"Fuck you, Dimitri Belikov!" Rose muttered under her breath, applying wild cherry tinted lip gloss to her lips and pursing them in the mirror hanging on the inside of her locker. She undid her lazy braid, letting her long dark locks tumble artlessly in loose curls down her back. She intentionally kept her makeup subtle and light, her clothing attractive but not revealing. Her Babcia had had a saying - dress like Halloween, and you'll end up with ghouls in your pants. It probably lost something in the translation, but she understood the gist; if you dressed like a slut, you'd only end up attracting guys that liked that sort of girl. The best way to drive a guy mad was to look like you weren't trying too hard. In fact, to look like you weren't trying at all.

Not that she was trying, of course. After what that bastard had done over winter break, being anywhere near Dimitri Belikov was the last thing she wanted. Truth be told, even the thought of him turned her stomach and made her want to run and hide somewhere for a long, long time. But since they were stuck at St. Vladimir's Academy together, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing just how badly he'd hurt her.

Shutting her locker with perhaps a little more vehemence than was strictly necessary, Rose turned to see her best friend Lissa standing beside her. In many ways, they were a picture in opposites. Lissa was tall and slim – with that willowy figure common to supermodels. She was pale – light skin and blonde hair. In fact, it was only her rubine lips and piercing jade eyes that gave her any color at all. But she was undeniably a knockout. She was also the most genuine and loving person God had put breath into and for the last thirteen years Rozalia Mazur's best friend.

Rose, as she preferred to be known, took after her Polish father's side of the family; dark hair and eyes, although this was attenuated by her mother's Scottish heritage. She'd ended up with paler skin than her father's family but with their other dark features. It was a striking combination. Another thing she'd got from her mother was her gentle curves. While Lissa could easily go braless anywhere, anytime, Rose had the full hips and breasts, and cinched waist, that declared her to be all woman.

While the two of them were opposites in looks, they were also opposites in temperament. Lissa was the one every teacher and parent loved. Sweet and good-natured, she never gave anyone a moment's trouble. Rose, on the other hand, was feisty and impulsive; also traits she got from her Scottish mother. Notoriously outspoken, she was bright and loyal with a wicked sense of humor. And she held a grudge. Oh boy, did she hold a grudge.

"Are you ok?" Lissa asked, looking searchingly at her best friend.

There was no point lying. Lissa could always see right through her.

"I will be. Just don't let him near me," Rose whispered.

"You're in most of the same classes. You can't avoid him," Lissa said reasonably.

"I know. But today will be the first time I've seen him since it happened. I just don't want him to know how much he's hurt me," Rose explained beseechingly. "I don't want to see him. I don't even want to think about him!"

If Rose was thinking about Dimitri, it wasn't any wonder, Lissa thought ominously. They'd dated all of junior year. She and Christian, Rose and Dimitri; best friends dating best friends. The four of them had been almost inseparable, which is what made what happened so much worse.

St Vlad's, a combined Eastern Orthodox school, trod a careful line between parishioners whose diocese used the Julian calendar (where Christmas was celebrated on January 7), and those that favored the revised Julian calendar that recognized 25 December. To accommodate both groups, the school's winter break was long; running from late December until the second week of the New Year. As she'd done every second year for as long as she could remember, Rose had accompanied her parents to Scotland to spend a Catholic Christmas and visit with her mother's family before returning to celebrate an Orthodox Christmas at home. It was one of the many concessions negotiated between her fiercely religious Orthodox father and Catholic mother, and there was no getting out of it.

While Rose was overseas, Lissa had thrown a party. It wasn't huge, but her parents had been away, and they'd got into the liquor cabinet. When she and Christian had retired upstairs to fool around, a group were still going strong; Dimitri and a few of the others had found the Absinthe. While Dimitri maintained he couldn't remember a thing, and certainly hadn't done anything intentionally, he'd woken up in bed with Tasha, Christian's aunt, and there was every indication they'd shared more than a bottle of liquor. In fact, Tasha was crowing to anyone who would listen that Dimitri completed her collection of St Vladimir's 'Guardians' – the district's leading basketball team.

