Strange Attraction

[Yulia_Fan]

i have decided to post the fanfic here instead of in the first few posts of the "Fanfic - so far untitled" thread. that thread will b for all the comments and feedback.

i understand that having a separate thread for comments willl make it less likely that ppl will give feedback as they will most likely b too lazy to go to another topic to post but please do, without the feedback, i cant write more.

so yeah all feedback/comments in the below thread please

feedback and comments

[Yulia_Fan]

CHAPTER ONE:

Lena sat nervously in the car waiting for the bus to appear. “Lena, will you stop jumping every time a bus, car, truck, or bicycle comes round that bloody corner?! You’ll be fine darling, I promise” said Lena’s mother as gently as possible. In truth she was just as tense as her daughter was. She was so desperate for Lena to make friends at her new school.

Lena smiled, trying to put her mother at ease, ‘that’s easy for you to say, its not your first day at a weird new school. After this you get to drive home and go back to your nice warm bed’ Lena thought to herself while staring grimly out at the miserable weather.

Finally the bus came winding round the corner. “Want me to come with you? Just to make sure that it’s th…”

“I’ll be fine” Lena called out before slamming the car door and hurrying towards the bus stop. ‘Being dropped off by Mummy? Can you imagine!’ thought Lena as she squinted against the harsh wind.

Inside the little wooden shelter stood two girls and two small boys. One girl had long blonde hair, held back with an elastic band, while the other girl’s hair was a bit shorter and black. Both were taller than Lena and gave her a careful look as she boarded the bus with them.

The younger two boys sat at the front and began speaking to the bus driver about changing the radio station, meanwhile the two girls headed for the back of the bus. The blonde girl was saying something while the dark haired girl pretended to listen, but was clearly uninterested. Unsure of where to sit, the blonde girl suddenly called out, “hey I’m Nia, I guess you are new to the school huh?”

“Er, yeah I…” Lena began, before Nia continued, “what year are you in? 12?” Lena nodded, “then come and sit at the back with us, we all kinda sit in age… this is Andrea by the way”. Lena smiled at them both and took a seat at the back. The back seat consisted of five seats in a row. Andrea was sat in the middle with Nia to her right in the corner. Their bags occupied the seat between them. Lena moved into the empty seat in the corner to Andrea’s left.

“So where are you from?” asked Andrea.

“St Petersburg” Lena replied.

“Cool, I think you’re the first person we have here from St Petersburg” Nia said, while Andrea rolled her eyes. Lena tried to hide her smile at Andrea obvious dislike of Nia.

With that, the bus came to a stop. Looking out the window at the students stood in the cold, Andrea seemed to be searching for someone. “Looks like Yulia isn’t here today…” said Nia.

“Nah, she’s probably just running late, first day back and all…” said Andrea as her phone rang, “Hello? Oh right,” Andrea smiled while turning in her seat to look out of the window, “yeah sure… here at the lights yeah? K… bye!”

With that the bus stopped for a red light. Andrea yelled down to the bus driver to open the doors again as someone began banging loudly against the bus. Lena sat up in her seat to see who this Yulia girl was. The girl looked of similar height to Lena, with black short hair and the brightest blue eyes Lena had ever seen. She was laughing at the bus driver who was clearly finding her crazy dive onto the bus amusing. She started walking up the aisle of the bus, smiling at Andrea.

“Late are we darling?” teased Andrea.

“Dear lord, don’t you start, just had mother going on…” sighed Yulia. She was wearing low cut jeans and a white top with quarter-length sleeves. She had a small waist and perfectly shaped breasts, which could just been seen by the fairly low-cut V-neck of the top which allowed a modest view of her cleavage.

Yulia suddenly felt someone looking at her, turning to see who it was she set eyes upon the girl sat in the corner, in the seat Yulia usually occupies. ‘Woah,’ Yulia thought to herself, ‘she is stunning’. The girl had curly red hair that fell crazily around her shoulders. She had grey/green eyes and pale soft skin. Yulia smiled at the girl as she reached the back row and took off her bag from her back and reached up to put it on the rack above.

As Yulia reached up, Lena caught sight of her perfectly taut abdomen. It was soft and ever so slightly tanned. Suddenly aware that she was staring, Lena quickly tore her eyes away, and instead forced herself to look out of the window on her left. She soon felt the presence of someone next to her, she turned and saw that Yulia had sat in the seat between Andrea and herself. “Hi, I’m Yulia by the way” smiled Yulia as she offered her hand.

“Elena, or Lena, whatever…” Lena managed to say, while reaching for Yulia’s hand. The touch of her soft warm skin sent shivers down Lena’s spine.

“Lena?” Yulia said carefully, making sure she had pronounced it correctly and chosen the correct option.

“Yeah,” Lena answered, with a huge smile.

Yulia looked pleased with herself, “just making sure” she smiled. Lena gave a little laugh, she suddenly felt so calm with this girl, ‘and she is so cute!’ Lena thought to herself.

“So, tell us ALL about yourself, or have you already explained and I missed it?” Yulia said, looking at Andrea with a cheeky grin, whilst searching amongst her things for something.

“She is from St Petersburg, that’s as far as we got,” said Andrea.

“St Petersburg? I think I have relatives there” smiled Yulia, now attempting to open a breakfast cereal bar.

“Really? Where…” Lena started shyly.

“God only knows where, fascinating piece of useless information though huh?!” continued Yulia, giving Lena a huge grin. “Ah ha!” Lena smiled as Yulia finally managed to wrestle the breakfast bar open and was smiling at her victory, ‘so adorable’ thought Lena. “Anyone want some?” said Yulia, offering the bar around. When she had no takers, she growled and took a huge bite, much to the amusement of the others.

“You’re an animal Yulia,” said Andrea, rolling her eyes. Yulia just laughed with a little cheeky look in her eye.

As the bus rolled into the next stop, the girls were chatting about anything and everything, with Yulia making a conscious effort to include her new friend. Lena noticed that Yulia, like Andrea, didn’t seem to like Nia, and was in no way hiding it. She questioned the stupid comments that the girl made and often made faces at the girl’s randomness. As cruel as it was, Lena couldn’t help but laugh at Yulia, and as she did so, she was rewarded with a mischievous grin from the cute brunette.

As more people got on the bus, it seemed that they were all very friendly with eachother. At Lena’s last school she had only one friend on her bus, the rest of the students she barely recognised, let alone spoke to. However here it’s seemed different, everyone knew and spoke to everyone.

The noise level quickly rose and Yulia introduced Lena to everyone and told them all she knew about her (something that would normally have annoyed Lena, but the way Yulia excitedly introduced her made Lena feel warm inside). Soon after, the focus was off of Lena and back to normal gossip about the previous week’s holiday. Many people interrupted Yulia’s conversation to ask her about various pieces of schoolwork. Her answer to all of them was pretty much the same uninterested reply and Lena soon gathered that Yulia had little interest in her studies.

Lena spent the rest of the bus journey analysing Yulia. She loved the way she told stories, she managed to capture people’s attention and added a great deal of sarcasm and wit, which made her simply hilarious to listen too. Soon Lena found herself laughing with the others as if she was one of them and no longer the ‘new girl’.

[Yulia_Fan]

CHAPTER TWO:

As the bus rolled up to the school gates, people were stood up and fidgeting with their belongings. Lena watched Yulia waiting for her to get off the bus so that she could move out of the corner. Yulia was in deep conversation with Nicola, the girl sat in the chair directly in front of her and hadn’t really seemed to notice that they had arrived at their destination. It was only when most of the students had left the bus that Yulia stood up to collect her things and got off the bus.

As Lena thanked the bus driver and stepped off the bus, she noticed that Yulia and the others were waiting for her.

For the first time, Yulia got a full head-to-toe view of the stunning red head. She was about the same height as Yulia, ‘maybe a bit taller’ she thought. She was slim but curvy in all the right places and Yulia shocked herself at the overwhelming attraction she felt toward the girl. “So how do you like the school so far?” Yulia managed to ask as Lena caught up with them, hoping that she hadn’t noticed her staring.

“Erm, yeah its seems nice, its smaller than my last school though.” Lena replied, trying to ignore the fact that she was walking so close to Yulia and those captivating blue eyes.

“Do you know your tutor or form group or lessons or anything yet?” asked Nicola, who seemed to be making a sudden effort to befriend Lena.

“I have a timetable with my lessons all marked out… other than that, I dunno” answered Lena shyly.

“Well just come with me and Kira to my form class” offered Yulia, “and we can find out where you are supposed to be” she said smiling warmly. There was something about this girl that Yulia liked. She seemed so genuine and definitely was lacking nothing in the looks department. Her shyness and vulnerability also attracted Yulia and she felt a sudden urge to make the red head feel welcome and at home in her new school. As they reached the playground area, the bell rang. “Excellent timing” Yulia sighed, “see u later guys” she called to the others before tugging at Lena’s sleeve to show her to their form room.

As it turned out, Lena was in Yulia’s tutor group after all, and after taking a seat together at the back of the class, Yulia asked to see Lena’s timetable. “Hmm, well your first lesson is with me” said Yulia, a frown on her face as she studied the piece of paper. Inside Lena jumped for joy at the thought of spending the morning with Yulia. “And your next lesson is… hmm, I’m not sure who takes that lesson, but I will walk you there, its kinda on my way anyway” said Yulia, as she smiled and handed Lena back her timetable.

“So, how long have you been at this school?” Lena asked. “Not long,” Yulia replied, “but it’s a cool school, socially anyway, the teachers are a pain in the ass. But the cool thing is that there are always people coming and going so you make friends really fast, obviously you lose friends too of course, but I still think its cool.”

The two girls continued chatting as they walked to their next lesson. In fact they even continued to chat through their lesson, much to the annoyance of the teacher of course. At the end of the lesson, Yulia walked Lena to her next class as she had promised. As they arrived at Lena’s classroom, Yulia turned and smiled, “here we are, rather you than me” she joked as she spied the maths equations that the teacher was starting to write up on the board. “Well, have fun” called Yulia as she walked away towards her own classroom, leaving Lena alone outside her classroom door. She was expecting Yulia to say that she would be waiting for her after class to show her to lunch. Disappointed, she turned and walked into her classroom.

She found it difficult to concentrate for the whole hour. For some reason she could not get Yulia off of her mind, ‘was she just being polite earlier? Is that it? Does she not want any more to do with her now that she has settled her in? She said herself that people come and go, I guess she was just showing me round.’ Lena thought to herself. Sighing she decided to attempt the worksheet she had been given for the last 10 minutes of the lesson.

Lena was good at equations, they seemed so simple in her mind, and just as the bell rang, she found herself starting the last question. Feeling slightly disappointed that she hadn’t finished, she decided to stay a few minutes extra so that she could finish the sheet. After all, its not like she had any friends to hang around with anyway, she might as well try and impress her new teacher. All the other students ran out of the class, all desperate to get a decent place in the lunch queue, Lena however, began reading the final question.

Within a few minutes she was finished. Smiling to herself she put her name at the top of the paper and placed it on the teacher’s desk before walking out of the classroom. To her surprise she saw Yulia leaning against the wall looking incredibly bored. As she walked closer, Yulia turned, a smile forming on her face, “finally, what took you so long?!”

“I was just...” started Lena.

“Finishing your equations? One of the other students told me, can’t believe they took you so long, I mean, they looked pretty simple to me” teased Yulia.

“Yeah sure!” laughed Lena, ‘she was asking other students where I was…’ Lena thought cheerfully to herself, “how about we go back inside and see how fast you can do those equations then huh? Little Miss I’m-so-smart!”

“Erm, tempting offer, but after waiting for your Royal Slowness for soooo long, if I don’t eat something soon I’ll pass out. NOT that I am suggesting that I couldn’t do those equation thingys…” laughed Yulia, while dragging Lena off towards the lunch queue.

As they arrived in the cafeteria, the queue had died down a bit and it wasn’t long before they had their food and were joining the others at a table. Realising that there was no salt on the table, Yulia jumped up and went to go and fetch some.

