AN: Hey guys! First, I'd like to start by saying that I'm so sorry for not posting in a month. I've had some trouble with the chapters, but I do have some good news for you! I have the next chapter done, so I'll be posting it next week, so you won't have a very long wait ahead of you. I would also like to thank all the people who followed and favorited the story. I'd also like to thank all the people who reviewed; I really love all the feedback you give me, so thank you for that. I know I have not replied to the reviews for the last chapter, but I did read them all and they mean so much to me and from now on I'll try to reply to every single one.

Now, sorry for the long author's note, here's the chapter.

Enjoy!

Little lies

All characters belong to Richelle Mead; I only own my imagination.

Chapter 8.

Christian's point of view

As I stumbled into my dorm room and snapped the lights on, I saw something I'd rather never see again in this state of mind.

"What. The. Hell. Are. You. Doing?" I snapped and slammed my door closed.

I saw a blushing Sarah and an eerily relaxed looking Mark rise up to look at me from my bed, where they were currently making out (hopefully only making out).

"We're…um." Sarah looked down at Mark, who was dressed up as the Lone Ranger and giggled.

"Okay…Right. Get out of my bed right now," I said and motioned for them to get the hell of my bed. My precious bed. God, I was going to have to change the sheets and possibly even disinfect the thing. Mark and Sarah? How the hell did I not see this coming?

"Relax , Christian," Mark said and got up buttoning his shirt. "We were only making out."

"You were only making out, well than...good. That makes me feel so much better." I flailed my hands up in the air and grabbed my head. Today was just getting worse and worse by the second. "Why did you want me to go to the party if you were just gonna come make out here?" I asked. I was pretty fed up now. Well fed up was an understatement. I was fuming. After seeing Lissa with Mr. Charming and then this, after going to a party I never wanted to go to in the first place, I was pissed. The last thing I needed was to see my best friends making out on my bed. All I needed now was peace and quiet, but even if that could have somehow been achieved, my mind would probably not shut up.

"Well, we were at the party, but we couldn't find you," Sarah said and brushed her hair back.

"We really did look," Mark added and tried out a little smile.

"I just can't do this tonight," I sighed. "Can you just go? We can talk about this tomorrow."

Sarah picked her heels up from the floor and gestured for Mark to take her hand. "I guess we gotta go."

"Good night," I said as they stumbled out the door.

"Dear God…What have I done to deserve this?" I asked no one in particular as I began unbuttoning my shirt. I threw it off and proceeded to do the same with the rest of my clothes. I walked into my washroom and stepped into the shower. I turned on the water and let it fall all over me in tiny little droplets that formed a stream down my back. It felt relaxing so I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead against the wall. The cold tile was a chilly contrast to the hot water pouring onto my skin. I must have stood there for at least an hour, wasting water and letting my mind and imagination run free. It seemed that everyone around me was getting their happy ending and I was just stuck with everything that was always there. I wasn't moving, my feet were like two bricks of cement, permanently on the ground. I shook my head as I reflected on how I had spoken to Lissa today. True, it had hurt to see her with someone else, but I had no right to be so rude, especially when she had been so kind and cordial. It was clear to me now that I was a fool. But seeing her with that Adrian guy had really shaken me. They looked so nice together, perhaps in a way I could never offer through friendship or anything else. They looked like a real Royal Moroi couple. What was his last name? Ivashkov? Yeah, that would work out really great. He was relatives with the queen and Lissa was the last Dragomir. This shit worked out perfectly. I shut the water off and stepped out of the lovely warm humid air and got ready to crawl into bed.

The next morning I woke up to my alarm clock blaring out in an outrageously loud noise. Blindly I felt the surface of my bedside table to shut the bloody thing off. Finally finding it I turned the alarm off. I guess I had forgotten to turn it off for the weekend. I rubbed my eyes and let out a tired yawn. There was this perfect moment of calm and serenity before images of last night started flooding into my mind.

