[vicky7]

Chapter 8 – Hostel Hell

“Is Elena in?” Yulia answered the door to a very confused looking man in his late twenties.

“Yeah, she’s just in the shower” Yulia wondered who the hell this guy was, Lena’s boyfriend?

“YUL, WHO IS IT?” Lena having heard the doorbell yelled out from the bathroom.

Before Yulia had chance to ask the stranger who he was he had pushed past her into the apartment and was yelling back to Lena. “It’s Roman Elena”

Elena? Yulia thought, why the f**k was he calling her that? Lena didn’t like being called Elena. Yulia already disliked Roman, he was good looking sure but there was something about him, which made her feel very uneasy. She couldn’t put her finger on why she had taken an instant dislike to him but surely he couldn’t be so bad if Lena liked him. Could he?

While Yulia had been staying with Lena she had heard very little about Roman apart from he was good looking, rich and worked long hours and was away frequently. Lena had received a few fleeting phone calls in the week apologising for not seeing her or calling her, making what to Yulia seemed lame excuses. From what she had overheard Lena had lapped up his excuses just happy to hear from him. He was obviously an idiot as far as Yulia was concerned if he didn’t want to spend all his time with the most beautiful, sweet, kind hearted girl in the world – she was Yulia’s idea of a perfect woman anyway.

As an awkward silence descended in the apartment Lena came out of the bathroom wearing only a towel to hide her modesty, her red hair dangling around her shoulders in damp ringlets. “Hi Roman honey. What a nice surprise!” she exclaimed smiled warmly at him.

“If I’d known you’d be in the shower I would have come a few minutes earlier and joined you” Lena blushed obviously embarrassed by Roman’s innuendo in front of Yulia. Ignoring his lust filled expression Lena turned to introduce her two favourite people to one another. She could feel butterflies fluttering in her stomach she really wanted them to like each other. However, looking at the way they were weighing each other up it seemed Lena was going to be disappointed.

***

“Roman Popov, this is Yulia Volkova, now if you guys wanna get acquainted while I go and dry my hair and get dressed I’ll be back in ten” Lena introduced them only briefly feeling rather embarrassed stood there wrapped in no more than a flimsy towel.

“Don’t get dressed I like you all naked!”

“Oh Roman, behave yourself, I’m sure Yulia doesn’t wanna hear all this kinda talk.” Lena could feel her face was flushing bright red but she couldn’t help but feel all giggly and girly. She wasn’t used to receiving this kind of attention and she liked it, it was nice to be desired by someone but she didn’t want Yulia to feel uncomfortable.

“You don’t mind do you doll?” Roman turned to Yulia involving her in the conversation for the first time.

Doll? Was he for real? Yulia stood there mute, the last thing she wanted to do was listen to him talking dirty to Lena. He should save that for the bedroom.

“Anyway” Lena said breaking the silence yet again “Go and pour yourself a drink and I’ll be right back”

“Ok gorgeous” Roman winked arrogantly at Lena before sweeping past Yulia and into the kitchen. Yulia wanting to keep her distance from Roman returned to the lounge to watching the TV drama she had started to watch before she had gone to answer the door. She wished she had ignored the doorbell now, she had been looking forward to spending another cosy night in with Lena but Roman’s arrival had put paid to that. However, Yulia hadn’t managed to escape Roman as she had thought. He entered the room, a tumbler of whiskey in hand plonking himself down on the sofa in front of her, purposely, in her opinion anyway, obscuring the television set as he walked by.

“So, ermm..” he started.

“Yulia, my name’s is Yulia” She could feel herself beginning to lose her cool but she tried hard to bite down on her notoriously short temper.

“Yeah, whatever babes, so how’d you know Elena, I’ve never heard her mention you before” he probed.

“We’re old friends, I haven’t seen her for ages until recently” Yulia said off hand trying to dismiss the subject quickly.

“So what you doing in town?”

Yulia began to tap her foot impatiently. God was this twenty questions or something? All he had to do was shine a flashlight in her eyes and she would totally feel like she was being interrogated by the FBI. Couldn’t he see she couldn’t be bothered to talk to him? “I’m looking for somewhere to live so Lena offered to put me up while I look for a place.”

“Yes Elena” he emphasised “she’s very accommodating…”

Yulia interrupted him sarcastically. “Well yes she is providing me accommodation so I guess that does make her accommodating”.

“Yes, like I was saying she’s very accommodating, people sometimes take advantage of sweet natured souls like Elena don’t they?” Roman’s meaning was not hidden to Yulia, she knew exactly what he was getting at and it didn’t wash with her coming from him.

“Yes, especially those who know they can get away with murder and take the piss out of people like Lena who deserve so much better” Yulia said through clenched teeth, her penetrating blue eyes locked with Roman’s brown ones in an icy glare.

