on my bed. I put the phone to my ear and heard, "…they're delicious…" I burst into laughter again, this time rolling around a little too much because I fell on the floor. I was stunned for a minute, but then began laughing even harder.

"Hey!" I heard my dad yell from my parents' room. "Keep it down in there! I thought you were doing homework!"

I just barely got myself under control enough to yell back, "Sorry! I fell off the bed!"

"You what?" Dimitri asked when I put the phone back to my ear. "Fell off your bed?"

I still had a giant grin on my face as I told him, "Yes. But it's not nearly as funny as you eating cookies as we plan to take down my stalker."

We talked for another half hour – about the plan, us, my stalker…but mostly us and how we would miss being around each other. Reluctantly, I told him that I loved him and had to get to bed. He assured me that he loved me too and wished me sweet dreams before we hung up.

The plan was made. Now, we just had to get it in motion.

[BREAK]

It proved harder than I thought to get the guys to help me out. Christian gave in first, with some help from Lissa. Eddie, on the other hand, didn't like our plan and thought we should go to the police.

"We can't go to the police." I explained to him. "They've already done everything they can. It's up to us, now. If we tell them, they'll probably get someone to stay around me all the time, and my stalker won't stay around if they see that."

Eddie shook his head, exasperated. "I don't know. I feel like if we do this on our own, it has a greater chance of backfiring. If we got the police to help, whoever it is will stop following you, right? They'll get scared and back off."

We were standing in the middle of the foyer in our school. The first bell had already rung and the rest of our friends had gone off to class. I wished Mia had stayed so she could talk some sense into him – she was all in, which surprised me – but she hadn't.

"No, they won't." I was trying not to get too upset with him. "They attacked me in a crowded theater! If the police get involved, they'll just wait around until they get the chance to get me."

I took hold of his hands, making him look me in the eyes. He sighed. "Look, that won't happen. The police know what they're doing. They won't let anything happen to you."

"They already have." I growled. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. "Like I said before, I was attacked again. If the police had been doing their job, that never would have happened."

Just as Eddie looked like he was going to give in, Ms. Amos came up to us, a look of concern on her face. "Is everything alright over here?"

My teeth automatically ground together. Not only had this woman tried to make a move on Dimitri, but now she was interrupting at the crucial moment of our conversation. Standing there, looking at her, I couldn't believe I'd ever liked her.

"We're fine." Eddie assured her, giving her a smile. "We were just about to head to class." He turned to me. "We'll talk later, Rose."

I did nothing but stand there as he left, seriously wishing I could hit that woman in the head.

"Are you okay, Rose?" she asked.

I told her that I was perfectly alright, proud of myself for not actually hitting her, before going off to my locker.

I grumbled to myself the whole way, wishing I could just magically fix all the problems in my life. Most girls my age only had to worry about who they were going to prom with or what color they should dye their hair. Not me, no. I had to worry about a psycho killer coming after me.

I was still mad as I opened my locker. I was one of the last people in the hallway – it was practically deserted – as people scurried off to class, not wanting to be late. When I got my locker completely open, though, all of my anger dissipated. I was suddenly very, very thankful that I was the only one around…

…because there were pictures of me and Dimitri covering the entire inside of my locker. I quickly shut it, not even bothering to get my books out. How had they gotten into my locker? How had they even known which one was mine?! My mind reeled and I suddenly felt like I was going to pass out. I leaned against the lockers for support, taking deep gulps of air. I hadn't noticed the black edge around my vision until it started to disappear.

About three hours later, I was in Dimitri's office, telling him about what happened.

"How did they do it, Dimitri? How could they get in here with all those pictures without a single person seeing?" I asked, desperate.

He thought about it for a minute before speaking. "You're certain that the man who attacked you isn't in school?" When I nodded, he kept going. "Well, then it looks like we're dealing with someone who has connections. They either have a way of getting into the school or got someone to do it for them."