“So Lena, having fun so far?” asked Andrea, taking a bite out of her apple.

“Yeah its ok” answered Lena quietly. She couldn’t believe how nervous and shy she suddenly felt without Yulia there.

“Seen any guys that you thought were cute?” asked Nia with a smile that made Lena feel as if she should start naming a thousand guys.

“Erm, truth is I haven’t really been looking” answered Lena, ‘unless of course you count Yulia’ Lena laughed to herself at her own thought, if anyone could read her mind they would think that she was a lesbian or something! Which she wasn’t, definitely not. That was out of the question. She just thought Yulia was nice, lovely in fact. But that didn’t mean that she fancied her. Maybe she just envied her, or was it merely appreciation? She had made her feel so welcome AND had waited for her to finish her equations.

“Salt?” Yulia said, interrupting Lena’s thoughts. She hadn’t even noticed the girl return, but she was glad, hopefully Yulia would steer the conversation away from such trivial things.

[Yulia_Fan]

CHAPTER THREE:

The rest of the school day continued just as the morning had, with Yulia walking Lena to her lessons and being there at the end of each lesson to collect her. They talked continually about all sorts of things when they were alone and when they were with the others Yulia made a conscious effort to include Lena in every conversation.

As Lena sat in her last lesson of the day she watched the clock ticking down the minutes till the bell went. As it sounded through the school corridors, Lena practically jumped up and headed straight for the door, desperate to chat to Yulia again. Although she had only known her for a day, Lena felt so comfortable with Yulia. They seemed to share the same thoughts and interests and any difference of opinion was equally fun to discuss. Despite the two girls getting on so well, Lena noticed that they were quite different when it came to certain things. For example, History. Lena loved History, but Yulia seemed to hate it. It was the only lesson that they shared together and Lena was amazed that during the lesson this morning, Yulia barely even bothered to open her folder. She wondered why Yulia would choose a subject that she clearly had no interest in.

The absent Yulia disrupted her thoughts. ‘Where was she?’ wondered Lena. Suddenly a thought crossed her mind, ‘Yulia never said that she would meet me, I just assumed that she would, as she had done previously during the day.’ With a sigh, Lena followed the crowd of students that were headed for the playground.

Once outside, Lena searched around for a face, any face that looked familiar. But she saw no one that she recognised. ‘Damn it, where is Yulia?!’ Lena thought angrily. Seeing the long line of school buses that were parked outside the school gate, Lena tried to remember any of the students that she had ridden to school with. Again, she saw no one. Feeling her heart thumping in her chest as she neared the buses, Lena began to panic. Her eyes ran along the buses trying to remember any characteristics of the bus she arrived in, however there wasn’t a bus anywhere that look remotely like hers. Suddenly she heard her name, “Lena! Over here!” it was Andrea, she was stood with all the other members of the bus on a patch of grass.

“Our bus isn’t here yet,“ said Andrea as Lena approached them.

“Oh right, “ replied Lena, “thank god for that, I thought I had missed it!” letting out a huge sigh of relief.

With that, Lena heard her name again, “there you are!” said an out of breath Yulia, “I’ve been searching all over for you. I came to your classroom but I guess you had already left, I was a bit late, stupid teacher kept us behind”

“Oh sorry, “ replied Lena quickly, “if I had known I would have waited” she suddenly felt guilty for rushing off and for getting mad at Yulia.

“No worries” smiled Yulia, before turning to the other, “bus is here guys.”

As Lena got on the bus she noticed that two boys had sat in the seats that she had sat in that morning. Feeling a wave of disappointment rush over her body at the thought of not being able to sit with Yulia, Lena chose another seat in front of Nia, and took out her History book. ‘Might as well do the reading that we were asked to do for homework now,’ thought Lena.

As she began reading all about Cromwell’s achievements with the New Model Army in the English Civil War, she felt someone energetically jump into the seat beside her. She turned to see two huge pools of blue gazing at her, “you gonna read that for the whole journey? Cos if you are then I am moving seats” Yulia joked, with a mouthful of chocolate.

“It’s the reading that we have to do for History tomorrow, thought I would get it out of the way,” replied Lena, smiling as Yulia stuffed more food in her mouth. ‘She’s such a child’ she mused.

”Eh, Cromwell this, Cromwell that… kinda dull don’t you think? By the way, chocolate?” Yulia offered Lena the last piece of her bar.

“No, thanks,” said Lena as Yulia stuffed the last few squares in her mouth.

“Yeah so, where was I? Ah yeah, history… booorrring!!” Yulia yawned dramatically as Lena giggled.

“Yulia, why did you take the subject if you hate it so much?”

“No other option, it was History, Geography or German so I rolled a dice and History won,” Yulia smiled and Lena wondered whether or not Yulia was joking. “ And its not that I hate it… the battles and wars are cool… but the reading…” Yulia yawned dramatically again.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it, now if you don’t mind, I have reading to do” teased Lena as she turned back to her book.

“Ok, fine, ignore me then…” said Yulia, pretending to be hurt. Lena sighed, “you could always read it as well? Unless of course that is just too…” Lena began mocking Yulia’s dramatic yawn.

“Ok, ok!” laughed Yulia, “I’ll read it… but first I need crisps, and second, I need to share your book” said Yulia while standing to get a packet of crisps from her bag, which was situated on the above rack, again giving Lena the perfect view of her soft tummy and cute belly button.

“Okay first, do you ever stop eating? And second, where is your book?” asked Lena, looking up at the brunette.

“First, only when I am full up, which I admit is kinda rare, and second, I lost it” replied Yulia giving Lena a cheeky grin as she settled back into her seat.

The both girls tucked into the crisps and began reading. Lena was leaning in close to Yulia and Yulia found herself finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate on the book. Lena’s soft curls kept tickling her cheek and the red heads smell was driving Yulia insane. Whether it was Lena’s perfume or shampoo, Yulia didn’t know, but she just loved it. ‘What’s wrong with me?’ thought Yulia. She had always liked girls’ company, she even flirted innocently with a couple of them. She wasn’t gay, definitely, girls were just more intelligent than boys were and she found herself more comfortable being in girls’ company. But Lena was different. She felt even more comfortable around her, as if she could really be herself and open up. She also knew that she was attracted to Lena in a way she had never been attracted to anyone, and the thought confused her. ‘Maybe I am just envious of her? She’s so smart, and even though she is shy around the others, when its just us, she is so funny. And her hair, she has such beautiful hair, everyone notices it. She’s gorgeous’

Lena glanced up from the book and saw Yulia staring at her. She smiled nervously unsure of why Yulia was looking at her in that way. “Erm…” Lena started to say something, but couldn’t quite get the words out. Yulia was staring her right in the eyes and Lena suddenly felt incredibly self-conscious.

Suddenly aware of Lena staring back at her, Yulia panicked and yawned suddenly, “god, I am so bored, I can’t believe the way you can just sit there and read this stuff” said Yulia casually, hoping that Lena didn’t notice her staring.

Lena laughed “we’re only on the first page!”

“Yeah but, c’mon! I mean, don’t they do a video version or something?!” teased Yulia.

“Well that’s cheating Yulia” smiled Lena, pleased that their awkward moment had passed. She had clearly misread Yulia’s look, but was glad that it was over all the same.

For the rest of the bus ride the girls sat in silence. Lena continued to read the history book while Yulia listened to her Walkman with her eyes closed. As they neared Yulia’s bus stop, Lena gently woke Yulia who had fallen asleep. “This is your stop I think” smiled Lena as Yulia opened her eyes. ‘Wow, that’s a site I could wake up to every morning’ thought Yulia to herself as she opened her eyes to see Lena looking sweetly at her. Yulia smiled at her own thought and at the same time was glad that she hadn’t said such a thing out loud.

“Who’s mum talking to” wondered Yulia aloud as she glanced out the window at her mother.

“That’s my mum,” said Lena confused, “she said she would pick me up at the next bus stop up the road”. ‘God, she looks so cute when she frowns’ thought Yulia, ‘Grrr! What is wrong with me?! Stop thinking such things!’

As the two girls stepped off the bus, they greeted their mothers. They exchanged introductions, before saying goodbye and heading home.

“How come you are picking me up here?” Lena asked her mother as they walked to the car.

“Well I was chatting to Olivia and it turns out that here is just that tiny bit closer to where we live” answered Sophia, Lena’s mother, “so I thought we might as well start collecting and dropping you off here yeah?”

Lena’s face lit up, “yeah mum, that sounds great. So I am assuming Olivia is Yulia’s mum? Is she nice?”

“Yeah, she was very nice,” replied Sophia, “she offered to help us out with anything we needed. In fact, tomorrow she is gonna drive me to the shopping centre to show me where it is… which reminds me, how well do you get on with Yulia?”

Lena smiled, “she is soooo nice mum, really. She was lovely, showed me all around the school, walked me to my lessons… she is really funny too, and smart and…” suddenly aware that she was rambling, Lena trailed off, “erm, why do you ask anyway?”

“No reason,” replied Lena’s mother, “but I am glad that you made a new friend so quickly, Yulia seems like a nice girl.” Lena just sighed quietly to herself and got in the car, ‘yep mum, she is a VERY nice girl…’

[Yulia_Fan]

CHAPTER FOUR:

As Yulia walked through the front door she was greeted by her dog, “hello boy! Did u miss me?” the dog nuzzled against her legs and began licking her Yulia’s hands. “Guess that’s a yes then huh?” laughed Yulia as she walked into the kitchen to grab a coke before walking up the stairs and into her bedroom. She opened the can and pressed play on her CD player. Taking a sip from her drink she kicked off her shoes and began getting undressed out of her uniform. As she picked up a pair of jeans from the floor she noticed a familiar textbook. Picking it up she read: England At War: The First Civil War. Yulia smiled to herself and flicked through the pages, finally finding the page that she was asked to read for homework. Looking at the page reminded her of Lena, of being close to Lena and most of all, the beguiling smell of Lena. Yulia collapsed on her bed and thought back to the moment on the bus. She wondered whether Lena had noticed her staring, she hadn’t seemed to make any comments, and if she had noticed she would surely have commented on it. ‘Nope she hadn’t noticed’ concluded Yulia, feeling very relieved. After all, as lovely as Lena was, she didn’t want to scare the poor girl away. She was new and vulnerable and clearly saw Yulia as just a friend. ‘JUST a friend?’ Yulia thought to herself, ‘well what more would I want anyway?’ deciding that it was best not to answer this question, Yulia took out her homework and thought briefly about doing some work for tomorrow. Two seconds later and Yulia had had a better idea. She left her room and searched for her mother. “Mum, mum? Muuuuuuum? … MUM!”

“Yes YULIA! God, what the hell is the matter?” answered Olivia, now deaf from Yulia’s screaming.

“Oh, there you are, I was just wondering if you have Lena’s number?” Yulia replied sweetly. She still had no clue of what she would say to Lena, but she just wanted to say something. Olivia began searching for the number in her purse, “what did you want it for?” she asked Yulia.

“Funnily enough, I wanted to call Lena” replied Yulia, growing increasingly worried that her mother had lost the number.

Olivia glanced at her impatient daughter, “yes I gathered that Yulia, but what for?”

“Oh, you know, erm, she is in my history class, and er, my teacher suggested that I, er, you know, help Lena out, you know let her copy my notes and stuff” replied Yulia, while thinking, ‘why DO I wanna call her?’

“Your notes?!”, replied Olivia, trying to hide the shock from her voice, “do you even take notes Yulia? I mean, I don’t wanna be rude darling but are you sure he meant for her to copy your notes? I mean, I really think tha...”

“SO the number then?” ‘Why did I say that? Why not something more believable?!’ thought Yulia angrily. Snatching the number from her mum, she ran back up the stairs so as to avoid anymore awkward confrontation. ‘Now all I got to do is think of a reason to call…’

Two hours passed and Yulia was still thinking.

