Against All Odds

eight

Erin's POV

WHAT THE FUCK, DAMIEN!

He fell asleep.

HE FELL A-FUCKING-SLEEP!

AND HE'S NOT GETTING UP!

"Damien?" I ask, finding him slumped over on the couch, his laptop's still open with research pages ready to print. Small icons and pictures relating to the notes he was making. I gently shut his laptop and pack up his bag, taking the pizza box we had finished out from under the table and putting it away. I would've ordered two but I thought that if I ate too much he'd think I'm fat. Not like I'm skinny, but I don't want to seem more grotesquely large than I already do.

"Come on, Volkov," I say, gently shaking his shoulder.

Nothing.

Well, at least he isn't snoring or talking in his sleep.

"Damien!" I raise my voice, but he doesn't budge.

How the hell do I get him out of my house?

I could call Happy and get him to drive us to Damien's place?

No, no, I can't let people think I have some private driver. Happy will show up in a fancy-ass car, or a very official-looking one, at least.

Wait...

Damien came here on his bike, right?

And I know where his house is since I pass it on the way to Mal's...

Dammit Er, I can't believe you're doing this.

❁❁❁

And after a struggle filled evening bike ride with Damien asleep and barely clinging to me, wearing his backpack while I tried my best to cycle to Damien's. Granted, I was using magic to make sure he didn't slip off. And now that I mention it, I could've probably just teleported...

ERIN, WHAT THE FUCK?!

Anyways, I'm here now. Pulling Damien off the bike as best I can. I can't use magic now though, since if his family takes one look out the window, or any other family for that matter, I'm done for.

I lean the bike by the door and Damien's backpack slides off his shoulders almost comically. I sigh and quickly pick it up, shrugging it onto my right shoulder as I use my left hand to support Damien's weight and more or less drag him to the door of the Volkov household.

His head tilts to the side and he rests his cheek on the top of my head. So much for getting over this crush, I'm a blushing mess! Doing my best to ignore it, I ring the doorbell. It's quite late, so I hope his parents won't get mad at me. I didn't really force him to stay, in fact, it seemed like he wanted to stay, but I don't legally have parents so I have to take responsibility.

I hear footsteps before an even taller guy opens the door. His face somewhat resembles Damien's but his hair is brown and he seems a lot less cynical and sardonic due to the lazy, resting smile on his face. His eyes are closed and he pinches the bridge of his nose, letting out a long sigh and not even looking at me.

"Damien, you can't be home this late! Do you know how pissed mom is?!" He starts, half shouting but seeming too tired to properly scold him. I recognise the guy as Damien's brother. I saw him around a couple times when he was still in the 6th form. But back then, Damien was just some super smart guy, practically a stranger, to me. Now, I'd consider him a friend. And hopefully, he thought the same.

"Uh...sorry..." I start, unsure of what to say. He opens his eyes and blinks a couple of times, rubbing his eyes, before beginning to laugh.

"Sorry, sorry, I just take any excuse to make fun of little Damien over here. Whether he's awake or not. I'm his brother, Alexei. You can call me Lex. I take it you're the girl he's doing his science project with? Erin, right?" Lex asks, now properly grinning. He looks like Damien a lot more now. Not that I've seen Damien smile too often. A sarcastic or teasing smirk, yes. Too many times. But a genuine grin with no plotting or mischievous twinkle in his eyes? Only a couple of times, around me.

"Yeah. Damien mentioned me?" I ask, a little curious.

"Briefly. He doesn't like to talk about girls since we all kind of jump to conclusions and start teasing him." Lex grins. I smile back, imagining Damien being teased over a girl. And me, no less.

"Alexei! Stop talking to your brother in the doorway and come inside!" An older female voice shouts from inside.

"I think you're gonna wanna see this, Mom," Lex shouted back, his smirk never faltering.

An older woman marches up to the door, wearing a light green dress and wrapping her shoulders and arms up with a shawl.

"What is it that's so-- oh my." She stops looking me and Damien up and down.

"Mrs Volkov?" I guess, and she has a bit of a chuckle herself before speaking.

"I'm so sorry, darling. It seems Damien's caused you a great deal of trouble." She laughs and I smile.

"No, no, it was nothing, really." I insist.

"I appreciate you saying that, but putting up with my youngest son is a difficult feat. Alexei!" She snaps, and Lex turns to her.

"Yes?" He asks.

"Relieve this poor girl of her misery and take Damien to his room." She commands, and Lex jokingly salutes before I try my best to hand Damien off to Lex gently, but he kind of manhandles him, dragging him around until he's out of sight.

"Erin Flores, I presume?" Mrs Volkov asks, and I look back up at her, nodding shyly.

"Would you like to come in, dear? I'll get you a cup of coffee and something warm to eat." She smiles.

"Oh, no, I wouldn't want to be a burden to your family, ma'am. But thank you--" I shake my head politely.

"You, be a burden to my family? You're mistaken, darling, I think it's my family that's been a burden to you. Come in, I insist." She says, ushering me inside before I can protest. She makes me sit down on the couch as she makes her way to the kitchen and gets the water boiling. Alexei returns, walking down the stairs and groaning.

"Yeah, he's practically dead," Alexei says.

"Of course he is." Mrs Volkov says, shaking her head.

"So what happened?" Alexei asks, taking a seat on the couch across from me.

"Well, uhm, we were doing the research for our project and we were close to finishing. I went to my room so I could grab my laptop charger and I must've taken longer than I thought, because he was asleep when I came back." I shrug, before Mrs Volkov calls out to me.

"Erin?" She asks.

"Yes ma'am?" I reply.

"Milk? Sugar?" She asks, and I shake my head.

"No thank you." I shake my head politely.

"Really? Black coffee? You and Damien are psychotic." Lex jokes.

"Alexei! Do not offend our guest." Mrs Volkov scolds, placing a coffee cup and a plate of chocolate chip cookies on the table and smiling at me.

"I was only joking!" Alexei says in an attempt to defend himself. She just tuts and shakes her head as I giggle.

"So he just fell asleep?" Lex asks.

"Yeah. And I tried waking him up but I didn't want to shout at him or anything, so I decided I might as well take him home. Oh! That reminds me, I just kind of left his bike outside, is that okay?" I ask nervously.

"Perfectly fine, darling." Mrs Volkov smiles, before I hear footsteps coming down the stairs and towards us.

Oh shit.

❁❁❁

A/N: woo another chapter up!

Also TYSM FOR 300 READS ON 'Halloween Hearts' YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING.

All my covers are blurry and kinda shitty, so if you're good at making covers, or art in general, please send it to me! I just might use it as the cover for any of my stories or I'll post a lil art chapter showing off whatever I get. I think you can send photos on the Wattpad dm thing but idk. Just send me art because artists are always awesome and i'll credit you!

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed!