Mika's POV
Katya had been in a bad mood all day. Granted, she was hung over, but we all were. We all felt like crap. Just because she wasn't used to the alcohol doesn't mean she can go around acting like a bitch. Kissing Mason last night had made everything that much worse. He was bothering her, and I could see it in her face the minute he came up and tried to talk to her. She was going to kill him by the end of the day, guaranteed.
After Mason came by, I ditched the lovers and went to go find my own personal problem: Eddie. We had such a great time last night, even without the alcohol. I wanted to know what was going on between us.
"Hey, Eddie," I said, walking up to him outside of the dining hall where he was standing with some of the other novices from campus.
"Hey, Mika! How's Katya?" He asked. Why was he so concerned about her?
"Hungover. Bitchy. About to kill Mason if he doesn't stop harassing her," I said listing off everything that was wrong with her today.
"That's not like her at all," he said, frowning.
"Eh, you get her mad enough and it is. She's always been a bitch when she gets a hangover; it's just been a long time since I last saw her with one. She's usually the responsible one," I smiled. He smirked.
"How are you doing?" he asked, wrapping his arm around me.
"Nothing I'm not used to. Just because my sister doesn't drink on a regular basis doesn't mean I don't either. Hangovers are as much a part of my life as she is, even if no one else knows about them. Although, it isn't as bad as usual, so I must've been pretty good last night," I told him.
"You were worried about Katya," he stated, not questioning me. Yeah, that was probably it. I didn't like it when she drank. She wasn't herself when she did. You're all witnesses to that.
"Maybe," I said, and then I got to the tough question, "are we 'together' now?"
"Do you want to be?" He asked me. Great, so now we were playing the question game.
"I would really like that," I said, being honest. I didn't want to screw it up with him. Any other guy, sure. But I couldn't hurt Eddie. If I was going to be in an honest relationship with him, it had to start now.
"Then I guess we are, girlfriend," he smiled. I cracked up laughing, and then stopped because my head hurt.
"Okay, boyfriend," I said sarcastically and we walked into the dining hall, getting our breakfast.
"Oh wait, I got you something," Eddie said, pulling something out of his sweatshirt once we sat down . He threw a bottle of something at me and grinned. I caught it and read the label: Advil.
"Where the hell did you get this?" I asked him. There is no way he would've been able to stash it in his room.
"I swiped it from the infirmary this morning on my run. I thought you and Katya might need some," I took a few pills from the bottle and swallowed them.
"You are the best!" I said, hugging him. Just then, I saw Katya come in-alone- and she sat down next to me and Eddie.
"Hey you," I said, "How are you feeling?"
"Like shit, but it's gotten better," wow, Katya swore. That was new. I pulled out a bottle of Advil I had in my pocket that I had swiped from the infirmary on my way down.
"That's good, but I know what will make you feel even better," I threw her the bottle of Advil that Eddie had swiped.
"Where'd you get this?" She said, shocked. She probably tried to find some on her own, knowing her.
"Eddie swiped it," I said.
"Yeah, Dr. Olendenski can be really clueless when she wants to be," he smiled.
Katya opened the bottle and put a majority of it into her hand. Right before she was about to throw them into her mouth, a big hand grabbed her and stopped her. I looked up and saw Dimitri staring right at us. Shit, shit, shit.
"What's this?" he asked, looking right at me. Why was it me?
"Hey, Dimka…" Katya said, smiling and trying to weasel her way out of everything by being cute, just like always.
"Not gonna work, Katya. Outside, now," he demanded and Katya started to get up, obeying our older brother. Just as she got up, Rose came in and took her seat. She looked like she had just been through hell.
"He's already given me the talk," she said, smiling sympathetically at Katya, "I still haven't figured out how he knows yet, though. Good luck!" She was saying this as if it were a joke, and to her and me it would have been, but getting a lecture from Dimitri was the equivalent to killing a puppy in Katya's mind.
Before they left, Dimitri looked me right in the eyes, "You're next, Mika," he said, and walked off, holding Katya's arm.
"Damn," I said. There really was nothing else to say. My brother could be pretty friggin' scary when he wanted to be, and I had a feeling this lecture wasn't going to be a quick slap on the wrist.
"How bad was it?" Eddie asked Rose, who was readjusting her seat.
"One of his best, plus he made me run extra laps. He thinks I influenced the whole thing," she said, shrugging.
"You did," I said, still worried about Dimitri's lecture. I hadn't had one in a very long time and I wasn't looking forward to a sequel to the last one I had about underaged sex.
"Oh well, it isn't the end of the world. I get a lecture from him just about every day, so it isn't anything new. Poor Katya though, she looks like she just about died when she saw him," Rose said, and got up to get her breakfast.
