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Dearest Odette, you might think tonight is the day where a murder will happen. Oh, it might be avoidable if not for your dearest brother doing things you really want to avoid hearing.
Tomorrow is the day for your university exam and somehow, the room beside you feels like someone is drilling a literal black hole into the floor. You don’t want to know why or how or what the hell is happening and you surely do not want to know who is doing who. Nope, that is not in the agenda tonight—the agenda is to study and sleep and not think about two people going at it like rabbits.
Your noise-cancelling headphone does nothing—you want to call it dogshit, pardon the language, but mama bought this for you for your birthday and it is definitely not a cheap brand—to dampen the voices slipping and you are at your wits’ end trying to find any semblance of self-control on not wanting to cry over this.
“Valera, you dumb idiot of a brother.” You curse, the heel of your palms digging into the socket of your eyes as you frustratingly whine, “Why are you bringing someone today out of any day in the year.”
You cannot believe this is the culmination of your struggle, the fact your brother is having the time of his life with his lover that you don’t even know the face is while you try your best not to crash out is astoundingly absurd.
Alright. Deep breaths, in and out, that is what you do other than cursing your brother into millions of innovative names that will bring your future language lecturer to shame.
It is completely understandable for you that Valeriy invited his lover today—because your parents left with Mitya earlier today for a short vacation, leaving Valeriy who promised to take you to your uni exam tomorrow and you who are studying for exam alone in the house—but good god, you already have a plan in your head that might get you flagged for violence.
Your parents won’t be happy if they come home to a crime scene so you put down your metaphorical knife away somewhere in the depth of your brain and leave it as is.
Now, the question you have burning passion for is when the fuck will it end—mainly because they have been at it for hours now and you are dead tired of looking at numbers that start to make no sense, in conjunction to the head rest of the bed knocking against the wall.
You pray to the Archons that Valeriy breaks the bed post and the wall so bad—but at the same time, that’s not going to be good for you either.
You spend the entire night staying up to study, to read the words that starting to clog your head up while counting the hours where the noises stop.
(It’s literally 1 AM when it did and you curse Valeriy up and down with a vigor that should’ve been used for the exam.)
You barely sleep from the noise and the nerves, wandering into the hall of your home when dawn breaks, a few hours before your actual test. You are standing at the kitchen when you so happen to hear footsteps that gets closer and closer to where you stand.
You know who it is so you don’t bother looking behind to who’s coming.
“Valeriy Feofanovich Veksel, I hate you so much, why do you have to bring your lover boy here while I’m dying from studying and anxiety … ”
The first thing you do, in your fatigued state, is to assume that it’s your stupid brother because who else is going to walk straight to the kitchen at 3 AM in the morning if not your stupid night-owl yet early-riser brother? No one. You doubt his lover is that brave to even approach you knowing that you’re standing in the kitchen.
“ … I can’t believe you actually are loud enough that my headphone—yes, the expensive headphone that mama bought for me and yes, the one you are envious of—is not enough to dampen the noise … ”
You rant, ignoring his presence altogether by not turning your back at all, the mug in your hand is at the verge of being thrown.
“ … If I don’t enter this university, I’m going to blame it on you, by the way. In no circumstance that I can study when you’re so busy banging the hell out of your lover, that I’m convinced you’re destroying the wall and your furniture—I hope you dented it so bad that mama will ask you what the hell is wrong with you—while I’m dying from algebra and—”
“Odette,” The way your name is spoken by him is very un-Valeriy-like. “I think you might need to breathe for once.”
“To the point I— Wait.” You respond, “Since when does your voice grow higher—”
You think you’re half-hallucinating because you recall Valeriy’s voice being deep, like your mama and that the one speaking to you has a voice similar to one of your friends. That one friend who is usually sticking close to another friend of yours.
Archons, this can’t be happening. Is Valera banging—
You turn around, expecting to look at a towering presence but instead, you find a figure that’s more to your eye level. Someone you know.
