Rumor Has It

Did you hear about Rose and Guardian Belikov?

The words rang in my head. Why did they have to drag him into this? I haven’t done anything that royally pissed someone off. I know he hasn’t done anything to piss anyone off. Except me, but that’s a completely different story.

“Rose”

I looked around, finding myself sitting on Lissa’s bed. I had let my mind wander while she was looking through her closet. “Hmm?”

“Which one should I wear?” she asked as she held up two dresses. One was a jade color. The other was a baby pink. Both would compliment her well.

“Try the green. It’ll make your eyes pop,” I suggested, emphasizing the word ‘pop.’

Lissa smiled widely, setting the pink dress over the back of her. “Great. Thanks!”

I nodded, idly twirling a bracelet on my finger. “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s the occasion?”

She rolled her eyes as she slide the jade dress of its hanger. “Have you been listening to me at all for the last twenty minutes?”

“Uh, no. Not really.”

She giggled. “In that case, I’m meeting up with Christian soon.”

“What’s so significant about that that you have to ask for my opinion on what to wear? It’ll probably end—you two are around each other all the time.” I scoffed. Their rendezvous took me away from my Rose time. It was rather irritating.

“We rarely get away from crowds. So we’re meeting at the church.”

My eyes narrowed. I had a feeling that whatever I’d be doing later would be interrupted by Lissa and Christian. Damn. “Sounds like fun.”

“Yeah.” She pursed her lips for a moment. “Why don’t you spend time with Adrian or Eddie? You haven’t spent much time with either of them since…since we got back from the ski lodge.”

I frowned. Despite everyone’s attempts to not bring up Spokane directly, I tended to let my mind slip and think of the moment where the life left Mason’s eyes after the sickening crack of his neck echoed the room. It’s not something I’d soon forget. That I’d ever forget.

I deeply exhaled and put on my usual bravado. “Why should I spend time with them?”

“Because you don’t do anything anymore Rose!” She momentarily stopped tying the straps of the dress on to wave her arms frantically in the air. “It wouldn’t hurt you to spend some time with at least one of them.”

“It might kill Adrian though,” I muttered.

She shook her head. “Then hang out with Eddie.”

“I really don’t want to.” Maybe I was being a little childish, but it was difficult not to when I figured out that she was trying to see if I’d date one or the other.

“Well, then what do you plan on doing?”

I shrugged. “I may do some homework. Then go to bed.”

She frowned. “What fun is that? It’s Saturday.”

“It’s relaxing, quiet fun. I could care less what day of the week it is.”

“Okay, fine,” she resigned with a sigh. “But when you want to complain about how boring your night was, don’t complain to me. I won’t listen.”
---

I took Lissa’s advice. Somewhat.

I could have easily found Eddie and hung out with him and a few other novices, but I wasn’t sure where that’d lead. More than likely something involving alcohol or something. Not wanting to be around alcohol automatically took Adrian out of my plans for the day. I really couldn’t think of more than a couple times when I’d been around Adrian and he was actually sober.

I decided that I’d head down to the gym for a little while and take out some of my frustration—is that what it was?—on a dummy or something. Hopefully that’d also be enough for me not to find myself in Lissa’s head unexpectedly. I just wasn’t planning on what happened when I was right outside the gym’s doors.

A figure appeared in the distance. Maybe it was a teacher? Maybe a guardian? Maybe a student? I really couldn’t tell, but I couldn’t help but just stand there. Something about whoever it was intrigued me. That was until I noticed how translucent the figure was. Red hair. Yellow jacket. Green sweater. My eyes widened.

Mason?

That was impossible. He died weeks ago. I saw it happen. He was on the flight back to the academy. The funeral. The empty seat in classes. How?

I looked at him closer, seeing the washed out features a lot better now. He was sad. Extremely sad. I really couldn’t blame him.

I blinked when I saw that my hand was moving forward and quickly brought it back to my side. I didn’t understand why I wasn’t moving. I wanted to.

Words lingered on the tip of my tongue, but they never managed to leave, become audible. I couldn’t manage to respond to anything.

“Rose?” a voice shouted from behind translucent Mason. When I didn’t responded, they called out to me again. “Rose, what are you doing out here?”

I quickly shook my head and turned my attention to the voice’s owner: Dimitri. His eyebrows furrowed as he approached. He walked directly through Mason. Did he not see him?

One look at his expression told me that no. He didn’t.

Dimitri stood there, directly in front of me. Eyes full of concern. “Is everything alright?”

“I think so.”

He studied me for a moment, no doubt not believing my statement, but he didn’t press the matter. He simply laced his fingers through mine and gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

I smiled at the small gesture. It was nice to know that he cared more than he normally let on. It was more than nice, actually. It was fantastic.

“So, why are you here?” he asked, eyeing the gym door.

“I thought I’d train a little.”

“What about homework? Friends?”

I tried my best at raising one eyebrow. It was probably an epic fail. “You’re not one to talk about that. Don’t you socialize with other guardians, comrade?”

Dimitri rolled his eyes at the nickname. “I’m not as social as you are, Rose.” He lightly kissed my forehead before opening the gym door. “If you don’t mind, I’ll stay here until you feel relaxed—or tired.”

“You don’t have to. Go do what you were originally going to do. I’ll—”

“I was on my way to the gym anyway.”