We decided to keep our "sessions" short, so we couldn't talk any longer about it right then. Instead, I hurried to lunch, where I whispered what had happened to Lissa. She did a good job of hiding her emotions, but I could tell that she was scared to death, scared for me.

Eddie finally agreed to help us out with some assistance from Mia. I could tell he didn't like getting involved, so I decided that I would do something special for him to show my appreciation. I told Lissa as much as we walked down the hall to our fourth period class.

"You know how Eddie has wanted that camera for so long?" I asked her.

She pulled some chap stick out of her purse and applied it while nodding. "Yeah, he's been talking nonstop about it for a year. How could I not know that?"

"Well, I was thinking we should put our money together and get it for him."

"How are we going to do that? That camera is, like, a thousand dollars. Our allowances definitely won't cover that." she told me.

"I know," I replied, a smile on my face. "But I have some money saved up from my birthday last year. My mom's friend Natalie gave me seven hundred dollars."

Lissa glanced over at me, skeptical. "That's a lot of money for a friend of your mom to give you."

Before I could answer, I noticed that we'd made it to my locker. Lissa noticed my silence and looked around, probably wondering what had just happened. She lightly reached out and touched my shoulder, but only for a second. I frowned at her. "I thought you said you would only do that when you need to."

She hesitated before answering. "Yeah, I did. I'm sorry. I guess I'm just getting too used to reading your emotions when I don't know what's up with you."

"I've been telling you everything that's going on with me."

She shook her head. "No, you haven't. I only knew about…" She glanced around, making sure no one heard us. "…you know who because I read it from your emotions. That's also how I know – "

Suddenly, Lissa stopped talking. She bit her lip, her eyes going wide. "What?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at her. "What else do you know?"

"Uh…nothing." When I did nothing but stare at her, she continued, crossing her arms over her chest. "Fine, I'll tell you. I know you lied to me the other night. I felt what you did. I don't know how, but I did. And I'm not impressed. With either of you."

I felt the blood rushing into my cheeks. "Liss…"

"I don't want to hear it." she told me in a voice that meant she was serious. She turned to my locker. "Have you been to your locker since you opened it this morning?"

I shook my head. "No, I was too scared. I've been sharing books with people all morning."

"Well, go ahead and show me."

I was going to protest, but she gave me a look that meant she wasn't playing games. I sighed as I motioned for her to come around the side of my locker. I was only going to crack it open for her to see, but when I opened it, there were no pictures. "What the…?"

"I thought you said the pictures were all over the inside of your locker." she whispered.

I grabbed the book I needed for my next class. "They were." I shut my locker. "Someone got into my locker and took them down. So Dimitri was right. Whoever has been tormenting me has someone in the school helping them."

The bell rang then. "Crap. We'll talk later." she told me before running off to class.

[BREAK]

"That was better, but you need to be faster if you actually want to kick someone." Dimitri said as I got back into my guard stance.

We'd been in the gym for the past thirty minutes. Fink gave Dimitri permission to teach me how to defend myself here, as long as the volleyball team wasn't using it. He'd also made me promise – in writing – that I wouldn't use what Dimitri taught me against anyone at school. I honestly couldn't blame him.

I thought that there was no way we'd be able to use the gym because of the volleyball team, but it turned out that they actually only practice in the gym twice a week. The rest of the week, they used a volleyball court at the Hacienda, a country club on the outside of town. I'd talked to Sabrina Belle – the captain of the volleyball team – and she told me that it was a sand court. Her coach wanted them to use that court instead of the one in the gym because it was harder to play on a sand court, therefore making it easier to win their games.

Dimitri was teaching me to do a roundhouse kick. I'd done it what felt like a million times already, but it still wasn't good enough for him. When I was younger, my parents put me in gymnastics, which I hated. I was glad now, though, because it made it easier for me to do the kick. I was actually able to kick higher than my head, but there was still no way I'd be able to kick Dimitri in the head.

"I'm trying!" I exclaimed. I was actually a little peeved that he hadn't noticed how well I was doing, considering we'd only been practicing for a half hour. "It's hard to kick someone when you're so close together. Besides, I'm doing good enough. I could kick someone in the stomach if I needed to."

