A sound like a trumpet sounded and a glob of snot flew into the tissue Matt was holding to his nose. He sniffed back snot that was threatening to drip as he pulled the tissue away and disposed of it into a half full trashcan.

Matt took a deep breath and rubbed at his eyes which were a puffy red. The gamer sniffed again before he turned the page in the third romantic novel he had read that day.

Stupid books were addicting!

"Oh!" Matt cried, more tears swimming out of his eyes "Her puppy died right after her father! That's terrible!"

The gamer blew his nose again, this time with a noise worthy of a tuba. He then folded up the new, now disgusting, tissue and dropped it on top of the other.

The dorm room door began to open causing Matt to jump a mile.

Matt gasped, he quickly slid the book under his bed into a shoe box he had stolen from Linda's room. He then covered the box with his old red hoodie that had holes in the elbows and a large purplish brownish stain where Matt had spilled grape juice before he straighten up and tried to look completely natural.

"Oh Mello! Hi!" The gamer greeted as the blonde stepped in, carrying a stack of books which he dumped onto his own bed.

"Hi- Whoa..." Mello blinked then stared.

"What?" Matt blinked.

"You okay?" Mello took a step forward and laid a hand on Matt's forehead "Your a mess. But you don't have a fever..."

Matt winced.

Right...

Face.

Crying.

Right.

"I'm fine...just got some dust in my eye." Matt waved the blonde off.

"That must have been a lot of dust." Mello raised an eyebrow but turned back to his books and began sorting them into piles.

"Ha ha, yeah." Matt chuckled nervously as he slid off the bed and fast-walked into the bathroom. He splashed a good amount of water onto his tear streaked face and smacked at his drippy nose. He pushed his goggles back on to hide their redness then wiped away any snot that had fallen on to his black and white patterned shirt.

He emerged from the bathroom to find Mello was flipping through a book on monkeys with a pencil between his lips.

"That for your science report?" Matt asked, reading over Mello's shoulder. The gamer pointedly ignored the smell of the blonde's hair and focused on the words in the book.

"Yeah." Mello replied, going back one page and putting a randomly ripped off piece of paper in it as a rough bookmark.

"Hmm," Matt pulled back and dropped onto his bed which had small dark spots from where his tears had fallen "I'm doing mine on coyotes. Although I still fail to see the point of the assignment."

Mello shrugged "Who knows. I bet there is some argument to why we need to research animals and study ecosystems."

Matt buzzed out a sigh while he watched Mello repacked his bag, adding his new books. Matt would have to go to the library at some point too but... that place was so big...

Matt would know.

He'd been in it a lot recently.

Finding the romance section had not been easy seeing as Matt had point blank refused to ask for help. In the end he ended up walking through half the library and had to avoid running into Near five times before he managed to find a romantic fantasy book.

The moment Mello left the room Matt ducked under his bed to receive his book.

…

What wasn't quite sure why he was here.

It's been month since he had even spared this girl a thought let alone a glance.

Matt raised and lowered his hand about ten times before he finally knocked on room seven's door. He fidgeted nervously, shifting his weight from foot to foot when he heard rustling from within the room. He sucked in a deep breath as the door slowly opened.

"Did you like me?" Matt piratically shouted, eyes squeezing shut.

Silence.

Matt cracked one eye open to see that's Lily's face was full of pure shock. Matt opened his other eye, color rising in his cheeks as he realized how loud his question had been. Lily blinked, her face morphing from shock to surprise then settled on confusion.

"Matt? What?" She asked, curling a hand around the door frame "Why are you here?"

"I wanted to talk to you." Matt ducked his head, rubbing the back of his neck "Can I come in?"

"Sure." Lily stepped back and Matt muttered a word of thanks as he stepped into the room Linda had obviously taken charge of. Paint, canvases, ink, and other art supplied covered every surface. The only part of the room that seemed to be Lily's was her bed where files were stacked in a pile along with a title less book.

"Sorry it's messy." Lily said, pulling all the files onto her lap as she sat down and gestured for Matt to sit with her. The ginger sat, his nose twitching at the smell of chalk and dried paint.

"So," Lily started, crossing her legs and supporting her head with her fist "What suddenly brings you here?"

"Well," Matt fingered a red leather book he had brought with him before he held it out with a wince. Lily curiously took it in her smaller hands and looked at the title.

