Author's Note: Thank you to Icelilly for beta-ing this chapter!
Chapter VII
She lied.
Anya told herself she wouldn't let her foul mood spoil this lunch and she lied. To herself. What could be worse than that?
To her credit, Marianne seemed pretty content chatting away about her engagement, giggling occasionally like she was in on a fun secret that she couldn't tell Anya.
Probably sanity, Anya thought to herself. She doesn't become a fucking demon that scares everyone off when she's angry.
And it was fear. Anya thought it was anger, but it was definitely fear that was making everyone avoid her. She knew this because when Dmitri came back to their apartment the day after their fight he avoided her. And when she finally crossed paths with him that night he flinched, as if preparing himself for another downpour of emotional rage.
The same emotional rage had been inflicted on Nikolai as soon as she got back in the car.
"What's wrong?" he had asked, lazily browsing his phone without looking up. Anya slammed the door and he looked up, startled. "Hey!"
"My problem is that I'm surrounded by idiots," Anya hissed, her voice dropping to a low whisper.
Nikolai blinked. "What are you talking about? Where's Dmitri and everyone else?"
Anya whipped her head around and Nikolai shrank back.
"Christ. What happened?"
"It's nothing. Not anymore," She said.
"It's clearly something-"
"Why don't you just focus on getting a job," She said. "It's not like you're doing anything useful anyway. All you do is drink and mess up my life with your weird crush and inability to deal with people."
Nikolai looked struck, more struck than times he had actually been struck. But Anya couldn't bring herself to care at that point. She was just happy that the drive home had been a quiet one.
"Anya?"
"Huh?" Anya blinked. Marianne was waving her hand in front of her face.
"Are you okay? You seem distracted."
"Well," Anya hesitated, "I'm just unsure what to do. You see, my friend Kamilė's recently become friends with someone who I... dislike. I haven't spoken to her in the past couple of weeks and it's kind of awful."
"You're referring to Amelia I imagine?" Marianne smirked. Anya gasped and Marianne laughed, "Don't look so surprised. I've known Amelia and Meg most of my life. I'm well aware of how infuriating she can be. But I'm not sure I understand... is it that bad between you two?"
"I mean, it's not like we're going to plot each other's murders or anything," Anya mumbled, "But it's... frigid, to say the least."
"Ah, I think I see what this is," Marianne nodded. "We have a mutual friend who I sometimes find a bit aggravating - a self absorbed English prat - but ultimately I tolerate her because at the end of the day, she's a nuisance, and I value my friendship with them."
"Basically you're saying I should suck it up?"
"I'm not saying you need to become Amy's bestie or anything, but unless something bad happens, doesn't it seem worth it to meet them halfway?"
Anya crossed her arms, contemplating her words yet also mortified she'd revealed how big a hot mess she was. "You're right. Of course you're right. Thanks."
Marianne smiled, "I give good advice."
"Who is this British girl anyway? I haven't heard anything about her."
"Oh, I pulled some strings and got her company to transfer her to their London branch," Marianne sipped her coffee. "I talk a good game but being petty can be really fun."
The rest of their lunch went a lot more smoothly. The cook went all out and served food more delicious than anything Anya had in years, and the conversation turned to much more fun topics. It wasn't until she was getting ready to leave that things began to turn sour once more.
"Hey Marianne, I'm here for my shift. I-" Alice paused, staring at Anya. "What the-"
"I think you mean hello," Marianne said, a slight edge to her voice.
Alice nodded quietly, shooting Anya a frustrated look before brushing past them and into the kitchen.
"Oh god, will that never not be awkward," Anya groaned.
"Do you two have a history?"
"You could say that..." Anya mumbled.
Anya spent the next few minutes telling her about about Dmitri's exploits before he met Meg. It took considerably longer for Marianne to stop laughing.
"Oh my goodness, no wonder she's so cold," Marianne giggled. "And mozeltof to Meg."
"What's so funny?"
Both women turned around to see Jacques walk out through the kitchen doors. Anya immediately felt her face redden.
