Blue Scarf

1.

I kept staring at the contract in front of me, unable to belive my eyes. I reread it for the millionth time, but it's contents stayed the same. "What... how... are you serious?" Valeriy was sitting across from me, staring at his hands. He didn't even look me in the eyes. "Are you serious?" I repeated, ignoring the sinking feeling in my stomach. "I know things haven't been good between us, but I thought we-"
"These are my conditions." He cut in. "Conditions?! That's what you're calling them? You basically want me to buy your partnership." He kept staring at his hands, not uttering a word. "You couldn't seriously think I'd agree to this. This is insane!"
"You can think about it for a while, but if it's not signed by the first of september, then we're over." He said as if he didn't even hear my words.

Over. The word cut through my heart like a blade. Over. This had to be a cruel joke. "Would you really just throw away all of what's ahead of us? And all what's behind? 5 whole years? You can hate me, but do you hate yourself too? Our careers, our whole lives are at stake for Gods sake!" Over. I couldn't cry. Not now, not in front of him. Over. "SAY SOMETHING!"
"I have nothing more to tell you." He said quietly. "You know what? Fuck this! Fuck you!" I ripped his stupid contract in half and ran out of the room. Over.

"Vasilisa? What's wrong?" I didn't want to stop, but Vlada caught my arm as I ran past her. I was sobbing so hard at that point, I didn't even hear what she was saying. "Oh my God! What happened? Talk to me!"
"He... he... he..." I hiccuped. "He who?"
"He..." I began again. "Valeriy?"
"He... we're over." Saying it out loud made the pain in my chest even worse. "What? Vasilisa you're scaring the living shit out of me right now. Who did what?" I kept sobbing, unable to say anything else. This could only be a bad dream, a nightmare. I squeezed my eyes shut and pulled my knees to my chest. The events of the last three weeks came crushing down on me. It was too much. I couldn't breathe. Another voice called my name. "Vasilisa? Talk to me! What happened?" It was Anjelika. "Do I need to call an ambulance?" She pressed, her voice full of concern. "Valera l... left me."
"He did what? Vlada, stay here and calm her down. I'll go talk to him." I felt as Vlada sat down next to me and started to rub soothing circles on my back. "Shhh Vasya, Anjelika will take care of it I'm sure. Everything will be okay." Nothing would be okay. If anything, it would become an even bigger mess with Anjelika and Valeriy getting into a naaty fight. I had to be there to try and smooth things over, so the three of us could maybe fix this.

I took a few deep breaths, wiped my tears off as best as I could and I stood up. "I have to be there." Was all I said before I took off in the direction Anjelika went a couple of minutes earlier.

I didn't have to look too long to find them, the yelling gave it away.

-

"I'm so fed up with you acting like an arrogant child! Are you serious about throwing away five years of work? Not to mention you're about to ruin not only your future but Vasilisa's aswell."
"I gave her a chance to-"
"Oh stop that! We both know you knew she'd never agree to something like that." I wanted to enter the room, but my legs didn't obey me. I just stood there, rooted in place, bearing witness to the fight I was so dreading. I heard as Anjelika took a deep breath and continued in a calmer tone. "Listen! Let's talk about it, we can think it through together. Find a solution."
"I've already found a solution. It is finding a better partner. I only made-"
"Please spare me unless you truly want to tell me why you made that laughable contract. And don't you understand? There is no 'better partner'. Neither for you nor for Vasilisa. There never will be. It's not too late to come to your senses. If you take this step... you'll regret it for the rest of your life."
"My decision is final." His voice was cold with a hint of... something I couldn't really place. "I can't understand you. I also can't stop you, but I can do this; if you won't step back from this plan of yours or at least provide a reasonable explanation, you will no longer be a part of this team." And with that she stormed out of the room. If she saw me standing beside the door, she didn't say anything about it. I took a deep breath, straightened my spine, and entered the battle field.

His back was towards the door. I wanted to say something life changing and brave, but my mind went blank. "Please don't do this." I said quietly. He stiffened visibly in his seat. "Tell me what's really going on. I know there's something more to this." I felt pathetic but it was okay. I could put my pride aside for this, for us. He slowly stood up and turned around. "I don't want to be with you anymore." Was all he said with cruel finality before he left me there alone.

-

Anjelika tried to reason with him until the very last minute, but nothing worked. Not even Oleg could convince him to stay. I spent those 3 days in my room alternating between bawling my eyes out and staring at the ceiling, feeling totally empty. At one point though, I started to get angry. First it was only an amber, but by the first of september, there was a full blown bonfire raging inside me.

-

Valeriy said he won't tell the press anything about our situation. Me? I was going to tell it to everyone who'd listen.

The news spread quickly, and by the morning after we made the announcement they were everywhere. Everybody wanted to know everything and things got out of our hands fast. There were a million versions of our story scattered across the world. They were all wrong in some way, especially those who claimed this was the end of our story. It wasn't. Oh no, our story was just beginning. And if Valeriy wanted my bad side I'd give him my bad side. I'd give him so much worse than that.