The same old again. I was so darn used to the pattern by now.

Scream, Trash around, and apologize.

I had taken the responsibility to deal with him along with his demons and I was going to do just that.

"Alana, don't go. You always baby him, and then he gets away with practically everything. You're turning into his favorite footpath and letting him walk all over you." Dwight pointed out.

The man had a valid point.

"Don't worry." I assured him, "He's gonna get an earful if he pulls that crap on me again."

I went downstairs, followed by Claire who was right behind me. "I think he went into the garden."

To trash what? Water fountains? Bird baths?

I nodded and sauntered out of the living area and stepped onto the porch. The sun shone so bright, I had to shield my eyes. There he was, the sun-kissed twin brother of Goldilocks, rocking himself on the large white swing; face down, with his ray-bans on. His hair looked different in the sun, the color of the bronzer in my tote. I approached him. He pretended to not see me when I had practically stood under his nose.

My poor little broken boy.

I pulled off those ray-bans, which revealed furious red blood-shot eyes.

"Can I sit with you?" I tried sweet-talking.

Rowan shook his head, "No. You can't."

"Tell me what's going on in your head right now."

He kept rocking the swing, back and forth, back and forth. His jaw tensed, "I want to push Dwight in front of a speeding car."

I swallowed hard, "Why?"

Rowan ignored my question, "What were you two doing in his room?"

It was high time I'd punched someone in the face, and my palm twitched with anticipation, "you know what, Rowan, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt this time."

He looked surprised by what I'd said.

"I'm sick and tired of giving you the same speech. I thought we were through this yesterday. Dwight and I were just talking, you hear?" Calm down Alana, take a deep breath. I kept telling myself.

"So what did you guys talk about?" that guy had some nerve, looking me in the face and talking with such arrogance, "About how difficult it could get to prove me crazy or how you were better off with him than me. It's like defying me brings you some kind of inner peace, might as well tell me if you think the older one is a better option. I'm ready to back off."

"YOU, ROWAN." I was on brink of tears, "You're fucking crazy."

He smiled at me, like I'd given him the best compliment ever, "I'm glad you realized sooner."

"Fuck you!" I said.

"Almost did. Twice." He winked at me.

Tears began to sting my vision. "You are such a JERK!"

I thought of giving my twitching palm some peace, and so I struck him hard, spun around and trotted back inside the house without a backward glance. I'm sure he'll have a totally different reason to rage around with now. Claire stood in the dining area with Kyo who appeared to be still having breakfast.

"Alana." Claire called out to me.

"Claire-chan." Kyo said, "what about my scrambled egg?"

"You seriously have a bad timing, Tachibana." She followed me, "I'm throwing you on the next flight to Tokyo with that crew you hate. Let your Obaa-san look after your demands."

"Claire-chan."

"Alana, wait up."

He kept doing that again and again. And I was thinking I could change him when I couldn't even control my anger. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

I managed to run upstairs but Claire caught up with me. I turned to face her, "He's such a jerk sometimes."

"I know. He'll come around and apologize." Claire assured, "Don't let him get to you, Alana. His anger issues are his worst enemies; he'll have to fight them first. Don't misunderstand him. Rowan doesn't mean what he says."

I envied Rowan at that moment. Even though he thought no one cared for him, clearly his family did. Claire and Dwight were trying so hard to make things easier for him. Well, I didn't approve the kind of stunt Dwight pulled yesterday but I guess that's how he dealt with Rowan. Dwight's in-your-face attitude was the only reason Rowan didn't like him.

"I'll just go and lie down for some time."

She nodded, "Sure."

****

I woke up in a dark place, a type of a dungeon. I noticed the ceiling was far up—the darkness had covered the entire ceiling. The place was empty.

Where the hell am I? What kind of a place is this?

"Hello." My voice echoed through the walls, "Can anyone hear me?"

Then I heard the loud ear-piercing screams, the loud wails. I ran in the direction of the voice that boomed around. I stumbled, fell, climbed to my feet and took off through the long hallways. As I neared the voice; I sensed the familiarity in the voice.

