***Theo’s POV***

“I just want to know what happened to his face,” Thalia said as we ate dinner. “I asked Kim, but she wouldn’t tell me. Dimitri just put it off as a joke.”

“Maybe he deserved it,” I said, and winced when Thalia hit me.

“Thalia, don’t hit Theo. Even if he does deserve it,” my mom said with a sigh.

“Theo, you can’t even joke about it. You saw how bruised Dimitri’s face was,” Thalia said, concern in her eyes.

I turned my head so that she couldn’t see my guilty expression. “Yea, well, maybe he just pissed off the wrong person.”

Alek hadn’t talked to me at all today. She was pretending that I didn’t exist. I guess I now fell into the same category as her brother.

“Can we talk about something other than Dimitri?” I asked. I still felt guilty over him getting hit because of our relationship.

“Let’s talk about your grades, Theo,” dad said.

“So how about that Dimitri Ivanov?” I said enthusiastically.

“Nice try, but no. Your math grades suck,” he said simply.

“Maybe Dimitri can tutor him,” Thalia said, waggling her eyebrows at me.

“I’d rather fail,” I grumbled.

“I don’t care if a walrus tutors you. Just get your grades up. You’re dangerously close to failing math. Even if you have to copy off of Oliver, get your grades up,” dad said with a sigh.

“Yea, yea, yea,” I said. I stood up and put my dishes in the sink before heading up to my bedroom.

I laid down on my bed, pulling Dimitri’s scarf out from under my pillows and wrapping it around my neck. I inhaled his wonderful scent and smiled a little.

I rolled over on my side, my thoughts running. I could ask Dimitri out on another date tomorrow. We could get dinner again, and maybe hang out at the park or something since going to his house probably wasn’t the safest idea anymore. We could just relax and talk and spend time together.

Smiling at the thought, I allowed myself to drift off to sleep.

***

“Dimitri, your face looks a little better,” Thalia said, pointing at his cheek where the bruise was healing. The one on his jaw was still bad, though. But his cheek and the corner of his eye appeared to be doing much better than yesterday.

“Russian remedies,” he said, playing with the edge of his scarf.

Today, Dimitri was wearing bright yellow skinny jeans. He had on an incredibly trippy shirt that almost hurt my eyes to look at, with its wild and vivid swirling colors. He had on a light blue scarf that brought out the color of his frosty eyes. He had on his usual bracelets, make up, and nail polish. He had on his sparkly rainbow Vans, and his hair was up in its usual glittery purple fohawk.

“Did Danni O’Dell’s brother do it?” Thalia asked.

Dimitri shook his head, smirking a little. “No, he just shoves me in the hallways. He would never turn to actual violence against me. He knows my father is a rather large and protective individual. Anyways, it was just a minor incident. Don’t worry about it.”

“Do you know what happened?” Oliver asked me, his voice low so that only I could hear him.

“Yea. I’d rather not talk about it,” I mumbled.

“Wait, did you do it?” he asked in shock. “Because I would totally propose to you if you did that to his face.”

I smacked him in the arm, glaring at him. “No, I didn’t,” I snapped.

“Didn’t what?” Thalia asked, glancing at us in confusion.

“Didn’t cheat on Oliver,” I said, slinging my arm around his shoulders. “Tholiver 2.0 continues to sail.”

“No one ships Tholiver,” Thalia said in annoyance. “And it’s ugly, so stop saying it.”

“You’re ugly!” Oliver shot, sticking his tongue out at Thalia.

“I think you’re all wonderfully attractive. Except for the background character,” Dimitri said.

Oliver pouted and Thalia and I snickered. “Someday you’ll all come to appreciate me,” he grumbled.

“Dimitri, are we tutoring afterschool?” Thalia asked.

“I believe I’m free,” Dimitri said with a nod. “I’ll let Kimberly darling know.”

“You know, Theo’s almost failing math right now. He could use a math tutor,” Thalia said, grinning.

“Why, I would love to tutor my little Theodore!” Dimitri said, winking at me flirtatiously.

