Authors: Zoya Tessi
“Alex?” I said quietly and tensed when his eyelids opened wide, leaving his pupils to adjust to the light.
When our eyes met in the mirror, just for a moment, he looked as confused as I did. It was obviously a surprise to have woken up in my pink room and I knew just how he felt. He quickly pulled back his arm and stood up straight by the bed, raising his hands high above his head to stretch his muscles.
“Wow
. You're one of those morning people I’ve heard about.”
“Just a habit
.” he shrugged and reached beneath the mattress, pulling out a knife in its shiny leather sheath.
“Is sleeping with deadly weapons a habit as well?”
“Yep.” came the curt reply, as he moved towards the door.
Noticing that he put most of his weight on his left leg, I remembered the cramp he’d mentioned days earlier, and made a mental note to give him some advice. Magnesium would put him right, according to an article I’d read somewhere. There wasn’t time to think about it anymore though; right then, I had a serious damage limitations exercise on my hands.
“Stop.” I hissed as he got to the door, “You can’t... Beth’s in the kitchen.”
“So?” he seemed faintly surprised.
“What do you mean ‘so’? She'll see you coming out of my room half naked! How could I explain why you spent the night in here?”
“She’s not your ma. You don’t have to make excuses, am I right
?“
“She thinks we're related, for God's sake! She'll think
we... you know... I mean, we were only sleeping, but she’ll think we were really sleeping together and then... Oh, God! What are we gonna do?” I sort of pleaded, but only felt more desperate when his lips curled up.
“It's not funny!”
“It is to me.”
“You're getting off on this, admit it!”
“Maybe just a little...“
”You're impossible!” I got up out of bed in a hurry
, ”Listen to me very carefully! I'm gonna open the door and take a peek. When I give you the signal, you have two seconds to get lost. Is that clear?”
I didn’t wait for an answer, but went over to the door and turned the knob, instantly scanning the living room as best I could. Deciding that Beth was not in the vicinity at that moment, I literally pushed him out, which was the signal I guess.
“Not a word about this when Beth’s around. If she finds out, my life will be a living hell!”
“Too bad.
I wanted to ask her about your snoring.”
“What?” I threw him a loaded stare.
“No one ever told you about it before?” he asked, eyebrows furrowed in a parody of concern.
Shocked, I studied his eyes madly, trying to remember if anyone had actually mentioned it to me before, but then I saw the
crooked grin start to form again.
”You liar!”
I managed only to whisper and shut the door in his face more noisily than I’d intended.
“It's nice to see you with a big, beaming smile so early in the morning.”
With this sarcastic greeting, Beth showed two rows of perfect white teeth as I plodded into the kitchen, the belt from my bathrobe trailing behind me, a pink sock on my left foot and an orange one on the right.
I've never been an early bird, but that morning I was feeling more than a little dazed and confused, and definitely not in the mood for socializing. There were three essays to write by next Thursday, and all I wanted was to put some food inside me and then lock myself away with some books till it was time to go to class, hopefully forgetting everything else in the process.
Alex was sitting at the table, pretending not to notice us, his entire being focused on devouring the stacks of fried eggs in front of him, reminding me of a Tyrannosaurus Rex from a book I’d had as a kid. Casting my eyes in his direction with a look that screamed contempt, I remembered how he’d tricked me so easily a half-hour before and letting out a low growl, started rummaging through the fridge.
”You know...” Beth came to lean on the fridge door, “I have a surprise for you.”
“
Mh..?” I exhaled instead of giving a real answer and continued my search for a half-eaten Greek salad from the night before.
I was pretty suspicious when it came to Beth’s surprises. The last one she’d prepared involved me eating a bowl full of some mushy brown
gloop, with some kind of dry grass on the side and a bitter, alien kind of taste. From the first mouthful I’d felt sure it would make me sick, but seeing the heartfelt enthusiasm on her face I’d somehow finished it all without complaining. I’d shoveled it into my mouth until it was gone and thanked my lucky stars that I hadn’t died later. It was only to be hoped this surprise would be of a different nature.
“And?
Are you even gonna ask what it is?” excited, she was literally hopping from one foot to the other by now.
“What is it?” I finally asked, expecting the worst.
“First you have to tell me how much you love me!“
I rolled my eyes, straightened up and glared at her, folding my arms dramatically across my chest.
“So much so that yesterday – for the tenth time – I helped you give some random guy the brush off after YOU somehow gave him your number, by explaining yet again that you’d found Jesus and run off to join a cult. So much so that I’m often sleep deprived ‘cause I’ve been hanging out with you in hard rock bars where you hope to meet some drummer to drool over. So much so that I agreed to spend two months cleaning the kitchen with vinegar just ‘cause a woman at the market told you it’s healthier. I smelled like pickles for two damned months.” I ended my rant with a deep sigh.
Throughout my little speech, Alex had sat leaning forward in his chair, a fork loaded with eggs held between the plate and his open mouth. He was looking at me as if for the first time. Clenching my teeth, I turned my back on him and frowned at Bethany.
“I want you to tell me what my surprise is now.”
“Ta-
daa!” she announced brightly, producing some small, white pieces of paper from her back pocket, clapping and waving them under my nose.
I reached out, snatched the squares of paper from her and realized they were tickets to a gig. When I saw the name of the band written in big black letters, I shrieked with delight and joined her in jumping around madly.
“I can’t believe it!” I spread out my arms and hugged her tightly, “How did you know?”
