[Shakrin]

Chapter 2


“Vik, I’m not in the mood for this.” Yulia mildly chastised her voice soft and quivering and annoyance apparent on her face. Her right hand her right ear was occupied with a slender sleek looking mobile phone, a burning cigarette expertly bitten in her lips. Her face was frowning, the lines on her nose crinkled and brows snapped shut together. She was propping her arm’s weight on the frame of the car’s window, some of her elbow sticking outside the car.

She was currently stuck in the most unbreathable traffic she’d ever been in, and she was pissed because she was going to be late for work.

“Look, I said no, alright? I thought we were through with this? I thought we were cool with being friends?!” She snapped again before blaring her horn at a car in front of her trying to budge in her lane without a signal. She unpleasantly growled and slowly stuck her head out the window.

“Vik, hold on a sec,” With a warning to the other line of her phone she raised up her middle finger to the car in front of her with her free hand, then screaming “DIRTY SLUT!” at the driver. That made the burning cigarette fall helplessly from her mouth to the pavement road.

“Aww motherfucker…” She grumbled then shortly later, the driver in front of her yelled back. “Crazy bitch!” Yulia snapped her head up and gave another middle finger before sticking her head back inside the car. She raised her phone back to her ear.

“Vik? Yeah, don’t call me for a while alright? I don’t wanna talk to you.” With slicing edge in her voice, she flipped her phone to a close before slipping it in her inner jacket pocket.

Then with a playful menace in her eyes, she slammed on her accelerator, gently nudging the car in front of her enough to give a scratch on the bumper. She laughed at what the driver then said, “Holy hell of flying frogs! CRAZY BITCH!”

“Serves you right ass fucker…” Yulia muttered with a smile. She glanced at her car’s clock and groaned. She really didn’t want to face Ivan at the supposed meeting which she was supposed to be there for about half an hour ago.

*****

Lena didn’t go to work today. Because this was her big day. The day she’d been waiting for another five months. The day she was hoping to finally achieve what she’d been dreaming of.

HER DRIVER’S LICENSE!!!

At the age of 25, she was finally getting another chance to get her license, and it certainly wasn’t the first time that she had taken this test. The main reason was that she was very forgetful to check the most vital things, like checking over her shoulder to see if it was enough space to Parallel Park, or give a signal before changing lanes. The last test she had failed because she forgot to put her seatbelt on.

“Hello Miss Katina. I’ll be your supervisor for your driving test for today. Are you ready?” An old lady with huge lensed glasses barely steadying itself on the bridge of her nose asked with a large breaking smile. Her false teeth shone with every sparkle from the sun.

“Yes ma’am, I’m ready as I’ll ever be.” Lena said with an excited shaking voice.

“Alright, let’s drive out of here. Let’s see what you can do.” The old lady said, taking out a clipboard and setting it on her lap. Lena smiled and slowly changed gears to reverse out of the parking lot.

This time she would do it, because she had studied day and night and checked everything over and out again and again. She would not fail this time. No sirreebub, she was going to get the bloody thing if it was the last thing she did. She stepped on the accelerator with a sudden movement of her foot.

The whole car jerked and instead of the car going in the reverse direction, it went straight forward, the whole front of the car crashing into the concrete wall in front of it.

Shit.

*****

After trudging out of the driving school and paying for the repairs for the car, she decided to walk to her workplace. She didn’t have anything better to that day, and she wanted to talk to her father about Yulia anyways.

*****

Lena flicked off the water droplets for her hands as she ripped out a paper tissue from a container stuck the wall to dry her hands completely. Running through her red tresses with her fingers, she looked up to the mirror for one last time to check her attires out before heading out.

Then what she saw made her jump and gasp a little. Yulia smirked at the red head’s reaction. On the reflection, Lena not only saw herself but Yulia leaning against the bathroom entrance with her left arm propping her self against the door frame. Her feet were crossed, her silver linen lined tie as usually loose around her neck.

The tired wrinkles marred her expression when disappointed as well as anger laced Lena’s. Yulia chuckled before sauntering near to the red head, pressing her up again the marble wall of the bathroom.

“Looks like we both could use a drink right about now. How about we cut work and go where we could sit and get shit faced?” Yulia suggested with a humoring voice. Lena’s lips twitched in a reflexive gesture to decline but something told her otherwise this time. She did need a drink right now. But the rational part of her brain refused.

“Isn’t it a little early for that?” Lena asked.

“It’s after noon.” Yulia replied with one of her perfectly lined brows ascending up.

“Won’t you get in trouble?” Lena asked one more time.

“I’m already in trouble to be in more trouble… Besides… I’m under contract. They can’t fire me, but I can’t quit either. Unless they try to kill me which is another story…”

“Shut up. Let’s go.” Lena slyly cut the brunette ff before pushing her off and exiting the bathroom. Yulia stood there for a moment of pause before breaking into a snicker and following suit.

*****

“Yes, yes I’m very sorry Verustikov. But you know me of all people can’t control someone, let alone try to control my own daughter. You know how my Yulia is. She’s stubborn… But she’ll come around I’m sure.”

A pause followed.

“Yes I agree Viktor is a very nice boy. That’s why we arranged their engagement ourselves. They’re the perfect match yes I know.”