He stepped away from me. "Yes, but that wouldn't stop them. Kicking them in the head would."

I narrowed my eyes at him. I pulled back and swung my leg around to kick him, failing miserably. Again. "Ugh! Why can't I do this?"

"Because you just started. Go again." he replied, getting into his stance again.

I did. We practiced for another hour before Dimitri finally announced that we were finished and he would take me home.

"I wish I wasn't grounded." I mumbled, slipping into the passenger's side of his car. "I'd get to spend more time with you."

He chuckled, shaking his head. "Yes, but your parents are right. You'll be safer the less time you spend away from your house."

I rolled my eyes. "You just don't want to spend any time with me anymore after we almost got caught."

"Ah, Roza," he sighed, taking my hand in his. "You couldn't be more wrong. After having you at my place…after we made love… Well, my apartment just feels empty without you there."

My insides felt like they were turning to goo. We hadn't had a chance to just be together since we'd had to face my parents. It was harder to be away from him or even think about him after we'd had sex.

After Lissa got with Christian, she'd told me to wait to lose my virginity to someone I loved. She'd lost hers to her on-again, off-again boyfriend, James Holt, a year before she started dating Christian and regretted it. In fact, the main reason they finally broke it off for good was because they'd had sex. Lissa told me that once they'd done it once, it was all James wanted to do afterward.

I was glad I'd taken her advice. Having sex had only made me and Dimitri stronger. Even if we had the chance to have sex again, I didn't think Dimitri would want to all the time. He'd only mentioned it twice – over the phone the night before and just then – and, even then, there had been nothing but love in his tone of voice. He didn't want me because he was horny. He wanted me because he loved me and wanted to show me that. Okay, maybe there was a little lust in there, too.

"Hopefully you won't have to get used to that." I told him, rubbing my fingers along his. "Oh, yeah. I had something I wanted to ask you."

I told him about my plan to get Eddie the camera he'd been wanting. I had nearly eight hundred dollars from my allowance and the money from my birthday. I wasn't lying to Lissa; Natalie really had given me seven hundred dollars. She was a coworker of my mom's. She'd given me that much money on my birthday because she'd – according to my mom – screwed up a sale at work and was trying to get back in my mom's good graces.

"I was wondering if you'd want to pitch in. You don't have to if you don't want to, I just thought I'd let you know about it. All the rest of my friends are going to give me twenty dollars each, which will give me about eight hundred and fifty dollars. I'm going to ask my parents for the rest of the money, but I wanted to know if you're going to pitch in before I told them how much I need." I explained.

He smiled. "Sure, I don't mind helping. Especially if it gets Eddie to help watch over you. Is fifty dollars alright?"

I shook my head. "No, I don't –"

"A hundred?" he interrupted.

"No!" I exclaimed. "More like twenty. Twenty-five at the most."

We'd made it to my house by then and Dimitri put the car in park before answering. "I don't mind giving you more than that."

I started picking up my bag, causing a book to fall out. As I put it back, I told him, "I do mind. You haven't just spent a lot of money on me already. You've also done everything you can to help me when I needed you. That's all I want; for you to be there for me."

"Well, then," he said, voice soft. "I can promise you that I will always be there for you, Roza. I'll also give you twenty-five dollars for Eddie's camera, if that's what you want."

I looked over at him, desperately wanting to wrap him in my arms. "Thank you. I love you so much."

"And I –" He stopped, paying close attention to something outside the car. I looked over, but I didn't see anything. "Do you see that?"

I shook my head. "No… I don't see anything. What is it?"

"Stay here."

He got out of the car and strode over to the sidewalk. Of course, I didn't listen to him. I was behind him before he even knew I was out of the car. The only reason I could even sneak up on him was because he was so focused on…well, whatever it was he saw.

I followed him all the way over to the bushes on the other side of my property. I was sure he still didn't know I was behind him because he never told me to go back to the car. I was just about to ask him what was going on when he reached into the bushes and pulled someone out.

