I pressed my back against the door, quickly wiping and sort of tears from my face and inhaling a large breath. I took a look at the watch on my wrist and noticed that classes had been finished for half an hour.

Still fuming and feeling too many emotions to decipher properly, I made a split decision to go and visit Mason. I really didn't want to see Lissa at the moment, who would normally be my first choice, because I knew she wanted to talk about Dimitri and I knew that Mason wanted the exact opposite.

Pushing off the door, I made my way over to his dorm, raking my hands through my hair quickly, expelling as many knots as possible. It didn't take me too long to reach his room but the journey seemed to continue forever as I tried to think about something other than what happened only moments ago. I was sick and tired of feeling insecure, confused and vulnerable and I refused to be like that anymore. I wasn't like that before Dimitri and I sure as hell wasn't going to be like that after him either.

I quickly knocked on his door and hoped that he was in there. I needed a distraction.

The door swung open almost immediately and Mason's face broke into a boyish grin. If he could tell that I had been upset, then he didn't show it.

"To what do I owe this pleasure, Rose"

"Oh shut up" I replied and pushed past him into his room. It was messy, much like my own and I plonked myself down on his bed.

As Mason closed the door, the atmosphere already felt awkward, something, that I wasn't used to feeling around Mason. I internally cursed as he turned around and made his way over to me.

When he sat down next to me and looked into my eyes I came to the most staggering realization. Mason liked me. Like actually, really, liked me. The wheels turned in my head and I replayed moments spent with him. It had been so obvious and I couldn't believe that I hadn't noticed it earlier.

I slowly sat up facing him and he placed a tentative hand on my lower thigh. I took a shaky breath and exhaled before looking at him again.

"Maybe this was a bad idea" I whispered, looking just below his eyes. He reached out and softly lifted my chin, as to make me look in his eyes once more.

I sat, frozen, as he closed the gap between us. Our lips made contact and Mason deepened the kiss straight away. I slowly started to respond and felt warm inside. It was nice. Kissing Mason felt comfortable and safe and easy, everything I wished that I had with Dimitri.

We sat kissing for a few minutes and his tangled his fingers in my hair. As I moved my arms around his shoulders, he pushed my back against the bed, never breaking the kiss.

I kept making out with him, desperately hoping that I could like him back. Being with Mase would be so much easier than being with Dimitri but the more I thought about Dimitri, the harder and harder it got to kiss Mason.

I felt tears build up in my eyes but refused to let them fall. I was done crying. I softly pushed Mason away and he chuckled.

"Sorry, I got a bit carried away" he laughed but turned serious when he saw my face.

"I'm sorry" I said to him and he looked confused for a moment before realization dawned on his face.

"It's Dimitri, isn't it?" He asked, looking every bit shattered as I felt after Dimitri's rejection.

"I wish it was you." I admitted, grabbing his hand, trying to comfort both him and myself.

"Me too" he chuckled with tears in his own eyes. I pulled him into a hug and we lay down on the bed together, wrapped in each others comforting embrace.

Mason softly stroked my hair and I felt myself fall more and more into the abyss of sleep until it finally overtook me.

Sometime later, a loud boom of laughter woke me from my sleep. I looked beside me and Mason was still stirring, not fully awake yet.

Glaring, I looked towards the door to find out who was in the room and woke me up.

"Come on lovebirds, it's dinner time." Eddie promptly turned around and walked out of the room, presumably to the cafeteria, laughing to himself.

I quickly looked at Mason, hoping he hand't heard Eddie's comment and was relieved to see him only just fully waking up and looking at me with a sad smile.

"Come on, let's go get food." I told him quickly, and made my way to the door before he reached out an grabbed my hand, pulling me back.

"Rose... we are still okay, aren't we?" He seemed nervous. I replied with a soft smile.

"Of course Mase." Giving his hand a squeeze before letting go.

I cursed when I saw Dimitri sitting at the table with my friends. The whole atmosphere looked incredibly uncomfortable and I could only imagine it was because they really didn't know him and this was one of his first dinners in the actual cafeteria.

Knowing that I would have to face him eventually, I took a seat next to him, Mason sitting in the empty chair next to me.

"There you guys are, I found these two snuggled up in bed." Eddie announced, wagging his eyebrows suggestively.

I wanted to murder him. Dimitri spluttered, half choking on his food whilst Mason's face grew sad.

I shook my head at Eddie, showing him that something was up and he got the idea straight away, looking guilty.

I reached for Mason's hand and gave it a squeeze and we sat there comfortably holding hands.

Dimitri glared and our hands and I wanted to smack him across the face. Lissa looked confused as did Adrian and the rest were oblivious to the tension.

"Well, I'm going to get some food." I announced, standing up from my seat.

"Actually, I wouldn't mind getting some more food." Dimitri said, pushing his almost full tray to the side. I gave him my coldest glare.

"You know, suddenly I'm not that hungry anymore." I stated and sat down, watching Dimitri as he mimicked my actions. My teeth and fists clenched in anger. I had no idea what he was doing or why, for that matter, but it was certainly starting to piss me off...royally.

The table sat in silence, stunned and confused as to what was going on. I gave Lissa pleading eyes, willing her to start up more conversation so that I could focus on that instead of Dimitri's stare.

"So... Christian says that his Aunt Tasha is coming for a visit." Lissa announced, effectively removing most of the tension at the table.

"Who?" I grunted, stealing some chips off the corner of Eddie's tray.

"You know her Rose, you've only met her like ten times" Lissa replied exasperatedly, rolling her eyes but still unable to hide her amusement.

I gave a shrug and raised my eyebrows. I wasn't in the mood to play guessing games and if I didn't automatically remember her, then, clearly, she couldn't have been that great.

"Tasha, the one with blue eyes and black hair... she's into martial arts... um, she bought you that cute red dress for christmas last year!"

My eyes widened in recognition. "Oh yeah, the one with those scars on her face."

As soon as the words left my mouth I realized how insensitive that sounded and as much as Christian and I argue, he really was like another brother to me.

"Chris, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

"Whatever Rose, it's fine." He replied, shooting me a small smile and I gave him an apologetic one in return. In actual fact, Tasha was quite stunning if I'm honest and her scars seemed to, almost, complement her fierce personality.

"Wait. Tasha. You aren't talking about Tasha Ozera, are you?" Dimitri's voice cut through.

"Yeah, that's my aunt." Christian replied, eyebrows pulled together.

"Well then, I have heard a lot about you guys. Tasha has been one of my best friends since high school, when she moved to St. Petersburg." Dimitri said, a brilliant smile gracing his face.

Immediately, I felt jealous. Tasha wasn't even here and she could still elicit one of his rare smiles that I work so hard just to get a glimpse of.

"So, when is she coming?" I asked.

"Tomorrow afternoon."

And just like that my day got worse, if that is even possible.