Toris sighed, standing at the door to his best friend Feliks' apartment. He'd walked straight from the performance hall to the trendy little building a couple of blocks from campus, and now as he stood just outside the door, the regret began to flow over him. What was he going to say to his friend? iAlfred's after Nataliya now and I just know that there is no way I can compete with her?/i the brunet let the words play in his head for a moment. He knew his best friend hated the object of his desires; he'd hated her almost as long as Toris had loved her.
As Toris stood there in the well-lit, white washed, hallway surrounded by his own self-loathing the door to the apartment was pulled open. And there, propped up in the door frame with what could only be described as a smirk across his lips, stood Feliks. The blonde male had tied his bobbed hair up into a ponytail and was dressed in a pair of pajamas likely meant to be a St. Valentine's Day set for a preteen girl. "Are you just going to stand out in the hallway or are you going to come in?"
"Hi Feliks," Toris gave his best friend a weak smile as he drifted back into reality, "nice PJs." He added in the compliment as a small apology.
The blond stepped aside allowing his friend into the apartment. It was amazing how neat he and his roommates managed to keep it. Toris had attempted and failed to keep the dorm room that he and Alfred called home clean; but it was a futile effort and frankly he was tired of picking up his roomies boxers (so they remained on the floor—it wasn't like he ever had anyone over anyway). The two went over to the white leather couch in the living room and before Toris could even get comfortable, Feliks started to talk. "So what kind of love issues are you having today? Still can't deal with the fact that the wicked bitch of the Eastern Bloc doesn't want anything to do with you?" he said beginning to examine his manicured nails.
"Kind of, it's just that, well there's someone else—"
"Oh so wait you're trying to figure out if you should go after another person or stick with trying to woo the hussy?" he interjected. Feliks always interjected if he felt that Toris was speaking to slowly (so at least six times an average conversation).
"No, it's someone else that wants Nataliya as their girlfriend."
"Then you should just cut your losses and move on. Plenty of fish in the sea and all that other cliché junk"
"That's not the point." Toris said with a sigh, "It's who is also in love with her."
"Ooh gossip! You know how much I lo-ove" (he elongated the "o" for effect), "who is it I've got to know!"
"Alfred," the brunet said with a defeated sigh as he looked down at his hands.
There was a gasp from Feliks, "Oh shit! If there was no way on earth you were going to ever get with her before now there's no way in the universe that that's going to happen now."
"Aren't you supposed to support me; you know seeing how you're my best friend and everything?"
"Uh yeah, but only when it comes to stuff that's actually practical; you're talking about you're roommate Alfred right? That guy's athletic, classically good-looking, and comes from a loaded family. He may have a reputation for being an idiot but we're in the same theoretical physics class and he's almost as good as I am with equations."
"Gee thanks. By the sound of it I think you've got a thing for him too."
"Oh come on you know I'm not into men! Fine then let me see what you've got going for you…" Feliks paused for a moment, "… right… well, you're nice, sensitive, caring, you're so not an idiot (except for the fact that you're hung up on some chick that doesn't want you)."
"If I wanted to feel inadequate I would have just gone back to my dorm room and stared at the ceiling until I feel asleep."
"Oh so you want me to stroke your ego huh? I'll have you know I am like totally missing a night out with Elizabeta. Roderich's out of town this weekend and didn't drag her along for a change so we were like totally going to paint the town red and all that stuff; but no I sacrifice a killer night out to coddle you. Puh-leze!"
"You could have said no to me and just went out."
"But then I wouldn't be a very good friend."
Toris decided against pointing out the fact that Feliks had already compared him to Alfred (in a way that made Alfred seem like the epitome of everything a young man should be) and was currently in the process of an attempted (scratch that for successful) guilt trip. He instead opted to just sit on the couch and fiddle with a loose thread on one of the many throw pillows. The two sat in an awkward silence before Feliks let out a heavy sigh and stood up from his spot on the couch.
"I'm making myself a drink do you want one?" he placed a hand on his hip and fixed his friend with a look that was halfway between bored and sassy.
Toris nodded. Sure he was the sort of person who played by the rules most of the time, but as far as he was concerned underage drinking was a law he was willing to break. The people of his homeland had a long tradition of drinking before they were twenty one. He could reason that it was in his roots to do so as well. Plus it wasn't like he was the one who had bought the alcohol and provided it so, his law breaking wasn't as sever.
"Just one though." Toris had made the mistake of drinking with Feliks before. The other despite his small frame and girlish looks could hold liquor like a pro. It was almost as if instead of a stomach he had a keg or two inside of his body. While the Lithuanian's weak stomach gave him trouble when he tried to drink in excess. If there was no self-control what's so ever and Toris was completely tore-up-from-the-floor-up, and Feliks' keg-for-a-stomach reached capacity the night would end in a nail painting, chick flick watching, crying, cuddling mess that would only lead to excite his best friend's roommate Elizabeta (and irritate her fiancé) when she got home.
Toris accepted the drink and went straight to sipping the fruity cocktail while Feliks had decided to just bring the bottle of wodka downing shots, straight no chaser. And Toris with all his feelings of being less then masculine, suddenly, felt way worse than he had before watching the other man, clad in a pre-teen girl's pink pajamas down drinks with the skill and confidence, typically only seen in middle aged alcoholics.
