“Dimitri.”

He looked up at me curiously. “Yes, little Theodore?”

“Are you tutoring afterschool?” I asked.

We were sitting in English class, working on Hamlet study guides. I was keeping my voice down so that no one would overhear us.

Dimitri nodded. “Yes, Thalia and Kimberly darling wanted me to tutor again.”

“Tell them no,” I said.

His lips curved into their usual smirk. “And why would I do that, little Theodore?”

“Because we’re going on a date,” I grumbled.

“We are? I wasn’t informed of this.”

“Well I just informed you. So tell them you can’t.”

“I don’t like to lie, little Theodore.”

I shot him a glare. “Fine then. I guess we won’t go on a date.”

“I said I don’t like to lie. I will, but it will cost you.” His smirk got wider and there was a gleam in his eyes I didn’t like.

“Cost me how?” I asked suspiciously.

“Why, Aleksandra is going to ask you to come over afterschool. I want to be there when you turn her down,” he said, enjoying this way more than he should.

“You’re terrible,” I said with a sigh, but nodded in agreement.

“Oh, you love me little Theodore,” he said cheerfully.

I blushed. Dimitri didn’t know how true his words were. “Fuck you, Dimitri.”

“What have I done, that thou dar’st wag thy tongue in noise so rude against me?” he asked, slapping a dramatic hand over his chest.

“Do you always need to quote Hamlet?” I asked in annoyance.

“Why, that was me quoting the Queen! Act 3 Scene 4,” he said, chuckling.

“It’s scary that you know that,” I said, shaking my head at him.

“I rather enjoy Hamlet,” he said, thoughtfully drumming his fingers on the book. “Plus, it’s easy to quote in most situations.”

I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to my worksheet, ignoring Dimitri. I jumped a little as I felt his hand brush mine under our desks, but relaxed. He let his hand gently rest on top of mine, and we sat silently, spending the rest of the period like that.

When the bell rang, I wandered over to Thalia and Oliver. We made our way to study hall, taking our usual seats. I almost groaned when Alek came over. Thank god Dimitri was never on time to classes.

“Hey Theo,” she greeted as the bell rang.

“Hi Alek,” I said, hoping she asked me before Dimitri came in the room.

But then the door opened and Dimitri came strutting in with Kim following him. I had to resist the urge to beat myself to death with my desk.

“Thalia dear,” Dimitri said, coming over and dropping into the chair across from Thalia.

“Hey Dimitri,” she said, smiling.

“Unfortunately, I cannot grace you and Kimberly darling with my presence afterschool. Something has come up,” he said with a sigh.

I saw the disappointment in Thalia’s eyes. “Oh. Alright,” she said, forcing herself to keep the smile.

Alek, who had been watching them, turned her attention back to me. “Theo, do you want to come over and hang out afterschool?” she asked, blushing lightly.

“I can’t. I have something else to do. I’m sorry,” I said, forcing myself not to look at Dimitri.

Alek’s face fell, unlike Thalia, who had at least kept slight composition of her happy features. She nodded, dropping her gaze.

“Oh…Okay,” she said.

“Such a shame when your crush can’t hang out with you,” Dimitri said with his usual smirk.

“No one likes you,” Alek said, her words dripping with hate. “Go away!”

“Kimberly darling likes me,” he said, observing his nails and looking unfazed by his sister’s words. “Right Kimberly darling?”

“Right!” Kimberly flashed him thumbs-up from her usual seat.

“Why do you two hate Dimitri so much?” Thalia demanded, looking back and forth between me and Alek.

“One of these things is not like the other,” Oliver sang awkwardly. “One of these things just doesn’t belong.”

I shot him a look that announced I was going to kill him in his sleep. He smiled innocently and offered me a slight shrug.

“I believe you hate me because I had sex with Zoey,” Dimitri said, pointing to Alek. “And you hate me because I’m more fabulous than you,” he said, pointing to me.

“That is NOT why I hate you. I hate you for other reasons,” I said, glaring at him.

“I’ll fix that hate later,” he said, smirking at the thought of how much he was going to kiss me when we were away from people.

“I hate you because you use people for sex and you’re an obnoxious freak,” Alek said flatly.

“You’re beginning to sound like a broken record,” he said, laughing.

“You, come with me. Before someone kills you,” Kim said, grabbing Dimitri’s hand and dragging him away from us.

“You guys don’t have to be so mean to him. He’s really not a bad guy,” Thalia said, shooting me and Alek a dirty look.

“Oh yea. He’s an angel,” Alek grumbled, sitting down.

“You should stay away from him Thalia. He’s not good for you,” I said casually. But hey, this bitch needed to stay away from MY man.

“I can take care of myself Theodore,” she said, her voice flat.

“Why do you people insist on calling me Theodore? It’s Theo,” I grumbled, pouting.

“I’ll call you Theo,” Oliver said, winking at me.

“I’ll just call you,” I said, returning the wink.

“Your bromance is starting to freak me out,” Thalia said, pulling out a book to read.

“She’s just jelly,” Oliver said.

“But we’re peanut butter. We’re a peanut butter and bromance sandwich,” I said.

“Hey Theo? Do you think we could hang out soon? I need to talk to you about something,” Alek said, blushing a little and not meeting my eyes.

“Yea, I think we could hang out soon,” I said, trying not to sound nervous.

She smiled brightly at me. “Great!”

We talked casually until the period was over. When the bell rang, I hurried off to the locker room, where Dimitri was already waiting for me.

“How do you always beat me here?” I asked, moving into his arms and sharing a kiss with him.

“Longer legs,” he said, gesturing down at his legs.

“And yet you’re always late to class,” I said with a sigh.

“Fashionably late, little Theodore,” he said.

I rolled my eyes. We stayed in the locker room for ten minutes like always before I led Dimitri out and down to my car.

We got in the car together and I took off down the road. Dimitri was flicking through my iPod, trying to find something to listen to.

“I’m sure you’ll find something. I have over 2,000 songs on there and with your wild music taste, you’ll like at least one band I listen to,” I said, glancing at him.

“Where are we going, exactly?” he asked.

“Dinner and a movie. A normal date. Unless your idea of a date is climbing rainbows and streaking naked through the streets of Russia,” I said.

“Contrary to popular opinion, I’m actually in favor of simple dates. I see no need to go all out. I find simple to be more endearing,” he said.

“You are such a hard person to figure out,” I groaned.

Dimitri smirked. “Well, it wouldn’t be fun if I was easy to figure out.”

“You’re going to drive me crazy,” I said.

“I still need to fix your hate for me, little Theodore,” he said, sounding happier about that than he really should.

He settled back against the seat, setting my iPod down as We The Kings played. I reached over, taking his hand in mine. The rings on his fingers were cool against my skin.

We drove in comfortable silence. I was surprised that Dimitri wasn’t making fun of me for driving to the movie theater out of town so that no one would see us.

Eventually, I pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant out of town. We got out of the car and went inside together. A waitress seated us, shooting glances at Dimitri’s outrageous appearance.

We sat down together and gave our drink orders, picking up our menus. I was fishing around my brain, trying to figure out how to word everything so that I could find out how strong Dimitri’s feelings for me were.

“Little Theodore, you do realize that we have an amusing situation occurring, right?” he said, breaking the silence between us.

“Huh?” I asked in confusion. What situation?

“My sister has a crush on you, your sister has a crush on me, and they don’t know that we’re secretly dating,” he said, his eyes holding that mischievous gleam. “If the find out about us, they’re going to be quite disappointed.”

“Well Thalia can just back off. You’re mine,” I said with a pout.

“Protective?” He chuckled. “Ah little Theodore, don’t worry. I wouldn’t leave you for your sister. I have no intentions of leaving you for anybody.”

My heart stuttered in my chest, but I managed to keep the same expression on my face. So, Dimitri did have strong feelings for me!

I mentally sighed, realizing that Dimitri was a straightforward kind of guy. He was brutally honest.

I reached across the table and took his hands in mine. He gave me a curious look, and I met his eyes with a steady gaze.

“Tell me how you feel about me,” I said.

His curiosity dissolved into his usual smirk and amusement. “Why, little Theodore, I feel strongly about you. I’ve never felt this way about anyone.”

I relaxed, fighting against my smile. “Good.”

“You were actually worried about that?” He laughed and pulled me so that he could kiss me.

He released my hands and crossed his arms, looking smug. Embarrassed, I dropped my gaze back to my menu, not wanting to admit just how scared I had been that he was going to reject me.

Still, he didn’t love me, not like I was sure I was starting to love him. But I guess that would just come with time.

It made me feel a lot better to know that he did have strong feelings for me. To know that he wasn’t just going to use me for sex, or dump me for the instant he saw someone more attractive.

The waitress came back with our drinks, still eyeing Dimitri in amazement. He was unfazed by her glances, though. But what else was new?

We gave our orders and the waitress disappeared. She returned a minute later, setting bread down for us.

I grabbed a piece and bit into it. “Are you sure Galen won’t tell Alek?” I asked after swallowing down my mouthful of bread.

Dimitri nodded. “Positive. My wonderful Galen won’t speak a word of it to her. I asked him not to, and he listen to me. My parents won’t say anything to her either. They’d rather not have World War 3 erupt in our house. I hope you realize that by dating you, I’m risking my life. If Aleksandra finds out, she’s going to murder me, little Theodore.”

But he seemed unconcerned about it. I rolled my eyes and took another bite of bread so that I wouldn’t have to respond to that.

“May I take a cliché moment to tell you that you’re worth that risk?” The corners of his mouth tugged up as he spoke, and he took a sip of soda.

“Dimitri, you never really struck me as cliché,” I said.

“Little Theodore, I quote Hamlet. That’s about as cliché as anyone can get.”

“You could quote Romeo and Juliet.”

“They committed joint suicide after a three day relationship. I apologize, but I’m not a big fan of Romeo and Juliet.”

“I was Romeo when we read that in class,” I said thoughtfully.