"Oh man," I sighed as an image of Lissa's emotionless face crossed my vision. Then an image of Sarah and Mark tangled together on my bed managed to slip in. After that Adrian Ivashkov's sly smirk weaseled its way into my mind. I lay back on my bed and pressed my face against my pillow, trying to bury myself into it. I seriously needed to figure out what to do with everything. What was I supposed to do with my life? Who was I? Did I want Lissa? If I did, how was I supposed to make her even consider to talk to me after making an ass out of myself yesterday? It was all so complicated…unless of course I was missing something really obvious. Since it was a Sunday after all, I stayed in bed till noon and racked my brain for answers; they were answers to questions I didn't even know existed yet. I drew a blank and ended up getting more frustrated than I already was. So I decided to stop thinking and just got out of bed and got ready for my day off.

Lissa's point of view

"Adrian," I whispered. "Adrian, you've got to get up." I watched him twitch a bit and then slowly open his eyes. He was sprawled on Rose's bed, looking quite lovely being tangled in pink blankets and all. Rose and I had shared my bed, so Adrian could bunk with us.

"What unholy hour is this to get up at?" Adrian mumbled through his slightly parted lips. After a night of drinking and partying and then passing out on a dorm room bed, Adrian should have looked like crap, but low and behold he looked dazzling. Even I had to admit it; there was no point in lying.

"It's nine o'clock sleeping beauty," Rose said and passed a cup of coffee to me. I carefully took a sip and sat next to Adrian on the bed. He groaned and looked up at me with pleading eyes. "Just five more minutes, cousin?"

"Hmm…" I said, moving my index finger along the rim of the cup. "I don't think so."

"Cruel," Adrian sighed and stretched his arms in a way that made his joints crack a bit.

"It's a cold and lonely world," Rose said and walked into the washroom.

"You didn't look so cold and lonely last night," Adrian yelled after her. "You were all hands on with that guy last night."

I felt a blush rise to my pale cheeks and soon as Adrian mentioned Christian. He had been so cold last night, maybe I had deserved his attitude, but it didn't mean I had to like it. I let my hair fall to cover my face, but Adrian caught a glimpse of the pink before I could deny it. Just like that, he was up and cheery. He sat up and looked me up and down. "Don't you look like a bashful young lady," he mused and turned his attention to Rose who walked out of the washroom with a toothbrush in her hand.

"Now you listen close, Ivashkov, I have no feelings what so ever towards crazy Ozera. No, sir, that's all on Lissa," Rose exclaimed and pointed her pink toothbrush at Adrian in a threatening manner.

In an instant Adrian turned his attention to me, ignoring Rose and her lethal toothbrush. He squinted his eyes and stared me right down with his intensive eyes. I felt beyond uncomfortable. I knew he knew and he knew I knew he knew. It was terrible. "My oh my, cousin. What is this? A love interest and that I haven't heard of?"

I gave Rose a sharp look, basically telling her she'd pay for this later. She rolled her eyes and shook her shoulders. "He had to find out eventually. The sooner the better, because then he'll get it out of his system. Ya know?"

Adrian sat cross-legged on the bed and tapped my shoulder. "Spill, right now Liss."

"Adrian," I whined. "It's complicated."

"Everything is complicated. You just need to uncomplicated it," he said and smiled warmly at me.

Rose huffed in the background. "I love your poetic bullshit, Adrian."

"Is that all I am to you, Rose, just some kind of source of crazy inspiration, like some fortune cookie?" Adrian looked mildly annoyed by Rose's comment. I could tell by the way he scrunched his eyebrows together in distress.

"Nope," Rose said and walked back to the washroom. "A fortune cookie actually gives valid advice."

Adrian looked at me with a confused look on his angular face. "Did she just imply that my advice isn't valid?"

"I…I think she might have hinted towards that direction," I said, carefully placing my hand on top of his.

A fleeting look of something disturbing crossed his face, but then he brushed it away. "Well, she just doesn't understand my brilliance."