"Rowan." I recognized the agonized voice.

The screams never stopped. I walked deeper into the hall, and noticed Rowan to be crouched low on the cement floor beyond large pillar walls separating me from the cellar. He was totally miserable, like a zombie. He looked up at me with hollow eyes, "Alana."

I began shaking those steel pillars that was the only thing keeping us from being with each other, "I'm going to break this."

"Get me out, Please." Rowan pleaded, "I want to go with you."

"You're coming with me, Rowan. I promise." I assured him, knocking the steel pillars with my leg—those things wouldn't even budge. "Don't worry, I'll do something."

"Help me. Please. Get me Out! Get me Out! " Rowan screamed at the top of his lungs, pounding on the pillars.

A black fog enveloped us; blinding me completely. I didn't stop my attempt at breaking the pillars-- the endless screaming in my ear like a mantra. I'll break this thing for sure. I need to get Rowan out of there. He's suffocating. He'll die. I offered him my hand as the fog appeared again, blinding my view. Rowan's finger tips touched mine but in a matter of seconds the fog disappeared and so did Rowan but his screaming echoed in my ear—as the voice drifted farther away.

"Rowan." I glanced around, "Rowan. Come back."

"Rowan"

"Rowan."

My eyes fluttered open, I sat right up. Rowan had his arms around me. I scanned my surroundings.

No dungeons.

No screaming Rowan.

No fog.

"Hey baby, what's wrong?" he brushed the hair away from my face, "I'm right here."

I had been breathing hard, sweat trickled down my forehead. I clenched him hard as he whispered in my ear, "Just a bad dream."

"You've been calling my name." Rowan offered me a glass of water, I took it from him and downed the whole glass, "You okay?"

I nodded, taking a gulp.

"I'm really sorry about earlier." His usual mint cologne smelled different, "I was being ridiculous. I never meant to say all that Alana, I swear. I would never hurt you."

I inched closer to him and a foul smell entered my nostrils, the mint lingering onto his breath-- he thought I was trying to cuddle, so he nuzzled the nape of my neck, giving it a lick that sent a shiver running through my body. Yeah, talk about Distraction? The guy was difficult to resist, but I needed to focus.

"You reek of alcohol." I continued, "Were you drinking, Rowan?"

He squeezed his fingers closer to show me the amount, "A little."

I hopped off the bed and made my way towards the mini-bar. A bottle of Absolut Vodka remained on the counter with half contents. Last night the bottle had been filled to the brim. Good as new.

I raised the bottle, "You downed half a bottle, that's little for you?"

"I just needed a drink." He was challenging me to speak.

The dream from earlier had scared me shitless. It just seemed so real, like I was living it. My fears had already taken over my subconscious and I wasn't going to let it turn into a reality, "You're gonna quit drinking."

"Now, you're gonna tell me what I should do and what I shouldn't? Trust me, Alana, I can live without you bossing over me all the time." he snarked at me.

Nothing I hadn't expected.

"Back at ya" I teased him, "I'll flush down all those bottles at your place or maybe I'll just wrap it in a fancy pink wrapper and send it to my grandpa. He likes a drink occasionally."

It was my way or the Highway.

"Pack your stuff, we are leaving." That said, he walked out the door in a decent manner. Half a bottle of alcohol wasn't having an impact. I wondered how many gallons it would take for him to stagger and fall. I had to make sure that didn't happen at all.

Just as the door shut with a bang behind him, my phone began to vibrate on the bed. I checked it and it was Nina. The phone flashed five texts and six missed calls. It occurred to me that she must've called when I was asleep.

"Hello."

"Hope I wasn't disturbing you guys." Nina said from the other end.

"Nope." I pulled out my bag from the corner of the bed and zipped it open, might as well start packing while I'm talking, "How's your weekend going so far?"

"Sucks as usual." I could imagine Nina scratching her head with the back of her pen, "It's like Mr. Masters, your boyfriend, our then demon professor..."

"Nina." I warned her.