“Lucky. Kimberly darling set it up so that I was Juliet. And I was a fabulous Juliet,” he said, dramatically flicking a loose strand of purple hair.

“I’m sure you were,” I said with a sigh.

The waitress returned a few minutes later with our food. Dimitri and I ate in comfortable silence together. When we were done, I paid and we left together.

“That was nice,” Dimitri said as we got back in the car. “What movie are we going to see?”

“I was thinking either Now You See Me or The Purge,” I said with a shrug, driving towards the movie theater.

“I heard The Purge was absolutely awful. Let’s go see it,” he said cheerfully.

I nodded and parked at the theater. We got out and went inside. I paid for our tickets and we walked down to the theater together, entering and sitting next to each other. The theater was freezing, and I found myself shivering a little.

Dimitri noticed and pulled off his scarf, wrapping it around my neck. “You need a little color in your life,” he said, smirking and putting his arm around me.

Surprisingly, the scarf did warm me right up. It was Dimitri’s favorite purple scarf with his initials on it. I felt a strange pride in wearing it.

“I have color in my life,” I said, gesturing to him.

“The only color you have are your eyes,” he said, kissing my cheek. “You wear very limited color, little Theodore. Life is more interesting when you color outside of the lines.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said as the theater darkened, signaling the start of the movie.

I found myself bored as The Purge played. It wasn’t scary at all, and was extremely predictable. Dimitri seemed amused by the movie, but I had a feeling that everything amused him.

When the movie was over, we got up and left the theater, getting back into my car. I kept Dimitri’s scarf on as I took off towards the school.

“That movie was awful,” I said. “That is the last time you get to pick the movie.”

“I’ve already seen Now You See Me. Besides, I like bad horror movies. They make for fabulous comedies,” he said.

I grunted out a response and turned the music up. A little while later, I was pulling into the school parking lot, parking next to Dimitri’s car.

Dimitri got out of the car, kissing me. “Follow me back to my house. Aleksandra won’t be home for at least another hour.”

I nodded and watched him get in his car. I followed him back to his house and we went inside together.

“Dimmy! Dimmy, where were you?” Galen demanded, stomping out in the kitchen.

“Why, on a date with my magnificent boyfriend,” Dimitri said.

“Next time let me know!” he said angrily.

“Galen, come on. Leave the boys alone,” Mrs. Ivanov said, walking over and taking Galen’s hand. She tugged the protesting child out of the room.

“Ah, my wonderful little brother,” Dimitri said, chuckling and pulling me up to his bedroom.

We laid on his bed together. I rested my head on Dimitri’s chest as he played with my hair. He kissed my temple and gave me an easy smile.

“Like I said, I enjoy simple dates. They’re so much better than extravagant dates,” he said.

I turned my head so that I could look into his frosty eyes. “I just liked being with you,” I said before I could stop myself. I blushed, snapping my mouth shut and looking away in embarrassment.

“Right, I almost forgot,” he said, rolling so that his body was on top of mine. He grinned, that mischievous glean potent in his eyes. “I have to convince you not to hate me anymore.”

I smirked. “Try to.”

“Challenge accepted.”

And then Dimitri’s lips were on mine, kissing me passionately. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer. His body was a comfortable weight against mine, and his scarf tickled my neck.

Dimitri parted my lips, his tongue beginning to explore my mouth. I ran my own tongue against it, our legs tangling together. Dimitri’s hand knotted itself into my hair.

My feelings were swelling up in my chest. I was absolutely positive that I was in love with Dimitri Ivanov.

That knowledge both excited me and terrified me. Something told me that love was another thing that Dimitri didn’t take seriously. Kim made it sound like Dimitri had loose feelings concerning relationships and love.

I wouldn’t tell him I was in love with him. Not yet. Not until I thought he might return the powerful emotions.

Dimitri’s cool hands slid under my shirt and I shivered at his touch against my bare skin. His hands moved up to my chest, and I pulled him against my body, wanting him.

Our lips were still working together, furious and passionate. I wanted to convey my emotions through my kisses since I knew I couldn’t do it verbally.

But then the sound of his door creaking open reached our eyes. I figured it was Galen or Dimitri’s parents, and ignored it.

Then I heard Alek’s horrified gasp.

I pulled away from Dimitri, roughly shoving him off of me. He lazily rolled over onto his back, propping up on his elbows and glancing at Alek.

“It’s called knocking, Aleksandra,” he said patiently.

“What the fuck?” she whispered shakily, staring between the two of us. I was blushing furiously, not meeting her eyes.

“I don’t appreciate the vulgarities,” Dimitri said, smirking at her.

“Why were you two…I mean…what?” she choked out.

Dimitri glanced at me, and I could read the question in his eyes. I nodded, squeezing my eyes shut, wishing I could just shrivel up and die.

“Little Theodore and I are dating. Although, if you tell anyone, I’ll be sure to tell the whole school that my fabulous self is actually your brother,” he said, his smirk getting wider. Oh thank god he was going to make sure she didn’t tell anybody.