Reality Bites - Wattys 2018 Shortlist

Chapter 81 - Close to You

By the time we touched down at Court, Stan must have been desperate to get off the plane. I'd spent the rest of the flight talking to Lissa, until she decided to nap, and then I'd kept myself busy watching Dimitri. He knew I was gazing at him – every now and again he'd look towards me, his chocolate brown eyes all but molten with desire. I couldn't wait to get to the accommodation at Court to be with him.

Mom, Baba, and Pavel had engaged Stan in a range of conversation topics - including how desperately some of the St. Vladimir's curriculum needed to be updated. He wasn't looking like a happy camper by the time we landed.

The off-duty Guardians including Kirk were headed to the Court Guardian dorms, so jumped into one of the two waiting vans. That put Stan in with us for the drive to the Court guest quarters. I sat beside Lissa in the back row – Dimitri sitting directly in front of me beside Stan. It was only a twenty-minute trip, but I spent a good deal of the time staring at the back of Dimitri's neck imagining I was kissing his Promise mark and molnija. A strand of hair had made its way loose from his leather hair tie – and it took every ounce of self-control not to wrap it around my finger and play with it.

Dragging my attention back to Lissa, I asked her whether she needed to do any shoe shopping while we were here as I wanted to try and find ladies knee high boots with built-in stake holders since I'd obviously never find them in human shops. She said she wanted to keep an eye out for a different pair of heels for the Graduation dance.

"Have you decided which dress to wear yet?" I asked. "Christian's been on my case to find out what color you're wearing so he can order a matching buttonhole and corsage. And just quietly I think he might have a piece of jewelry planned, too."

"Oh, he's so romantic!" she gushed. "I still haven't decided about the dress. They're both nice, but somehow neither feels 100% right" Lissa grumbled. "I was kind of hoping I might find something here at Court. It's such a huge occasion – it's the start of the next phase of our lives together. I want to wear something sensational that Christian will never forget. What about you – are you going to wear that dress we bought at your Dad's place?"

"Yeah, probably. I've gone off it a bit but I doubt there'll be a lot of really dressy stuff here for a Dhampir. Not that it really matters since I haven't got a date," I said despondently. "Maybe I should see if Adrian or Castile are going stag and want to go with me?"

"Not Eddie – he's going with Chelsea. She's really excited that he asked her."

"How do you know this and I don't?" I asked peevishly.

"He's been trying to keep it quiet from you" Lissa laughed. "You're like a sister to him, and I think he was worried you'd give him a hard time about it."

"Well, he has a point," I admitted. "I'm going to give him shit about it when we get back to the Academy. I'll have to see whether Adrian's got a date then," I sighed. "Or I'll probably just go solo."

"Most of the Dhampir guys in your year are going solo. There's no shame it in."

"I know. But it's different for a girl – you know that Lissa. And it's really depressing when Dhampir guys outnumber girls four to one in our year, and not one guy has asked me."

"It's only because they're too scared you'll kick their ass" Lissa giggled. "Why don't you just pick one and ask them?"

"No way! I'd rather go alone" I sighed again, genuinely depressed now. I know it's different for Moroi, but I couldn't help but want flowers and romance with my lover, too. A couple of tears ran down my cheek.

'You really want to go with him don't you?' she asked through the bond.

'More than anything. But he won't budge.'