"Hey you," Marianne stood up and kissed him on the cheek. "Where have you been?"
"I was running some errands. It's great to see you Anya," he smiled. Anya nodded politely.
Jacques told Marianne in more detail what he had bought, before saying his goodbyes and going back into the kitchen.
"Pick your jaw up off the floor Anya," Marianne giggled.
"I wasn't- I mean-"
"Don't worry about it. I know I landed a fine looking man," Marianne grinned mischievously. "Besides, have you seen me? I'm a knockout!"
Anya laughed in spite of herself.
"Look honey, I know what you need and it's some good, old fashioned intercourse."
"Marianne!"
"Oh come on! There's gotta be some guy out there who'd be interested in tending to your needs."
An image of Nikolai lying on the couch in only his boxer shorts, a long-stemmed rose clamped between his teeth and a come hither look in his eye seemed to embed itself in her mind.
"Let's talk about something else," Anya laughed forcefully, shaking her head to try and cleanse her psyche.
By the time Anya got home, she had already scripted an apology in her head. Of course, that was only useful if anyone was actually home.
"Nikolai? Dmitri?" Anya called out. She was greeted with silence.
Did Nikolai actually leave the apartment? Anya wondered, though before she could mull it over further, she heard the sound of a knock behind her.
"There you guys are! I was wondering-" Anya said, throwing the door open.
However it wasn't Dmitri or Nikolai or even Meg. It was Kamilė.
"Oh…" Anya said, standing there silently. She had hoped that talking to literally any of the others would help her figure out what to say to Kamilė. Clearly that wasn't going to happen.
Turns out she didn't really have to, because Kamilė started talking first.
"Look, I don't know what happened, but I know some of it's my fault," She said, making intense eye contact. "I should have told you I was hanging out with Amelia considering the history between you two. I shouldn't have blindsided you like that and expected everything to magically work out."
"I…" Anya began, before Kamilė cleared her throat.
"That being said, I can't believe you went nuclear like that!" She snapped. "I mean, god Anya. This feud is getting old."
"She's bad too…" Anya said, feeling herself get defensive.
"Oh, you think Amelia hasn't heard a variation of this?" Kamilė said, crossing her arms, still staring at her like she expected Anya to bolt away like a frightened deer. "Look, it's not just me, Dmitri and Meg both think you two need to find a way to be civil with each other. These trash-talking, passive-aggressive mind games are getting old."
"Funny, you never said anything before," Anya said.
"Yeah… well," Kamilė shifted uncomfortably, breaking eye contact. "I'm guilty of feeding the fire too. We all are. Aren't we?"
Kamilė directed the last part behind her. A moment later, a very sheepish looking Dmitri emerged followed by Meg, who looked like she was studying something interesting on the ceiling.
Anya sighed. Everything was coming up roses today, that was for sure. "There you are Dmitri, I was looking for you-"
"I don't know what she's talking about," Dmitri said, pointing his finger accusingly at Kamilė. "Personally I find your gung-ho attitude delightful, don't you honey?"
"So delightful," Meg said, still studying the ceiling.
Kamilė scowled at them. "Freakin' wimps."
"Look, I know I messed up," Anya said. "It's just… I don't like it when people play me for a fool. You should know that better than anyone." Anya allowed a slight edge to her voice to pierce through while looking at Dmitri, who appropriately flinched.
But… She said to herself, before taking a deep breath. "But I shouldn't have flown off the handle like that. I'm sorry. And I shouldn't have said all that stuff about Amelia."
"Oh, that's okay," Meg sighed, looking more relaxed. "Turns out she was just as pleasant that night too."
"What?" Anya said, turning to look at Kamilė.
"Remember, you were sorry for flying off the handle," She laughed nervously. "Um… Okay, look. Why don't we call a truce. Amelia's over at her apartment and we're all going to hang out tonight and, you know, address some stuff."
