The Competition

Viktor

I am still curious about what Noah said, but I will have to save that question for another time. I'm on my way to the lab to meet Yelena, as we agreed, and Carson will drive Natalia home. For the first time in a long time he drove his own car to school and didn't spawn on our porch just so we could ride to the Academy together. He has a good reason for not driving his cars, and I understand it. But this time it was out of the blue. Which I find suspicious again. Arriving at the lab I see her already waiting inside. "Since when does Carson have a car?" she asks curiously as she continues to type on her phone. Wow. Interested in my guy. "He has his reasons," I answer, happy that she is finally talking to me. "Why don't you just hand over what you did and tell Albert that we were both in on it?" She rubs her face and sighs, "I would, if he hadn't taken it." Now is the time. "I'm sorry about what happened yesterday..." I begin and she inhales sharply. Trailing off, I add,
"I was just hurt by the way you... you know." She finally turns to face me.
"I'm sorry I snapped. It's just the first time we couldn't. I couldn't. It was my first day and you're my now best friends, big brother," I lean against the counter of Albert's table.
"I understand. Will you forgive me though? I know I tried to kiss you without making sure you were ready or not, then a month later you see me all over Van der Berg..."
"Sofia?" I nod.
"Truce then?" Yelena looks into my eyes, a little unsure, which makes my heart ache. "Truce," she calls out and I realize only now that I've been holding my breath.
"Why are you smiling like that?"
"You have no idea how much I want to kiss you right now," she smiles as her eyebrows furrow. Got it. Not the time for jokes.

-❦-❦-❦-

An hour into the work, I get a question, I despise the most. "What happened to your parents? I've noticed it since my first day, they never show up," I look over at her, her eyes still fixed on the laptop in front of her, typing. "Fathers in jail, mothers dead..." The typing stops as her shoulders...tense?

"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," I let out, afraid I might have scared her.
"No, no, I'm the one who asked, go on," she adds, comforting me.
"It happened on a rainy day...my dad came home drunk and angry after hanging out with his best friend. I had no idea what was going on until I went downstairs. He was yelling at my mother, calling her things, and she was trying to calm him down. All the loud noise woke Natalia, who came and hid behind me. When he saw us glued to the side of the staircase, he tried to..." I take a deep breath before backing away from the workstation.
"He tried to attack us with a half-broken whiskey bottle, but our mother came to protect us and got hit in the process...she got up and pushed him back, trying to defend all of us, but then..." Tears run down my cheeks as my breathing accelerates while Yelena looks at me, rooted in her spot.
"But then he hit her a second time which caused her to collapse. Natalia cried and i couldn't move. He kept hitting her again and again until we heard her skull crack as he continued, her brain...spilling all over the floor...she stretched out her arm as if she wanted us...no, me to help her and I couldn't.