Literature, lust and love - Professor Romanoff

THIRTY-FOUR

Yelena and I laughed as we sat down on the locker room benches and we sat for a few minutes revelling in our glory. I sipped water from my bottle and Yelena started busying herself by untying her laces. The other girls on the team soon said goodbye to us as they wanted to go back to the nice showers in the hotel, so we had the room to ourselves. Yelena walked to the other side of the room to get changed and I just sat on the bench rubbing out my muscles. The door swung open but we assumed it was one of the girls so we carried on chatting, but we stopped when someone cleared their throat. Natasha stood with her arms crossed over her chest and I felt my mouth go dry as I looked at her. Her eyes dragged the length of my body, and as I crossed my legs, I watched as her gaze focused on that movement. Yelena coughed as she scratched her head awkwardly, which soon brought Natasha's attention back to us. She walked towards me and I gasped when her hand made contact with my arm.

"Hello?"

"What the fuck are you doing with her?" Natasha hissed at me as she pulled on my arm, dragging me into the shower room.

"Yelena? She's my friend, she joined the team in January. Why do you care?" I replied, furrowing my eyebrows as I watched Natasha pant with anger.

"Why do I care? Because you're hanging around with my fucking sister, Desi! That's why!"

My mouth fell open with shock as I put the pieces together. Wanda was going to say she met Yelena at a faculty thing, when we were in the cafe, because she was Natasha's sister. Yelena is Russian, and so is Natasha. Tasha, Talia. How could I have not put the pieces together already? I walked around the corner and grabbed on to Yelena's shirt collar, who yelped when I dragged her into the room with Natasha.

"She's your sister?" I shrieked at her, and Yelena merely shrugged. "She's Talia?"

"Yes, she's my big sister, what's the deal?" Yelena rolled her eyes, clearly not understanding why I was so upset.

"Because she's her, she's the one," I gave up, frustrated, unable to form a sentence. I turned to Natasha. "Did you tell her about us?"

Natasha nodded, her anger seemingly now gone after seeing me get upset. My stomach flipped as I looked between the sisters.

I stepped towards Yelena. "Did you know who I was, when we first met? Did you?"

Yelena glanced at Natasha before replying, "Yes."

"Did you befriend me because you already knew who I was."

"Yes."

"Did you befriend me because you were mad at me for breaking up with your sister and you ultimately wanted revenge?"

"Yes."

I gasped, tears forming in my eyes. Our whole friendship had been a lie. I guess I deserved it after I put Natasha through everything. I sank onto the wooden bench that was luckily behind me and placed my head in my hands.

Natasha's now softer voice pierced through the silence. "Lena, maybe you should go."

"Natasha, I-"

"Now, Lena," Natasha growled, and Yelena sulked before trudging out of the room. "Desi, I really don't want to talk about this right now because I have to go help with dinner, but just know that I didn't know she had sought you out. I only found out today when I saw you together. Yelena knew we had broken up because I had called her about it, and then she surprised me by coming here, but I had no clue she had befriended you. Had I known, I don't know..."

I looked up at the woman who used to be mine, and for once, I didn't want to be in the same room as her. I thought I had finally made a good friend, who didn't know anything bad about me, but turns out she knew all the worst about me before we even met. It wasn't Natasha's fault, but feeling her gaze on me just reminded me of everything I had done wrong.