"She was the one who insisted we go to lunch after all these years. She's the one who's been trying to get into his pants," Anya said, pointing at Dmitri, who shrank back nervously. "Are you telling me that she's been trash talking me on top of everything else. I was content just going our separate ways and-"
"Look we know," Meg said. "When she came back that night, I got into it with her and she owned up to it... Okay, some of it. Neither of you look very good right now. All we're asking is that we try to find a way to get this to work now that you both are in each other's lives, for better or worse."
Anya must've been making a face, because Dmitri finally spoke up. "Look, could you try to meet us halfway Anya? The past two weeks have been a literal hell."
"You've spent most of that time with me," Meg said coolly.
"I meant at home," Dmitri said, hugging Meg, who continued to look annoyed.
"Look, relax this afternoon and we'll meet up at Amelia's around seven. That sound good?"
Anya knew she still looked unhappy, but she nodded nonetheless.
"Do we have to do this?" Anya asked again, tugging at the collar of her sweater. The balmy weather of summer was finally dissolving into a cool autumn. Pretty soon there would be snow, and while she liked snow she hated it at the same time, because it meant everything was cold and the sun only existed to cast blinding light on white surfaces.
It was pretty much the only thought that could've made her more annoyed than she already was.
"Don't worry, I'm sure it'll be fine," Dmitri said, knocking on the door. "It's too bad Nikolai has the night shift now otherwise he could've-"
"Wait, night shift?" Anya interrupted, dumbfounded.
Before Dmitri could explain, Meg opened the door.
"Hey you," Meg said, kissing Dmitri, "Amelia's in the living room Anya. You go on ahead."
"Yeah okay," Anya shrugged, while the two of them did their best to swallow each other's face.
Amelia was sprawled out on the couch, dressed in what looked like a horrifying mix between a nightgown and a snuggy. She looked up at the sound of Anya's entrance, and confusion quickly spread across her face.
"Um, Anya, what are you doing here?"
"What do you mean, what am I doing here? You invited me over here to 'patch things up' or something," Anya snapped.
Amelia stared at her blankly for a moment before realization swept across her face. "Fuck!"
She sprang up off the couch and ran out of the room and past Anya, who instinctively developed a defensive stance.
Blinking, Anya turned and looked down the hall at the entryway, where Amelia was feverishly pulling on the now-closed front door.
"Meg you magnificent bitch!" Amelia shouted, "I told you never to pull a stunt like this again! Let us out!"
"Not until you get along!" Anya heard Meg shout from the other side of the door, and she felt her stomach drop, like she had just been launched off the top of a roller-coaster.
"Wait, they locked us in here?!" Anya yelled, running over to the door to help Amelia. "What the hell is wrong with you guys?"
"Trial by fire Anya, sorry," Dmitri said.
Anya screamed at the door, doing her best to help Amelia pry it open.
"This is useless," Amelia whispered, nodding towards the back of the apartment. "I'll keep them distracted here, you go out through the back."
Anya nodded, silently turning and walking as fast as she could toward the kitchen while Amelia continued to yell at Meg and Dmitri.
For a moment, she thought she was home free, until she felt a similar resistance when she tried the back door.
"The hell?" Anya said, pushing up harder against it, but it didn't budge.
"Sorry Anya," Anya heard a weak voice mumble from the other side of the door.
"Kamilė you fucking planned this!" Anya yelled, throwing her body against the door. "How the hell are you holding this door closed?"
"I'm a lot stronger than you think!" She said incredulously, while someone else outside cleared their throat.
"And I'm here too," Jacques said. "Sorry Anya, nothing personal."
"Jacques?" Anya said, stunned. "Then that means…" She threw herself against the door again, her blood pressure rising. "Marianne what the hell?!"
"Sorry Anya," She heard the woman giggle, though her voice was fainter than the others. It was likely that she wasn't helping hold the door. "But I did say you guys needed to learn to get along."
"That's rich, considering you got some British girl you didn't like transferred out of the country."
"Wait, you got Alice transferred?" Jacques asked, clearly surprised.
"Oh, don't look at me like that. She loves London," Marianne said defensively.