"I've read this," She smiled, opening up to the title page "It's a love story isn't it?"

"Yeah," Matt flushed "It is..."

Lily handed it back to him and Matt opened it up to a memorized page "This is kinda what I wanted to talk to you about. Lily, did you um... like me? You know, before?"

Lily smiled softly "Before our disagreement?"

Matt coughed and nodded "Um, yeah."

God this was humiliating. Here was Matt, sitting on his old best friend's bed acting like a little kindergardener asking your ten month crush if they like-liked you.

"I guess I sorta did," Lily blushed, raising a hand to brush back her fair hair "But it's okay. I'm over it."

"I'm sorry Lily."

"It's fine, there's nothing to apologize for." Lily shook her head dismissively "I shouldn't have judged Mello. All he ever did was break my doll."

"Oh."

So that's what Mello had done.

For stealing Mello's chocolate Matt had expected worse...

He vanished the thoughts of Mello breaking the neck of a chocolate covered fingered Lily as the blonde began to speak again.

Besides, what does this book have to do with anything?" Lily asked pointing to the open book Matt still held.

The ginger face went scarlet again "W-well I've kinda, you know, changed my, um, reading interests... and so I was reading this earlier today and I read this part when Leah-"

Lily nodded "-The main character."

"Yeah, she got asked out by the boy she liked and her friend kept trying to tell her it would end badly and in the end you find out the friend liked Leah... like, loved her." Matt avoided Lily's gaze as he finished.

Lily patted his shoulder and Matt looked up to meet her smile.

"Don't worry Matt. Like I said, I'm over it. I'm fine. Just sad that I lost you. However..."

Lily winked.

"I've got a feeling if I did start dogging after you again. It wouldn't be without some competition."

Matt blinked.

Then he stared.

Then his face became hotter than a bucket of lava thrown into the sun.

"Good luck." Lily grinned.

…

Matt slipped around a corner, using the wall to propel himself forward as he ran full out across the hallway.

"You can't run forever!" He heard Lily's voice call out after him as he ducked around a student he just had time to register as June before He sailed past, through a door and out another.

He dared to look back and he almost tripped when he saw the Lily was right on his tail, her bare feet thudding loudly against the floor and her blonde hair blowing out behind her.

Matt fled past a startled Ms. Nero.

He heard a cry of surprise behind him and heard a loud crash like Lily had smashed into the english teacher.

Served her right.

That teacher was like the witch in Hansel and Gretel. First she gets you all comfortable with easy work and cookies then dumps about five different reading assignments and one million different projects into your lap. The monkey rash.

Matt ran down a flit of steps onto the main floor and past a window from which you could see the little snow that was left from winter.

Matt smiled.

April 11th.

Nine more days till one of his favorite holidays.

But his mind was wiped blank of the thoughts of spring when he saw Linda up ahead. A victorious smile on her face as she rushed toward him.

He changed direction down another hallway and found himself at a dead end.

"No!" He cried, clawing uselessly at the wall while Linda advanced on him from behind. A breathless Lily entered the scene behind her, clutching her chest but grinning triumphantly.

"Have mercy!" Matt cried as the two girls neared him "I'll do anything! Just spare me!"

"Oh no," Lily said, her voice light with lack of breath "We went through to much trouble to catch you. There is no escape."

Matt screamed.

…

"My life is over."

"Oh, man up." Linda said, rolling her eyes at the groaning Matt "It's not that bad."

"Not that bad?" Matt cried "It's bad enough you did it in the first place, but to use this color!"

"I think it suits you." Lily giggled and Matt scowled at her.

The three had now moved to room seven. While... Matt had technically been forcibly dragged there but either way they were all there. Except half of Matt's pride had been left in that dead end hallway.

"Look at them," Matt stared in despair at his fingers which were a bright, glossy pink "I'm shamed for life!"

Lily laughed and held her hand out to examine her own, apple scented green nails. She blew on them lightly before she turned to Linda who's nails were still their regular light beige.

"Hmm...what color?" Lily asked and Linda shrugged "Surprise me."

"Okay." Lily smiled and began looking through the rows of nail polish she had set up.

"I'm leaving." Matt said, hanging his head as he made his way toward the door.

"Bye." Lily said without looking up.