Lena closed her books and glanced up at the clock, 11.45pm. She had had an exhausting day, and the thought of snuggling up in bed was very appealing. She was already in her pyjamas and had been since she got home. It was something she always did, made her feel nice and comfortable. As she slid under the covers, she felt the weight of the duvet fall on top if her as her body relaxed against the mattress. She lay looking out of the window at the stars, thinking about her day. Lena often did this, reflecting on the day, on what had happened etc. Today she concluded was a good day, certainly much better than she had thought when she left her bed that morning. She had made lots of friends, and conveniently most were on her bus. This pleased Lena, as she would hopefully never have to worry about missing the bus, or getting on the wrong one or something at the end of the day. ‘I’ll just stay near Yulia’ she thought, smiling as the picture of the blue eyed girl filled her mind. A warm feeling rushed over her body and the smile on her face threatened never to leave. Yulia was still on Lena’s mind as she began drifting off to sleep.

Suddenly, the harsh shrill of the telephone coursed through Lena’s room. Jumping, Lena grabbed the phone, “YES?!”

“Oh erm, is that Lena?” said a small unsure voice.

“Yes, of course it is, this IS my phone after all right? Now I think the real question is, what kind of freak calls a girl at 00.05AM?!!!” replied Lena – she always needed a few minutes to wake up before she could be civil.

“Erm, well, I’m sorry. Its just erm... is it really 00.05am? Huh, hadn’t noticed,” laughed Yulia nervously, “erm, yeah so… its Yulia by the way. I was just wonder…”

“Yulia?” interrupted Lena, “oh god, I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise it was you i…”

“No, no its fine honestly, I shouldn’t have called so late. Maybe I should buy myself a clock or something… hmm, well anyway, I was only calling to er, “ ‘think Yul, think!’, “to… ask what time we have to be at the bus tomorrow” Yulia smiled pleased with her quick thinking, or at least she was until she realised what she had just said. She then began to cringe as she awaited Lena’s reply.

“Erm, Yulia? Shouldn’t I be the one that doesn’t know?” smiled Lena, she could almost here Yulia’s embarrassment on the other end of the line.

“Yeah, you should, but erm, you hadn’t called so, I was just checking… so do you know?” ‘Note to self: never ever rely on your brain’.

“Well about 8 I guess…”

“Yep, well done! Good good, knew I could rely on u… erm, so, glad we got that sorted, I’ll go and let you sleep. Er yeah, so BYE!” with that Yulia slammed down the phone and contemplated ripping out her tongue so as to never say such stupid things again. ‘Damn it! Why didn’t I think of something better? Why didn’t I write a script? Why didn’t I look at the clock?! Why…’ the phone rang interrupting her thoughts, ‘oh god, round two…’ “hello?”

“Yeah, so, I was just about to sink back into the delicious sleep I was enjoying prior to the crazy phone conversation and I thought... maybe she has forgotten where the bus stop is too? Want me to remind you where it is?”

Smiling, Yulia lay back on her bed, “I do hope that isn’t sarcasm Miss Katina? I was just trying to do you the favour, ok? Wouldn’t wanna see you late for the school bus and all that. Heaven forbid you should be grateful… god, I dunno. You red heads really are a little, ker-razy, huh?”

“Me the crazy one?! I assume you are forgetting the previous phone call?” laughed Lena, who was now sat up in bed.

“Forget?! How could I forget that? ‘Of course this is Lena! What kinda freak calls at this hour?!’ mimicked Yulia, laughing to herself when she heard the clear embarrassment in the red heads voice.

“Yeah yeah, ok, so maybe I can be a bit grumpy when I first wake up ok?…” Lena laughed again, feeling herself blushing, ‘thank god she cant see me’

“A bit?! Understatement…”

Lena smiled as she heard some rustling at the other end of the line, “Yulia, are you eating?!”

“What me? No, what you think I am just some crazy eating machine that eats 24/7? This is just getting worse, I feel truly insulted and I think that you should apologise and…”

“Yul? I can hear the crisp packet”

“Oh…”

[Yulia_Fan]

CHAPTER FIVE:

The next morning Yulia lay in bed listening to her music. She glanced at the clock and realised that she was awake incredible early. ‘C’mon Yul, you can have another half hour yet… go back to sleep!’ Yulia thought to herself as she lay there tossing and turning in her bed. It was no good, she was not going to fall asleep. Throwing the duvet off her, Yulia stood and walked into the bathroom. As she stood in the shower enjoying the gentle sting of hot water on her body she thought about the day ahead. She found herself wondering if Lena was awake yet. ‘Nah, she is probably asleep after our late phone conversation’. The thought of Lena curled up in bed asleep with all that red hair brought a smile to Yulia’s face. Lena was still on her mind as she stepped out of the shower. She glanced at her reflection as she dried off her own short black hair. A frowned formed on her face as she flicked between different styles. Deciding on the usual messy style, Yulia grabbed a dressing gown and went down for breakfast.

Just as she spooned a mouthful of cereal into her mouth, the phone started ringing. Struggling to finish her mouthful, Yulia picked up the phone, “hewoah?” Yulia managed through her Cornflakes.

“Surprise surprise, Miss Volkova is eating again huh?!” swallowing Yulia smiled at the familiar voice, “its breakfast, I think I have the right”

“Sure, if you say so”, smiled Lena, “anyway, I was just ringing up to get your address”

“Address?! Couldn’t you have just asked me at school? Or was it your plan to ring during breakfast and ridicule me?”

“Well firstly, if I wanted to ridicule you, I doubt it would have to be a planned thing. And secondly, if I had asked you at school, then how would we get to your house in minute?!” Lena laughed, ‘clearly Yulia isn’t that smart at this time of the morning,’ she thought to herself.

“Lena, what are you talking about? Why are you coming here now?” said Yulia, starting to get incredibly confused.

“We are taking you to school, didn’t your mum tell you? Cos she has a meeting this morning or something right? Well, I’m not sure, but she asked if we could pick you up on the way… apparently we live close”

Glancing around, Yulia suddenly realised she was all alone. “Hmm, ok well, good of mum to have mentioned. Jaysus... so harsh. Well don’t worry about the lift, I can walk, its fine”

“No way, have you seen the weather? Its freezing and I am sure it will rain soon… we will come and get you, now, as repetitive as I’m sure I sound, what’s your address?!”

Half an hour later, Lena and her mother pulled up in front of Yulia house. Yulia’s mum had been right, they did live very near to eachother, in fact Lena noted that she could easily walk it. Lena got out of the car and walked up the path. Knocking on the door, she could hear a dog barking loudly. As the door opened, Lena watched as her small friend held on tightly to the collar of the huge dog struggling to keep it from pouncing on the red head. Lena stared for a second, thinking how cute she looked.

“Hey,” said Yulia with flustered smile, “I’ll be two minutes… I just got to feed Rada and I’ll be right there” said Yulia still struggling with the huge dog.

Lena moved forward and began rubbing the dog, “hello Rada, do you want your breakfast? Is big old meanie Yulia not sharing the food?!” laughed Lena, looking up to give Yulia a mischievous grin.
“You just find yourself SO amusing don’t you? I swear, you could turn a girl into an anorexic” sighed Yulia, looking down at her friend and still wrestling with the dog.

“Its not like I’m lying, you have to admit, you ARE an eating machine” replied Lena with a cheeky smile.

“The only thing I am, is close to releasing this beast on you unless you don’t start being nice!” warned Yulia.

“You wouldn’t dare… my mums watching anyway…”

“Accidents happen Lena…” laughed Yulia giving Lena an evil look, “He has lovely slobbery kisses, its delicious I assure you” she said winking at the red head.

“Ok, ok! I take it back, just go feed that thing, and please don’t let it pounce on me!” Lena said, backing away from the dog and giving Yulia her biggest puppy eyes.

“Fine, your forgiven,” said Yulia dragging the dog inside, “but next time, I might not be so lenient!” yelled Yulia before closing the front door.

The ride to school was very similar to the previous day, although the students weren’t as lively as they had been the day before. Yulia and Lena sat together and chatted for the whole journey. Yulia went through a list of all the people in their year – including teachers – and whether or not they were nice, annoying, smelly, or boring etc. By the time they arrived at school, Yulia had Lena in hysterics.

[Yulia_Fan]

CHAPTER SIX:

This continued everyday for weeks. The girls would sit together on the bus, meet every break and lunch time, stay at eachothers houses, share lifts to the bus stop and even often walked home as a way of spending more time together. Over a short space of time the girls grew incredibly close.

Although the closeness was a constant confusion, both girls just put it down to never having had a really close best friend. They were also both only children, therefore they both just assumed that this was what having a sister was like. Deep down though, both girls knew that this was more than a sisterly friendship – however, for now it suited them and subsided the confusion.

One evening as they were walking back from the bus stop, Alexander, a guy from Yulia’s Business class ran up to them to ask Yulia about the homework. She knew that he liked Lena and knew that that was the reason he was talking to them. “We didn’t have any remember? Cos he set us loads last time so he decided not to bother” replied Yulia.

“Oh yeah of course, well I guess that means I am free tonight. What are you two girls up to this evening?” said Alexander with a smile.

‘Typical’ Yulia thought to herself, ‘it was so obvious he had that planned’. “Well Lena here had planned on staying in with a novel, but if there is something else more exciting then I am sure she wouldn’t say no” Yulia said smiling, “although, I know that a good novel can be hard to beat, eh Lena?!”

“Ha ha…” replied Lena sarcastically, before turning to Alexander, “what were you thinking of doing?”

“I dunno, there is a cool club near here, apparently the drinks are cheap and entry is free before 9pm. What do you say? Surely I can tempt *you* Yulia?” replied Alexander.

“Oh definitely!” said Yulia enthusiastically, “Lena?”

“Erm, well I dunno… i…”

“Oh but, Leeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnaaaaaaaaaaaaa…”

“Ok, ok! Don’t whine!” replied Lena, playfully pushing her friend.

“Well I guess that’s a Yes from you both then yeah? Want me to pick you up on the way Lena?” asked Alexander, his eyes full of hope.

“Nah, thanks anyway, but I think I will be getting ready round at Yulia’s”

“Oh will you now?” interrupted Yulia with a grin.

“Of course! After all, if I am at home with no one but my novels for company, I might change my mind about coming out…” teased Lena.

“Don’t you dare!” said Yulia, then turning to Alexander she said, “see you tonight!”

As the girls walked along linking arms against the cold, they talked about what they would wear to the club that night. “I think I might straighten my hair, what do you think?” asked Lena.

“Nah, I like it curly” replied Yulia.

“Really? Hmm, I dunno, it would be nice for a change though don’t you think?”

“True,” replied Yulia, looking at her friend’s hair, “but I still like it curly and crazy. It’s more playful and sexy” on the word ‘sexy’ Yulia gave Lena a cheeky grin.

Lena laughed, “if you say so!”

Suddenly feeling a little nervous, Yulia broke the silence. “Well its not just me, Alexander loves your hair too.” Yulia smiled as she felt Lena’s curiosity build inside her.

“When did he say that?” asked Lena.

“When doesn’t he say it more like, he really fancies you.”

“Nah, you must have misunderstood…” said Lena with a frown.

“Nope, trust me, no misunderstanding. He goes on and on about you. I swear that guy’s the reason I am failing Business class. Which reminds me, can you make yourself a little less gorgeous so that I am able to get some work done without having to listen to him go on and on about ‘her eyes, her hair, her beautiful milky skin, her legs, her…”

“Ok, ok, I think I get the idea now!” interrupted Lena, her face bright red from Yulia’s mimicking of Alexander.

After a few minutes of silence, they arrived at Yulia’s house. Turning the key in the lock Yulia asked, “so what do you think of him?”

“I dunno, what do you think of him?”

“Lena, it’s not me that he fancies, it doesn’t matter what I think”

“It does to me! C’mon, what do you think? Do you think he’s good looking? What about his personality? He seemed like a nice kinda guy…”

“Yeah he is,” replied Yulia, walking into the house, “Hey Rada, how was your day?”

Closing the door behind them Lena bent down to greet the dog, while Yulia went to get a drink from the kitchen.

“So what do you think Rada?” Lena asked the dog as they went up to Yulia’s room.

