Black Rose (Rose Kisses #1)

14

Amina Yussef

Isa didn't come home last night.

After she'd left for her "date" with Lucien, I'd went to gather up the others for a nice little movie night in the comfort of Isa's room. She had the nicest set up out of all of us and her room also happened to be the biggest out of all us, comparable to a small studio apartment almost.

"Where's Isa?" Vasili asked as he settled down beside Kiev, shoving a handful of popcorn into his mouth. We had just started up the latest horror movie when Vasili asked his question and he was the only one who didn't know of her latest activities.

I glanced briefly at Anastasia and she shrugged her shoulders. "Don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" he asked. "Aren't you guys supposed to be attached at the hip?"

"Something like that," I mumbled. "But you know how Isa is, she likes her freedom."

There was a double meaning to my words and it seemed as though Vasili had begun to catch on to what I was throwing down.

"Where's she at, Amina?" he asked again, leaning forward almost threateningly.

"Wow, did you guys know that they're coming out with a new Grudge?" Anastasia suddenly blurted. "It's supposed to be apart of the same timeline as the first movie."

"How interesting," Kiev joined in. "Have you ever seen the Japanese version? I think it's called Ju-On?"

"Answer the question," Vasili said. His attention was still on me and I could feel my cheeks begin to heat up.

"I don't know where she is," I snapped. "I'm not her mother."

"But you are her best friend," he countered. "I assumed she'd tell you more than she'd tell her own mother, no?"

"Goddamnit, Vasili," Anastasia cursed. "She's on a date, okay? Your little girlfriend is on a date with another man. Now would you shut the hell up and watch the movie?"

"She's not my girlfriend," Vasili hissed. His eyes burned with something akin to jealousy, completely contradicting his words, but I wasn't about to point it out.

An awkward silence hung over the room. I couldn't even focus on the movie because of the sudden guilt that had begun to eat at me. I knew the situation surrounding Vasili and Isa's relationship and I also knew that Vasili was the only who wanted more. But Isa was almost like a wild animal, if you thought about it. She was a free-spirit in her own right and she didn't like to be tied down unless, of course, she decided that it was time for her to do so. What Isa had with Vasili was strictly a craving of the flesh, a need for purely physical relations. Vasili wanted the whole nine yards; the marriage and the kids, the life-long relationship. Isa didn't want that, not with him anyway, and who was I to tell her otherwise?

"I'm sorry, Vas," I sighed. His eyes were trained on the TV and in the dim lighting, I could see his jaw tick every now and then.

"Don't worry about it," he said. I wanted to say more to somehow ease the tension, if that was even possible, but it wasn't my place to do damage control at this point. It was something he and Isa needed to fix themselves.