I blushed and glared at both of them. “I hate you both. I don’t need a math tutor. I have the background character’s homework to copy,” I said, jerking my thumb at Oliver.

“Hey!” Oliver whined. “You’re not allowed to copy my homework anymore you freaking jerk!”

“Yes I am,” I said, rolling my eyes.

Oliver frowned. “Yea, okay, you are. But I’m not happy about it!”

“And I’m okay with that,” I said, patting his head.

He swatted my hands away, pouting. “Don’t sink the ship, Theo.”

“Your ship is about as successful as the Titanic,” Thalia said with a sigh.

“Very interesting. But, I have some business to attend to. I’ll see you all later,” Dimitri said, giving us a short wave before strutting over to his usual table and sitting down. I watched him pull out a notebook and begin to carefully draw in.

That picture of me he had drawn rose in my mind. I resisted the urge to go over and see what he was drawing now. He was so incredibly talented at drawing.

I turned my attention back to Thalia and Oliver and we spent the rest of the period talking to each other. The day crawled by until it was lunch time, and I sat at my usual table, looking out for any sign of Dimitri in the hallways.

I finally spotted him walking around with Kim, and got up. I mumbled something about using the bathroom and rushed out of the room.

Dimitri spotted me as I went up to them. He watched me curiously as I stepped up in front of him. I didn’t feel bad about talking to him public right now, because Kim was with us. She knew about our relationship, though, so it was okay.

“Do you want to go on a date afterschool?” I asked him, my voice low.

“Ah, how wonderful little Theodore! Yes, I would,” he said brightly.

“Uh, excuse me princess, but you’re supposed to tutor with us afterschool,” Kim said, raising an eyebrow at her best friend.

Dimitri waved his hand dismissively. “I’ll tell Thalia dear that something came up. I would much rather spend time with my little Theodore than tutor a couple of kids,” he said.

Kim sighed and nodded. “Yea, yea, yea. I’ve got covered. But you are not ditching us every day! You’re the only one who has patience for half of the imbeciles there,” she said.

“Excuse me, I’m a math imbecile,” I said with a pout.

“Indeed you are. But I’m excellent at math, so I’ll be able to help you fix that minor problem,” Dimitri said with a smirk. “It’s just going to cost you a couple kisses.”

“I can live with that,” I said with a nod.

“Aw, you guys are cute,” Kim said with a smile. “And Theo is a lot cuter than that last guy you hooked up with, Dimitri.” Kim ruffled my hair and I swatter her hand away with a whine.

“Kimberly darling, the last guy I hooked up with was a friend of yours. And I’m not hooking up with my little Theodore. I’m dating him, slow and steady,” Dimitri said, chuckling.

“Yea, but he’s not my most attractive friend. And good for you guys,” she said, leaning against Dimitri.

“I’m going to head back to my table now. I just wanted to tell you that we’re going on a date afterschool,” I said, turning and walking away without another word to him. He knew by now that we would meet in the locker room at the end of the day.

I sat back down with Thalia and Oliver, who suspected nothing at all. I found myself staring at Thalia nervously.

If Dimitri’s sister had physically attacked him when she found out about us, what would my own sister do? Thalia wasn’t exactly a violent person, but she wasn’t the most calm and gentle person in the world either.

And I could tell by the way she looked at Dimitri that she really liked him. And due to his flirtatious nature, he had probably led her on without even meaning to, which just made this whole situation even worse.

The bell rang, and we went off to English class. I took my usual seat next to Dimitri, and he placed his hand over mine under the desk again. I kept a neutral expression despite the smile that wanted to make an appearance on my face.

“Now, for our test on Hamlet, you’re going to have to be able to quote at least three lines,” Mrs. Slate said, writing something up on the board.

“Shit. I can’t do that,” I hissed.

“You can copy off of me. I’ll give you a few quotes,” Dimitri said with a shrug.

“For once, I’m actually glad you have a strange obsession with Hamlet,” I said in relief.

“Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment,” he said, smirking and shrugging again.

