Zach knew the passages of the Bone City like he'd spent his whole life there. I felt lost, disorientated and sick to my stomach by the time he stopped walking us through that stone maze. I tried to carry on but if he wasn't going anywhere, there wasn't much point in going without him.

"How did you know all those people?" He asked.

Zach had long since pulled his mask off but I still couldn't see him too well here where the light was dimmer. His intense stare, though, that seemed to be illuminated.

"I know them because they're all friends with Magnus." I told Zach as calmly as I could. I straightened up my back ready for our conversation to become a conflict at any moment. I could feel the tension in the cold air.

"You met them through your Tutor?" My Boss asked, squinting at me ever so slightly. "Exactly how close are you two?"

There it was. My moment. After all my worries and the build-up, the whole thing seemed so... Small, somehow. So trivial. It left me feeling very dry about it all.

"He's my boyfriend, Zach." I said. "Magnus and I are together."

It almost felt as if I could have swept my hand through the thick silence and gathered it into a ball like snow. Maybe I could throw that ball at Zach and make him say something.

I wasn't sure I had ever seen Zach without a smile, but at that moment he became dark. His mouth set into a thin, straight line and he took a step towards me.

"You told me that you didn't have a boyfriend." He stated, without any possibility for doubt or question.

I tried to have empathy and feel what Zach was feeling. I made an attempt to understand the embarrassment and resentment, finding out he'd bestowed his attentions on a person who was already taken. I really did try. I just wasn't feeling so sympathetic.

Maybe it was the way he was looking at me. Let me tell you, it was not a loving gaze anymore.

"That was weeks ago." I told him bluntly.

Zach really shouldn't have been basing his advances on out-of-date information. That wasn't the way he saw it, though. He grabbed my shoulders tightly; his nails would have dug in if I had been wearing fewer layers.

"And exactly how many more weeks were you planning to string me along?" He growled.

I had been expecting disappointment. Upset, at most. Not anger like this. It turned out that I was the one becoming upset, and I'd done nothing wrong.

Well, the kiss was wrong, but I didn't initiate it and up until that point I'd been trying to deter him.

"Zach, let me go." I demanded, although my voice was small. "I never wanted to mislead you."

"But you did." Said Zach as he gripped me a little tighter.

I shifted back, to test, and found myself held firmly in position. I tried harder and got the same result, so he was stronger than I would have expected. If Zach had been that kind of guy, he could have taken whatever he wanted from me right there and then, and I wouldn't have been able to stop him. I thanked the powers that be that he wasn't that kind of guy.

"Don't be like this." I begged. I just didn't know how I'd ever face Dr Zachariah again after this. I was feeling more and more embarrassed and ashamed the longer it went on. Embarrassed that he was getting the better of me. Ashamed that all this time he thought I was just trying to tease him. "I don't want to argue with you."

"You never told me no." He continued. "You never mentioned Magnus."

There was the kicker. He was right about that. I could only tell my Boss what I'd been telling myself.

"Because it would have been random and unprofessional!" I cried out like it was obvious. Why couldn't he see that?

"Unprofessional?" Zach asked, with a dry bark of a laugh. His smile was back but his kindness hadn't returned with it.

He tilted close, so that the sides of our faces touched and his lips were just barely grazing my ear. I could feel my heartbeat in every inch of my body as he viciously whispered the words: "I think you just like the attention."

Perhaps I was just getting too worked up. It was possible the strong drink I'd had earlier was starting to kick in. Maybe it was just the straw that broke the camel's back. All I know is that something in me snapped right then. In a burst of adrenaline I was able to push the Doctor off of me and he stumbled back into the wall.

I was so sick of this! I was fed up with people talking about me like I was some kind of attention-grabbing slut. Never in my life had I been the type of guy who plays people off and I was so tired of people who seemed to see me that way.

What had I even done? I felt like I was being punished. Punished for loving the wrong person and not being arrogant enough to assume anybody who was nice to me wanted to get me into bed. I couldn't win for losing, or do right for doing wrong. And now I had a messy situation to deal with.

My autopilot was back. I couldn't stop myself.

"Don't you dare speak to me like that!" I yelled. The sound of my voice reverberated off the walls and sounded like it filled the entire corridor. Dr Zachariah had never looked as shocked as he was when he saw me loose it.

Well, he'd given me a similar surprise with that nasty side of his.

Zach's lips parted but I wasn't ready to let him speak yet.

"I happen to hate attention!" I screamed at him, just letting every pent-up thing I'd been feeling since September wash out of me like water from a dam which was collapsing. And it was collapsing fast. "I hate that I never know what to do about your 'attention' if I want to keep my job!"

"You really think I'd use your job to make you do anything?" Dr Zachariah asked, insulted.

"I haven't known what to think!" I snapped back at him. "But I do know that you won't want to work with a guy whorejected you."

I guess Dr Zachariah realised that was true, because it took him a while to reply. I got the feeling he didn't bet on a scenario where I didn't give him what he wanted.

Now I was the insulted one.

"Okay." He said. "Maybe not. But I'm sure we can find a solution."

"I have a solution." I said, with my brain still failing to properly engage my mouth. "Fuck the job. You're sure not fucking me."

There. The knife was thoroughly stuck in. I felt the tiniest pang of remorse for the fact I'd just completely destroyed the hopes of a man who was ordinarily nothing but nice to me; but then it was gone.

And he was gone; retreated furiously back through the tunnel towards The Bone City.

It was all over. I slumped to the floor feeling sick to my stomach. The more I thought about it the more I realised how I'd basically screwed myself over, right there. However good it had felt at the time to get everything I'd been keeping to myself out in the open.

I'd lost somebody who could have been a friend; two somebodies, if I took into account that Imasu may not want anything more to do with me.

I was more worried about being able to pay my rent. There's no redundancy pay for quitters. Then there were Magnus' friends to be concerned about. That Ragnor guy, looking miserable as hell, who'd seen that kiss and could very well inform the others, or Magnus himself. It was going to get back to him.

I was sure that Magnus would forgive me, it was so small a thing, but I felt like a terrible person for it all the same. Magnus had been so good and changed so much. Now I felt like I was a hypocrite and the thought brought tears to my eyes that I refused to cry.

I heard footsteps in the hall. These footsteps came from loud, heeled shoes which clicked against the hard floor. I knew that sound well enough from growing up with my Mother in the house.

When I looked up, I saw a blurry version of Camille through my wet eyes. I squeezed my lids shut and buried my head in my knees.

Another chapter up! Thanks for reading everybody, and for your reviews which always make me smile. I hope this chapter met your expectations and will be posting the next one, "Seeing Another Side", very soon.