Chapter 2: Welcome to Los Angeles
Hola!
Thank you to Mori Belicov Hathaway, and Nbjbrownie for being my first reviewers! Your reviews made me so happy! :D I wanted to update because I'm going to go on holiday for quite a long time, so I won't be able to post any chapters for the meantime… Anyways, I hope you enjoy chapter 2! :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy, or its characters and I do not own the storyline thingy for Cocktail.
Happy reading! :D
DPOV
As I started to walk towards the apartments, I realized that Adrian hadn't told me what floor he lived on. Sighing, I dragged my suitcase behind me along the quite posh looking pathway, and looked at the tiny writing written next to each button near the doorway. Level 0: Adrian Ivashkov. Ground floor. I would have thought that he would have taken an apartment higher up, what with the sea views and all, but knowing his family, they probably owned the whole block of flats.
I pressed the golden button next to his name and waited a few seconds, but nothing happened. I pressed it harder the second time, but there was still no response, either of his voice or the door buzzing open. Was he even inside? Unfortunately, Adrian was known for his rather…careless attitude in Russia. Coming home at three am, always accompanied by a vodka bottle was his recognition in the neighbourhood. So he moved to L.A, in the hope of further pursuing his hobby of painting, and to show people that he could do other things than just laze around on his backside all day. Which is probably what he was doing right now.
Pressing the useless button about 10 more times, I gave up and was totally at loss at what I should so next. It was seven o'clock in the evening by now, and it didn't look like anyone was about leave or enter the building, judging by the ten minutes I had been stood there. I looked over to the side of his presumed apartment, and saw that a considerably large window was slightly open, most likely due to the heat of the day.
But I couldn't…Could I?
It wasn't like I would be breaking and entering- Adrian's my friend, I wouldn't steal anything of his. Though I'm not sure if I'd really want to, since his shopping list usually started with 'CIGARETTES' underlined excessively. Mama wouldn't approve, but what could I do? I was hungry, needed a shower and a good night's sleep. So I made my decision.
After looking around to check that no-one was around, I went up to the window and gently prised it open a little, checking that it wasn't locked or anything. It was one of those ones that opened at the bottom. Building up some courage, I hauled it up further, until it could go no further and was about as wide as what a relatively large child could fit through.
And obviously I wasn't a relatively large child.
Shit. First I squeezed my bag through the tiny gap, and winced as it banged against the floor on the other side. Since that didn't seem to cause any alarm inside, I readied myself to do a twisted version of 'limbo' under the window, which would probably make me slip a disc. I sat down underneath the window, and extended my legs until my upper body was crammed between the window and its ledge, but at least my head and arms were safely inside. I then somehow pulled my legs through, and landed awkwardly on the hard, wooden floor, but I was inside. Adrian is going to be a dead man walking when he gets back.
I got to my feet and looked around me, taking in all of the surroundings. It was the living room, and it was a mess. Ash trays, empty bottles and crumpled clothes were the most striking features, in addition to empty coffee mugs and dishes strewn about the place. I could have sworn I saw a black bra thrown in there somewhere, but I prayed that was just the exhaustion talking.
In the middle of this bomb explosion, there was a fairly large, yellow coloured couch, with a sleeping figure lying in an uncomfortable position on top of it, which I immediately recognised as Adrian. I sighed and wondered how in the world he could be so wasted that I had to go through mission-almost-impossible to get in, while he was just lying there, as if dead to the world. (I already saw that he was breathing- the effects of chain smoking hadn't got to him yet.)
He had a bottle of Jack Daniel's in his hand that was hanging off the side of the couch, and his signature golden-brown messily styled hair didn't appear to have to be styled, but he looked well groomed as always, with some stubble which he claimed he purposely kept because it made him look 'uber sexy' according to women. I barely even had the time in two days to shave. He was wearing an expensive looking blue shirt, along with jeans and black shoes that were still on his feet. Though, the most laughable thing was that someone had written 'DIP SHIT' in lipstick on his forehead, and his innocent, sleeping expression made it all the more funnier.
I took out my phone and snapped a picture, before walking over to the couch and nudging him on his arm to wake him up. Sleeping at this time of day couldn't be healthy. As I suspected, he didn't wake up and I had had enough of this now. So I went over to the back of the couch, and fuelled by my anger, somehow managed to tip the whole thing over.
"Shit! Who the Hell…?"
See, now he was awake. I smiled triumphantly as I saw him drag himself out under the now upside-down couch and look around wildly to see what had happened. He then saw me, standing behind the couch like nothing had happened, and his eyes widened in shock.
"Dimitri! How the Hell are you here!? You were meant to be coming on the 9th right? How did you even get inside?"
"Adrian. Nice to see you too. It is the 9th, and I climbed in through the window, because after practically killing the button outside, I had no other way to get in." My voice sounded surprisingly wary, and he probably noticed that, because he came over and gave me the most genuine hug a man-hug could be. This was new, but I suppose a hug couldn't hurt after all the troubles I'd faced so far today. He smelt strongly of clove cigarettes and cologne, and I made a mental note to myself to talk to him about his bad habit.
After pulling back, he looked at me carefully, presumably taking in my appearance as I had with him. We hadn't seen each other for four years, and I could only imagine what he was seeing right now.