"Exactly," I complied and smiled at him.

"So, Lissa, tell me what's going on?" he asked and pushed a lock of my hair behind my ear.

"I don't know where to start. I feel like I've made a mess of my life. I feel like my decisions aren't mine and as hard as I try I just fuck everything up." I looked up at him and didn't expect to see him holding back a laugh. "What's so funny?"

"Um, that's a lot of drama over one boy," Adrian said. "Which makes me think you really like this boy, but then again you haven't known this boy for very long…" Adrian tipped his head back and smiled. "My little Lissa is smitten."

"Enough," I snapped in a playful tone.

"It's never enough."

"It is."

"So is this boy you like someone I would know, besides a vague memory from yesterday?" Adrian asked as he got up. He picked his shirt up from the floor. "Oh man, I think I spilled something on this last night," he said, pointing at a clear stain on his black button up shirt.

"Yes," I said.

"Yes to what?"

"Yes you've seemed to ruin your shirt," I said and picked up my brush, bringing it through my long blond hair, still managing to hold on to my precious cup of coffee.

"Oh, sweet, you're trying to change the subject."

"I'm not," I protested, knowing very well that was exactly what I was trying to do.

"So tell me then," Adrian beckoned.

I smiled to myself. I knew that if there was anyone I could tell it was Adrian. He wouldn't judge or command me to do as he said. He would just offer his advice, which I would gladly take.

"Oh my God," He exclaimed and pointed at me. His green eyes were wide with a look of recognition. "I know I know Mr. grumpy from somewhere."

I nodded as my cheeks flooded with pink again. "You're calling him Mr. Grumpy?"

"Well, I can't remember his name. Was it Callum? Conner? Christopher? Tell me when I'm getting close. It was definitely something with a C…" Adrian mumbled as he took a seat on my bed.

"His name is Christian. Christian Ozera. And there is no trouble in paradise, because there never was a paradise to have trouble in the first place." I finished my cup of coffee.

"Hmm," Adrian mused and tapped his temple. "That name does ring a bell."

I felt myself stiffen. Of course he knew. Everyone knew.

"Was he that dude whose parents went a little crazy and…"

I cut him off. "Yes. Yes he is."

"That blows…like a lot. I guess that alone would cause trouble in your supposed not there paradise." He ran his hand through his brown hair and crinkled his nose. "How easy would everything be if you just got judged by your own actions and not by the actions of those before you?"

"Easier, I guess."

"So, I'm guessing his parents are the problem?" Adrian asked tentatively.

"Yeah, in a way. I don't care about his parents. I'm just supposed to be lying low and being with him isn't exactly doing that." I said and lay down on the bed. I stared at my ceiling. However, staring at something completely white and inanimate hardly solved any problems.

"So once again you're doing exactly what you're told and ending up miserable," Adrian pointed out. "You shouldn't care about what others say, you should do what feels good to you."

"I guess you're right, but I was awful to him. I don't think he'd want me back in any shape or form," I admitted meekly. "Besides, I can't be with him and you know it. You know exactly why I shouldn't be drawing attention to myself."

"You could be with him," Adrian stated simply, he seemed very sure of himself. "You'd just need to be careful. I've managed. Why shouldn't you?"

"Because I'm not looking for one night stands filled with alcohol and meaningless sex," I said and let out a dull laugh. "I mean, are you really happy with your life?"

"Yes," Adrian mused. "I've never known anything better, so what should I be missing?"

"So you never see yourself settling down and having a family?"

"I don't know. I've never really thought about it," he admitted. "I feel like no one would want to be married to me. I'm too liable. Besides, what if this Spirit thing is genetic?"