“Listen Lenochka,” said Yulia, as she joined Lena and Rada who were now in her bedroom flicking through CD’s, “I personally think that Alexander is a nice guy, although he is a guy. Meaning, they are all freaks.” Yulia laughed, handing Lena a Coke, “at the end of the day you have to decide where you want this to go, and you have to decide before tonight, cos I think we both know that Alexander plans to make his move at the club, right?”

“Right.”

“So, you want this to go further, you kiss him, dance with him, flirt with him, and so on and so forth… but, if you don’t want that then you should steer clear of him. Don’t let him get his hopes up, you see what I’m saying?” Rada having seen his master enter the room ran to get some attention. “And last but certainly not least, don’t ask Rada for his opinion, no offence Rada, but I am the brains of this partnership” laughed Yulia, playfully wrestling with the dog. Noticing the red heads silence, Yulia pushed the dog off of her and climbed up on to the bed next to her friend.

“What’s up, Kotenok?“ asked Yulia frowning at her friend. Lena smiled to herself, she loved it when Yulia called her affectionate little names, especially Kotenok.

“I dunno, nothing really. I just…“ she sighed, unable to think of the words.

“You just aren’t sure what you want, but you want to be sure of what you want cos you hate hurting people, and in particular you don’t want to mess Alexander around cos he seems like a nice guy. So, am I close?!” said Yulia, giving the red head a cheeky, yet sympathetic smile.

“Exactly,” Lena was no longer shocked at the way in which Yulia could read her like a book.

“Well, in that case,“ Yulia jumped up from the bed, and dragged Lena to her feet, “we will push him out of our minds and get ready for a fun night yeah? And what happens simply happens. And worse comes to the worse, we can just blame it on you being drunk”.

“But I’m not drunk!” laughed Lena.

“Oh you will be by the time I’m finished with you!” replied Yulia, giving Lena a mischievous, and kinda evil grin.

[Yulia_Fan]

CHAPTER SEVEN:

As the taxi pulled up at the club, both girls held hands and walked inside. Glancing around there was no sign of Alexander, and so while Lena went to get the drinks, Yulia moved towards an empty table near the dance floor. Once there, she lit up a cigarette and scanned her surroundings. Her eyes rested on Lena at the bar. ‘She looks gorgeous tonight,’ Yulia thought to herself. Taking a drag from her cigarette she tried to think of something else. She looked over at a table full of students. They were pretty loud and seemed to be having fun.

“If you put that cigarette out, I’ll buy you another 10 drinks”, said Lena, as she walked up to their table and interrupted Yulia’s thoughts.

“And why would I want to let you do that? You’d probably take advantage of drunk and vulnerable little me” said Yulia, staring daringly into Lena’s eyes and trying not to laugh.

“Oh, my plan has been revealed!” replied Lena, rolling her eyes, “you fancy yourself way to much, darling” she said with a wink.

Yulia laughed before taking a swig of her drink. After a long struggle not to spit the liquid back out, Yulia finally managed to swallow it. “What the hell is that?!” she said, pulling a disgusted look.

“Sex on the beach,” replied Lena with a smile, before sipping her own cocktail.

“Maybe later gorgeous, but for now what the hell is in this drink?!” laughed Yulia as Lena rolled her eyes again.

“The drink is called Sex on the beach, as I’m sure you are only too aware. I thought you would like it, I think it’s gorgeous,” replied Lena, taking another sip.

“Yeah well each to their own as they say.”

“Well if you don’t want it, I’ll drink it, “said Lena, reaching for Yulia’s glass.

“I think not, Miss Katina! Nope, the only way to deal with this sort of drink is like this,” said Yulia before downing the cocktail and screwing up her face like she had just swallowed a wasp.

Lena burst out laughing, “good?!”. Yulia glared, waiting for the burning sensation to pass. “Hmm, maybe good isn’t the word?” Yulia shook her head in reply. ”What about, interesting?!” asked Lena, trying to hold back the giggles.

Finally recovering from the drink, Yulia replied, “rather than me tell you, what don’t you try it?”

“You want me to down my drink? Ha! No way, I’m not that stupid!” replied Lena laughing.

“Either that or I tell the whole school about how badly you snore!”

“I do not snore!” replied Lena, with a shocked expression.

“Yeah, sure you don’t,” said Yulia, rolling her eyes and holding back a smile. Reaching out for Lena’s hand, Yulia continued, “go on Kotenok, pleeeeease? For me?” Yulia looked at Lena with huge blue eyes.

“Alright, fine! But after this, you are buying us more drinks.”

“Of course,” smiled the brunette in triumph.

“Well, here goes my liver…” and with that Lena knocked back the rest of her cocktail, much to Yulia’s amusement.

As Lena closed her eyes to the burning sensation, Yulia laughed louder. “This is so much fun! I’ll go get us more drinks!” and before Lena could get the air to protest, Yulia was off to the bar. Just as Lena was thinking about how much fun she was having with her best friend, she felt someone tap her on the shoulder. Turning around she saw Alexander in a pink shirt and dark jeans.

“Hey Lena! Here alone? Can I get you a drink?” asked Alexander, sitting in Yulia’s seat and pulling up a chair for his friend.

“Hey, no, Yulia’s here, she is at the bar getting us a drink,” smiled Lena, feeling a little annoyed to have her and Yulia’s fun interrupted.

“Oh she’s here? Cool! This is Lionne, he really fancies Yulia, so you and me are gonna have to play matchmaker, Lena,” said Alexander and he put a warm hand on Lena’s.

“Hi Lionne,” said Lena moving her hand from under Alexander’s to shake Lionne’s extended hand. Making sure she wasn’t put back in that situation, she kept her hands close to her. “Perhaps you could get another chair Alexander? That’s where Yulia was sitting,” asked Lena as sweetly as she could. She didn’t want to appear rude but at the same time, she would rather it was Yulia that was sat so close rather than Alexander who incidentally was marinated in cologne.

Just at that moment, Yulia returned followed by the barman. She was empty-handed and had clearly persuaded the barman to carry her drinks back for her. He set down a tray and Lena’s eyes widen at what she saw.

“Oh, hey Alex, I didn’t see you guys here or I would have bought you a few drinks too,” smiled Yulia, taking her seat next to Lena. She began lining up the shot glasses in front of Lena, enjoying the shocked expression on the red heads face.

“These are all for you and Lena?!” said Lionne incredulously.

“Yep, 5 shots each” replied Yulia with a huge grin, before thanking the barman.

“Yul, I think you might be a little crazy! I can’t drink all these!” exclaimed Lena.

“Sure you can! C’mon, one after the other, ready?”

“Oh god,”

“Alexander, will you count us in?” asked Yulia, picking up her first shot.

“Erm, sure, no problem. Ready Lena?” replied Alexander.

“No”

“One, two, three, go!”

The two girls began downing the shots one after the other, with Yulia finished just ahead of Lena. “See Lenochka, I told you you could do it!” said Yulia, throwing an arm around her friend, “tonight is gonna be so much fun!”

[Yulia_Fan]

CHAPTER EIGHT:

Half an hour later, the girls got up to go to the bathroom. Whilst in there, they began the typical girlie gossiping.

“So, what do you think of Alex now?” asked Yulia as she adjusted a few rebel strands of hair.

“Well, still a nice guy, too much cologne but…”

“Damn right there, I was struggling to stay conscious” interrupted Yulia, still frowning at her hair.

Laughing, Lena playfully pushed her friend, “anyway… erm what else, oh and the pink shirt? A little feminine! But anyway,” said Lena, waving her arms around her head, “THAT isn’t the main news!”

“Oh really? You discovered he is wearing pink socks too?!” replied Yulia, faking a shocked expression.

“Fine, if you aren’t interested in my gossip…”

“Sorry, sorry! Tell me,” laughed Yulia, taking Lena’s hands on her own.

“Well, you know that Lionne guy? He is SO into you!” said Lena, squeezing the brunette’s hands in excitement.

“Oh, wohoo, that really is just SO exciting,“ replied Yulia, rolling her eyes and going back to the mirror to adjust her hair for the millionth time that evening.

Lena jumped off of the side she was sitting on and followed Yulia to the mirror. Once there she slid her arms around Yulia’s waist from behind and rested her head on Yulia’s small shoulder, oblivious to Yulia’s shock at the sudden contact. “Please Yuli? For me?”

“What could you possibly have to gain from me hooking up with Lionne?” replied Yulia, looking at Lena in the mirror.

“Well we could double date! And I wouldn’t have to worry about being with Alex on my own, you know I’m not very good at all this relationship stuff. C’mon please? All this stuff with Alex is so confusing, I really dunno where I want this thing with me and him to go yet. At least if you were there too we could still have fun together. What do you say? Please?”

“Hmmm, what do I get in return?” smiled Yulia, who by then had stopped fiddling with her hair and had rested her hands on Lena’s.

“What ever you want from me, I’ll do anything you ask”

Yulia turned slightly to face Lena, who’s arms were still round the brunette’s small waist, “Oh really? Anything huh?!” replied Yulia, raising her eyebrow with a flirty smile.

“Yulia! C’mon! Will you do it or not?!” laughed Lena, letting go of Yulia and shoving her slightly.

Yulia threw her head back to express to Lena what a task it would be, but when faced with Lena’s pleading eyes she replied, “God, ok, fine!!”

“Thank you Volk!! You’re the best, really!!” yelled Lena, throwing her arms around Yulia.

“Yeah, yeah, I know… now get off, your messing up my hair!” laughed Yulia, before dragging the red head back out of the toilets with her.

As they joined the boys, Yulia slid an arm around Lionne neck, “Lionne, I don’t suppose you could get me a drink form the bar could you? I’m SO thirsty...” she asked, looking at him with her huge blue eyes. Yulia had begun to become aware of their power.

“Er… sure,” replied the boy nervously, “er, Lena, what can I get you?”

“Don’t worry,” Alex interrupted, “I’ll get Lena’s” and with that, both boys left with goofy grins.

“I asked you to double date with us, not bleed the poor guy dry for drinks!” laughed Lena.

“But you never said I couldn’t either,” raising her eyebrows innocently, “lets just call it a perk of the job yeah?!” laughed Yulia, with an evil look in her eye.

[Yulia_Fan]

CHAPTER NINE:

As the evening wound down, Yulia sat at the bar watching Lena and Alex dance to the music. The evening was slowing down and they were dancing to a slow romantic song. Yulia frowned as she saw Alex moving his hands lower, almost daring to but them somewhere that was sure to get him a slap. ‘Please slap him Lena,’ Yulia chuckled to herself, ‘ that would really make my day!’ But Lena just carried on resting her head on the boy’s shoulder and swayed gently with the music.

“God it’s crowded in those toilets,” said Lionne, wanting to grab Yulia’s attention. He had been stood there for a few minutes and she hadn’t seemed to even notice him. “So, what can I get you?”

“Five minutes peace and quiet would be a bloody start!” snapped Yulia angrily. She had had to put up with this drip drooling over her for the last 90 minutes. It had been so disturbing, she had concluded she would rather have spent the 90 minutes at home with her father watching a football game. But she wasn’t at home, she was here and she was with Lionne. Turning to the rejected boy she said, “look, I’m sorry if I sounded a little harsh, I’m just tired that’s all” finishing her lie with a little smile, Yulia saw that she had won him over again. “Oh and to answer your question, vodka and orange would be great” ‘ok, so Lionne was a drip, but the drinks are still good’ Yulia thought positively, before reminding herself, ‘and you promised Lena you would make an effort’.

As the song came to an end, Yulia hopped off from her stool at the bar and marched up to Lena and Alex who were holding hands and walking off the dance floor.

“Ok Lena, I think we should be heading home now” Yulia said brightly, handing Lena her things.

“Now? But we still have 20 minutes before we would even have to call a taxi” said Lena, confused. Yulia had never wanted to leave a party, let alone early.

“Yeah but you know, better to be safe than sorry and all that. We don’t want to have to run all the way home do we?”

“Well I tell you what, I’ll pay for us to get a taxi back, that way we can stay another half an hour, yeah?”