Roman didn’t respond, he simply drained his whiskey, slammed the empty tumbler down on the coffee table and left the lounge. Yulia heard Lena’s bedroom door slam shut and the sound of Lena giggling as Roman moved in for the kill– he was clearly bored of small talk…

***

Yulia having been shunned by Lena in favour of Roman soon gave up on trying to focus on the TV as no matter how hard she tried to concentrate on the show she was watching she just couldn’t bear the thought of having another run in with Roman tonight. He had gotten under her skin to the point where she felt she could happily stab him repeatedly with a large kitchen knife. She eventually decided that the best thing to do was to retreat to the guest room to seek solitude. No sooner had she washed and changed for bed and climbed under the bed covers she could hear loud groaning noises emitting from Lena’s room.

Yulia hadn’t realised before but Lena’s bed was pushed up against the same wall as her bed. The walls were apparently very thin as the headboard on Lena’s bed was banging against it with Roman obviously pounding hard into Lena. It made Yulia feel physically sick. Roman having sex with Lena just seemed an alien concept to her. How could they possibly fit together, have anything in common, let alone enough for Lena to want to have sex with him?

The moans she could hear intensified until she heard Lena scream out what sounded more in pain than joy. Then it went quiet, too quiet. Lena was alright, wasn’t she? If that bastard had hurt her well…

“Elena how was it for you baby” Roman finally spoke up after what seemed hours to Yulia.

“Mmm, great” Yulia felt uncomfortable listening to their conversation but she was compelled to listen.

“Yeah, it was, wasn’t it? Just call me Mr Good F**k!” Yulia heard Lena laugh and she shook her head and rolled her eyes to herself. More like Mr Right Pr**k!

“Wonder what your friend made of our little sex show, do you reckon she liked what she heard?” No! Yulia answered him silently, she did not!

“Oh, she won’t have heard anything these walls are pretty sound proof.” Yeah right Yulia thought, so sound proof she could hear every word they were saying.

“But I really made you scream!” Roman bragged.

“Yeah you did!”

“So how long is she gonna be here? I hope not too long. I know I’m greedy but I want you all to myself.” Yulia could hear him kiss Lena and she listened attentively waiting for Lena’s response. Roman wanted her out so what was Lena going to say and do? She had told Yulia she could stay as long as she wanted the other day was she going to change her mind now that Roman was paying her a bit of attention?

“She’s only staying a few more days so don’t worry about it you’ll have me all to yourself before too long” Lena finally answered.

It was just as Yulia had feared. The novelty of rescuing her had obviously worn off for Lena, she was like everybody else – she didn’t give a s**t about Yulia. Surprisingly, she felt more sad than angry as the tears meandered silently down her cheeks. She didn’t feel that she had the right to be angry at Lena, she had saved her life, given her the chance to clean up and sort her head out, for which she would always be grateful.

Yulia almost felt that she had disappointed Lena for her to want to discard her instead of Roman. Maybe he had been right when he had said she had taken advantage of Lena’s good nature, she had probably had enough, which was understandable.

More than anything Yulia couldn’t bear to face up to the prospect of Lena throwing her out. She knew that however nice Lena had been to her if she wanted her to leave it would probably involve her behaving nastily towards her. Yulia wanted the happy memories she had accumulated in the short time she had stayed with Lena to remain intact. That was why she was going to do the noble thing and leave of her own accord. If Lena didn’t want to help her anymore she would have to help herself.

***

The next morning Yulia awoke to the sound of birds chirping cheerfully, the early morning sunlight beginning to filter in through the curtains. Instead of getting up she lay contemplating what she was going to say to Lena about her leaving the apartment. However, she wanted to wait for Roman to go because she knew she would be unable to talk to Lena properly without him interrupting so she waited, lying perfectly still staring up at the ceiling listening for any signs of movement from the adjacent bedroom.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity she heard a familiar sleepy yawn and the dull thud of footsteps heading out of Lena’s room. Yulia smiled despite herself, Lena was obviously up for work and it sounded like she was at her usual ‘best’ for this time in a morning. Yulia had thought that she was bad in the mornings but Lena was the worst. Her hair was always wild and frizzy reminiscent of a red curly afro, a zombified expression on her features with only the merest grunts passing as conversation. She was still cute though, to Yulia anyway.

Any other morning she would have expected Lena to knock for her to wake up and join her for breakfast. However, as Lena already had a breakfast companion this morning Yulia didn’t dare get her hopes up. Then to her surprise she heard Lena’s customary tap on the door, she hadn’t forgotten her after all.

“Yulia? Are you awake?” Lena said in almost a whisper through the door.

Yulia considered not replying but in the end she answered. “Yeah, I’m awake”

“Good, can I come in please?”

