"I wanna hold you high and steal your pain away
I keep your photograph and I know it serves me well."

Broken – Seether feat Amy Lee

I was primped, pampered and ready for the awards show. I felt a slight tremor of pain when I walked past my mirror on the way to answering the door. I looked good, for the first time in months, but I was a lot skinnier than I used to be. I had lost my curves, and didn't look like myself. My perpetual smirk had gone too, and even now there were dark shadows under my brown eyes, concealed but not completely hidden.

My hair was in a messy bun on the top of my head, pinned up with a green clip that matched my green dress. Lissa had picked it all out because I wasn't really sure what would suit the 'theme' of the evening, and besides, she had been to so many functions like this she was bound to pick something suitable. Not only that, but she had always loved playing dress up with me. I smiled a bit at that. I still had the photo of that infamous Halloween when she somehow convinced me to dress up as a fairy, glitter and all. I faintly remembered her argument '…and really Rose, what's wrong with being a fairy? Hmmm?' She had said it in her stubborn voice, which I knew meant she wouldn't back down, but I had to try at least. 'Nothing Liss, its just….not my thing. You know that. Why don't you go as a fairy, and I'll go as…anything else.' After that she had glared at me until I finally relented and donned the sparkling tutu, wings, socks, and top. Then came the flowered heels that we could barely walk in and voila! I was a fully fledged fairy. I'm not sure who took the picture, but I remember looking at it in shame the next day, as somehow everyone had found a copy. It took me months to live that one down.

I couldn't stop the laugh that erupted out of my mouth at that moment. It had all seemed so serious back then. I had been so angry, so upset at a couple of little jokes about a photo. To me back then, it had seemed like the end of the world, but now I would happily take that humiliation over what my life had become now. I would give anything to be that Rose again, the 15 year old girl who punched a girl in the face after she commented on the picture. The Rose who spent 2 hours straightening her hair to impress Jesse Zeklos. The Rose who stole a bottle of vodka from Mr Nagy and held an impromptu party out in the woods.

It seemed like a lifetime ago.

I checked myself in the mirror one last time, taking in the green of the dress, which contrasted perfectly with my dark hair and brown eyes. I slid my feet into the heels laying by the door, a relic of my former party girl style, and opened the door, expecting to find Lissa there, ready and waiting.

It wasn't Lissa.

"Hello little dhampir. Long time no see."

It was Adrian.

He was dressed in a tux, with the shirt undone a few buttons, and the bright green tie that matched his eyes perfectly was loosened. He looked every inch the royal Moroi playboy he really was. The haze of those goddamned cigarettes he smoked floated around his head, almost as if it was a halo. It gave him the effect of looking like a fallen angel. A very good looking fallen angel.

I stared at him, for what had to be the first time in my life, speechless.

His eyes slowly travelled over me, from my toes to my head, in a way that made me want to blush. The look he gave me seemed to say he approved of Lissa's clothing choices. I felt myself smile in response to the dark, smouldering look he gave me. I may have been dreading tonight, with all the stuck up Moroi bitches and their too loud husbands, but with Adrian it seemed like the night might take a turn for the interesting.

So what else could I do but take his outstretched arm?