“But…” started Yulia.

“I’m heading back now Yulia, I could take you if you wanted?” interrupted Lionne, “I’m sure Alex will take care of Lena, right Alex?”

“Of course” beamed Alex.

‘Yeah I bet you bloody will’ scowled Yulia, “No it’s fine, thanks anyway. You go on ahead, I think I will stay here for a bit longer and just get the taxi with Lena” she answered, trying to look lively.

“Oh, ok, well I guess I’ll see you guys later then” said Lionne, unable to hide the disappointment in his voice.

“Yeah see ya!” replied Yulia, before turning her back to Lionne, “So, who’s up for more drinks?”

For Yulia, the remainder of the evening was spent running up to the DJ and begging him to play less sloppy music, sitting at the bar smoking countless cigarettes or sitting at the table while Alex whispered god knows what in Lena’s ear, although, whatever it was, it was making Lena blush enormously. As the minutes finally counted down, Yulia then had to go through the torture of letting Alex be the perfect gentleman and call the girls a cab. Although, as it turned out, his technique was rather incompetent and after several painful minutes of watching Alex thrash his arms about in the air, Yulia walked out into the middle of the road and stood in front of an oncoming taxi to get the drivers attention. Before calmly walking round and climbing in the back.

Once in the back of the car, Yulia peered out as best as she could to see what Lena and Alex were doing. Unable to get a good view, Yulia requested that the driver beeped his horn to hurry her friend up. A few seconds later, Lena jumped happily into the car and they drove off.

“Tonight was so much fun, I’m glad you persuaded me to come out” grinned Lena.

“Hmm,” replied Yulia, before turning away from her friend and pretending to fall asleep. But Lena didn’t quite pick up on the hint that Yulia was annoyed and snuggled up into the brunette, “When we get home I have to tell you ALL the details” whispered Lena, before resting her head on Yulia’s tiny shoulder and falling asleep.

“Can’t wait,” murmured Yulia.

As the taxi arrived at Yulia’s house, the girls got out and started walking up the stairs. Luckily, Yulia’ parents weren’t home as they were spending a few days visiting Yulia’s grandmother.

“Hey Yul, wait up, why are you running?!” asked Lena, stumbling up the stairs, it was at that moment that she concluded she had had a few too many drinks.

“I’m not running, I am simply walking fast, maybe you should speed up, I can see a snail over-taking you” answered Yulia, not turning around.

As Yulia reached her room, she walked into the bathroom and began getting ready for bed. After a few minutes she came out dressed in Pyjama bottoms and a tiny white T-shirt. She noticed Lena had passed out on her bed, and although the girls usually shared Yulia’s double bed, Lena had opted for the diagonal, star-shaped position. Sighing, Yulia began pushing Lena over to her side to her bed. When she saw that she had created enough room, Yulia snuggled under the covers, thankful that Lena had fallen asleep before relaying to her all the gory details.

[Yulia_Fan]

CHAPTER 10:

In the morning, Lena woke to find Yulia snuggled up in bed next to her. She realised that she must have fallen asleep with all her clothes on and felt embarrassed when she noticed that Yulia had clearly managed to get herself into her pyjamas and even taken off her make up.

Slowly standing so as not to wake Yulia, Lena got up and walked into Yulia’s bathroom. She decided to get in the shower and find some clean clothes, then she would make Yulia breakfast to make up for falling asleep last night.

As she stepped under the hot water, Lena started going over the previous evening. She remembered how Yulia had been desperate to get home, ‘no, not for her to get home, but for both of us to get home’ thought Lena. ‘But what was the rush to get home?’ Lena continued thinking while she got out of the shower. Wrapping a towel around herself, she walked into the bedroom to collect her clothes.

Glancing over at Yulia to check that she was still asleep, she suddenly felt taken aback at how adorable the brunette looked. Yulia was lying on her stomach hugging the pillow, which she was also resting her head on, close to her. She was wearing Pyjama bottoms that Lena found particularly lovely as they were dotted with tiny puppies and made Yulia look very young and vulnerable.

Suddenly becoming aware of how cold it was to be stood in just a towel, Lena continued to gather up the clothes that she had brought to wear today. Yulia looked so warm and snuggled in that it did occur to Lena to climb back in next to her friend, but instead she resisted the temptation, got dressed and went down to start the breakfast.

The smell of food cooking soon woke Yulia from her deep sleep. She turned over and concluded that it must be Lena cooking as she was missing. Just as she was about to run downstairs to thank Lena for the food, she remembered last night. She was really not in the mood to hear all about the red heads’ new romance. ‘But why not?’ Yulia wondered, ‘why is Alex such a threat? And more importantly, what exactly is he threatening?’ Yulia continued thinking about this as she cleaned her teeth. Suddenly she remembered how jealous she felt when seeing them dancing the previous evening. ‘But why jealous?! What is there to be jealous of?’ feeling more and more confused, Yulia headed downstairs for breakfast.

When she got downstairs, she noticed that unlike her, Lena had already showered and dressed. ‘How does she still look gorgeous in old jeans and a baggy jumper?’ marvelled Yulia as she stood for a second in the kitchen entrance watching the red head cook. As Yulia continued staring she wondered if it was normal to find your best friend sexy. ‘Am I attracted to Lena?!’ at this, Yulia laughed, shocked by her own question.

Hearing the laugh, Lena spun around to find Yulia stood in the doorway.

“What’s so funny?” she asked, confused.

“Nothing, sorry I was laughing at something else… at Rada… erm, so, how long have you been up?” asked Yulia, hoping to change the subject.

“Not long, about half an hour. I wanted to surprise you with breakfast in bed. Then we could have talked about last night, I swear, some of the things that Alex was saying last…”

“Great, so when will the food be ready?” interrupted Yulia. The mention of the boy’s name irritated her, almost as much as it irritated her to feel so jealous. ‘But what am I jealous of?!’

A few minutes later the girls settled down to eat the breakfast that Lena had prepared. While Lena talked, Yulia wolfed down her food, hoping to finish quickly so that she would have an excuse to leave the table and the never-ending story of Alex.

Shoving the last forkful of food into her mouth, Yulia stood without swallowing. Lena, who was in mid-sentence, looked at her friend puzzled.

“Shower” said Yulia with a mouthful of food and pointing up stairs to indicate to the red head what she was trying to say.

“Oh, ok… erm Yul? Is everything ok? You have been acting weird all morning,“ asked Lena.

“Hmm? What do you mean? Everything is fine, I just wanna grab a shower that’s all” replied Yulia, suddenly desperate to get away from Lena’s questioning.

“Are you sure? Cos you were weird last night too, and seemed desperate to get home, I just…”

“Yeah well, surprise surprise! You just left me with that dribbling loser while you got all romantic with your boyfriend! And then you haven’t stopped talking about him ALL morning! Put me off my breakfast and we both know how rare it is for me to be off my food. I mean god! Enough already!” finished Yulia, already feeling guilty for her outburst.

“Oh, well I’m sorry for boring you. Heaven forbid I should talk to my best friend about what I am feeling right now” replied Lena, avoiding eye contact with Yulia and collecting up the breakfast things.

“Lena, I’m sorry, it’s just…”

“Yeah ok, it’s fine. Go have your shower,” said Lena bluntly, as she began washing up their dishes.

Yulia stood for a second, unsure of what to do. Her and Lena never argued and she didn’t quite know what the best thing to do next was. Not wanting to upset the red head any further, she decided to stop talking and go upstairs. ‘Everything I say comes out wrong anyway’ thought Yulia, angry that she let herself hurt Lena.

Yulia walked into the bathroom and slammed the door. She was angry and frustrated with herself. Why couldn’t she have just kept quiet and pretended to listen? That’s what she always did with her other friends. But why couldn’t she do that with Lena? ‘What’s wrong with me?!’ thought Yulia. She pulled off her clothes, angrily throwing them around the bathroom. As she stepped under the hot water she felt her body relax. The breath that she had been unconsciously holding was released, along with the tears that had been filling her eyes.

[Yulia_Fan]

CHAPTER 11:

Lena sat on the sofa flicking through the TV channels, although whatever was on the TV, Lena wasn’t paying it any attention. Yulia had been in the shower for over an hour, ‘she likes long showers, but an hour is ridiculous’ thought Lena. However, as much as she wanted Yulia to come downstairs, she dreaded another argument. It had felt so weird to have an argument with Yulia, as it had never happened before. She sat there thinking of what she would say when her spiky haired friend did decide to come downstairs.

Yulia was sat restlessly on the bed. She had done her hair, was fully dressed, done her make up and then done her hair again, smoked a cigarette out of her bedroom window, changed her top, and even adjusted her hair a third time, but still she hadn’t gone down stairs. ‘You can’t avoid her forever Volk’, Yulia thought to herself, ‘sooner or later she will come and look for you’. Yulia knew that the voice was right, she had to go downstairs and face the red head. But she couldn’t stand the thought of Lena being mad at her, and worse, she couldn’t cope with another argument. ‘Since when was the Volk such a sensitive wimp?!’ said the voice again. “I’m not a wimp,” announced Yulia with a pout. Sighing, Yulia threw herself back on her bed deciding whether or not to go down and face Lena. In the end her stomach let out a huge growl deciding for her. “Damn you stomach, why are you always so damn hungry?!” cursed Yulia aloud, before stomping downstairs to the kitchen.

Hearing the fridge open and close, Lena braced herself ready for Yulia’s attack. Although she had never argued with the small girl herself, she had been witness to some of Yulia’s fights, moods and tantrums. While many at times branded Yulia a short-tempered bitch, Lena just knew the girl was feisty and even loved her for it. However, right now, it made Lena apprehensive.

Sensing her presence, Lena looked up to find Yulia leaning against the door frame drinking a glass of orange juice, her eyes glued to the TV screen. Moving the glass down a fraction from her lips, Yulia said, “What are you watching?” before moving the glass back up to take another sip.

Lena could see that Yulia was trying hard not to look at her. “Nothing,” Lena replied, she then picked up the remote control and switched the TV off, intrigued to see which part of the room Yulia would focus upon next.

Yulia looked down at her glass and raised an eyebrow, “Fun,” was all she said, before finishing off the juice. Risking a glance at Lena, she added, “Where’s Rada?”

“Dunno, I assumed he was upstairs with you. Long shower by the way,” smirked Lena.

“Better go and find him,” said Yulia, wanting to get as far away from the tension as possible. As she began to walk out of the room, Lena jumped up from the soda and stopped her.

“Yul, wait. We should talk, I hate us being like this…”

“Yeah, I know, me too, “ replied Yulia, managing a half smile. Lena was stood so close to her, she could inhale the fragrance that had driven her wild on the first day that they had met. “Erm, let me just go find Rada and then we will talk ok?” added Yulia, desperate to move away from Lena before she passed out.

“Yul, the house isn’t that big, I doubt he will be lost, “ smiled Lena, “just call him, he always comes when you call him”.

‘I love it when she smiles’ thought Yulia, no longer caring what these thoughts could mean.

Steadying herself against the wall, Yulia called Rada. When the dog didn’t appear she took it as her chance to move away from the red head and her beguiling smell.

Too late. Rada the ever faithful dog cam bounding down the stairs to greet his master.

“See, you’re a loyal thing aren’t you Rada?!” said Lena, crouching to greet the dog.

Yulia gritted her teeth, “Yes, he is,” while cursing herself for training the dog so well. However, she couldn’t help but smile at the way Lena fussed over the dog. Suddenly hit by a wave of confusion and frustration, Yulia tore her eyes away form her two favourite friends and threw her little body onto the sofa.

Noticing the brunettes discomfort, Lena sat close to her friend and rustled her hair. “What’s up Volk? And don’t say nothing, there has to be something otherwise you wouldn’t have reacted the way you did this morning,” asked Lena, giving Yulia a concerned look.

“I’m just, I dunno…” ‘confused!’ finished Yulia to herself, ‘confused about you! But how can I say that? How can I tell you that I am scared about these feelings I am having and have been having since I met you?! How can I risk losing you over something so… crazy!’

