Reality Bites - Wattys 2018 Shortlist

Chapter 42 - Growing Pains

"Thanks, Mom," I sighed, enjoying her cuddle. Somehow, even though we'd been estranged for so long, it still felt right.

"Your friends will be awake, soon. Why don't you do something fun with them tonight? Take your mind off things?"

"Yeah, maybe," I said uncertainly. "I really need to talk to Lissa. Something's going on with her, and I need to get to the bottom of it."

"The Guardians are doing their Friday night fight-off in a few hours. Why don't you send the guys to that and you and Lissa can have a girls' night? It must have been a while since you've had one of those?" Mom pressed.

"That's a great idea. I think it will be easier for Dimitri to get to know the guys better if I'm not there, and I do need to talk with Lissa. Thanks, Mom!" I said, feeling a bit brighter now. Finishing my coffee, I stood up.

"I'll see you guys later."

Walking towards the foyer, I stopped at another door. Pavel's office. I was in two minds about it, but in the end, I decided I wanted to know. Knocking at the door, I was half-hoping he wouldn't be there. But he was.

"Novice Hathaway? How can I help you?" he asked pleasantly.

"Pavel? I was wondering whether perhaps you'd said something to my Dad about the Nikita thing? It was very embarrassing, and I had hoped to keep it private," I said, my face the color of a beetroot.

Looking uncomfortable Pavel said "The issue did come up when I transferred Guardian Makar. Given the state he was in, your father wanted additional information. I told him that Guardian Makar had interrupted you receiving a massage, that he'd been staring at you in a way which made you feel uncomfortable, and that Guardian Belikov had taken exception to it."

"A massage or a massage?" I all but whispered.

"Just a massage," Pavel quickly clarified. "I didn't think any further clarification was required!"

"Thank you. I truly hope we never have to speak about this again," I said, still mortified.

"Agreed," said Pavel with a kind smile.

Heading back to the third floor, I slipped into our room. The bed was empty, but I could hear the shower running. Stripping off my clothes I headed into the bathroom and climbed into the shower with Dimitri.

"Hey handsome," I said, slipping my arms around him and angling my head up to receive his kiss.

"Hmm – I missed you," Dimitri said, running his hands down my back and cupping my backside.

"Have a good sleep?"

"Yes, until I woke up and you weren't there" he mock grumbled.

"I'm here now."

"So I noticed," he smiled, pushing me up against the wall of the shower and deepening his kiss. "What's wrong?" he asked, pulling back. He could tell I was feeling pensive.

"I don't know. I'm just feeling out of sorts," I confessed. "I thought maybe you could take the guys to the Guardian fights tonight? Eddie would love to see them, and it would mean so much if you invited him. If there's drinking or gambling Adrian will be in, and Christian will go because Lissa will tell him he has to."

"You need some time alone?" he asked, understandingly.

"Actually, I thought I might spend a few hours with Lissa? We haven't had girl chat in a while, and I miss it."

"Of course, milaya," he smiled. "I'll go ask them as soon as we're done here."

Two hours later the guys were on their way down to the gym to watch the weekly Guardian fights. Held every Friday evening, they were a sparring contest held in a knockout type format. It was a chance for the Guardians to let off steam, and the winner got bragging rights for the week.

Seeing Dimitri head down the stairs in his casual gear with Eddie, Adrian, and Christian I was glad Mom had suggested it. The guys were chatting and having guy time; something I appreciated Dimitri hadn't had a lot of. It was healthy for him to be around other men his own age.

Moments after they left Lissa arrived. Coming to sit down on the sofa in my room I asked her what she wanted to do.

"Oh whatever," she replied. "What did you want to do?"

Alarm bells were ringing now. Lissa always had something she wanted to do – usually involving dressing me up, forcing me to watch a sappy movie or subjecting me to endless hours of school gossip. Something was amiss.

"What's wrong, Lissa?"

"Nothing," she lied.

"Lissa?"

"Nothing's wrong," she half snapped.

I really didn't want to do this, but I shut my eyes and slipped into her head. It was hard to get an immediate fix on things, but there was guilt, anger, and shame.

"Get out of my head Rose!" Lissa snapped, throwing up her barricades as soon as she guessed what I was doing.

"I'll keep trying until you tell me what's wrong!" I said back.

"You don't get to know everything about me Rose," Lissa said, shouting now.

"Well, sadly that's not true for us, is it Lissa?! Now tell me what's wrong!"

"Fine!" Lissa shouted, sitting down on the sofa. "I'm jealous, alright?!"

I don't know what I thought she'd been about to say, but that hadn't been it.

"Jealous?" I said, coming to sit beside her. "Jealous of me?"

"A little bit," she admitted. "And jealous of what's going on with Dimitri," she added.

"Awww, Lissa? Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.

"Because it's embarrassing, Rose!"

"Don't be silly. Tell me how you're feeling."

Starting to cry Lissa said in a small voice, "I'm worried he's taken you away from me."

"What's brought this on?" I deflected, not wanting to let her know my own thoughts had recently been going in a similar direction.

"After the accident, I was all alone, except for you. You know how horrible it was, but we still had each other. You didn't have any family to speak of, and neither did I anymore. Then we ran away, and it was just the two of us as well. With the bond, it only made us closer. Once we came back to the Academy, and Christian and I got together, I was so happy. Everything seemed to be working out perfectly. I guess I had our whole lives mapped out. We'd graduate, I was going to go to Lehigh and then to Court, and you'd be my Guardian. Christian and I would get married and have kids; you'd be their badass Guardian Aunty Rose and protect them too."

Lissa took a shuddering breath and continued.

"And then you took the darkness for me. Adrian told me more about what happened last time, and how worried everyone was for you doing it again; that you had a room of Guardians and a doctor ready to sedate you if you couldn't handle it. All this time I've been experimenting with my magic, oblivious to the fact you've been fighting the darkness for me. I'm meant to be your best friend and never once did it occur to me what it was doing to you!"

She was crying in earnest, now. I moved over to put my arm around her.

"It's what being a Guardian is all about, Lissa," I reminded her. "'They come first,' remember?"

"It's not just that. For months you'd been in love and then lovers with Dimitri, and I had no idea. I was so wrapped up in my own life I didn't know what was going on in yours. When I saw you together, and saw the way you felt about each other, it was the first time I'd considered you having a life outside of mine. And instead of being happy for you, I was jealous that he might take you away from me. And when Adrian told us about you being soul mates I realized he already had," she bawled.

I sat next to her crying too, now. I didn't know what to tell her.