“Seriously, do you have a Hamlet quote for everything?” I asked, rolling my eyes.

“For the apparel oft proclaims the man,” he said, gesturing between us. “Going by that wonderful Polonius quote, I believe we can determine that I’m fabulous and you’re a bit of a bore, little Theodore.”

I rolled my eyes again and lightly hit his arm. “Shut up. I’m not boring. I just dress like a normal human being, you weirdo.”

“Dimitri! Theo! Pay attention,” Mrs. Slate snapped.

“My apologies,” Dimitri said, his eyes flashing with amusement. Mrs. Slate glared at him, but turned back to the board and continued writing.

We fell silent for the rest of the class, paying attention to Mrs. Slate as she droned on and on about Hamlet. When the bell rang, I sent up a prayer to every religious figure known to man and jumped out of my seat.

We went down to study hall, taking our usual seats. I watched as Dimitri and Kim came into the room a few minutes after the bell had rung. Dimitri made his way over to us.

“Thalia my dear, I must apologize. I am unable to tutor tonight. Something has come up,” he said with a dramatic sigh.

Thalia frowned. “Oh. Okay Dimitri. Maybe tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow sounds magnificent!” he said.

“And we can hang out after,” Thalia said and blushed. “I mean, you know, you, me, and Kim can all hang out after.”

“Lovely idea,” Dimitri said, nodding in agreement. His eyes slid over to me. “Little Theodore, I have a request.”

“What?” I grumbled, glancing up at him.

“Meet me in the main lobby after study hall. I have a surprise for you,” he said, winking at me before turning and heading back over to his usual seat next to Kim.

I blinked in confusion. “What surprise could he have for me?” I wondered out loud.

“Maybe he’s going to propose to you,” Oliver offered.

I glared and elbowed him in the side. “That’s not funny Oliver!”

“Theo’s right though. I wonder what surprise Dimitri could possibly have for him,” Thalia said curiously.

I shrugged, trying not to let my mind wander too much. Dimitri was probably just going to do something really stupid, and then we could head off to our date.

Pushing it out of my mind, I pulled out a book and began to read. When the bell rang, I looked up and frowned, seeing that Dimitri was already gone.

I slung my bag over my shoulders and my friends follow me out of the classroom and around to the main lobby. I looked around for any sign of Dimitri in the thick crowd of kids.

“Little Theodore.”

I spun around and Dimitri smirked, strutting right up to me. He reached out, gently stroking my cheek. I smacked his hand away, blushing. Thalia and Oliver were standing right freaking there! What the hell was Dimitri doing?

He kept the smirk on his face. “You came.”

“Yea,” I grumbled. “Now what did you need Dimitri?” I wanted him to hurry up already. A couple of kids were starting to stare at us.

“This.” Dimitri cupped my face in his hands and bent down to kiss me. I heard several audible gasps from the large crowd of students.

Terrified, I shoved Dimitri away from me and stumbled back. I looked at him with wide, wild eyes.

“What are you doing?” I choked out. So many people were staring at us now. I felt my face heating up.

Dimitri seemed unfazed by my rejection, that same stupid smirk on his face. What the hell had gotten into him?

“I didn’t want to hide our relationship anymore, little Theodore. I love you,” he said, his expression remaining the same but his voice becoming deadly serious.

My jaw unhinged as I stared at him. Had he really just declared his love for me in front of all these people? I looked around, seeing so many people staring at us, waiting for my reaction.

I gulped. “You…You fucking freak!” I snapped.

For the first time since I had met him, the amusement snapped out of his eyes. His lips twitched, but he managed to cling to his smirk.

“God, what the hell makes you think I love you? I don’t even like you! You’re weird and obnoxious! LEAVE ME ALONE!” I spun away as he started to lose his smirk. I couldn’t bear to see his expression after that. I just…I didn’t want people to know I was dating him.

I hurried out of the hallway. Hell, I hurried out of the school, pushing the doors open and rushing outside. Rushing away from my crushed and rejected boyfriend.