Seeing that Yulia was getting frustrated with herself, Lena pulled the girl closer. She looked deep into her lost blue eyes, a frown knitting across her forehead, “You know you can tell me anything Volk, please, what is that has you so frustrated?”

Yulia sighed, she was so tired of keeping this to herself, of arguing with herself, and more importantly, keeping something hidden from Lena. ‘Maybe I should just tell her?’

[Yulia_Fan]

CHAPTER 12:

“Ok,” Yulia started, “the thing it, its just, well…this is the thing…”

“What is the thing?” smiled Lena, trying to encourage her friend. However, she only succeeded in making Yulia’s knee’s turn to jelly.

‘She’s sitting so close’ thought Yulia to herself, grateful that she had decided to sit down as there was no way her legs were going to be of any use to her. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “God, this is hard to say… um, I just feel… kinda… erm, different,” Yulia couldn’t believe she was saying this, ‘how was the red head going to react?’

“Different about what?” asked Lena, she looked at Yulia with a small frown forming on her brow, she had no idea what her small friend was trying to say.

“You” came the short reply.

Lena was suddenly hit with a sudden wave of nausea. Was Yulia saying what she thought she was saying? Lena flashed back to the first morning she saw Yulia, at the way she felt herself staring at the brunette. The confusion she felt when she looked up from the history book to find Yulia staring at her… all the feelings she felt, was Yulia feeling them too?

“No,” Lena firmly answered her own question.

“No? No what?” Yulia panicked, she’d done the wrong thing, that was it, Lena was never going to talk to her again, she would distance herself from her, spread it around school, she would be the school freak… more of a freak that the snotty nosed guy in the year below that smells. ‘What have I done?!‘ She pictured herself sitting alone on the bus, or worse, sitting with the snotty freak – ‘what’s his name again? Might as well learn it, gonna be spending more time with him now…’

“Erm, sorry, no, nothing, I mean… what do you mean Yulia? What are actually saying?” stuttered Lena, annoyed at herself for saying aloud what was meant to have stayed in her thoughts.

Just at that moment, the phone rang. Yulia wasn’t sure if she felt relief or dread, but either way, she gingerly reached out for the phone.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Yulia? Hey it me, Alex!”

Yulia had never realised how a simple sentence could have such an effect. She was overcome with a strange feeling. She felt angry, bitter, jealous, panicked. She wanted to throw down the phone, tell Lena it was a prank caller, or better, tell her it was Alex saying that he regretted last night and never wanted to see her again.

Instead, she just glared at Lena, “it’s your boyfriend”.

Lena slowly took the phone, trying to read Yulia’s expression, but Yulia moved her eyes away, and refused to make eye contact.

“Hello?”

“Hey Lena! How are you? Is this a bad time?” asked Alex, suddenly aware of Lena’s less than enthusiastic hello.

“Huh? No, why would it be a bad time? Yulia and me were just chatting…” said Lena, trying to sound convincing. In truth it was a bad time, the worst possible time for him to call. As she glanced around looking for the brunette, she noticed the girl writing something on a piece of paper. Intrigued she moved as close as she could without neither dropping the phone nor making it obvious to Yulia what she was doing. Just then, two icy blue eyes looked up, and thrust a note to the red head before grabbing Rada and storming out.

“Erm Lena? Hello? What’s happened?” asked Alex; Lena had been silent for ages.

“What? Oh sorry, look this is a bad time actually, can I call you back later?” before waiting for a reply, Lena hung up the phone and open the crumpled piece of paper that had been thrust into her hand.

Gone to take Rada for a walk. Take your time talking to the boyfriend, just make sure you lock the door when you leave. There is a key on the hook, just post it back through the letterbox.

Yulia.

‘Jeez, could have been more subtle about wanting me to get out of your house Yul’ thought Lena as she sat on the sofa re-reading the paper. Everything was such a mess. She had thought that all this stupid mess was behind her. Yeah, she had felt something towards Yulia when she first moved here, but that wasn’t romantic feelings, that was nothing more than appreciation, sisterly love. ‘Nothing more’.

But deep down Lena knew she was lying to herself. She had never thought that she would be the sort of person to be so cowardly, to constantly push the truth out of her mind. ‘But what is the truth exactly?’ thought Lena, as her fingers traced the letters on the paper that spelt out the brunettes name. She stared at the name, then thought of the girl. A picture of Yulia smiling and laughing bore into the black of her mind. A smile formed on the red head lips and she saw images of Yulia fussing with her hair, of her demolishing a plate of food despite announcing she wasn’t even hungry, and the way she and only she would call her Kotenok.

‘You can’t hide it any longer Lena, admit it, you love Yulia’ said the voice in her mind. Lena cringed, she couldn’t believe it, but it was true, She was in love, with her best friend.

Yulia walked or rather was pulled, along the street, oblivious to where she was going or whom she was knocking into. She didn’t care. Right now she just needed to think. She couldn’t believe that she could be so stupid, how could she tell Lena? How could she even think that it would change anything?

‘How did it get to this?’ she thought to herself. ‘One moment, everything is fine. Ok, so maybe I was attracted to her before. No, not attracted, just… protective. That was natural though, she is like a sister to me, the sister I never had’ she told herself, each word trying to sound more convincing. Deep down, she knew how it had all started again. Until now, there was no threat of losing Lena. The red head had been single and had no interest in anyone. But suddenly, there was competition. Another person that Lena would have to share her time with. Until now, Yulia had the red head all to herself, but now, now that stupid loser had to come along and just HAD to fancy HER Lena. “Who could blame him though, she’s perfect” said Yulia, to no one in particular.

Right at that moment, Yulia felt her heart drop as the realisation sunk in. She was in love, and there was no way the object of her affection could ever love her back.

She walked a few more blocks, wondering whether it was safe to return home. She couldn’t face Lena, not now. The only way was to distance herself for a bit. The thought killed her, but it was the only way. Maybe then, when all this had been forgotten, maybe she could try and salvage some sort of friendship. But until then, she had to try and stay away.

‘These thoughts aren’t right Volk, and you know it. No good will ever come of them, so just forget her!’ Yulia screamed inwardly, before running all the way home. She hated to cry in public.

[Yulia_Fan]

CHAPTER 13:

Yulia didn’t stop running until she reached her front door. Closing the door behind her she leaned against the hard wood catching her breath. She was soaked through and her cheeks were flushed from running so hard. As she began climbing the stairs she pulled her top over her head and then, still walking towards her room, began using it to wipe away the mixture of sweat and rain that was trickling down her face.

“Hey” said a familiar voice.

Yulia moved the top away from her face to see Lena sat on her bed. She stared stunned for a second, before quickly remembering that she was topless and clutched the top close to her chest, more colour adding to her already flushed cheeks.

“What are you doing here? I thought you would be going home?” asked Yulia as she reached for a dry T-shirt and turned her back to Lena to pull it over her head.

“I know, but I remembered that you wanted to talk before, and I need to talk to you too” replied Lena, never taking her eyes away from Yulia soft tanned back. As Yulia turned around, Lena quickly looked up to meet her eyes. Looking deep into the blue she could tell that something wasn’t right. Something was missing. Yulia walked closer and sat on the bed, trying to remain calm while her mind raced ahead of her.

“Huh? Oh you mean before? Well, I just wanted to say was that, I am sorry. Sorry for the way that I have been acting recently. It hasn’t been fair on you, but its just that, I was jealous” Yulia carefully finished her sentence looking up to see what the red head was going to do. But Lena just sat there, waiting for her to go on. “But, I am not quite sure what I was jealous of,” started Yulia, “I mean, I don’t like Alex like that but you just seemed so happy that’s all, and I erm, guess that I was afraid that you would leave me out that’s all. But I have thought about it and its fine right? We can still hang out and you can make time for both me and Alex, and when you go on dates maybe I could come too, you know, like double date. Erm... yeah, so that was all really. But like I said, I have thought about it now and everything is fine. It was just me being stupid, well, me being me I guess.” Yulia looked to Lena awaiting some form of reaction, but there was nothing. Lena wasn’t even looking at her. “Ok, well now that that is sorted, I think I will go and get in the shower, I am a bit cold and wet and gross”, and with that Yulia jumped up and walked into the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

Out of nowhere, Lena felt hot tears run down her face. She couldn’t believe it. One minute she thought that her and Yulia were about to confess their feelings towards eachother, and the next Lena has completely misinterpreted Yulia and they were just friends again. She felt so angry, at herself but more strangely, at Yulia. ‘How could she have done this to me? How can she make me feel all these things and then not want me? Did I misunderstand her earlier? Or has Yulia changed her mind? Is she not string enough? Is she too cowardly to admit what she feels? What does she feel?’ Lena didn’t care. All that matter was that Yulia didn’t care about her in that way, she wasn’t even sure if Yulia cared at all. When she looked into those blue eyes, Lena expected to be greeted with love, not the emptiness that filled them two minutes earlier.

Suddenly wanting to hurt Yulia as much as she was hurting herself, Lena grabbed a pen and paper and scribbled a note to the brunette, before quickly grabbing her bag and leaving the house.

35minutes later, Yulia wandered out of the bathroom fully dressed, make up done and hair styled. She had expected Lena to be there waiting for her, but instead she was greeted with nothing but a piece of scrap paper where the red head used to be. Picking it up she read the note:

Yulia,

Sorry I couldn’t wait for you to get out of the shower, but I seem to spend more time waiting for you to get ready than actually spending time with you!

I have gone out with Alex, so don’t call me tonight – I doubt I will be back early. I think we are going to the cinema, but Alex didn’t say, he wanted it to be a surprise, isn’t he just so cute!

Well anyway, have a good evening, perhaps you could go and see Lionne? Truth be told, I think you were a bit of a bitch to him last night so maybe you should apologise?

Lena

Yulia’s whole body tensed. Her Lena was out with that greasy thing. ‘And what the hell does she mean? ‘You were a bit of a bitch to him last night.’ Why does she suddenly care about Lionne’s feelings? She doesn’t even know him!’

Yulia threw herself onto the bed, trying hard to fight the tears in her eyes. Suddenly, she was hit by a fantastic idea. With a grin wider than the devil’s, Yulia jumped up and began flicking through her wardrobe. “This is war Katina”

[Yulia_Fan]

CHAPTER 14:

After leaving Yulia’s house, Lena had called Alex on her mobile briefly apologising about hanging up on him before inviting him to the cinema. Alex obviously didn’t refuse, just as Lena knew he wouldn’t. She hurried home and put on something comfortable, going to the cinema with Alex was enough, she didn’t want to excite him even more by wearing anything too sexy. She left a note to her parents reminding them that if Yulia was to call, they must make sure they say that she is at the cinema and is with Alex.

Alex had said that he would pick her up, so at 7pm they drove to the cinema and ordered their tickets. Alex said that he didn’t mind which film they saw, so Lena took full advantage of this and chose the latest chick-flick to hit the box office.

Ever since Alex had picked her up, Lena had regretted her decision to leave Yulia’s house. Alex had talked non-stop about everything and anything, but nothing that interested the red head. Her thoughts never left her spiky friend. She felt suddenly guilty about the note she had written, especially as she knew she had done it solely with the intention of hurting Yulia. ‘So what if Yulia doesn’t feel the same? She told me herself that she gets jealous of the time I will spend with Alex and five minutes later, what do I do? Write her a letter telling her not to call me, as I will be too busy with Alex’ Lena sighed, angry at herself for being such a bad friend.

‘Well she deserved it!’ answered the voice in Lena’s head, ‘if it wasn’t for her, you wouldn’t be sat in this cinema with this loser that bathes in his own cologne!’ As Alex reached across and pulled Lena close to him, she started to agree with the voice. ‘It is Yulia’s fault, she made me believe that she felt something for me, thus making me believe that I felt something for her, and then she rejects me!’

Suddenly the lights came on and a member of the cinema staff came into remind everyone to turn off their phones. Lena took this as her opportunity to move away from Alex’s grasp and reached for her phone, even though she knew that it was on silent mode. As she looked at the little blue screen her heart fell. She was half expecting a missed call from Yulia, or maybe even a text message asking how it was going. But nothing. Feeling more and more angry with Yulia, Lena sat back moodily in her chair, her arms folded across her chest and the scowl of a spoilt six year old plastered across her face.