Meanwhile, in a hallway just off from the auditorium, near the dressing rooms of the theater Nataliya was making her way down the hall. She had changed back into her civilian clothes, a navy midi-dress, and a white bow on top of her perfectly straight platinum hair, large duffle bag over her shoulder, and the flowers that had been left by her usual admirer. Poor stupid Toris, when would he learn she had no interest in him at all? Though the flowers every other week from him meant she could have them as decoration in her dorm without having to pay for them herself. Sure it was pretty hard to keep flowers fresh for two weeks, but Nataliya's precious Vanya knew how to make them last a full week… and she had to admit that once they wilted and died they were still beautiful (in their own way).
The other performers were going out to their customary post show night out; it was basically drinking at some bar then dancing around like well drunken idiots. That sort of thing had no appeal to Nataliya; she'd gone out with them once at the urging of her dear brother (he had told her it was the best way to make friends with common interests). But once was all it took for her to never want to go through that again, and if that's what having friends with "common interests" would require then she was better off with no friends.
Nataliya had never been the sort of girl to have friends. Growing up other children were interested in playing and had no sorts of goals for their lives. Sure she was in the minority, having a dream she had been pursuing since kindergarten, but associating with people who would distract her from achieving that dream would only hold her back. At least that's what she was convinced of. If that meant people thought she was a stuck up bitch then let them. While they would be thirty, goals unmet and weighed down by families that made it impossible for what their hopes to iever/i be reached; she would be sitting pretty at the top of her game: a prima donna for sure, performing all over the world still. Though she supposed there may be a child (if an injury occurred and the down time would coincide) and a husband certainly (but she would already be on a throne of her achievements having the company practically begging her back).
She chuckled a little thinking about how great her life was going to be compared to everyone else. That was when a dozen red roses were thrust into her face causing her to suddenly stop in surprise. "Why don't you just fuck off Toris?" Nataliya screeched turning her head quickly to see the blonde from the café earlier standing there. The same stupid grin on his face from before, she adjusted her bag, "Oh it's you, you can just funk off too, whatever, your name is."
"Alfred F. Jones, Miss Nataliya." He said without missing a beat, the grin still in place and the flowers still in his hand.
"How the hell, do you know my name?" she practically hissed.
"You know that guy Toris you mentioned? Yeah well he told me your name—"
Nataliya eyed the roses in the overly confident blonde's hand and sighed. Does that idiot really think getting his friend to try for him is going to help? she thought. Though the attempted change in tactics was something she appreciated. "Did he set you up to do this or something?"
"New. I did this on my own."
"Well it's not helping his case any so you might as well quit. And let him know his old tactic of being more direct isn't nearly as depressingly pathetic… but it's still pretty sad." With that she turned on her heel and marched off.
The overly eager blonde boy followed after her. "Actually," Alfred started, "These flowers are from me. You were gorgeous up there doing that thing that you do. And also I am still interested in you from earlier on."
Right. They had spoken earlier, though Nataliya was convinced that using Ivan had scared the guy off. Her brother was a more sturdily built man plus a good few inches taller than this boy now following her like a lost puppy. "I thought you noticed I had a boyfriend earlier."
"I know he's your brother now. Unless you're fucking him… which is gross 'cause he's your brother and all. Even if you guys are like not blood related it's still gross. I have a sister that's not mine in the genetic since but it would be so gross if I fucked around with her… and not only because she's eight, but also because she's like my sister."
"Do you ever shut the hell up?" She sped up her pace, he did the same. Suddenly she stopped at the corner of a not so busy street, "Are you really following me?"
"Well I have these flowers and junk that I was going to give you. I mean I could put them in my dorm but that would be kind of gay—not that there's anything wrong with being gay and shit… it's just you know gay for a guy to have flowers."
Nataliya rolled her eyes, deciding against informing him of her older brother's sexuality. Instead she wordlessly snatched the roses from his hand and tucked them into her arm with the flowers Toris had given her earlier. With her frown firmly in place she continued on with her marching, only to stop half way across the street, fix Alfred with the best glare she could muster, and in an even cold tone said, "Don't follow me." Then continued on her way.
To her surprise he did not follow and she continued on to her building. Once she got to her room she deposited her duffle bag at the foot of her bed and the flowers on her dresser. Snatching the vase with the dead and rotting remains of her last bouquet via Toris, and dumped them out the window. Slipping her shoes off of her feet as she made her way to the bathroom and filled up the crystal vase halfway with water; setting the vase down on the bedside table Nataliya settled on to the bed.
Reaching into the dresser drawer she retrieved a pair of scissors and went to clipping the ends of the flowers before carefully arranging them in the vase. She could hate Toris and his persistence with a passion, but she had to admit the attention was somewhat nice. Nataliya knew her reputation of being an antisocial Ice Queen. She knew people didn't like her, and hated her, but Toris for some reason adored her though she had shown him nothing but cruelty. It was almost as if he really understood her. With Alfred her feelings towards him, his adoration and recent infatuation with her was far more irritating. Sure it was refreshing to have someone else following her around like a lost puppy, but his reasons were beyond shallow. He had known her for a moment and like so many countless frat boys before him he'd attempted to get with her (though she rejected him, he came after her again). There could be hope for Alfred in the end.
The thing with boys and boyfriends were that dealing with them had the potential to put a damped in her plans. There was a reason why she dumped her ex Miguel before heading off to college, boyfriends meant sex, sex could lead to children, and that was something she had decided to not risk for the time being. Nataliya needed to reach her dreams and goals and there was nothing at all in the world she needed more then to be a star!
Choosing the life of a dancer was difficult. There were so many chances for her to have an injury that would destroy her career, there was the chance that she would never actually make it, but it was a rick she was willing to take. Even if her dearest brother Ivan and their older sister Katya had tried to convince her to change her mind, Nataliya couldn't help but dream her impractical dream.