“Yeah sure”

Lena pushed the door back and looked over at Yulia and noticed that something wasn’t quite right with her as she looked incredibly tired and pale. Feeling concern for the small girl she moved from the doorway and sat at the side of Yulia where she lay in bed. “Are you alright?” She pressed the palm of her hand against Yulia’s forehead.

“I’m fine” Yulia answered on autopilot. Why did she have to pretend to be concerned when she didn’t care less and wanted her out?

“Mmm, you don’t have a temperature but you look really pale, are you sure you’re alright?” Again Lena sounded very concerned only succeeding in irritating Yulia further.

“Look, I said I’m fine ok!” Yulia snapped. Lena was so fake.

“Whoa, there’s no need to bite my head off especially at this time in a morning I was only asking!” Lena retorted

“Sorry, I’m just a bit tired, I didn’t mean to snap at you”

“Did I wake you up just then?” Lena could see that Yulia was unhappy about something as she had never been moody like this with Lena before.

“No, I’ve been awake for ages” She felt like yelling at Lena, telling her that she had never gotten to sleep in the first place, that it was all because of her, all because she didn’t want her and it hurt so badly.

“Do you want some breakfast? I’m doing the works – bacon, egg, sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms, everything basically” Lena was desperate to reverse Yulia’s mood but it even the prospect of a hearty breakfast didn’t light up Yulia’s lovely face.

“No it’s ok I’ll make something in a bit” At that moment her stomach decided to betray her hunger letting out a huge thunderous rumble.

“Sounds like your little tummy can’t wait” Lena affectionately patted her stomach and Yulia could feel her mood melting towards Lena, her guard falling once again. Then Lena decided to have some fun and turned the playful pat into a tickle, pinning Yulia down and making her laugh hysterically. Neither one of them heard Roman enter the room. “What are you two doing? I thought we were having breakfast Elena” He sounded extremely exasperated.

“Just coming honey, I was just trying to persuade Yulia to get up and join us for breakfast,” she said sweetly looking mischievously at Yulia.

Roman didn’t look impressed, his brown eyes black with annoyance. “Well, if you can finish up your girl on girl action, I need breakfast like now as some of us have to be at work in about an hour” he sniped

“Ok Roman, I’m sorry, I’m coming now” Lena said apologetically climbing off Yulia and going to follow Roman out of the bedroom before stopping and turning around to Yulia. “Are you coming Yul, I’d really appreciate a hand serving Mr Grumpy B*****d his breakfast”

“Yeah but only if I can give him a sneezer!” Yulia said it in a light-hearted tone forgetting the anger she had felt some minutes ago towards Lena. She would love to slip him some poison, who was he to speak to them like that as if they were just s**t on his shoe.

“Ha, yeah, you’re so funny Yul! Come on sweetie let go cook breakfast so we can send him off to work and out of our way” It sounded a good idea to Yulia, then she could talk to Lena alone, she wasn’t looking forward to it but unfortunately it had to be done.

***

Roman quickly had his breakfast before finally leaving Lena and Yulia alone in the apartment. They washed up the breakfast dishes in virtual silence before Yulia cleared her throat in preparation to talk to Lena. It wasn’t going to be easy.

“Lena can I talk to you about something” Yulia asked in a small voice.

“Will it take long Yul ‘cause I need to have a shower before I go to work and I think I’m gonna be a bit pushed for time, is that alright?” she enquired

“Yeah, it can wait if you’re busy. If you wanna go and shower I can finish up here if you like.” Part of Yulia was relieved to put this talk off because although she had been upset by what Lena had said to Roman the previous night Lena had been her usual kind and caring self this morning. This only succeeded in making it even harder for her to broach the subject of leaving.

“Aww thanks, I’ll try and hurry up so we can talk before I go, just bear with me, ok?”

“Yeah, no problem” God she was such a wimp why the hell couldn’t she just blurt it all out into the open?

Lena rushed off to get ready for work while Yulia got on with cleaning up in the kitchen. Life was so unfair. Yulia had hit rock bottom, been rescued by an ‘angel’ and was at long last emerging from the shadows and now she was going to be dragged back into the underworld, with the cheats, liars, thieves and prostitutes. It was no place for the sad and the lonely, she knew from experience these people often paid the ultimate price.

She couldn’t go back to that because she was sure it would kill her once and for all. She needed a plan, that way she could live a full life again – she craved it so badly.

“Yulia, I’m sorry, I gotta dash I’ll see you later ok” Lena was running towards the front door her overcoat hanging half on half off, her handbag trailing the floor as she struggled to put it on properly.

“Mmm, I’ll see you later Lena” Yulia responded weakly.

“Yeah, Byee!”

“Goodbye” The door had already slammed shut and Yulia stared at the space Lena had just vacated and then she realised she had just seen Lena for the last time.

***