As the movie started, Alex pulled Lena close again and rested his head on hers. Feeling very uncomfortable and squashed, Lena tried to discreetly move her head away, however it only resulted in Alex turning his face towards the red head and moving dangerously close and licking his lips. Feeling suddenly quite sick, Lena turned away and tried to look engrossed in the film. But Alex didn’t take the hint and instead gentle turned her head towards him, and leaned in for the kiss.

Panicking, Lena quickly pushed Alex away from her, “Alex! I paid for this film, therefore I would like to actually watch it!” and with that she turned and continued watching the film. Sighing, Alex went back to his popcorn, angry with himself for letting Lena pick the film.

Outside, Yulia and Nicola were looking at the list of films showing. Nicola was pointing out the film that her and Yulia had discussed before, but Yulia wasn’t paying attention. She was too busy scanning through the list trying to imagine what Lena would choose. As soon as she saw the latest chick-flick, Yulia knew where her Lena was.

“How about this one?” Yulia asked Nicola, pointing to the huge board.

“Really? Its not really your sort of thing Yulia, I’ve seen the advert and it looks kinda…”

“Please? I have seen the advert too and I really wanna watch it!” Yulia again used her big blue eyes to get her own way, and they headed to the counter.

“Sorry girls, but this film has already started” said the assistant behind the counter.

“Your point? I hate the beginning anyway! C’mon pleeease will you let us in? We will be VERY quiet so as not to disturb the other customers, pleeaase?” the assistant was just about to say no, when Yulia stamped her little foot, adding one last time, “pleeease?!”

Not wanting the girl to cause a scene, the assistant handed them their tickets and showed them where the screening was. “But no snacks you hear? You haven’t got time” said the assistant sternly.

Yulia gasped, “What’s a film without popcorn?! Seriously? You HAVE to be joking, c’mon Nic, lets go, I am STARVING!” and with that Yulia dragged her friend with her to the popcorn stand and ordered a box that was almost as tall as she was.

[Yulia_Fan]

CHAPTER 15:

Lena sat fidgeting. The film wasn’t looking like it was going to be as good as she had previously thought that it might have been. They were 15 minutes into the film and already she was confused as to what was going on. But maybe that wasn’t the film’s fault. Truth is, Lena’s mind was elsewhere with a certain brunette. She wondered what would have happened had Yulia not spoken first in the bedroom. Part of her felt very relieved that Yulia had spoken first, after all, Lena still wasn’t sure if Yulia really did reciprocate her feelings. However, Lena couldn’t help but wonder if Yulia did feel the same, and what could have happened had they admitted their feelings.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the side door opening and two girls giggly uncontrollably. Lena looked over to see who the two rude girls were and to her shock, there was Yulia.

“Oh God, what is she doing here?” Lena asked herself quietly as she watched Yulia scanning the room for two seats. Two. Lena felt her blood boil as she saw who Yulia was with.

Yulia and Nicola had been close friends before Lena had come to the school. At first the three of them had hung out together but it wasn’t long before Yulia and Lena grew closer and Nicola was left out. This hadn’t bothered Lena at all, she knew that Nicola had always disliked her, even more so when the red head grew incredibly close to Yulia in such a short space of time. Lena often mentioned the dirty looks that Nicola gave her to Yulia, but Yulia just shrugged them off and told her she was imagining it. But Lena wasn’t stupid. Every chance that Nicola got, she would be there, at Yulia’s side trying to push Lena out. Luckily, these chances were few and far between. Until now.

Suddenly aware that Yulia and Nicola were headed straight for them, Lena snuggled in a bit closer to Alex and pretended to be engrossed in the film. But out of the corner of her eye, she was watching everything that was going on.

Yulia looked gorgeous and was naturally attracting plenty of attention. A few people jeered at them, asking them to move out of the way, while others wolf-whistled. Yulia was dressed in low-cut baggy black trousers, trainers and a very short white top. Over the top, she wore her long-sleeved fishnet style black top, which was transparent enough for everyone to admire her perfect abdomen. Her hair was the usual spikes that Lena adored.

Yulia and Nicola sat right in front of Lena and Alex. Once settled into their seats, the two began laughing again at the disturbance that they had caused.

Irritated, Lena leaned forward and tapped Yulia on the shoulder. “Didn’t think this was your sort of film Volkova” whispered Lena, attempting a smile.

Yulia spun around, pretending to notice Lena for the first time. “Oh hey Lena!” she whispered loudly, ”not really my sort of thing no, but erm…” noticing Nicola bent over to put her drink on the floor, Yulia rolled her eyes, whispering, “Nicola’s idea”.

“I see” replied Lena, leaning back in her chair and closer to Alex. ‘Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, Yulia just had to walk in with that little bitch, didn’t she’ sulked Lena.

“What’s the matter Lena?” asked Alex, “You seem a bit, I dunno, tense”

‘Great, this is all I need’ thought Lena. However, looking at Yulia and Nicola whispering and giggling to eachother, Lena replied, “Nothing darling, just, well, they kinda ruin the whole romantic atmosphere you know?”

“Yeah, I know what you mean, still, we can just ignore them” reasoned Alex.

“Ha! Fat chance! I can barely hear the movie” growled Lena, trying to make Yulia hear her. But the brunette didn’t take any notice. “I suppose, we could of course, just not watch the film” finished Lena, looking at Alex suggestively.

Alex, finally getting the action that he was expecting, leaned in to kiss Lena. This time Lena had no objections, and kissed him back passionately, while at the same time listening out for any reaction from Yulia. When she didn’t hear anything, Lena pretended to move her leg on top of Alex’s, while firmly kicking the back of Yulia’s chair. Upon nearly being sent flying six rows closer to the film, Yulia spun around to face Lena, “What the hell was that for, Kati… tina?!” Yulia struggled to finished her sentence as she watched Lena passionately make out with Alex.

Without thinking, Yulia began throwing bits of popcorn at Lena, purposely aiming it at the red curls as she knew Lena hated that. Lena moved away from Alex causing him to let out a little moan of annoyance.

“What are you doing Yulia?!” whispered Lena, in the loudest whisper Yulia has heard.

“What are you doing more like?!” growled Yulia, glaring at the red head and still chucking the odd piece of popcorn for effect.

“I am kissing my boyfriend, not that it has anything to do with you!” replied Lena, angrily pulling the buttered popcorn from her hair.

“Well it has a lot to do with me actually, I am a paying customer and I paid to watch a film, NOT two horny teenagers sticking their tongues down eachother’s throats!!” yelled Yulia, much to the annoyance of other customers.

“Hey spiky, shut up!” yelled some one in the back

“You shut up ass hole!” replied Yulia, aiming her buttered weapon at the man.

“Everyone makes out, it’s a cinema! Now shut up!” yelled another.

“Fine” replied Yulia, before grabbing Nicola and pressing her lips hard against Nicola’s lips. Lena just watched on in horror as Nicola first was taken aback, but then relaxed into it and returned Yulia’s kiss. As people started cheering and wolf whistling, Yulia pulled away and smiled triumphantly at Lena, who still stared in shock.

[Yulia_Fan]

CHAPTER 16:

“Lena wait up!” yelled Alex as Lena made her way as fast as she could to the exit.

“Leave me alone Alex, I just want to get some air, please just… watch the rest of the film” replied Lena, desperate to get away from whatever that stunt was that Yulia had just pulled. ‘What the hell is she playing at? Is she trying to destroy me?! How dare she kiss that girl in front of me! I bet that bitch did it simply to make me jealous, how pathetic!’ Lena stormed past a bunch of queuing customers, too absorbed in her thoughts to care if she bumped into anyone or not.

‘Hmm, trying to make you jealous, just like you were trying to make her jealous?’ asked the cruel voice in Lena’s head.

‘Yes well… I did it with a boy, she did it with a girl, its different!’ argued Lena.

‘Um… how?’ answered the harsh voice.

Lena continued her schizophrenic argument outside, while inside another argument had developed.

“Alex! She told you not to follow! Look, I will go ok?” said Yulia, using all her strength to pull the bigger boy back.

“You?! It was because of you that she is so mad! And as for that sick little show you put on… “ began Alex, looking at Yulia with disgust.

“Sick? What the hell was so sick about that?” Only now did Yulia realise what she had done, what in the world possessed her to do something so stupid?! What will everyone think of her now?! That she is some, some lesbian?! “But I’m not!” exclaimed Yulia angrily.

Alex and Nicola looked at eachother with puzzled expressions before turning back to Yulia, “What?!”

“Um, nothing! Whatever Alex, Nic and me were just having a laugh for god’s sake! Jaysus… what, you think I am gay now?! Ha!” Yulia was chucking her words out as fast as possibly, trying at the same time to sound confident and sure of herself. “Um, look Alex,“ she continued, calming her voice and looking him straight in the eye, “I am Lena’s best friend, she will want to talk to me. You just stay here with Nicola and watch the film ok?!”

“Yeah ok, fine” replied a very reluctant Alex, but before Yulia could hear him, she was off searching for Lena.

Yulia found the red head sat out in the street on a random bench. Yulia was a little reluctant to approach at first, due to the huge frown on Lena’s face. ‘But why is she so upset?’ Yulia wondered, ‘I mean, I know that me spending time with Nicola would annoy her, but not this much. Or was it the kiss? Does she think I am horrible now? Sick and disgusting? A freak?! Oh my god, that has to be it! She hates me! I AM a freak and I AM gonna have to hang out with smelly boy! I mean, er, hygienically challenged boy, oh what have…’

“Leave me alone Volkova,” said Lena, not even looking at the girl as she interrupted her thoughts.

“I, er, just came to see what was wrong” stuttered Yulia, she was scared by the tone on Lena’s voice. ‘Is she about to turn around and reject me for kissing a girl?!’

Yulia braved a step towards the red head, but soon regretted it when Lena spun around bringing Yulia face to face with two very angry green eyes.

“I said, leave me alone!”

“Right, yeah, but I erm… just…er…” started Yulia.

“I am fine Volkova, just give me a minute and I will be right back in”

“Yeah, ok,” said Yulia, she started to walk away, but was suddenly hit with a thought, “erm Lena?”

“What now?” sighed Lena, who by now was resting her head on her hand and was staring blankly into space.

“It’s just that, um, when I came out to look for you, the staff kinda looked at me a bit mad, so erm… I don’t think they will let me back in, so er... unless you mind of course, I um, will just sit on that bench too…”

Yulia waited a few minutes for Lena to object, then a few more minutes to get the courage to sit next to the red head. When she finally sat, the two stared aimlessly at their surroundings, not uttering a single word between them.

After a while, Yulia decided to break the silence.

“So, er, how’s things with Alex?”

“Fine, why?”

“Just making conversation” answered Yulia.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you making conversation?” asked Lena, turning to face the brunette for the first time in 25 minutes.

“Er…” Yulia fought hard for an answer, feeling Lena’s cold stare on her. She knew Lena was just waiting for her to say something wrong so that she could challenge her. “Well, I um, thought that maybe you wanted to talk or something… you seemed kinda, well, upset about something, so… I just…”

“Upset?”

“Yeah, um, you know… you just left for no reason, so…” Yulia paused, she was beginning to get irritated by Lena’s lack of response. “Look Lena, do you want me to go?”

“Of course I want you to go, I told you 25 minutes ago that I wanted you to go, but you are still here,” said Lena calmly, she had turned away from Yulia and was facing in the other direction. After a few minutes she turned back expecting to see the brunette still there, but Yulia was no where to be seen.