The garbled noise of a talking voice on the other line could be heard. Another pause.

“Just keep your boy at it, I know Yulia likes Viktor, I just know it!”

*****

“Josef Kapinski, meet my new sex slave Lena Katina.” Yulia introduced, sitting herself down on one of the stools in front of the bar. Shocked Lena plopped down next to the brunette, giving Yulia a soft warning punch on her arm.

“Hey… Ouch…” Yulia mocked, screwing her face up to express the horror of so much pain. Lena rolled her eyes before shaking hands with the bartender, Josef.

“Pass me my usual, will ya Jo?” Yulia called, resulting in Jo saluting back to her with two fingers before pulling out a whole bottle of vodka and slamming it in front of her on the bar. Yulia pulled out a hundred dollar bill from her back pocket and slid it to Jo. “Keep the change.” Jo nodded before walking away to another early bird customer.

Taking a casual swig from the bottle and wiping her lips with the back of her sleeve, she passed the bottle to Lena, expecting her to do the same. Then surprisingly, Lena snatched the bottle from the brunette’s hand taking five big gulps.

Yulia laughed taking the bottle back from Lena who was wiping her mouth with the back of her sleeves too. “You really have something for chugging drinks, whether its alcohol or fizzy goodness of a drink.”

Lena gave the brunette a sharp glare before beginning to really relax around Yulia.

Yulia took another swig before landing the bottle back on the bar.

“So… What are you in here for?” Yulia asked with hints of laughs in her voice. Lena gave a confused expression before whispering “Oh…”

“I failed my driver’s license test.” Lena muttered before staring back down at her fidgeting hands. She could hear Yulia smirk and trying not to laugh.

“Your uhh… First test?” Yulia asked intrigue muddling up her voice.

Lena glared up once more before answering. “No my eighteenth.” The brunette broke out into a full out belly laugh, her palm gently tapping at her upper thigh. “Oh shut up, you.” Lena murmured, reaching for the vodka and taking a hefty swig.

“What about you, what are you in for?” Lena asked, setting down the bottle on the bar again.

Yulia stopped laughing and looked up at Lena, letting out a tired sigh. The wrinkles lined up her pleasant face just like it had done back at the bathroom.

“I came to work a little late today… Mucked up something important with another company. I humiliated Ivan and your father at the meeting practically because I didn’t show up on time. Yeah… So Ivan is like…pissed… and an important alliance contract is gone for good cuz of me.” Yulia sighed, taking another baffling swing from the vodka nearly emptying the bottle.

There was an awkward silence between them, both of them looking away from each other and not knowing what to say. But the lively mischievous light came flooding back to Yulia face, smoothing out her worry lines into a small smile of something Lena couldn’t really grasp on.

“Hey Jo, hand me two glasses of your mystery concoctions, will ya?” Yulia called out, waving another hundred dollar bill between her middle and index fingers. Jo happily obliged, placing two shot glasses of blood red thick liquid handed in front of them. Then he slipped the money out of Yulia’s fingers before walking away again.

Lena grimaced at the smell and the sight of the mystery concoctions placed in front of her and Yulia.

“What is this supposed to be?” Lena asked, taking a whiff and sticking her tongue out in semi disgust.

“It’s Jo’s famous sobering concoction.” Yulia replied setting aside the vodka bottle.

“Well I don’t see any drunk people.” Lena said looking around, doing a full sweep around the building with her eyes. Yulia guffawed before sliding one glass of the shot nearer to Lena and holding up one for her own.

“Because that isn’t the purpose of it right now.” The brunette said amused and taking a small whiff of it herself. She cringed.

“Go on.” Lena said, brining the shot close up to her eyes to study exactly what it was.

“It’s like a pact drink. I suggest something, and you want to follow through with it, we drink it all at the same time. But if you don’t want anything to do with it, you back out, and leave the bar.” Yulia said.

“And what are you going to suggest?”

Yulia gave the red head a kind smile before inhaling to speak. “If we drink this at the same time right now… We’re officially couples. Got it?”

“And if I don’t drink?”

“Then as I said… We won’t have anything to do with each other. Forever. Until we die. So… Cheers?” Yulia asked raising her shot glass.

Lena was quiet for a long while, her eyes flickering around the sight of the shot glass in front of her. Two minutes had already passes and Yulia’s arm was beginning to ache. But just in time Lena raised up her own glass, and clinked it against Yulia’s.

“Cheers.”

*****

“Hi, I’m looking for Yulia Volkova?” A man in middle twenties with a sunglass firmly held in his one hand and a Porsche car keys in the other. He had a grainy blonde hair with almost black iris and a perfect lining of his face.

The receptionist clacked away at her computer, looking up briefly at the man before going back to her computer screen.

“I’m afraid you cannot. She didn’t come back from her lunch break.” The receptionist answered, almost sounding profusely bored.

The man frowned before asking once more. “Well do you know where she might be right now?”

“Sir, I’m a receptionist, not a tracking device.” She snapped.

“Sheesh alright. If you happen to see her just tell her that her fiancée, Vik Verustikov, dropped by.”

“I’ll make sure Miss Volkova gets the message, sir.”

“Thank you.”


[good news ladies...not a sad story!!!]