And I imagined it wasn't good.
APOV
I stared at Dimitri for a long time, and I could tell that he was starting to get wierded out. But the overwhelming feeling of seeing my best friend after so long brought back happy memories of when we were younger, when I used to live in Russia. He looked the same as always; maybe a little older (of course) but he was still the same Dimitri I had grown up with.
"I am soooo sorry! I had no idea that you were coming today! Ah Hell, I shouldn't have had all those shots yesterday," I grumbled, as I noticed I had a splitting headache that felt like rhinos were doing the Macarena along to some disco music inside my head. Surprisingly, Dimitri just chuckled, and reached down to unzip his bag, from which he took out some tablets and tossed them over to me.
"Take these, they'll make you feel better. Have you even eaten anything recently?"
I thought back to when I had 'fallen asleep', which must have been right after Drake's party, which had finished at about 5 am…
"Uh, no, not really. But I'm not that hungry," I lied. In fact I was starving, but then he'd probably start making some complicated, impressive meal, and I didn't want him to have to make food for me after he'd just arrived.
"Nonsense. I've known you for 15 years Adrian, and I know you're always hungry after getting hammered the day before. Now, do you have milk in the fridge or am I going to have to make cheese on toast or something?"
That didn't sound too bad right now; and it wasn't fancy or complicated.
I scratched the back of my neck warily, and said " Yeah, I don't have any milk, but I'm sure there'll be some cheese and bread lying around somewhere. You sure you don't want me to make something?"
Dimitri gave me a 'are you kidding?' look which gave me my answer. Apparently he hadn't forgotten the time when the microwave had almost exploded when I'd put a pack of jelly tots inside to see if they'd melt. And melt they did, along with the outer plastic. I was only
eight for crying out loud!
After about 2 minutes, Dimitri handed me a plate of cheese on toast, as well as holding one himself, and I watched whilst eating as he practically inhaled his food.
"Dude, slowdown will you? Have you not eaten for days or something like that?"
"Something like that," he murmured, before setting his plate down and relaxing into the couch.
"Hey, do you remember that girl in High School, what was her name?, Sasha? The one who always used to follow you around like a lost dog?" I recalled the many hilarious times when me and Ivan used to laugh like hyenas when we used to see her following Dimitri around, and him running away from her. Once she had accidently followed him into the boy's toilets.
"Yeh, I do remember her, her name is Tasha."
He looked uncomfortable, and I wondered why. "What's up? Hey, I didn't mean to upset you or anything."
"No, it's all right," he replied, before dropping the bombshell, "but I did date her for a while."
I literally almost dropped my plate as my eyes bugged out of my head. "YOU WHAT?! Dimitri, why the Hell would you do that? She was practically your personal creepy stalker! Have I taught you nothing about girls?" I demanded, looking to him for an explanation.
"It was only for a short time! Mama thought that it would be 'good for me' to date someone from our year, so I played along for a while. She's not that bad you know, once you get to know her. I think mama and my sisters were beginning to have thoughts that I played for the other team."
My eyes widened, and he noticed my startled expression.
"No! It's not like that! Believe me, I do like girls, it's just that I haven't found the right one yet. Speaking of which, how're you doing? What happened to Avery?"
Avery? Oh, right. I faintly remembered her, and I had no clue where she was now. "Ah, she was too clingy. Went gallivanting around with that hot-shot guy, you know the one that was like the school 'champion' in football? I caught them with their hands all over each other in the locker rooms, and she was all like 'I was giving him mouth-to-mouth because he had difficulty breathing.'" That was the biggest bullshit I had ever heard, and I broke it off with her there and then.
"Shit. I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have asked," said Dimitri, apology written all over his face.
"Don't sweat it, I was glad."
Dimitri looked like he was in deep thought for a few moments before saying,"Hey, Adrian, I had the strangest meeting with this woman at the airport. She had my bag and was screaming at me to give her bag back, because we apparently had the same one, and she thought I'd stolen it."
I thought about that for a moment. "So what you're saying is, this chick went apeshit at you because she had the same bag as you. Wait, was she an oldie or was she hot?"
"What? No! Yes?"
"Jeez, don't pop a vein, I was only asking, and your answer made no sense at all."
"No, she wasn't old, she was probably just a few years younger than us, and I suppose she was pretty?"
"Pretty!?," I asked incredulously, "Dimitri, you do not refer to a girl as 'pretty'. Sexy, hot, smoking come to mind. 'Pretty' will probably get you a slap. How did you survive without me in Russia?"
Instead of answering, Dimitri had a sly grin on his face and tackled me to the floor. We laughed and talked about our childhood for a little longer, and he told me about some nut job taxi driver that had almost killed him, until I looked at the clock and saw that it was almost ten o'clock.
I suddenly had a brilliant idea. "Hey Dimitri, you want to go to a club tonight?"
"I don't think-"
"Oh cut the crap and get your shoes on. We're leaving in five. I don't care if you're tired, you're coming anyways. Welcome to the fast paced world my friend. Welcome to Los Angeles."
REVIEW PLEASE! Just to clear things up, Adrian, Dimitri and Ivan all went to school in Russia together, so that's how they know each other. Rose and a few other characters will be making an appearance in the next chapter! :) Adios! :D