“Volčónok,” This time, in the distance, you can hear faintly your brother’s sleepy voice from the open door leading to his room. “Alyoshenka, where are you … ?”
“Just taking some water to drink.” Alyosha replies hurriedly, though his expression mostly unchanged as he looks at to the hallway, an unimpressed flatness. “I’ll be with you in a sec, Valera.”
The reply is mostly a muffled noise and a soft snore indicating Valeriy’s return to sleep, unclear of words, but the conversation ending is enough for Alyosha to return his gaze back at you and enough for you to pay attention to him, now fully flustered from your mistake.
“I suppose we were too loud yesterday.”
“Please,” Your head is about to split from this much information and embarrassment so much that you pinch the bridge of your nose. “Not another word, Alexei.”
“Hmm. Okay.”
You’re half-step away from crashing out. The fact your brother is dating Alyosha is enough to bring you a fresh wave of headache. The shirt he is wearing is unmistakably Valeriy’s dark shirt, big enough to drown Alyosha’s entire figure, covering the marks that you definitely do not need to see or know.
“Ah, about the wall.” Alyosha starts.
“I don’t want to know.” You quip vehemently. “Nope, nope.”
“He did dent it. With the bed post.”
“I really don't want to know, Alexei.”
He cracks out a smile, a small one that denotes mischief. What a menace. “Shame, you seemed to look forward to knowing what happened.”
“I’m looking forward to the day he moves out from this house and get the hell out of my sight—I can’t believe I have to go through this because of him and I have exam in a few hours.”
“Oh, he knew about that. I was the one who goaded him to do it—”
“One more time,” You hiss, holding your mug so tightly that it might break into pieces. Who cares, you’ll blame it on Valeriy. And Alexei. “I’m kicking you from this house.”
“You won’t.”
“I will if the two of you are having a repetition of this.”
“On that, I can’t promise that it won’t happen again.”
Alyosha doesn’t reply much, smiling slightly looking at your fresh bout of suffering as you sip on your cooling coffee.
“Archons. Be thankful that I like you, Alexei, enough that I don’t kick you out for pulling this stuff.”
“I guess I should be saying thank you for not kicking me out the first time you heard us … doing it.” Alyosha remarks, halfway going back to the hallway leading to Valeriy’s room already. If anything, you feel he doesn’t feel any remorse on tormenting you. Maybe even found it amusing. “Good luck with the exam, Odette.”
“Urgh. Don’t remind me.”
You look at him with enough vexation and tiredness, cursing your brother in your mind for this for the nth time.
.
.
.
“I’m sorry.” Valeriy says when he picked you up post-exam. You were going to ask him to take you earlier in the morning but considering the fact you’ll have to meet Alexei when doing that, you decided to just go to the place by yourself. “I didn’t intend for it to be that way.”
“Oh, surely.” You sarcastically retort, rolling your eyes. “So, all this time, you’ve been dating Alexei?”
“Was going to tell you—”
“You surely did last night.”
“Like I said, I’m sorry, okay.”
“Are you really?” You ask, raising a brow towards him. “Promise you won’t do it again?”
“ … Well, about that.”
All men does is disappointing someone, you half-jokingly think.
“Nevermind then. I’m not forgiving you or Alexei on that matter. If I fail this exam, I’m blaming you and you owe me an apology gift.”
“I don’t doubt your skill, sister.” The smile Valeriy gives is a genuine one. “I think you’ll succeed.”
“Now you're just buttering me up.”
“I am not. I'm pretty confident you'll get accepted.”
“You're very lucky that I love you, Valera.”
“I know, Odetta.”
(And a few days after the talk, Valeriy did leave you an apology gift in the form of a bunch of gift cards—after a handful of lecture from Feofan, that is.)
(Well, at least, you did pass the exam—not with flying colours but it’s not as bad as you thought it would be.)