CHAPTER TWO
The next morning I awoke to my phone buzzing on the bedside unit. I grabbed it still half asleep and immediately my eyes grew wide at seeing the time. Not only did I have 17 missed calls from my persistent brother but I was also nearly an hour late on meeting them at today's choreography practice I'd already promised I wouldn't miss. I cursed repeatedly as I threw whatever mismatching clothes I could find on, splashed my face with cold tap water to wake up and grabbed my wreckage of a phone before sprinting to the elevator. I attempted to text Victor, but I gave up in defeat not seeing the writing and deemed it a perfect excuse as to why I couldn't answer the phone.
It took me 20 minutes in a cab to get to the ice rink Victor and his small team were practicing at. The centre was small, small enough that a discreet entrance was apparent to everyone there.
"VEGA! DAVAIIIII!"
Victor waved frantically from middle of the ice, as I made my way to the barrier to greet them he skated over to me.
"I tried calling."
"Oh yeah, sorry, my phone.. it's seen better days," I awkwardly joked showing Victor the state my phone was in. Victor chuckled, gave me a quick hug and told me to take a seat while they finished their warm ups. I watched him graciously skate back to the middle of the rink where Yuuri was waiting for him and smiled to him. I watched the other figure skaters one by one, they were all so graceful even while stretching but one in particular caught my eye and I felt my heart sink.
The Russian punk. He hadn't noticed me but I'm sure it wouldn't take him long to, then I'm sure I would lose a particular instagram follower once practice was over.
I tried keeping myself busy but there was only so much the steam from a takeaway cup of coffee could do. A good 45mins passed and the skaters left the rink all bar Yuuri as he practiced his next routine with Victor watching intensely from the barrier. Maybe this 'yuriplisetskyofficial' hadn't noticed me but just as I was beginning to let go of any animosity my phone buzzed and lo and behold his name appeared in my notifications. Naturally my eyes scanned the rink and the surrounding bays but I couldn't see the glint of his golden hair anywhere.
My leaden heart sunk further, I opened my phone and followed the notification indicators that led me to my inbox messages. Sure enough his name was there and I opened his message.
"yuriplisetskyofficial: can't keep away then, huh?"
An influx of nerves overwhelmed me and I was torn between ignoring the message and writing an agitated reply. For Victor's sake, I took the moral high ground and refrained from sending any profanities back at the arrogant skater.
I paused for a moment and reread my reply about 20 times before touching 'send'.
"vega-nikifurov1: I could say the same to you, you're the one messaging me."
I awaited for a harsh reply consisting of bad language and insults, from all of my first impressions that's all I could imagine this person was capable of and that angered me more than anything.
My phone chimed almost straight away. I gulped and anxiously opened his reply.
"yuriplisetskyofficial: hah you're cute."
My pulse quickened at the message being the complete opposite to what I'd expected, if I even expected a reply at all. My head told me it was surely to be sarcasm but any girl being called 'cute' surely takes it to heart slightly. I chose not to reply but found myself scrolling through the Russian's posts one by one, his blonde hair glowing in every one and his sharp smirk prominent. It wasn't until I'd looked properly but not only was he typically beautiful on the ice, but there was a distinct beauty in his pretentiousness that I couldn't seem to take my eyes off of.
Of all the beautiful men in figure skating, why did I find this smug blonde attractive?
Suddenly I became a lot more interested in my brothers sport and I studied Yuuri's footwork as closely as I could. I couldn't name any of the jumps or spins and I was definitely out of my comfort zone doing so.
A few hours passed and the other skaters took turns rehearsing and I kept an eyes out for yuriplisetskyofficial but he never appeared in the ice. My momentary crush subsided and I internally kicked myself for thinking that way. Victor and Yuuri joined me after their practice and the three of us grabbed a light lunch before heading back to the hotel. I commended them on their routines, it was always so heartwarming seeing my brother so passionate about his occupation and more so seeing his eyes not waver from Yuuri's emotional movements once. I'd never been in love nor did I really go around looking for it, but what Victor and Yuuri have found in each other could make anyone sentimental and yearn for it.
By the time I'd decided to head up to my own hotel room and call an end to the day it was already around 7pm and I'd planned to have a sort of pampering evening after my abrupt start to the day. I rode the elevator and walked the hallway to my room but before opening my door I found my eyes dropping to a moderately small package with a sticky note attached to it.
"Sorry -YP"
I wasn't going to hang around in the hallway so I picked the package up and went inside my hotel room. I kicked my shoes off and sat down on the bed before carefully tearing the wrapping of my surprise package.
A new cellphone. 2 models newer than my broken one, I'd never been one to keep up with trends.
My jaw dropped as I gawked at the brand new boxed phone infront of me and I reread the note again before snatching my phone quickly to open my messages. I'd not realised I'd had one sitting in my inbox.
"yuriplisetskyofficial: Hope you got the package outside your door. I thought about just giving it to Victor to give to you but I wouldn't hear the end of it. Anyway I'm sorry and I'll see you around"
My heart beat so loud and so clear, I clicked onto his profile and there was a last update of him taking photos in the shopping district a little way away from here captioned "shopping for apology presents is hard, fuck". I couldn't stop my fingers from tapping the 'like' before returning straight away to reply to his message.
"vega-Nikifurov1: omg this is too much, honestly! I don't know what to say but I can't accept something like this..!"
He replied almost instantly, I couldn't imagine him sitting there waiting anxiously for me to reply..
"yuriplisetskyofficial: I couldn't let Victor's sister be seen using something shockingly outdated"
Being naturally awkward and never being able to be gracious unlike my sibling I didn't know what to say. I typed a few replies but deleted them, feeling elated and shocked didn't help.
"yuriplisetskyofficial: will you be at practice tomorrow?"
"vega-nikifurov1: of course :)"
"yuriplisetskyofficial: cool"
His replies were instant and somehow I felt comfort in the fact this person I thought was a heartless idiot less than 24hrs ago had given me such a change of heart in the most unselfish way. Easily his gift was way out of my own financial capabilities and I felt guilty, but it would have been rude of me to just return it to him and decline it.
That was the first night I dreamt of Yuri Plisetsky.
