Aha, today I was spraying my art work with glue, and my teacher put some newspaper underneath and sprayed over it. But the newspaper had Ben Barnes on it! As soon as he wasn't looking, I stole the newspaper and put it in my logbook, forgetting it was all sticky. So now, unfortunately (or not, depending on the way you look at it) his picture is stuck in the front of my logbook! LOL.
Here's chapter 14.
The room was silent and pitch black.
"Comrade," I whispered. "Are you okay in here?" All I got in return was the echo of a sob. "Dimitri? It's Rose. Is everything okay?"
"No," he moaned. I followed his voice through the darkness until I came into contact with a bed. I fumbled for a light switch and flicked on the bedside lamp. The light glowed and illuminated Dimitri's tear streaked face. I gasped and he looked down.
"Dimitri? What happened? Why are you crying?"
"No, Roza, go. I can't talk to you." His response was muffled, as he'd put his hands over his face. I put my arm around his shoulders.
"You can tell me. Don't worry. I just want to know you're okay."
"I...can't. Roza, I can't speak to...you." I was shocked.
"Why...why not?"
"I just can't. Oh, God, Roza." And with that, he wept into his hands. I shook my head. What was the matter?
"Please, Dimitri. Please tell me. I want to help you."
"I thought...I thought you were dead." ?
"What?"
"I thought you were dead. When Tasha shot you. I thought she'd killed you. You can't imagine...you can't imagine what I thought then." I avoided telling him that I could imagine, as it had happened to me. It wasn't going to help. "I know what you're thinking."
"Of course," I murmured. He always did.
"It wasn't just that you were dead. It was that I had killed you."
"What? Dimitri, that's absurd!" I lowered my voice again, aware that it had been too loud for this early in the morning. "You didn't kill me, remember?"
"No, it doesn't really have anything to do with Strigoi. It was all me. If Tasha hadn't...if Tasha hadn't felt that way about me, she wouldn't have been jealous. She wouldn't have framed and you tried to...tried to..." He broke off and cried into his hands as I stared. I'd never seen him so low. Not even after Donovan. I rubbed circles in his back and tried to be soothing.
"Dimitri, it's not your fault. I promise you. It doesn't have anything to do with you."
"It does. It does. I almost killed you, Roza. I wasted all my time and then you almost died because of me!" I put two fingers under his chin and pulled his face up so that my eyes were level with his watery ones.
"Dimitri Belikov, you listen here. My almost-death is not your fault, you hear me? Not at all. It was just that stupid Tasha, trying to get me out of the way. It's her fault, not yours. Nobody is blaming you. Nobody. So, you, pick yourself up and stop moping around, because it's not your fault." I pressed my lips to his cheeks. His tears were salty. He gave me a weak smile and I rewarded him with a warning glance.
"Oh, Roza, what would I do without you?" he wondered.
"Nothing. You'd be a mess." I grinned.
"Probably." I brushed my lips against his but he seemed to want more contact. His arms came around my back and pressed me to his chest. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back passionately. We couldn't go very far in his mother's house, but the contact was nice all the same. He stood up, both of us still connected, and I wrapped my legs around his torso, clinging to him like a koala. I felt him smiled against my lips before picking back up, pushing my against the wall with his hands either side of my head. I opened my eyes into liquid brown and-
The door swung open. Jesus, I thought. Why do people keep interrupting us? First Yeva and now- Viktoria stood at the door. Dimitri pulled back immediately, a light brush spreading across his gorgeous face.
"Oh," she muttered. "I can come back, you know." I shook my head, disentangling myself from Dimitri before straightening my shirt and flashing him a saucy grin. He gave me a stern look that I'd often seen at St. Vlad's.
"No, we're fine," he told her. "What do need?"