"I hope he doesn't go too hard on her," I said, just as Eddie looked at the clock.
"I've got to go, my first class starts in five minutes," he said, and started packing up his stuff. I looked at the clock.
"Me too, walk me to the quod?" I asked.
"Of course," he said, and we linked arms. Rose was going to be pissed when she came back and nobody was here. Oh well.
I made it through the day without any word from Dimitri or Katya. I wasn't that worried, he wouldn't hurt her. Plus, I was pretty sure that the hangover she had would be punishment enough. I was walking back to my dorm when I saw Dimitri walking in the opposite direction. I immediately picked an alternate route to my room in a desperate attempt to avoid him. When I saw him keep walking, I knew I was safe.
I got to my dorm room and Katya wasn't there. There was a note on the bed that she left telling me to meet her at the gym as soon as I got the note. Why she would want me at the gym I had no idea. She didn't like fighting outside of class.
Either way, I changed into sweats and a t-shirt and ran over to the gym. When I got there, Katya was doing pushups, Rose was doing sit-ups, and Dimitri was standing there watching them both.
I took one look at the scene and knew what had happened. I had just fallen into a trap. I instantly ran in the other direction, but Dimitri caught sight of me and ran after me. Me being the idiot I am kept running, my mistake.
Dimitri caught up to me, picked me up, threw me over his shoulder, and literally carried me to Rose's practice.
"This is abuse on so many levels!" I told him, trying to get down off of him. If there was one thing I liked more than losing it was being carried. I hated it with a deep passion.
"You shouldn't have run away," He said calmly, bringing me into the gym. He took one look at Katya who shrugged apologetically and told her, "I told you I was faster," he smiled and placed me down.
"If you run away, I will catch you. Every time you run away is another lap you owe me on top of the twenty you owe me for that stupid stunt you pulled last night. Clearly you've been avoiding both your sister and me, so here's the deal. You are to attend all of Rose's training sessions as well as adhere to the rules she must follow. If you fail to comply with these limitations, I'm sending you home immediately," he said monotonously. This ultimately sucked, but I didn't say anything.
"You better get started on the running now, twenty laps," he said, pointing to the track outside. This actually was terrible. I would almost rather go home to Russia.
"That's all she's going to get for a lecture, comrade?" I heard Rose say as I was walking out.
"Not even close, Rose. Go see how Katya's holding up."
I started running, and didn't stop or slow down. Twenty laps, which was about five miles on this track, so that wasn't too bad.
After about five laps, I heard Dimitri come up behind me and run beside me.
"Keep running," he said when I started to slow down. Crap, I thought he was giving me a break.
"This is torture," I said to him, giving him the death glare of the century. Usually I wouldn't mind running, but running after being hung over all day sucked.
"Think about that the next time you drink at a party," he said, and kept running.
"Well, where is it? The lecture of the century? You're going to tell me how irresponsible I was, how my drinking doesn't only affect me, but everyone around me. Can't you just say it already?" I begged. At least I wouldn't be worrying about it anymore. Not that I should be worrying to begin with.
"I could tell you all of that, but at this point you've heard it so many times that it clearly means nothing and would just be a waste of breath on my part. I'm not going to tell you something you aren't going to listen to," he said, "what I am going to tell you is that your actions don't only affect you. Every time you drink and get wasted, you hurt Katya. She's the one who needs to take care of you when you're sick all night. She's the one who is stuck covering up for you when you miss class. Have you ever thought of that? All the trouble she goes through? Even in this situation, she is still doing it all for you without thinking twice about it."
"Damn, that was a good lecture, Dimka," I said, thinking about it. He was absolutely right.
"You need to start using your head, Mika, or you're going to get in trouble. One day, Katya isn't going to be able to cover for you, and you're going to be in an enormous amount of trouble. When you're a guardian, you can't go out and party every night. You are going to have a responsibility, and it starts the minute you graduate high school. On top of that, no one wants to see you get hurt because you aren't thinking straight," he added.
"You don't want me knocked up," I said. I never thought of that.
"You are a smart and talented student, Mika. I don't want you to ruin your life because you aren't using your head. Just…make smarter choices next time, okay? But most importantly, if you do get drunk, call me okay? Don't rely on Katya anymore. You don't know how much it's hurting her to see you that way. I'll take care of you, okay?" He smiled, and patted me on the back.
"Thanks, D." I said to him. He laughed at my new nickname.
"I love you, Mika. You can come back after five more laps," he said, running back in. I guess I was only doing fifteen now. I knew he wasn't all that bad.