Page 41 of Breathe Like Hell

I paused. “How many cigarettes have you smoked so far?”

He shook his head. “Go inside, Kotyusha.”

The door wasn’t fully shut when I got to the apartment, so I slowly pushed it open, spotting Mila and Ekaterina on the couch bundled under a pile of fuzzy blankets. It looked like Katya had been crying, but she was laughing now.

“How are you doing?” I asked as I kicked off my boots then went towards the girls.

“I’m okay,” she said. “I assume you talked to Vanya.” She sniffled and wiped her nose with her sleeve. I nodded and sat next to her on the couch, me on one side and Mila on the other. Her cheeks were stained with mascara tear tracks, her nose pink from crying.

“We have peach rings,” Mila offered, holding out a giant package, the plastic crinkling. I plucked one of the gummy pieces out of the bag and popped it in my mouth.

“I’m trying to figure out how to schedule this appointment,” Katya explained, tilting her almost-dead phone towards me. “While we watch New Moon.”

“Oh, fuck yeah. Team Jacob.”

“My girl!” Katya exclaimed, her eyes brightening. I could see Mila throwing a fit behind her.

“Oh, my God. Please spare me,” Mila groaned dramatically. “I need to get Vanya back in here so it’s even again.”

“He’s team Edward?” I asked.

“He’s going to be tonight.”

I looked at Katya, and we burst out laughing when our eyes met.

“Jesus Christ.” Mila was rolling her eyes.

“Mila! Shut up.” I set my hand on Katya’s knee over the fuzzy blanket, still giggling slightly. “If I can help you with anything, please let me know.”

She nodded gratefully.

“You can help us eat the peach rings,” Mila said, offering the bag again. “I need to prove to Vanya that it was worth getting such a huge bag of them.”

“Okay, yes,” I agreed. It was a ridiculously large bag. Like a bulk amount of peach rings. Several pounds worth. “I can do that.”

Katya took the bag on her lap, then unpaused the movie. We all took turns grabbing chewy peach rings from the bag, eating them until we felt sick. When Ivan came back inside, he made some microwave popcorn and turned the rest of the lights off, before joining us on the couch. I moved over to sit by Mila, letting him cuddle with Katya.

My phone buzzed the moment I got comfortable.

Micah

I’m outside

I stared at the screen, eyes wide, then checked—again—to see if my location was shared with him. It wasn’t. What the hell? Casting a quick glance over at the rest of the people on the couch to make sure no one was paying any attention to me, I twisted my body to hide my phone screen.

Me

What?

Micah

Come down

Me

Where are you?

Micah