Our phones both come back to life after a few minutes charging. Alina’s phone dings and dings with all the messages coming through. Mine stays silent, absolutely no texts or missed call messages, nothing. Good, it would only confuse me more if Dragna had contacted me after he left.
I walk back to the sofa with our tea and hand Alina hers while sitting back down beside her. We both let out a long sigh at the same time that makes us both laugh. We’re exhausted, both for different reasons but at least we’re both feeling like crap together.
“Oh! I have something for you. Amongst all the chaos last night I forgot to tell you. I got you a little pick me up surprise.” I tell her and she snaps her head to me with hopeful eyes.
“Don’t you dare tell me it’s the book Willow, I’ll collapse from excitement!” She all but screams and I boop her on the nose while laughing.
“It’s a good thing you’re sitting down then isn’t it. I grabbed us each a copy before I left the shop yesterday, and since we are both off today, we can sit and read undisturbed all day!”
“Eeeekk oh my god, have I told you I love you recently, because I do!” She screeches at me.
I set my tea down and make my way to my handbag to retrieve our books when the doorbell rings.
I immediately stand straighter feeling anxious wondering who’s at the door. Please don’t let it be him, please don’t let it be him I repeat over and over in my head as I make my way down the stairs to the front door. I take a deep breath before opening it to reveal a smiling, overly cheery Lev.
“Willow tree,moya lyubov’! Hows it going?” He grins at me and I don’t know what to say back to him. Does he know what his cousin did to me last night? Would he really be this upbeat and nice to me if he did? Oh god, he must not know. That means I’m going to have to tell him what happened.
“Uhh, Alina is upstairs. She’s still sick so we were going to have a girls day but you can come up if you want.” I say opening the door wider for him.
“I love girls day.” He says while winking at me as he strides past me and up the stairs to Alina.
Just as I’m closing the door, something makes me stop and I get a feeling in the pit of my stomach about looking outside. When I do, I realise why the feeling was there and I feel sick.
I see the same car that was following me to work driving down our street. I know it’s the same car because I memorised the registration plate. I slam the door shut as I start to shake and I try to calm my racing heart. I lean my back against the door wondering what to do, or who I should tell. If I told Alina she would only worry. I can’t call Dragna again even though he said he would update me. If I tell Lev, he’ll tell Dragna and will also most likely tell Alina because he’ll worry about her. The logicalanswer is to call the police, but what if it’s nothing and I’m just being dramatic and I waste their time?
I start walking up the stairs lost in my thoughts when I hear chaos erupting.
“Calm downkotik!” I hear Lev shouting as I reach the hallway.
“Calm down? Your cousin is a fucking asshole Lev! How dare he do that to her.” Alina screams back at him and I rush into the living room to find her pressing him against the wall by his chest while he’s holding both hands up in surrender. The scene would actually be quite hilarious under different circumstances.
“Do you girls want to tell me what the hell is going on here?” He says looking between Alina and I.
I let out a sigh and pick up my cup of tea as I mentally prepare myself to tell Lev what happened.
“Dragna ditched me at the doorstep last night after dinner.” I tell him, throwing myself on our sofa.
“Thatublyudok.” He sighs and scrubs his face with his hands.
“I had no idea, I’m sorry. I’ll kick his ass for you if you want me to.” He laughs warily as he looks between me and my five foot two best friend who still has him pinned to the wall.
“Down Alina, he’s fine.” I say as I plant myself on the sofa, laying on my back and covering my face with my hands wondering how this day is going to go now that Lev is here.
Alina makes her way over to me after letting Lev go with what can only be described as a growl and she lifts my legs and settles on the sofa beside me before resting my legs back down over her lap. I just want to forget about Dragna and spend the day like this, lost in my book and chilling with my best friend.
“So… heartbroken girls day then.” Lev says softly and I peak from under my hand to see him making his way across the living room to our kitchen.
“Good thing I brought you all this ice cream last nightmoy kotenok.” He says to Alina while he continues rummaging around in our freezer.
He returns to the living room with three tubs of ice cream and three spoons before making himself comfortable on one of our lounge chairs.
“I don’t think Willow wants company today.” Alina grits at him as he starts opening a tub of strawberry ice cream.
“Put your claws away Ali cat.” He replies before handing me the opened tub and a spoon.
“Would you like me to leave Willow tree?” He asks me directly and I debate asking him what’s with the nicknames, but it’s Lev, and from what I know of him so far, he is literally like an excitable toddler that you can’t really control. He’s completely harmless, except for being scary looking and some prized MMA fighter.
“You can stay, I don’t mind. I’ll chill in my room and you two can have the living room.” I tell him as I begin to stand up, but before I can Alina holds my legs tighter while Lev throws the cushion from his chair at me hard enough to knock my head back down on the sofa.