"Okay, okay. I was just saying, if Mr. Masters was the Demon professor, Ms O'Hara definitely qualifies as the Queen of the underworld. She has ruined my life, Alana. I don't think hells any worse than this."

"RIP then" I said, "How's Chez holding up?"

"He doesn't like the idea of you spending a night with Mr. Masters."

"Well, it's not news flash exactly." I packed my toiletries and other pointless stuff lying around.

"So...the actual news is.." that intrigued my tired brain cells, "There was a lady at my doorstep asking for you."

"And?" I just had a bad feeling about it.

"I told her you weren't around."

"Good." That was like rubbing an ice to my sore ass. "And?"

"She asked for your number and I told her it wasn't mine to give."

"Who was she again?"

"She told me her name was Lauren."

She's got to be kidding me.

"Did you by any chance say, Lauren, Nina?" It was like rubbing some salt on my sore ass, "you don't suppose her name was Lolita? Or Lola? Or maybe Lila?"

"Nope. She was LAUREN." When Nina didn't hear me respond, she asked, "Was she some old witch disguised as a pretty woman or something?"

"That woman is bad news." There was lump in my throat, what could she want from me? "it's the same woman we saw that night with Rowan. Remember?"

"Really? I mean, I must have recognized her." I heard her sigh on the other end, "I wasn't drunk."

"I doubt you weren't. Listen Nina, if that woman turns up again asking for me; tell her I'm on a long leave, like I wouldn't be in Carmel for the next sixty years. I don't want to see her, let alone talk." I pulled out a large bottle of champagne I had packed as a gift to the Masters, not long would that day be when I'd be admitted in a ward for a case of Amnesia. How the hell had I forgotten about a gift?

Blame it on Rowan.

He wasn't giving my poor brain any space to think. What with the mood swings and all, it was almost like switching to different channels and not pausing at one.

"I'll be in the dorms in a couple of hours, okay?" I let the bottle of champagne sit on the side while I packed other stuff, "we'll talk about it. About her."

"Yeah and I need details about yester..." I hung up on her before she said the 'S' word.

I stayed in Rowan's room for what felt like an eternity, doing some snooping. I hadn't found anything that would shock me into a coma or make me unconscious, though I did find some papers in Rowan's walk-in closet. Those were some of his discharge papers from a psychiatric hospital, with test results that diagnosed manic depressions, dated about three years ago. According to the documents, Rowan was on some antipsychotic medication like Dwight had mentioned. I skimmed page after page and decided it was all beyond me. Just when I was putting those papers back into its original place, the door to the room barged open.

Rowan sauntered in, his brow twitched upward when he saw me catching his file. I was caught red-handed this time, doing some serious snooping. I was in for some trouble. Maybe I should change my last name to trouble. Alana Trouble sounded just right.

"I..I..was just..." I strutted.

"Never mind." He sounded like he was already in a bad mood and I made sure it became worse; he trotted towards me, snatched the file out of my grasp and dumped it in the closet, shutting the door with a loud bang, "Invading privacy has become your second favorite hobby anyway."

"And may I ask, what's first?" I folded my arms.

"Talking back to me. Doing exactly contrary to my word."

I wasn't going to talk right now, because if I did—I'd just keep talking without a pause and this guy would obviously start playing the 'bring-my-house-down' show again and situations told me, I'd be the cleaning lady. I wanted to go back to the dorms.

I nodded. That was the best response I could offer Rowan at the moment.

"Have you packed your stuff already?"

"Yeah." I pointed at the bag lying on the floor, "there's some stuff left in the bathroom."

"Make it fast. We are leaving in an hour and no touching any drawers or closets while I'm gone. Have I made myself absolutely crystal?" The controlling Rowan was back in action. Guess he was still under the impression that he was my teacher and I was his student.

I nodded again which is when he bolted out the door without a word.

