Chapter 12 Ice Cold

"Umm, can I ask you something?" Katie asked as the girls started to go tell the others; she also had not let go of me.

"My roommate has been really sick, and I don't know if she will be able to walk. Do you think you could carry her?" Katie asked, looking up at me with her adorable puppy dog eyes.

"Victoria? Can't we just leave her?" I asked only half jokingly.

Victoria was Katie's bitch of a red-head soulless twat roommate, who also despised me. She had made me her target of hate the moment she found out Katie was seeing me, but that was because Anya also went to this university, along with Melody.

Needless to say, she thinks I am a whore and a waste of skin, so sue me if I didn't hope to volunteer. Maybe if I did this, she might lighten up a bit, but the chances were pretty slim.

"Dan!" Katie complained, pounding on my chest, so I pulled her into a kiss that shut her up.

"Fine, let's go get my best friend then, but I can't stay here for long; I still have to find Melody. She said she was going to the edge of the city to visit her grandparents, so she should be okay for a bit," I said in a tired voice with a grin as we broke apart.

"Is Anya okay?" Katie asked as she led me down the dorm hall to the stairwell.

"Yeah, Darius and her ad headed to my place, and that is where you guys are going to be headed. I know it's a long walk, but you will have the trees and grass now to protect you," I explained as we walked up three flights of stairs to the top floor of the dorm.

"What happened to you? And what do you mean trees and grass will protect us?! This all sounds like something out of one of your books!" Katie exclaimed, and I nodded with a sigh.

I explained everything that had happened as fast as I could, and when I was finished, we were standing outside her door. Katie looked up at me, but I couldn't read the expression on her face; it was somewhere between confused, exhausted, and frightened.

"So we are never going to have power again or the internet?" Katie asked, and I nodded.

"If we do, it won't be like before. Just know that I will try my very best to keep you and everyone else safe, but know this. You and the girls come first always. I was seeing you all at the same time before, and we all understood that each of you would move on at some point. That isn't going to happen anymore, but I don't plan on picking just one of you. I hope that you are all fine with this going forward, but I won't force you," I explained, and to my surprise, Katie started to laugh at me.

"Tch! Do you really think that you would have ever gotten rid of us? You don't think we didn't know what you had planned? We all have talked many times, and we were never actually going to let you go," Katie retorted with an evil smile.

"Huh? What do you mean? You all had plans to leave the city and take jobs far away, right? Not that I wanted you to go, but that was what you had planned, so I figured this would be the best, right?!" I asked, taking a step back in confusion.

"Well, that was our plan individually, but you know it has been almost three years now. All of us changed our destinations at the start of this school year. We were just going to surprise you at graduation, but I guess that will never come now," Katie said thoughtfully, putting a finger to her lips.

I was frozen in place and unable to form words or process thoughts. It didn't matter anymore, but these girls had wholly pulled the covers over my head and were about to become attached to me right under my nose.

"I have no words for this. I mean, it's a good thing, but I feel like the last one to get the joke," I said timidly, scratching the back of my head.

"Well, you don't need to say anything. Now, can you please help Vicky!" Katie asked, and I nodded with a smile.

I would do just about anything for these girls now, not like I wouldn't have before, but now I knew how they all felt about me. That thought alone lit a fire inside me, and I walked forward and opened the door to Katie's dorm room.

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It was dark inside, and I could hear groaning from Victoria's side of the room. I waved for Katie to stay out of the room, and I walked in slowly till I was standing over the quivering pile of blankets.

"Vic, it's me, Dan. Can you come out from under the covers?" I asked gently.

"D-Dan?! G-Get away f-from me! K-K-Katie!" Vic cried weakly with her voice shaking.

"Dan is here to help you! Don't be mean to him, or he will leave you behind! He came to save us!" Katie called from the hallway, and Victoria groaned.

I grinned, thinking how great it would be if I could do something to make her owe me. That would be something I could hold over her head to keep her from being so… never mind, there was no changing this ice-cold bitch.

I would just save her for the girl's sake since she happened to be friends with all three girls I was seeing. I really didn't understand what the girls saw in her, but Anya said she was a lot different when I wasn't around.

"Look, I know that you don't like me, but things have changed, and the world is a scary place now. Pull the covers back so I can see if I can help you, okay?" I asked, trying to keep my voice calm and gentle.