"I don't think it is. There would have been records of it in our family histories," I said. The truth be told, I had worried about that thing as well. After Adrian and I had figured out what was "Wrong" with us, we'd started to dig deeper. We wanted to know what caused this Spirit quality. We weren't like other Moroi, that was for sure. We never specialized in one of the four elements. We specialized in a thing we called Spirit. It had various ways of appearing. Where a fire using Moroi seemed to be able to burn down whatever he wanted to, a Spirit user could do many things, such as heal, or dreamwalk or use strong compulsion. Of course no one really knew about spirit users. As far as I knew it was only me, Rose and Adrian who knew about our special talents. And that was the way it had to be. I didn't even want to think about what would happen if the wrong person found out. The reason why Rose and I had left St. Vladimir's in the first place was that we thought someone had caught on to us.

"What are you thinking about Lissa?" Adrian asked. He turned to look at me with curious eyes.

"I was just thinking about how it sucks to be different. I just can't believe there's really no official records of any Spirit users. I mean I know of St. Vladimir, but that's about it."

"You look like you want to investigate more." Adrian hopped of the bed and clapped his hands together. "Let me take a shower and then we'll go see what we can find. Although I don't think there's much to go on from."

"Really? You're willing to spend your precious Sunday with me, studying about dead people?" I got up and walked to him.

"Well, we are at St. Vladimir's. The school is named after a suspected Spirit user. If we were to find something, it'll definitely be from here."

"Thank you, Adrian!" I exclaimed and hugged him tightly. I pressed my face into his shoulder. "You don't know what this means to me."

He took my face into his hands and lifted my chin up. "You know that this doesn't really change your situation with Conner."

"Christian," I corrected him.

"Yes, Colby, whatever," he said and smiled. "You know what I mean."

"Yes, I do. And I know it doesn't really change anything, but maybe it'll give me something else to think about."

"Good Girl, way to distract yourself" Adrian chimed and patted my head.

"Yeah, now Rose needs to get out of the shower so we can get to work." I proceeded to knock on the washroom door. "Rose! Adrian needs to get in there!"

"Too bad!" Rose exclaimed. "I'm shaving my legs."

I rolled my eyes and gave Adrian a funny look. He grinned and walked over to the door. "Oh come on, Rose. I have more important things to do. I need to help Lissa investigate!"

I heard the shower being turned off. Soon Rose opened the door wearing only a white towel around herself.

"Nice, little Dhampir," Adrian commented.

"Oh shut up, Ivashkov," Rose laughed and shook her head. "Now, Liss, what is this investigating business about?" She asked as she leaned against the door frame.

"We're gonna go read about St. Vladimir," I answered.

"Oh…"Rose said and bit her lip. "You know I would love to help, you know because dusty books and studying is totally my thing, but unfortunately I have a training session with Belikov today."

"Yeah, you look so distraught," Adrian mused and pushed passed her to the washroom.

Rose and I laughed as he proceed to jump into the shower, fully clothed.

"There has got to be something fundamentally wrong with him," Rose said and chuckled.

"I'm not commenting on that." I walked to her dresser and picked out a T-shirt and track pants. "Now come on, we wouldn't want to have Belikov waiting."

"No dear God, we would not," Rose said as she quickly started getting dressed. "So what do you think you'll find from this studying session?" She asked as she pulled her blue T-shirt on.

I thought about her question for a while. I really didn't know what I was expecting to find. I'd searched libraries and archives before and only found things that could possibly link Vladimir to being a so called Spirit user, so I guess I was looking to confirm my suspicions. Actually Adrian's suggestion of searching the schools books and papers was brilliant. There had to be records of Vladimir here. I guess I just wanted to feel like Adrian and I weren't completely alone with this secret. I wanted to know that I could still have everything I'd have without this Spirit quality. Also, I wanted to know if there was any way to make it stop. "I have no idea," I said to Rose and crossed my arms.

AN: So what did you think? Did you feel like the whole Spirit issue was adressed nicely? Did you like the way Adrian, Lissa and Rose acted together. And what did you think of Sarah and Mark. Just let me know whatever comes to mind! Leave a review, because really reviews are like personal advice from Adrian, you gotta get some :D

Love Always, Alexandra!