“Well duh! You’ve been going on about them for weeks. Black Valentine this, Black Valentine that... when I saw the poster downtown I knew you’d
wanna go.”
“You're the best!”
“Wait, there's more.” she grinned triumphantly, “Look at the tickets, they’re VIP. We can go to the after party too. I was almost first in line.”
Staring at the tickets in my hand, I felt my eyes start to sting a little. The last time anyone had surprised me with a gift this thoughtful, and not out of guilt over hurting me
which was Nikolai’s usual MO, was when my mother had given me the necklace I always wore. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes once with the back of my hand, so that Bethany wouldn’t see me getting emotional, then fixed a happy smile on my face.
“You're just the best.
” I repeated softly.
“I know. And for your information, you owe me one! But we’ll talk about that another time. I’m running late.”
Not sticking around a moment longer, she snatched her bag up off the chair and blew me a kiss, breezing out of the kitchen and leaving me alone with Alex. The thud of the front door rang through the apartment a few seconds later.
I set the tickets down and took my half-eaten salad out of the fridge, then sat at the table, intent on eating everything. All the time I was enjoying my breakfast, and then making coffee afterwards, Alex stayed real quiet. I slowly started to sense that something was up.
“What is it? Lost the power of speech?” I asked eventually, looking at him over the rim of my cup.
“No. Just enjoying the peace while it lasts, ‘
cause I guess you're going to kick up a fuss when I tell you…” he leaned back in his chair and looked me straight in the eye.
“Tell me what?”
“Going to that gig. Well... it’s not gonna happen.”
“What
?“ I slammed the cup down, splashing coffee on the table.
“You heard me. A huge crowd of people like that’s just too damn dangerous. We can’t risk it.”
“I. Am. Going. To. The. Concert.” I said slowly, emphasizing every word. “And you don’t get to decide about it.”
“I’ve said my piece.”
I watched him pick up a coffee-stained newspaper and start turning the pages while rage ignited in my veins like burning gasoline, sending showers of sparks in front of my eyes. I got up from my chair, and it seemed important to lean across the table and bring our heads level, so that our faces were just inches apart.
“We’
ll just see who’s boss around here.” I charged my words with as much menace as I could, an image of myself as John Wayne flashing through my mind.
Staying outwardly composed somehow, I turned around and marched out of the kitchen like a gunslinger, not going back to throw more coffee in his direction, even though the thought occurred to me.
When I got back to my room, I flopped down on the bed. If I’d been thinking rationally, I might have understood his point of view, but as things were, I felt crushed under the weight of being told what to do. Going to a concert was maybe a trivial thing, but it was the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as I was concerned. I was fed up with being everyone’s puppet and having my strings pulled this way and that.
I grabbed the phone from the table, called Beth and let her in on the plan that had already started to take shape in my mind. After many of my sketchy
but desperate-sounding attempts at persuasion, she finally caved in and agreed to get what I needed.
W
hen she hung up I carried the phone through to the living room to position myself on the couch in front of the TV. I glanced furtively towards the kitchen and was pleased to find that Alex was still there. It was important for him to hear the next conversation, so it wouldn’t look like I’d given up without a fight. That would have made him suspicious.
Although Nikolai had told me not to call him unless it was a matter of life and death, I dialed his number and waited for the network to connect me.
“Princess?” I heard Nikolai's worried voice.
“Dad!
Thank God you answered.”
“Are you alright?”
“I'm not alright! I can’t stand this anymore. My life is turning to shit!” I said, injecting more than a little melodrama.
“What happened?”
Sniffling quite a lot, I told him about the Black Valentine concert and the tickets Beth had bought, and explained that Alex had cruelly forbidden it. I knew all the time that Nikolai wouldn’t be swayed by my begging and that he’d side with Alex from the get go. In fact, if things were all up to Nikolai I’d be far away from the city, locked up with a bunch of armed goons. Anyhow, it wasn’t my true aim to get around Nikolai... just to make sure Alex heard every word.
“He’s totally right. It's not safe.”
“But dad...”
“I'm sorry Princess”
“I don’t believe it! You’re both the same!” I hung up and went back to my room, throwing the door closed with my full force to complete the effect. Then, humming to myself very quietly, I started to get ready for classes.
***
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Beth asked on Saturday night, as she stood over a pot of steaming hot goulash, stirring it absently.
When it came to the quality of the idea, I was sure it was top-notch. For several days I’d been doing my best to show Alex that I’d given up on the idea of going to the concert, so he wouldn’t suspect at all that I had a very cunning plan. I put on a show of ignoring him and acting
all hurt, and made a call in his presence to tell Paolo I wouldn’t be going. In a fine display of acting, I even managed to stage a bout of crying one morning when Beth put on a Black Valentine song.
“Very sure.
” I nodded and held my hand out in front of Bethany, "Did you get them?”
I saw her hesitate before sliding a hand into her pocket to pull out a small plastic bottle, reluctantly laying it in my palm.
“Just so that you know, it wasn’t easy to get hold of these without a prescription. I had to promise Ryan that I’d go out with him next week in exchange.”
“I think it’ll be worth it. I'm just sorry I won’t be around to see Alex's face when he wake
s up and realizes what happened.” I rattled the bottle of sleeping pills and smiled to myself.
“Well I’d think twice about it
, dear.”
She was right. I really didn’t want him awake when we get back. I wasn’t looking forward to being choked to death, so better to avoid it.
“You know, I'm not sure playing a trick like this is such a smart idea. To be honest, that look of his when he seems to see into your soul... it makes me nervous.”