Erin's POV

I know it was wrong, and that I shouldn't be friends with her. I just can not help it but like Aphrodite, she was nice to me. She was simple. If she hated what you were wearing, she told you. If you had done really bad on an exam, she told you to get over it. I needed that clarity and it made sense: me being the water element and all.

"So," Aphrodite says, dragging out the word comically, "this is awkward."

It certainly is. Zoey was staring at me still, even though we had left the room. Now, Aphrodite and I giggle in the doorway of the Dinner Hall. May as well revel in all the excitement my change of 'alliance' had caused. The students whisper to each other, looking between Zoey and the door as though expecting a cat fight.

"I think we'd better go, A." I whisper as Zoey's face starts to burn bright red. Woops, I only wanted to shock her, not kill her brain cells.

"Yeh, you're right," She nods, but turns to go back into the room to shout, "See ya later, Nerds!" Cracking a smile, I realise I no longer hold a Nerd-Herd zombie status; I was free. Not many people could say that.

Aphrodite grabs my arm again, and drags me towards the dormitories across the campus of the House of Night. Students along our route look at us strangely, mirroring the students in the dining hall. But I don't care. I'm walking arm in arm with a girl who gets me and not because of some freakish Twin thing - like me and Shaunee.

Aphrodite and I are friends because we share common interests; just like regular people who aren't going through the Change into vampirism. Those lucky people who do not have this disease that we suffer from. Our friendship, not that I would ever tell her, made me feel relatively human again.

"This is nice," I say, being the first to break the comfortable silence. I breathe in the clean, food-free air with revel at being closer to nature and my element. Aphrodite gives a little sigh. She had relaxed, too.

"Yeah it is- but Erin, answer me one question?" She asks me, stopping in her tracks. We had reached the dormitories by now, having taken the outside route, and she sits on the old wooden bench situated near the doors. Her perfectly plucked are high brows up her forehead, making her look suddenly younger and sadder. I don't know how to answer this non-question question, so I merely nod.

Hah, I muse to myself,I just said 'merely'.. see that Damien? English is my thing!

"Why did you become friends with me?" says the girl who, until recently, I had called a soulless Hag from Hell. The truth is, I just felt the need to do it. To break from Zoey and be as free as a bird. No-one, not even my so-called Twin Shaunee, had noticed how ever since Z came... I was no longer wanted. I am invisible most of the time, nowadays, because Zoey's sitcom worthy drama filled up every minute of every damn day. I hadn't spent five minutes with my friends before someone - anyone - mentioned her by name. Five minutes, that's all I wanted. Five minutes.

"I needed a friend. And there you were." I paraphrase my inner monologue; friends be we may but I don't want to use her as my own personal bloody diary. That's what Zoey does and that had excluded me from the group I had brought together. Wind blows my hair. Inevitable, wind comes to ruin the hair do for the millionth time. To distract myself from getting annoyed at Damien's element, I look down. I see Aphrodite frowns below me, still perching on edge of the bench.

"I would never have been friends with a Nerd-Herder. But you came to me, remember?" she says wrongly, obviously still trying to scrape some dignity. I could remember the day she came to dave me. I felt really, really lonely. Sitting... where? Um, I sat in my room. No, the common room. No - Arghhh!

"Oh my Gawd, what's wrong with my head!?" I squeal and clutch my head as though trying to unlock the secrets inside, causing the girl to jump up and hug me with surprising warmth. I haven't been hugged for months.

"Nothing. I found you standing outside my dorm room, in your pyjamas and you were crying. But you're tears were milky, almost. It was totally gross. Anyway, I let you in since..." She looks away now, seemingly embarrassed.

"...since you just couldn't leave a girl outside your door all night?"

"Exactly! I didn't want to you to go all Psycho-shower-scene on my ass. Anyway, I let you in and the next morning you acted like we were best friends. It was really weird."

I stare at her with my mouth open like an ugly idiot. I had cried tears of milk and suddenly acted like I was best friends with a girl I used to envy? Seriously?! Is she kidding me?

"But why didn't you just send me away, then?" I ask her innocently, eyes wide, expecting a sarcastic comment which would be sad but true to form. Unusually, it never came.

"I needed a friend, too. Not that I'll ever admit to saying that a-a-, " Aphrodite stares at the door with want clear on her face, tears bruising her eyes just like mine are.

"Shut up, let's go watch Mean Girls." I tell her, hoping she will stop crying at the prospect of watching Lindsay Lohan's character make an ass out of herself.

"Okay," She smiles sweetly at me as she jumps up to open the glass door to the dormitories, "Mean Girl 2?"

"You have to ask? The second one as totally bullpoopie!"

"Speaking of non-cuss words... did you see Zoey's face?"

"It was priceless!" We accidentally say in unison, before bursting into giggle fits as we enter the building.

I could get used to this.

Author note: Sorry for such a long wait between uploads; I got writer's block and couldn't remember were this story was going.. but it's all okay now! Hope you liked this chapter :)

-FoulkseyDarkRose