The truth About cypher ✓

Dinner Party

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October seemed to be moving quickly. Brutus couldn't keep a finger on when exactly he turned into a goon. He just knew that one day he came to Proshchay and Igor said he had to jump in the brawl pit for hazing. And everything went haywire after that. It wasn't the kind of life he had imagined himself living. Sure, he was fucked up and had issues, but Brutus never thought he'd walk the streets of Kazan breaking knuckles of people who denied the exact payment. Laila on the other hand had something else riling her up.

Even when she decided not to work for the top 20, Laila still ended up getting her first set of internships at Klinka-Ava. Dimitri warned Igor to let the girl focus on her tuitions and internship rather than what the moshchnost or Agoniya needed her to do. She wasn't as say happy about it, but she had no choice.

With Ali Raza back in Kazan, Laila couldn't spend her nights out, practicing or working around Proshchay. The man asked her to come home every night no matter what friend had asked her for a sleepover.

"The streets are getting dirtier by the day Laila, lots of gangster wannabe ruining the atmosphere." Ali Raza orated Laila during their dinner.

Taking a bite of her risotto all Laila could think was how those gangster wannabes might as well be Brutus or her. Maksim had prepared her favorites for dinner after a very boisterous day in the hospital. Her professor scolded her for not paying enough attention, and the surgeon called her a daydreamer. Even the scrub nurse rolled her eyes at the girl's sight. Klinka-Ava may provide the best hospital care, but it definitely wasn't caring with their staff, Laila thought to herself.

Her life had been getting colder and the worst part was; that was normal.

She no longer feared the groups or the families who had blood on their hands. But the thought of getting up in the morning for Klinka-Ava or for the University for Projects created more anxiety than pulling the trigger of an HK VP9.

It was a Saturday afternoon. Laila could feel ice sparks in the air; it was going to be the first snow soon. Back in Boston, she would spend the day with her father, wrapped in a blanket drinking hot Choco with a few kids occasionally knocking on the door for early Trick or Treating. In Kazan however, the snow had an early pass. It was ice cold during the last week of October but the white substance didn't cover the streets till the first week of November.

Back in the pit of Proshchay, Laila was taking a break after practicing with Alex; the 17-year-old boy who was apparently a national-level boxer, just without the certificate and medal. The two bonded a lot in the past few days. Alex had his midterms back in his school, due to which he couldn't practice and Laila had the university and internships to blame for her lack of skills. Brutus was packed with runs and extortion, leaving the girl to practice by herself. Igor seemed to have grown a liking towards pepper, the black cat was adorable after all. The cat walked around Laila's lap whining, which Laila guessed was for food.

She held the cat in her arms, taking it upstairs to Igor's kitchen. She saw a bowl lying around the corner which had Pepper's initial on it. Fucking spoilt brat. Laila rinsed it first before pouring in the milk, placing it on the floor for the cat to drink. The cat sniffed it gently before turning around and leaving.

"Fucking drink it. What kind of a cat doesn't like milk? Are you broken?" Laila scoffed.

Igor walked in from his bedroom, his hair damp which meant he had just taken a shower. He passed by the scene, slightly startled by the girl's presence but he ignored it.