How didn’t I notice before? He was simply dressed in a t-shirt and some shorts. I just wasn’t paying attention to those. I was fonder of his arm muscles. I knew that he was built from years of training and his few years as a guardian already, but I just never took the time to appreciate it all thanks to training and unfortunate incidents.

I grinned, deciding to tease him. “Personal problems?”

A ghost of a smile appeared on his face. “More than you know, Roza.”

My heart fluttered. Dimitri was feeling affectionate.

I felt like I was forgetting—

I then glanced over his shoulder to see Mason’s figure fading away. He was even more upset than he had been when I first saw him. I stiffened. He saw the small, loving exchange between Dimitri and I. The intertwined fingers. No one knew about that. I never wanted Mason to find out specifically. He felt too strongly about me. I just couldn’t feel mutually about him.

I just had to go and fall for my mentor. My insanely good looking, badass mentor. Damn.

“Rose?” Dimitri’s voice cut into my thoughts. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

I bit my lip and looked up into eyes. They were full of concern. A part of me would be happy that he felt that way, but, at that moment, I felt like I broke my dead best friend’s heart. I never thought that was possible.

Instead of confessing, I stepped into the gym. “I’ll be fine. Now come on, comrade. I’m ready to kick some dummy ass.”

His lips were in a thin line as he shook his head. “I really hope you’re right.”

And so, we practiced in the gym. It wasn’t too different from our extra sessions during the school week. He just wasn’t critiquing as much. I wasn’t sure if I liked that or not. Against my better judgment, I questioned his role as my mentor. “So, why aren’t you correcting my mistakes?”

He finished throwing a punch and raised one eyebrow incredulously. “What do you mean?”

“You’re quiet. More so than usual that is.” I shrugged. “I figured you’d be making commentary on botchy kicks and punches.”

Dimitri wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “I’m not your teacher right now. I don’t find a reason in telling you what you’re doing wrong.”

“Well, that’s a surprise,” I mutter as I punched one of the dummies.

“Do you want me to critique you?”

“Well, no. Unless it’s all positive.”

He laughed almost melodiously. “It is. You’ve come a long way in a few months.”

“Yeah, I can almost take you down.”

“The key word is almost, Rose.”

I glared at him. “What are you implying?”

Amusement flashed in his eyes. “That you can’t beat me.”

“Is that a challenge?”

“Do you want it to be a challenge?”

Why did he have to go and answer my question with one of his own? I loathed when he did that. “I don’t see why I wouldn’t. It’s not every day a student gets to beat her teacher.”

“That remains to be seen, Hathaway.”

I rolled my eyes. Why he was calling me by my surname now was beyond me, but two could play at that game. “That may be. I challenge you to a spar, Belikov.”

He chuckled. “Challenge accepted.”

Some kicks, a few punches, and the breath momentarily knocked out of me later, I found myself staring up at the ceiling of the gym. My abdomen ached.

“Shit.” I groaned.

“Rose?”

I blinked and slowly sat up. Only to see Dimitri kneeling beside me. I pinched my arm, hoping that I was dreaming. Unfortunately, I wasn’t. “What the hell happened?”

Dimitri frowned. “Do you not remember?”

“I wouldn’t be asking if I did,” I spat. More venom was in my statement than I would have liked, especially toward him, but I hated losing my memory. I was pissed. “So, I repeat myself. What happened?”

“We were sparring,” he said slowly. I opened my mouth, about to make a retort, but he quickly continued. “You were doing extremely well and I slipped and kicked you with full force. You must have hit your head harder than I thought.” He brushed some hair out of my eyes. “Maybe you should lay down. It could help.”

“I’ll be fine.” I pushed his hand away and went to stand up, but I fell flat on my butt when dizziness took over. I groaned again. “Or not.”

“Rose,” Dimitri murmured, placing his hands on my shoulders, “stop lying and let me help you.”

“With what?”

“At the very least with you standing up.”

I knew that, whether or not I objected, he’d help me anyway. So, I let him pull me up to my feet. I teetered a little and his hands were immediately on my arms, doing their best to steady me.

“On second thought, I’ll help you back to your dorm. There’s no way that I trust you’ll make it there without falling or hurting yourself.”

“I’m not four.”

“You aren’t, but I’ll sleep better at night if I know that you’re safe.”

I smiled to myself then, not only welcoming the cool breeze that swept the campus, but the knowledge that he cared. For me.

That’s when I stumbled a little.

Dimitri stopped both of us, tightening his grip on my arm a little. “Better yet…”

I noticed he began walking again, but in a completely different direction, and was pulling—no, dragging—me along with him. I growled. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Taking you to the doctor.”

“What? Why?”

“As I said, I’ll sleep better knowing you’re safe.” I glanced over to see that he was frowning. “I’ll sleep even better knowing that you aren’t injured.”

“A trip to the academy doctor isn’t necessary, really. I’ll be fine.”

“Maybe. But I won’t be until I know.”

I scoffed, especially when I saw the building nearby. I tried pulling myself away, but he kept dragging me along with him.

No. No. No.

And then, doors swung open and I saw the bright lights. Something told me that I shouldn’t head toward them, but I really couldn’t control my feet right now. Any words Dimitri uttered were blocked out by a sting of profanities crossing my mind.

Dr. Olendzki appeared in front up us.

Damn Dimitri.