With a New Face of Failure

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37—

I pull on her leash, practically dragging her home, getting a few stares from strangers. “Come on girl, you’re making me look bad.” I say. She lays down, exhausted. I roll my eyes as I scoop her up and walk the rest of the way. “Galina spoils you too much.” I whisper to her then kiss her. I get home and open the door, she jumps then goes running around. I throw my keys on the table and walk to Galina who was in the kitchen, making something. She didn’t look up to greet me. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She says.

“Galina, look at me. What’s wrong?” I say. She just keeps cutting the vegetables, shaking her head. I walk over to her side and hug her. “Tell me honey.” I whisper in her ear. 

“Nothing.” She nudges me off.

“Are you still mad at me about the other night? Babe, I’m sorry -“

“It’s not that I -“ She starts to say, but the bathroom door opens and a man walks out. I turn to her. Before I could say anything she cuts me off. “My brother, Feo.” He stares at me, I stand against the counter staring at him. 

“Hi, I’m Oliver.” I say, making the attempt to be nice. He stared at my hand then brush past me and sits on the couch, resuming with the tv. I walk to the kitchen to grab a beer. “What’s his problem?” I ask Galina.

“He’s angry.” 

“Why?” 

“We got into it earlier.”

“About?”

“Me coming back to Russia…” She trails off.

“You aren’t leaving right?” I ask.

“I really don’t know, Oli. He wants me to go back there, but…” She looks at me, her eyes red form crying.

“But?” I set my beer down and cross my arms.

“I don’t know.” She started cooking again. “I don’t know if I want to leave or stay.”

“Stay.” 

“My family is in Russia.” She testifies.

“I’m in America.”

“I know, but my family.” 

“I thought you loved me, Galina. I thought we had something. We bought a house - condo, whatever and you want to leave? Leave all this? Leave me?” 

“Oliver, it’s not like that.” She looked over at her brother who was consumed by the tv. She lead me into the bedroom and closes the door. “Look I do love you, I know we bought this place, and we have a dog together and everything, it’s just.. My family, I haven’t seen them in forever. I miss them.”

“Do you mean a visit or permanent?” 

“I really don’t know.”

“He doesn’t have control over you. You know that? You can make your own decisions.”

“And I said I don’t know, Oliver.” She looks at me, directly in my eyes.

“Galina just tell me if you want to leave.”

“I said I don’t know!” She yelled. She clenched her jaw as she closed her eyes. “I don’t even know why you’re getting mad about this anyways. Just because you don’t have the same family relationships as I -“

“Whoa, excuse me? What is that suppose to mean?”

“It’s just… Your family is more…”

“What? Delusional? Crazy? Abusive? Spit it out!” I started getting defensive. 

“Oliver you know what I mean.” She closed her eyes in frustration. 

“Do I? Do I really Galina?”

“Why are you getting so angry about this?”

“Because you’re all I have!” I yell. “I don’t have any other person who I can just talk to! Everyone else is growing apart from each other! Galina you know I love you, and I want to be with you. I can’t just continue on without you.”

“What about Kyle?”

“What about him?”

“Aren’t you guys close?”

“Not really… Just please.” I embrace her. “Don’t leave.” She snakes her arms around me. I can feel her heart beating fast and her blood pumping. She was scared that I was yelling, that we were arguing. I didn’t like it as much as she did. I hated it.

“I should go check on the food.” She says and leaves. I sit on the bed, unsure what to do or say. 

-=-=-=-=-

P.O.V. of Galina

“Brother, do you want some veggies?” I ask as I finish up the food. I already know he likes meat. I mean for Godstakes he looks like Vin Diesel, but less attractive and with an accent.

“Sure.” He replies.

“You know, you don’t have to be so rude to my boyfriend…” I say, fixing a plate for him and me.

“I don’t like him. He’s just another American dumb ass.”

“Brother!” I set our plates down.

“It’s true. You know it.” He grabs him chicken leg and starts chomping on it.

“He’s not dumb. He’s a genius and he cares about me and loves me.”

He laughed. “Yeah right, that’s what you said about Norman, and look what the hell happened.”

“That was high school. This is different.” 

“Hey, is the chicken ready. babe?” Oliver comes in.

“Yeah.” I say and turn to Feo, shushing him.

“I’m not going to say anything.” He sips his beer.

“Good.” 

“So Olsen.” He sighs, I breath heavily through my nose.

“Oliver.” Oli said, sitting in the chair across the room.

“Whatever. What do you do for living?”

“I’m in a band.” He replied.

Feo laughed. “What is it called?”

Oliver glared at him, but still answered. “Stretching the Sky.”

He laughed more. “Are you guys famous?”

“Yes…” He growled.

Feo laughed harder. “How come I never heard of it?”

“Because it’s an English band, not Russian.”

“Do you think Russia is on an island? We do get English radio.”

“Right.” Oliver replied.

“Okay guys… Stop seriously.” I say, annoyed of the bickering. I’m already in a bad mood that Feo showed up. I sit cross legged watching them watch each other and half watching the tv. They eventually get sucked into the tv’s mindless programs, letting me slip out and into my room. I close the door quietly and listen for anything. Nothing. I sigh and flop on the bed. I look over at the bag that peeked out in the closet. My bag for Russia. Feo really wants me to come back, so as do the twins… But they never called me or anything. The bag was filled with a majority of my clothes. I walk over to it and pull it out onto the bed. I stare at it, already getting teary, I wipe my eyes with my sleeve, but it didn’t work. I cried silently as the seconds creeped closer.