****

Rowan had already carried the load of baggage downstairs with a 'what kind of rocks did you pack?' comment hanging in the air. His bad mood was surely going to erupt some really bad lava from me if he didn't stop the snappy comments soon. The entire Masters family gathered around to see us off; Mr Masters sat on the patio reading the daily newspaper. Mrs Masters was kind enough to ask us to stay a few more days but I had my university exams coming up and Rowan wasn't ready to compromise when it came to cutting class or losing a mark. He still took the role of my ex-professor damn seriously.

"You promised me to lend me your car for a week." Claire pulled out her palm to Rowan and he reluctantly handed his car keys eyeing it one last time.

"So..where's my replacement car of the week?" Claire pulled out a pink heart shaped key chain, dangling it in front of Rowan which he snatched, opened one of the automatic parking shutters, made a disgusted face as he walked towards the parking area, a quick scan later he roared, "I'd rather walk home than drive this shit. I want my car keys back."

"That's your old Mustang. Look closely."

"Well, apparently it was, it looks more like a cotton candy now." I peeked into the garage, and it sure looked like a Mustang a Barbie would love to take on vacation.

"Why do you care? It's not like you drive it anymore. You told me specifically that it was mine when you left."

Rowan hovered over her, obviously pissed, "Don't put your words in my mouth, Missy, I let you borrow the car and I never gave you permission to turn it into a damn cotton candy. SHIT! It's pink. I can't believe it!" another look at the car and Rowan seemed ready to pound the next guy in his near vicinity.

"Okay. Fine. I'll re-paint it into your badass black. Sucky depressive colour. It looked like I was riding with the demon."

"Drew and I worked on the car with Dad, Claire; it was the last token of remembrance we shared. Just..never mind. You can have my car for a week. I repeat, ONLY for a week and you're not turning that into cotton candy either. Drill it into your pea sized brain if you want or tattoo it across your damn forehead."

Wow! I was kinda impressed with Rowan's insults. He seemed like a pro at it. I was glad for not being the only victim to Rowan's bad mood anymore. Claire had done something major to piss him off.

"Take my car." Dwight offered.

"Thanks, but No thanks."

Gary Masters who had been watching the sibling show from the sidelines, put back the newspaper, climbed to his feet, disappeared into the house, returning a minute later with another pair of keys; he threw it at Rowan who caught it in mid-air, "Take mine."

Rowan studied the keys for a minute, nodded, turned to Claire and said, "One dent or a scratch on the seats and you're..."

"I'll make sure we get that fixed if in case she does." Gary Masters said.

Gary Masters drove a silver Rang Rover, The car responded as soon as Rowan pressed the key. He put my luggage in the back, making sure Minnie took her seat. Mrs Masters approached me, holding onto a tissue, "Come visit us again."

"Sure, ma'am." I smiled at her, "Thank you so much."

I realized I was still having the bottle of champagne in my hand bag, I pulled out the thing—I'd even tied a ribbon to it and thrust the bottle in her hand, "This isn't much but it's for you."

Mrs Masters took it from me, "How lovely, thank you dear."

She looked up towards Rowan, who was busy checking out his father's car—quite oblivious to the mother bidding him farewell. It was a given that the entire Masters family would choose their cars over their wives any day. She pulled Rowan into an affectionate hug and pecked Minnie on the cheek. The poor woman didn't see the child rubbing her cheek to remove any traces of a kiss. That brat! She never did that to me.

"Call me whenever you need me. I'll answer it day or night." Dwight winked at me, throwing that sexy grin.

Crap!

Rowan glared at him, back at me and said acidly, "You guys are, what? BFF's now?"

I could smash Dwight in the face if the entire family wasn't waving goodbye kerchiefs at us. The Jackass did it on purpose.

"I'll let you drive today." Rowan tossed the keys at me.

The Range Rover key chain glimmered in my fingers, "Are you kidding?"

"You don't have a license?"

"I do." he was letting me drive? Wow. "but.."

"You don't want me to drive into a tree or something right?"

I was trying to figure out if he was kidding, but then I realized he was dead serious.

"I'll drive." I agreed taking over the driver's side.

*****

A.N: Hi Lovely Readers: Hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you did please leave me your feedback :)