"Adrian?!" I was so shocked that it wouldn't have surprised me if my jaw was on the ground.

"Hey there, young one." Adrian replied, giving me that charming smile of his.

Dimitri turned to me. "You know this guy?"

I nodded. I was going to explain who he was, but Adrian beat me to the punch. "Yeah. Me and Rose party all the time."

I wanted to cringe under Dimitri's stare, but I turned to Adrian instead. "You wish. Adrian gave me and my friends a ride to the club Saturday night."

"You're the culprit." Dimitri told Adrian. I could tell that Dimitri suspected that Adrian was the one I'd kissed by the tone of his voice. I felt like I was going to throw up.

"What are you doing here, Adrian?" I asked.

The whole time we'd been talking I hadn't noticed the shoes in Adrian's hand. They were the ones I'd left in his Jeep. "I was bringing these back to you." he said, holding them up.

"How do you know where I live?" I'd been wondering that since Dimitri pulled him out of the bushes.

Adrian shrugged. "Lissa told me. I went by her house to ask her where you live."

Dimitri looked at Adrian like he was an annoying fly. "Couldn't you give Lissa the shoes to give to Rose later?"

Adrian seemed taken aback by Dimitri's tone, but he answered, "I wanted to see Rose again."

Dimitri was keeping his calm – mostly – but I knew that I should step in. I grabbed Adrian's arm and started pulling him away. "Walk with me to the door?" I gave Dimitri a look that I hoped said, Just give me a minute with him. Alone.

He apparently understood because he walked back to his car as I towed Adrian away.

"So, young one," Adrian began with a smirk on his face. "Why didn't you call me yesterday? I waited around all day and, let me tell you, I don't do that for just anyone."

I rolled my eyes. "I was too busy getting grounded, which is why you have to leave. If my parents see you here, I'll be in a lot of trouble."

"I just got here." he said, wearing a frown. It was the first time I'd seen him anything other than happy. "I drove an entire hour to come see you and now you're shooing me away."

That was when my front door opened. I turned to see my mom looking at us. "Well, hello there. Rose, who is this?" I introduced the two of them, telling my mom that Adrian was a friend that I'd met through Lissa. "It's nice to meet you, Adrian. Would you like to come inside?"

He gave her a charming smile. "I'd love to, but I thought Rose was grounded."

"Oh, she is." my mom told him, smiling right back. "But only from leaving the house. We don't mind having her friends over."

Dimitri then came up behind us, my book bag in his hand. "Hello, Mrs. Hathaway. How are you this evening?"

My mom gave him a huge smile when she saw him. "Oh, hello, Dimitri. I'm doing well. And call me Janine. How did Rose do today?" We'd had to tell my mom that Dimitri was teaching me, but she didn't mind. As long as we were at the school, she didn't really care who taught me.

"Very well, as always. She's a natural."

"I'm glad to hear that. Would you like to come inside, have a cup of coffee?" she asked.

Dimitri, ever so slightly, glanced between me and Adrian. My mom didn't see it, but I saw something flash across Adrian's face. It looked like confusion, but I couldn't be sure because he quickly masked it with a smile at me. "That's very gracious of you. I'd love to."

My mom stepped aside to let the guy I'd made out with, the man that I loved, and me inside the house. God, Mondays suck.

Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up. I had a migraine earlier that I had to sleep off and then I was trying to write and watch Cry's livestream at the same time. If you haven't watched his videos, go to YouTube and search for ChaoticMonki. He's really awesome.

As always, don't forget to review and let me know what you thought of the chapter! I also have more questions for you!

1 – Who do you think is helping Rose's attackers in the school? And…

2 – [THIS ONE IS IMPORTANT] What do YOU want to happen between Adrian and Dimitri? The answer to this question can change what happens in the story DRAMATICALLY, so make sure you tell me what you want.

You can leave a review, PM me, or both if you'd like. Thanks so much!