Rose had been devastated. By the time she got home, everyone had heard that Dimitri had given up waiting for Rose to 'take the next step' and instead slept with his best friend's aunt. Humiliated and hurt, Rose refused to listen to a word Dimitri had to say on the issue, and just like that one of the school's power couples had fallen.

"Morning!" Christian greeted, slipping his arm around Lissa and kissing her sweetly. At seventeen Christian Ozera was devilishly handsome, although often this was overlooked because of his brooding, morose expression. With black hair and piercing blue eyes, he looked like an Ozera. In fact, visually he was the male equivalent of his aunt. The only reason Rose could bear to be around him at all was because he hated Tasha as much as she did!

The result of an unwed teenage pregnancy between Lucas and Moira, Christian had been given up by his parents to be raised by his religious paternal grandparents. Lucas was the eldest of nine, so Christian had numerous uncles and aunts, the youngest being Tasha who was only two months older than him. Brought up as brother and sister, they'd loathed each other, even from their earliest years. In fact, Tasha's face was permanently marred with an ugly scar she'd received when Christian had belted her across the face with a metal dump truck toy during a vicious stoush in their kindergarten years. Running from the edge of one eye almost down to her chin, the wound had become infected and left a prominent scar Tasha would bear for life.

Tasha wasted no opportunity to remind Christian he was the unwanted offspring of a Godless union, teasing him unmercifully that his biological parents had both taken off, neither staying in touch with him or their families. Christian took every chance to tell Tasha that her scar made her as ugly outside as she was on the inside and that if she weren't careful, one day she'd have her own 'unwanted offspring' to deal with.

"Good to see you back, Rosie," Christian said kindly. Like Lissa, she'd known Christian since kindergarten. While she usually hated being called Rosie, Christian only did it when he was being sweet – something that had only started when he'd got together with Lissa. Christian had grown up with a chip the size of the Grand Canyon on his shoulder, but his friendship with Dimitri and relationship with Lissa had brought him out of his shell.

"Is he here, yet?" Lissa hissed under her breath, but not quietly enough for Rose to miss it.

"Yeah. He came up super early this morning to work out in the gym. He's still really cut up," Christian muttered.

Lissa lifted her eyebrows, giving him a 'don't you go there' stare. Rose knew Dimitri's actions had been a heated topic of conversation between her best friend and her boyfriend. The couple hadn't spoken for two days after Dimitri and Rose had broken up; Lissa taking Rose's side, Christian coming out in support of Dimitri. Now they mostly avoided the topic. While both could see the other's point of view, they each firmly supported their own best friend.

"I don't care if he's here or not," Rose told them defiantly, flicking her long dark wavy hair back over her shoulder. "I'm not the one who's done anything wrong!"

Gathering up her bag, the three of them walked down the corridor towards homeroom. Lissa and Christian were bickering about the theme for Prom. Lissa was on the organizing committee and was pushing for 'A Night in Paris', while Christian was trying to convince her a 'James Bond' theme was much cooler. Distracted by their attempts to persuade one another, Rose rounded the corner and ran straight into someone, losing her balance and starting to fall.

She knew who it was immediately. The pine of his deodorant only partially masking his own manly scent; the solidness of his body, and the strong arms that grasped her before she could tumble.

Even though every cell in her body was screaming at her to run, Rose couldn't. She was transfixed. Her head moving of its own volition, she lifted her eyes to look into the chocolate brown orbs of the one who'd caught her. Eyes she would recognize anywhere. He must have come straight from the shower. His chin length brown hair was wet but neatly tied back at the nape of his neck. He was freshly shaven and looked even better than when she'd last seen him three weeks ago.

Rose could see surprise, love, pain, amusement, anger, sorrow and finally resignation cross his face. And while she knew she should be struggling to extricate herself from his arms, somehow she wasn't.

"Roza," Dimitri whispered reverently, unable to believe that she was back in his arms, even for just a moment.