richellemead-vampireacademy01-vampireacademy-110824015328-phpapp02

He moved forward to stop me. "Be careful. Your ankle might be fine, but you're probably still a
little out of it.”
I carefully shifted to the edge of the bed and looked down. My jeans were rolled up. The ankle
looked a little red, but I had no bruises or serious marks.
"God, I got lucky. If I'd hurt it, it would have put me out of practice for a while.”
Smiling, he returned to his chair. "I know. You kept telling me that while I was carrying you.
You were very upset.”
"You…you carried me here?”
"After we broke the bench apart and freed your foot.”
Man. I'd missed out on a lot. The only thing better than imagining Dimitri carrying me in his
arms was imagining him shirtless while carrying me in his arms.
Then the reality of the situation hit me.
"I was taken down by a bench," I groaned.
"What?”
"I survived the whole day guarding Lissa, and you guys said I did a good job. Then, I get back
here and meet my downfall in the form of a bench." Ugh. "Do you know how embarrassing it
is? And all those guys saw, too.”
"It wasn't your fault," he said. "No one knew the bench was rotted. It looked fine.”
"Still. I should have just stuck to the sidewalk like a normal person. The other novices are going
to give me shit when I get back.”
His lips held back a smile. "Maybe presents will cheer you up.”
I sat up straighter. "Presents?”
The smile escaped, and he handed me a small box with a piece of paper.