"Look, until you guys come to some kind of truce, we're not gonna let you out of here," Kamilė insisted.
Anya grumbled to herself, halfheartedly knocking herself against the door. A few minutes later, a very angry Amelia came into the kitchen.
"Marianne what the hell?!" she yelled.
"Don't blame me," Marianne huffed. "Get with the Stockholm Syndrome already!"
"So you admit this is a hostage situation?" Amelia said, slamming her fists against the door.
The back-and-forth continued for a while longer until, defeated, they collapsed in the living room, Anya still glaring at the front door.
"It's just like them to pull something like this," Amelia groaned. "I mean, Meg is always putting on the performance of being the good 'sister' but she can be a real pain in the ass."
"Dmitri's no better," Anya said, a little more loudly than necessary. "He has this weird morality compass when he was the one who slept through half of our high school."
Anya heard a yelp from outside the front door.
"Oh god you have no idea. Meg talks about it in her sleep and apparently she's a huge size queen. Don't even get me started on her inability to get that zoo smell out of her hair." Amelia smirked, listening to the muffled shouting on the other side of the door.
"Speaking of zoos, you should see some of Kamilė's hookups. Girl can do so much better but I'm pretty sure slumming it does it for her if you know what I mean."
"Anya!" Kamilė shouted from outside.
Anya grinned, clearing her throat. "Since we're gonna be here for so long, I might as well tell you about this guy she dated after we graduated. He kept all these pillows around his house and drew faces on them-"
"This is not what you're supposed to be doing!" Kamilė shouted.
"Oh you should have seen the guy Meg dated before." Amelia grinned, "His sister was a huge stoner so she...
It took an hour until the doors were opened. To their surprise, Jacques was the one who popped inside the living room.
"You guys should probably go somewhere for a while... Marianne's keeping them distracted but they're really mad."
Sure enough, a very loud argument could be heard taking place outside.
"Why would they be mad? It's just a simple hostage situation between friends," Amelia deadpanned. "And I live here. I'm not going anywhere."
"Suit yourself," Jacques shrugged, collapsing on the sofa. "My arms are killing me."
Anya cleared her throat, "So, it's late so I better head home. I hope it's okay I leave Dmitri stranded?"
"Eh, it's fine," Amelia frowned. "If he throws a fit Meg can drive him home or I can call the police and tell them about our little kidnapping adventure."
"Please don't," Jacques sighed. "This plan was dumb but they did mean well."
"Well, we existed in the same space for an hour and didn't kill each other. That's progress!" Anya pointed out.
"That's because we trashed talked everyone else instead of each other... it's fun to shake things up every once in a while," Amelia said, standing up off the floor. "I'll show you out. Marianne can talk but she's not very good at distractions."
"Cool, see you guys later!" Jacques yawned, sprawling out on more of the couch.
"No dirty shoes on my furniture," Amelia hissed, and Jacques immediately rolled off the couch.
Amelia snickered, before turning to Anya and leading her to the front door. Dmitri and Meg were nowhere to be seen, but their voices could be heard arguing with Marianne from the other side of the apartment complex.
"It's days like these I like living on the ground floor," Amelia sighed.
"Um... wait. Couldn't we have climbed out one of the windows then?"
Amelia held up a finger as if to explain, then seemed to deflate. "Oh. Crap you're right. I guess we're all a bunch of idiots tonight."
"Well, it wasn't so bad. I'm pretty sure we made Dmitri cry," Anya winced. "Oh I'm gonna pay for that later."
"You should probably get going unless you wanna pay for it now," Amelia said. Sure enough, the argument out back seemed to be dying down.
"Well, it's been an experience," Anya saluted, before making a mad dash across the parking lot to her car.
Ultimately, Dmitri was more tired than angry when he finally made his way home, and almost immediately passed out on the couch. He managed to get a 'you are such a fucking pain' jibe in first though.
Their plan worked a little I guess, Anya thought to herself, leaning against the kitchen counter and staring at her brother's unconscious form. I mean, we did find common ground. It wasn't what they had in mind but...
