More Like Her: A Tale of A Fading Yet Growing Love (ON HOLD)

Chapter 3: Last Kiss

A/N: I’m picking up this story again. I have not written anything for this story in over a year so please bare with me. I reread the first two chapters and I see there was a few mistakes. Just to clear the air, Lissa and Rose are at Court not the Academy. I will revise those chapters later on. This is a short chapter but I felt it was necessary.

This chapter in inspired by Taylor Swift’s song Last Kiss. The lyrics in the story are italicized and belong rightfully to their wonderful artist.

Chapter Three: Last Kiss

There are many things in life that just tend to piss you the hell off. In my life, one of those things was Tasha Ozera. Dimitri had seemed livid at his family for encouraging me to stay and I was in the same boat with him. I would have loved to be anywhere but the house of him and his bride to be.

I was ushered into the kitchen and out to the small patio that was located in the backyard. There were clinking of glasses and laughter. Lissa and Christian were laughing so hard that they were nearly in tears. All of that laughter soon vanished as I walked through the open sliding glass door. Standing facing Lissa and Christian was a tall Moroi woman with jet black hair that had grown longer within the year since I had seen her. Natasha Ozera turned to see what had made her company all of sudden look wild eyed. With my smile plastered firmly and painfully to my face, I watched as her blue eyes widened and she dropped the tray of iced tea and lemonade she was carrying. The tray and cups made an audible clunk as glass broke. I heard a snicker from behind me and turned to see who had thought the situation funny. Viktoria stood in a cluster with her family. She sidled up to her brother who was still trying t avoid eye contact with me. The room was bizarrely quiet and Tasha was shell shocked by my appearance. I took a moment of gratitude that i had this much effect over her. Dimitri seemed to recover first as she rushed to Tasha’s side to help her clean up the mess of broken glass. Then he did something that sat lava throughout my body and my heart clench with so much pain. He took her hand and squeezed, bringing her back to life. Her blue eyes met his and the look sent shivers down my burning body.

The realization hit me hard. Dimitri and Tasha were really getting married. It was not just something I had dreamt up inside my head.

You told me you loved me

The look in their eyes showed a deep passion. It was too much to bare. I had remembered a time when he had looked at me just the same way he was staring at Tasha. Yet, I wasn’t her. I didn’t have the ability to give him a family, to make him happy. He didn’t love me anymore. That thought sent the lava deeper inside the core of my heart. I felt myself gasp as I watched the scene in front of me. And no matter how much the Belikov’s wanted me to stay, or how much Yeva was counting on me to make things right, I could not bare to stay in their house any longer. I turned on my heel and pushed through the door and straight to the front door, just as a stray tear fell down my face.

So why did you go away?

I knew it was going to be hard to have to face Dimitri. I had spent the last few hours mopping on a church pew working up the courage to face this fear. The fear of him actually being in love with Tasha Ozera. But I had given him his life back. Of course with Lissa ut still. I had known who he was even without his heart beating. Because I knew him. And I knew his heart beat with passion. I knew his heart used to beat for me.

The beat of your heart

It jumps through your shirt

I can still feel your arms

He was happy. He didn’t need me as much as I needed him. I felt like a coward for rushing from the house of that happy couple. When I felt a safe distance away I fell to my knees in the grass of a small garden on Court. The tears fell and I felt my whole body break. I had been holding all this hurt and pain in for a year. I felt my body shudder with a sob.

I don’t know to be something you miss.

He loved her. That thought I could not escape. I was a fool. A damn fool. He had told me his love had faded. I had felt hope when talking to Yeva. But that look that had been so deep had broken it all. It had broken me. I remembered when he used to hold me, used to kiss me.

How you kissed me when I was in the middle of saying something

There's not a day I don't miss those rude interruptions

How had it all become like this? How had I lost him to Tasha? What did she have that I didn’t? Had being strigoi really changed the man I loved? The man that had loved me.

I never thought we would have a last kiss.

Never imagined we’d end like this.

What had changed me life so drastically. I thought back to the cabin. Something I had refused to think about for a year. And as I thought about it, I felt like my chest had been pryed open, and someone had ripped my beating heart out and was squeezing it as I suffered. He had kissed me. He had had sex with me. He had told me it would all be okay. That we would make it all work no matter what. He had called me his, and I had called him mine.

Your name, forever the name on my lips.

I wondered if he had suffered at all without me. If he had felt like this. This deep agonizing pain that tore at every essence of my body. Did he even remember our moments?

I feel you forget me like I used to feel you breathe

And I keep up with our old friends just to ask them how you are

Hope it's nice where you are

I felt my breath heave one last sob before it hit me. What on earth was I doing? I had a boyfriend who loved me even if I carried a broken heart and old feelings for someone else. I had a responsibility to Lissa, and sitting here breaking down was not fulfilling that duty. I needed to grow up. To do as Yeva had said and let him come to me. Let him realize that the love me had...it didn’t just fade away. Our love was too deep. It was permanently tattooed on both of us and I knew Dimitri. I knew he felt it too. It was why he couldn’t look at me.

And I hope the sun shines

And it's a beautiful day

And something reminds you

You wish you had stayed

You can plan for a change in weather and time

But I never planned on you changing your mind

So it would hurt. Boy would it hurt. I would have to endure Tasha and Dimitri. But it would be worth it. I refused to believe we had had our last kiss. Because his lips had been and still were meant only for mine. So I would endure it. Because I was Rose Hathaway.

Never thought we'd have a last kiss

Never imagined we'd end like this

Your name, forever the name on my lips

Just like our last kiss

Forever the name on my lips

Forever the name on my lips

Just like our last...

And I never went down without a fight.