Linda waved but didn't take her attention off her roommate.

"Yeah, I see how much you care." Matt muttered as he opened the door.

Matt closed the door just as he heard Linda yell "Not black!"

Matt let a small smile tug at his face as he walked back to room thirteen, a plan of an hour or so of reading in his mind. Maybe the new one he got? Or the one he was 201 pages into... He was almost finished that one...

But all his plans were shut down when he entered to find Mello waiting for him.

The blonde was perched on the edge of Matt's bed, one leg on top of the other and his fingers lightly tapping the orange sheets.

"Mello?" Matt asked nervously as he closed the door.

The blonde opened his mouth to speak, then paused, an eyebrow going up. He brought the finger that had been on the bed to his lips before he spoke "Pink nail polish?"

Matt glanced down at his fingers and curled them out of view before he answered "Girls think it's hot."

"You would know. Wouldn't you?" Mello asked, holding up a book that had been resting on Matt's bed.

"NO! NO! I DENY EVERYTHING! THAT'S RIDICULOUS!"

"Matt I'm not-"

"WE SHOULD GET YOU TO AN EYE DOCTOR OR SOMETHING-"

"Matt. Shut up," Mello whacked the ginger with his own pillow, effectively silencing the boy "You didn't let me finish."

Matt rubbed his nose lightly and looked down at the floor while Mello examined the white book that was patterned with roses from back to front.

One of Matt's books.

"Last Rose?" Mello read the golden title, his voice going a pitch higher to indicate a question.

"Yes," Matt mumbled.

"That makes no sense," Mello frowned, turning the book over to read the description "There is more than one rose on the cover..." Mello arched an eyebrow "Am I right in assuming this is a love story?"

"Yes," Matt repeated with a sigh.

Mello was silent as he flipped the book over and skimmed the first few pages. His lips turned up into a smirk and he looked over the book at Matt "Victor is certainly a smooth operator."

"Yeah ,well, I kinda think Lila doesn't deserve him." Matt muttered, a small blush on his cheeks.

"She won't get him."

"How do you know?" Matt asked his smirking roommate who raised another eyebrow and read directly from the text "Victor looked as handsome as ever. I watched enviously as he greeted my sister with a kiss on the cheek while I received only a hug. But I liked the feel of his dark, yet not quite black but dark, brown hair as my hands touched it lightly during an embrace to short for my liking. His purple clothes seemed to glow in the moonlight as he took his place to the right of my father and was handed a glass of champagne by my mother."

Mello stopped there and closed the book with a snap.

"So what?" Matt asked "He kissed the sister, so what? Later she confesses her love for Salamander."

"It's not how he acted around the sister that I am trying to point out." Mello shook his head with a small smile "Don't you get it? He's clearly going to turn against Lila."

"How do you know?" Matt repeated, feeling slightly stupid.

"Everyone knows," Mello contained, rolling his eyes at the ceiling "People that wear purple and have dark, BUT NOT BLACK just dark, brown hair are usually evil. And to top it off his name is Victor and everyone knows people in books that names start with V are usually evil. Think about it, Victor, Valentine, Vince..."

"Oh..." Matt blinked "I didn't know that..."

"Now you do." Mello replied, dropping the book onto Matt's bed.

"You don't think it's creepy?"

"What?"

"That I read um... well, love stories."

"Is that why you stuff them away every time I come in?" Mello asked with an eyebrow raised in an amused manner.

"Kinda..." Matt blushed, rubbing the back of his neck "Maybe...yes..."

"I don't care Matt." Mello replied, standing up and adjusting the sleeves of his net shirt "I myself enjoy a good romance now and then. The drama reminds me how good real life can be."

"Right," Matt answered, replacing the spot where Mello had been sitting with his own body and looked up at the ceiling.

"And Matt," Mello grinned "I saw the tissues."

"Shut up."

Author's Note: Gah! I'm sooooo sorry _. It's been like a month! And it's not an overly long chapter _. I'm really sorry! As you may have noticed I ran through winter pretty quickly. The next chapter will be more of a fun, messing around one where one of MY favorite holidays is celebrated. Anyway, thank you reviewers! I love you all!

Please R&R!

ZHANG HE!

Lu Xun likes to play with fire although Sima Yi's fingers are full of wire.