At that moment her phone went off. It was a text from Kamilė.
'For the record this was Dmitri and Meg's plan. I was simply an unwitting accomplice.'
"Someone got threatened with the police," Anya said to herself, extremely amused. She would need to contact Amelia tomorrow just to make sure the threats were indeed empty.
I wonder where Nikolai is? I haven't seen him all day, and Dmitri mentioned something about a job... Anya frowned. Not like I can ask Dmitri about it now though. He fell asleep at 9:30 for Christ's sake.
Anya had half a mind to wait up and ask Nikolai himself, but she had no idea when he'd be back and, frankly, she's had a long day. She quietly went into her room and changed for bed.
She lay down and stared up at the ceiling. What am I even doing though? I just had a major life crisis over an old college rivalry. Shouldn't I be more concerned with career stuff? She sighed and rolled over. Well, I don't have to figure that out today. All I have to do is sleep.
Sleep.
Just thinking the word seemed to lull her into unconsciousness.
Of course, that meant her subconscious took a turn in the driver's seat, and Anya's repressed enough stuff to know that nothing good could ever come of it.
That being said, her dream was a lot more straight-forward than they normally were.
"Oh my god! Just pick one!"
Amelia was shouting at her. They were both sprawled on the floor, wearing long, flowing dresses and surrounded by what looked like piles of playing cards with different pictures on them.
"It's not that hard. Look!" Amelia picked up a card. It had a picture of a corner office at a very successful-looking business. "Now you!"
"I- um…" Anya looked around in a panic. The cards near her were all flipped over so she couldn't see what was on them. And whenever she tried to move closer to where Amelia was, it felt like Gravity was weighing down on her harder.
Floundering, she grabbed a handful of cards and then immediately felt the floor disappear from underneath her, but she wasn't falling. It was like she was floating on air.
"Which card do you pick?" Amelia said, though Anya couldn't see her physically anymore.
"I- I don't know," Anya said, looking at the cards in her hand. There were four of them.
The first had an elaborate drawing of the same office that Amelia had chosen, only this one had a more obvious sunset in the background through the windows. Was that a beach? The ocean? As if in the office itself, she leaned in close to the window. Yes, it's the ocean!
Tearing herself away from the second card, she saw her apartment. Dmitri was standing at the kitchen counter and Nikolai was lying on the couch. It all looked the same as ever, to the point where just looking at it made her feel bored.
The third card had another picture of her apartment on it, but it was empty. No, all her stuff was still there but it looked… old. Like it had been sitting there for years and sustained sun damage. She didn't like looking at this card either.
The fourth card was not what she expected. It was a picture of Nikolai in that nice suit Dmitri had gotten him, but he was lying on top of his bed wearing it, fast asleep. His shirt was untucked and his tie was askew, revealing several buttons that were seemingly skipped over. As a result, it was almost like it was draped over his chest like some calendar pin-up.
"I don't understand," Anya said aloud. Amelia didn't answer, instead she was met with silence.
She looked over the cards again, and without realizing it she dropped the second card and it fluttered down into the darkness. Watching it fall, she slowly felt herself consumed with an impending sense of dread.
"No. I don't… I don't want to choose," She shouted into the void. "I don't know if I can choose!"
"You don't have to. At least right now."
Anya twisted her body around, coming face to face with Marianne, wearing the same fluttering dress she was.
"What do you mean?" Anya asked.
"Oh honey, it just means that you know there's a choice to be made. Though some choices aren't an option anymore," Marianne glanced down to where the second card had fallen. "Shame. That choice was a decent one, if a bit boring and easy."
"But how…when…which?"
"Oh, you'll know," Marianne said, smirking and resting her chin in her hand. "You just need to think about what it is you truly want, and who you want to share it all with."
Anya looked down helplessly into the dark depths below her, as if it would spit the easy answer back out. Instead, it was like gravity finally kicked in, and she felt herself start to fall.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading this far. Feedback is appreciated!