[Yulia_Fan]

CHAPTER 17:

Lena:
Lena hadn’t bothered to wait for the others to come out of the cinema. Instead she sent Alex a text message saying that she felt ill and had gone home. Truth was, Lena did feel ill, really ill. Ever since she had moved here, her and Yulia had been best friends. Yulia had made her feel welcome and had fast become the best friend Lena had ever known. However, all that seemed to be slipping away and Lena wasn’t quite sure why. She felt immensely guilty for the way that she had treated Yulia, after all Yulia had just wanted to make sure that she was ok and all Lena had done was ask her to leave. The last couple of days she felt that she didn’t really know her best friend at all. ‘I certainly never expected to see Yul kissing a girl!’ Lena thought to herself, amused.

Lena slept very little over the rest of the weekend. When Sunday night came around, Lena decided to call Yulia, she couldn’t bare the thought of going through school tomorrow with Yulia angry with her. It was pretty late and so Lena decided to ring Yulia’s mobile so as not to disturb Mr and Mrs Volkova. However there was no reply. ‘Maybe she has gone to bed already?’ but Lena knew she was grabbing at straws, Yulia would never go to sleep this early. Lena called again, and again, but still no reply. ‘She’s ignoring me’ thought Lena, irritated that Yulia would be so immature.

Yulia:
Actually, Yulia hadn’t heard her phone. After Lena had told Yulia to leave, Yulia jumped straight up and marched off down the road. She was terrible at saying sorry, or making sure that people were ok, but she always tried when it came to Lena. But to have it thrown back in her face was something Yulia really didn’t appreciate. She walked quickly until she was out of site, before calling a taxi to go home. Yulia’s parents were still away, and when she got in, there was a message saying that they had decided to stay away till Monday.

Glad to have the place to herself, Yulia snuggled up under a blanket on the balcony with Rada and smoked a few cigarettes (a luxury to her as she could rarely do it when her parents were in the house). She had stayed there all night, and other than to eat and use the bathroom, stayed there until Sunday evening. All she could think about was what people were going to say on Monday morning. She will be an outcast for sure and she won’t even have Lena to hang around with. How did she go from fun, popular Yulia to disgusting, lonely lezzie?! ‘Oh crap, that’s so gonna be a name that will stick’ cringed Yulia ‘I can see it now, Miss Volkova, why are all your classmates calling you Lonely Lezzie? And what is a, a Lezzie?! Oh craaapp!! Why did I do it?! Why?!’

As Yulia lay angrily curled up in the blankets, someone knocked at the door. Irritated that she had been disturbed, Yulia got up and opened the door to Nicola.

“What are you doing here?” asked Yulia, not too politely as she looked around the street. She didn’t really want anyone seeing Nicola at her house, ‘people might start thinking she’s my girlfriend or something!’ Yulia shuddered at the thought.

“I came to see you, I was curious as to how Lena was. She seemed a big upset,” answered Nicola, a little apprehensive about Yulia current mood.

“Come in. Lena is fine I guess, she didn’t really want to talk to me.” Yulia suddenly felt a wave of sadness wash over her body.

“Oh right, have you two had a bit of a falling out?” replied Nicola, trying to hide any hint of excitement in her voice.

“Erm, yeah kinda, by the way, about that kiss…” started Yulia, she figured she might as well discuss it now, rather than at school. “Erm, when I er, kissed you, I was just kinda caught up in the moment you know? With that guy in the back teasing me, it just seemed like the right thing to do. Anyway, I’m sorry” said Yulia, before quickly adding, “I’m not a lesbian or anything!” laughing, trying to hide her nervousness.

“Oh yeah, I know. And hey, don’t apologise, I kinda enjoyed it!” laughed Nicola.

“You what?” managed Yulia.

Lena:
Unable to get to sleep, Lena thought of only one solution. She would have to go and see Yulia herself. It wasn’t that late after all, and she was sure that Mr and Mrs Volkova wouldn’t mind that much as Lena had never showed up at their door so late before. ‘I will just tell them that it is an emergency’ thought Lena. Leaving a note for her own parents, Lena walked out of the door, and began the short walk to Yulia’s.

Yulia:
Still giggling Nicola continued, “I am just saying that I thought the kiss was nice, that’s all. I have always imagined that it would be nice to kiss you actually, if we are being honest” said Nicola with a shrug.

Yulia was ready to pass out. How could she be saying this? As if a girl kissing a girl is an everyday occurrence, does she not care what people will think?! “Nic, are you drunk?”

Nicola laughed, “No, course not! I am only saying Yulia. Jeez, its no big deal, I can’t believe your getting all weird about it, what century are you living in?!”

“I’m not weird about it! Honestly, I’m not. I just dunno quite what to say, other than, thanks, I think.”

“Yulia? Can I ask you something?” said Nicola cautiously.

“Well sure, I mean why not, nothing you could possibly say or ask could shock me now!” laughed Yulia. But she was wrong.

“Have you ever liked girls, like, in that way?”

“NO! I mean, no erm, not, not that I can recall” Yulia casually tried to look like she was thinking, however the way she was stroking her chin with her forefinger and thumb was looking a bit suspicious, “erm, why are you asking?”

“Its just that well, you’ve always been close with girls, and you haven’t had a boyfriend in a while, so, I dunno, I just thought that I would ask. I just worry about you Yul, and I don’t want you to feel that you cant tell me stuff” replied Nicola, giving a Yulia a sickly sweet smile.

‘Oh my god, do I even look gay?!’ Yulia thought to herself panicking.

Annoyed by Yulia’s silence, Nicola continued. “Eh whatever, just forget it Yul, I am only trying to take an interest in my best friend, but why would you want to talk to me?” said Nicola, adding bitterly, “I know I’m not Lena or anything”.

“What the hell as she got to do with any of this?!” said Yulia, annoyed that she had allowed her voice to appear so alarmed. ‘Has she picked up on the way I feel about Lena?’

“Why are you always so damned protective of her? You never ever act like that with me! Is she really so perfect?! I mean God! I was here first!!” yelled Nicola.

Yulia just stood amazed, she was too taken back by Nicola’s sudden outburst to say anything. Suddenly Yulia knew the real reason why Nicola had come here.

“What is it that makes her so special huh? All she does is read bloody books all day. Or is it her sexy hair and curvy figure that manages to snatch your attention all the damn time?!” spat Nicola.

“Now you are being ridiculous!” yelled Yulia, “what are you saying? That I fancy the girl now?! Dear god! Your pathetic you know that? Your jealousy is getting really old and I will NOT have you slagging off my friend when she is not here to defend herself! Have I made myself clear?!”

“Crystal” replied Nicola, glaring at Yulia. “Although, from what I can conclude, you two aren’t exactly good friends at the moment are you?”

“Get out!” screamed Yulia, making Nicola jump at the sudden outburst.

“Hit a nerve did I?” replied Nicola smugly.

“GET OUT, GET OUT, GET OUT!!” Yulia began moving towards Nicola, who practically ran to the door. As she went through it, Yulia slammed it shut behind her and collapsed on the floor in tears. She didn’t know how long she had been sat there, before there was another knock on the door. Thinking that it was Nicola, Yulia swung the door open before yelling, “I told you to go!!”

Lena, confused and slightly taken aback by Yulia’s way of answering the door replied, “actually, didn’t I tell you to go?”

“Lena, I’m so sorry! I thought you were someone else, come… wait, what did you say?”

“I said that wasn’t I the one that told you to go” repeated Lena.

Remembering that she was still mad at the red head, Yulia replied, “Yeah, you were. So, why the hell are you here?”

“Well I dunno really, but it certainly wasn’t to stand here on your doorstep, will you invite me in please?”

“Why should I? Last time I tried to be nice I was rejected, perhaps I should reject you too huh? See if you like it” said Yulia as she stood as tall as she could with her arms firmly crossed.

Lena smiled slightly at Yulia’s attempt to look stern, “Please Yulia, I would like to apologise.”

Keeping her arms crossed, Yulia stood aside to let the red head pass. She was about to make some icy comment about Lena only having five minutes, but the smell of Lena’s scent as she passed was enough to silence the brunette. Instead, she just silently closed the door and followed Lena out onto the balcony.

[Yulia_Fan]

Chapter 18:

When Yulia walked out onto the balcony, she noticed that Lena had made herself at home, snuggling up next to Rada under Yulia's blanket. Yulia rasied an eyebrow, "you want a drink or something?"

"No, thanks..." replied Lena before reaching for Yulia's packet of cigarettes and lit two. "Where are your parents?"

"Lena, you didn't some here to ask about my parents' social calender."

"Yeah i know. Come, sit... like i said outside, I need to apologise Yulia. I am so sorry for the way I reacted today at the cinema. It was childish and really cruel, I know you were only trying to see if I was ok." Lena held out one of the lit cigarettes to Yulia, inviting her to sit down. Yulia sat down next to the redhead and smiled slightly as she watched Lena gently re-adjust the blanket not only over them both, but over Rada as well.

"I don't understand why you were so mad thats all, i mean, why did you leave the cinema?" Yulia felt herself shaking, but she had to know whether it was because of the kiss that Lena had left. She was sure that Lena would have been repulsed by it.

Lena sighed. "I know this will sound crazy Yul, but I guess I was just jealous."

Yulia was stunned, she studied Lena carefully as the redhead took a slow drag of her cigarette. 'Is she saying what i think she is saying?' "Lena, what do you mean by Jealous?" asked Yulia.

Lena was enjoying the puzzled look on the brunettes face. She still wasn't 100% sure if Yulia felt the same way that she did, but she was definately intrigued at look of worry that flashed across Yulia's beautiful features."C'mon, do i really have to spell it out for you Yulia?"

"Yes Lena, you really do because i have had a very strange last few days and my mind is a little more crazy than usual, so if you would please, just explain?"

"I was jealous of Nicola! I know it sounds crazy but its just that I have always felt that she was this big competition you know? I mean, before I came to the school, who was your best friend?"

"I didnt have a best friend" answered Yulia.

"Right, ok, but who were you more close too?"

"No one"

"God damnit Yulia!" replied Lena in frustration, before calmly adding "you were kind of close with Nicola though yeah?"

"Yeah I guess so" Yulia was now sat cross-legged facing Lena, trying to grasp exactly what she was trying to say.

"Right, then i came to the school yeah? And we became close didn't we?"

"We became best friends" said Yulia with a big smile.

Lena smiled back, "Yeah we did. But maybe you were a bit too..." 'thick' "pre-occupied to notice, but I have always told you that I had noticed that Nicola didnt like me, haven't I?. She always glares at me and has never made any effort to be nice..."

"Oh yeah! Now that u mention it, I forgot to tell you, just before you arrived Nicola was here. She said that she came here to see how you were, but what she really was here for was to be mean about you. And, I think I finally see what you mean now, about her being jealous"

"Oh? How come?"

"Well, she kinda told me..."

Lena smiled, "So now you see why I was a bit mad at you at the cinema? I just felt kinda betrayed thats all..."

A few minutes of silence passed between the two girls (and Rada ). Finally, Yulia spoke.

"You know, you had, and have, no reason to be jealous of Nicola, I was only with her because you weren't available. I'd rather have spent the weekend with you," said Yulia quietly, before adding bitterly, "and I would have, if you had been patient enough for me to get out of the shower. Instead you just leave me some stupid note..."

"You were the one that started the whole note thing! Maybe if you had been more patient for me to get off the phone..."

"I tried to be! But its impossible to be patient when its about him! You say that you got jealous of Nicola, but what about me? I felt betrayed too Lena!" Yulia turned her back to the redhead and folded her arms across her heaving chest. It wasnt long before she felt a soft hand on her shoulder.

"Volchonok, I'm sorry, lets not start all this again, I know it sounds weird but I have really missed you this weekend. I hate arguing with you."

Yulia gently turned to face her friend, "I know, I missed you too".

"Good," said Lena with a smile, "now how about you go and make us some popcorn and I will ring my parents and let them know that I am staying here tonight yeah?"

Yulia stood up laughing, "I see you still don't wait for an invitation!"

Lena stood up also and gently pulled the small girl towards her, "Shut up Volkova, and give me a hug already"

The two girls held eachother tightly as Lena sighed inwardly, 'there's no escaping it,' she thought, 'I could hold this girl forever'.

[Devilish Yulia]

i like this story! and u just had to leave the story there! iwas enjoying it! i hope u update soon!